1.4TSI engine fault

[evod01]

Hi,


After some advice on an issue I have my 13 reg 1.4 TSI Seat Ibiza Cupra.


Last month I was driving along the A1 when my car stuttered and had problems accelerating and then displayed the fault in the emission control system light and then the EPC engine fault light. When I pulled over, the whole car was shuddering with the engine just ticking over. I managed to limp this into my local Seat dealership to run the diagnostics and they said it had a misfire on cylinder 3 and 4. They advised that changing all 4 spark plugs might solve the issue but they then reported that changing them made no difference. After they ran further diagnostics, they have came back to say the car has an 'engine fault' and the job sheet notes says there is no compression on cylinder 4 and extensive damage to the piston. The service manager has said the car requires a new engine and quoted nearly 7k for a new engine (including fitting).


They have said that there is no way to repair the engine and can’t offer any other possible solutions. The car is only valued at 7.5k so paying 7k for an engine does not seem worth it. Following the garage’s diagnostics, they cannot get the car running again so I can’t take it to another garage for a second opinion either.


The car only has 44,000 miles and has a full service history carried out by Seat dealerships. The car was only in for a service in December and then an MOT in February. The health check the garage carried out during both of these visits did not identify any engine problems. I haven’t had any other problems with the car up until now. It does use a bit of oil but from what I read on Seat and Skoda forums before purchasing the car, the TSI engines do use a bit overtime. I was aware of the CAVE engine problems with misfiring, oil consumption and engine failure when i started looking into purchasing a Cupra so i waited a little longer and bought one with the CTHE engine fitted.

The Seat garage say they are unaware of the engine problems with the older CAVE 1.4 TSI engines and won't comment on how this compares to the fault on my car.


Has anyone else had similar problems with the CTHE engines or have any recommendations on what I can try? Also, has anyone had any success getting any help from Seat UK to cover the costs of a replacement engine when it is out of warranty?

 

[RUM4MO]

I think that roughly speaking, if your SEAT dealership is unaware of issues with the CAVE engine or its short term replacement then they are either stupid, or they are lying, there is no other possible reason for them making that statement.

So, that leaves you with a lot of work to do to force SEAT UK to get themselves into gear wrt sorting out this mess that you have ended up in.

If I were you, I would contact SEAT UK as soon as possible by phone and explain your car's history and request that they help you get out of this mess that VW Group has placed you in as soon as possible, now if they do not start to play ball, advise them that any delay or refusal to be honest and accept liability for this mess will end up with you talking to trading standards and a possible court claim being made against them and lots of adverse publicity.

If they do not help you out of this mess, and as long as that car has been serviced as per SEAT instruction, then they should expect as much noise from you as possible.

Remember that this will be down to design errors in that engine and not down to how you have used it, most of these design errors have been addressed, then a later version of that engine built until the end of that model production run. Now that power output is coming from a 1.8T engine, so that kind of points to that twincharger concept being a bit too adventurous for being fit for use in road cars, remember that phrase "not fit for use" or maybe "not fit for purpose" - it is one or the other or both that entitle you to help from SEAT UK to get out of this mess.

There are probably other earlier threads in this forum that could help you achieve what you need to, use the search function.

I have absolutely no experience of the problems associated with owning/running a car with that engine or its later version, but have read too much about them to know that you are not alone, and as a buyer of VW Group products, I follow any of their mess ups with interest as it could happen to me some time!

 

[evod01]

Thanks Rum4mo.

I contacted Seat and they have said there is nothing they can do to help due to the age of the car. They said the engine fault has been present for some time and this had a contributing factor. However, they won't give me details on when the fault started or how they know this. The garage say they never told them anything about that.

Just waiting on the garage to provide me with the dates and times of when the error codes were logged and when the warning light was logged so that I can go back to Seat. The warning lights came on the car on the Sunday and I dropped it off at the garage on wednesday morning. The car was sat on my drive between then so I don't agree that is a long period of time.

I was hoping there would be more people with similar CTHE engine problems that I could pass onto seat to help my case.

Not great support from Seat so far

I think that roughly speaking, if your SEAT dealership is unaware of issues with the CAVE engine or its short term replacement then they are either stupid, or they are lying, there is no other possible reason for them making that statement.

So, that leaves you with a lot of work to do to force SEAT UK to get themselves into gear wrt sorting out this mess that you have ended up in.

If I were you, I would contact SEAT UK as soon as possible by phone and explain your car's history and request that they help you get out of this mess that VW Group has placed you in as soon as possible, now if they do not start to play ball, advise them that any delay or refusal to be honest and accept liability for this mess will end up with you talking to trading standards and a possible court claim being made against them and lots of adverse publicity.

If they do not help you out of this mess, and as long as that car has been serviced as per SEAT instruction, then they should expect as much noise from you as possible.

Remember that this will be down to design errors in that engine and not down to how you have used it, most of these design errors have been addressed, then a later version of that engine built until the end of that model production run. Now that power output is coming from a 1.8T engine, so that kind of points to that twincharger concept being a bit too adventurous for being fit for use in road cars, remember that phrase "not fit for use" or maybe "not fit for purpose" - it is one or the other or both that entitle you to help from SEAT UK to get out of this mess.

There are probably other earlier threads in this forum that could help you achieve what you need to, use the search function.

I have absolutely no experience of the problems associated with owning/running a car with that engine or its later version, but have read too much about them to know that you are not alone, and as a buyer of VW Group products, I follow any of their mess ups with interest as it could happen to me some time!

 

[RUM4MO]

https://forums.seatcupra.net/index....ndamental-problems.407682/page-5#post-4658725

Above is what I think is the original thread on this issue, although it all started with the earlier CAVE version of this engine and so maybe now is covering actions relating to the CTHE version, which might just have been an early update of the CAVE engine to include as many of the design issues that had been uncovered as possible to minimise future warranty costs!

So maybe read through all that and use the search function to find later forum members with problems with the CTHE engine.

I'm slightly surprised that owners of cars with the CTHE engines have not chipped in yet regardless of any good will that SEAT passed their way, come on folks, try to help a fellow forum member in need!!