Problem with VW Passat

We bought a 2006 VW Passat from a VW Dealer 8 months ago but unfortunately while my husband was driving the car a couple of weeks ago the car suddenly stopped abruptly on the road. My husband was changing from 2nd gear into 3rd gear in our local town so he reckons he may have been doing only 50 km per hour. Anyway it now seems the engine mounts have been 'sheared' away from the body of the car (the mechanic's words not ours) and that they have never seen anything like it before. It is going to cost about €6,000 to have it fixed - new engine and gearbox. Unfortunately the guarantee from the Garage is for 1 year or 20,000 kms., we have the car 8 months but have 28,000 kms so now the garage is saying it is not covered under guarantee. They advised us to contact our insurance company, who sent in an independent assessor, who says that it is wear and tear and that it is not covered by insurance. So we now have a VW Passat that we paid €12,500 and it is going to cost us €6,000 to get back on the road. Has anybody ever been in a situation like this? Have we any rights at all? Would be grateful for any advice anybody could give us

That sounds a bit strange to me ... "wear and tear" ... if that kind of thing was normal engines would be dropping out of cars wholesale. Engine mounts don't tend to come loose, unless the engine has been out and someone forgot to tighten the mounts. On such a new car corrosion etc. could not be a factor.

If I were you I'd get a second opinion on that. VW's tend to have their fair share of electronic gizmos so the car stopping doesn't come as much of a surprise. It sounds bizzare and so does the 'expert' opinion.

Over and above any 'guarantee' there's a safety issue involved. As for them 'never hearing' of 'anything like that' before, that's a common response when complaining in Ireland: "Oh, that's really surprising. You're the first person who's ever, ever complained and we're in business 1000 years". It's meant to make you feel like a leper so you will go away. It sounds to me like the car was defective and unroadworthy when you bought it.

"Wear and tear" does sound strange! My husband talked to one of the Mechanics in the garage and he said that the bolts were tightened. As you said a Safety issue is involved here too. When it happend My husband and brother-in-law were thrown forward with the force of the car stopping dead on the road. My husband actually thought at one stage he had hit somebody. When he opened the bonnet of the car it was then that he saw that the engine had moved forward about a foot. It was only afterwards when he began to think about it the enormity of it hit him. He was only on the motorway a couple of hours previously and if he had been doing the legal speed limit it would have be catastrophic. Also the fact that our son who is 17 is a learner driver and is insured on this car - I can't even bear to think what would happen.

I suppose the big issue here is how do we prove that the car was defective and unradworthy when we bought it.

Thanks WicklowMan - food for thought there.

You're welcome, I wish you luck with it.

Believe me, a good Automotive Engineer will be able to 'read' the condition of the mounts and everything around them and draw conclusions from that. I hope I'm wrong in thinking this, but I hope you didn't get 2 cars for the price of 1 ... as in the back of one car 'joined' to the front of another.

To my mind, the engine was taken out of the car at some point, which is quite an irregular act. If the front end was ever involved in a heavy collision I'm presuming that could have damaged the mounts. For an engine to move so severely is ridiculous. Assuming that a different engine with different mounting points wasn't fitted, all I can think of is that someone forgot to secure the thing! An obvious symptom of previous crash damage could be funny steering / the car pulling to one side under braking and slightly mismatched panels / different paint.

An engineer's report would set you back €400 - 500, but given the money involved it might be money well spent. I would forensically examine the documentation, assuming you got a service history with the car? Did the garage perhaps import the car from the UK? The history is easily traced on a UK import.

Another option would be the likes of cartell.ie if it's an Irish car. For around €30 you can get a report on whether it was crashed / written off / Stolen etc. etc.

Volkswagen Ireland are a waste of time. I had a VW years ago and I got so peeved with them I wrote to the company HQ in Wolfsburg, who just sent my letters back to VW Ireland. The parting line from them was "We sold a lot of Beetles, so we must be doing something right" rather than trying to address the issue.

Just one other thing: check to see what recalls were done for the year / model you have. All cars have glitches of some sort or another, and often manufacturers do these recalls to rectify issues that become apparent down the line (normally free) Previous owner(s) could have missed such alerts.

The main issues I've heard of with Passats involve the fuel pumps and Electronic parking brake ... never heard anything to do with the engines though. It's a long shot, but worth checking.

OP you don't mention the mileage of the car or whether it's petrol or diesel. These three pieces of information could be critical to establishing the source of the problem.

Modern cars have certain "disposable" parts and their useful lives are defined in both kilometers / miles driven from new and their age e.g. 100,000 kms or 4 years, which milestone is reached first.

Amongst the items that are "disposable" in this way are the drive belts (timing belts), auxiliary belts (water pump, A/C) and the water-pump itself which can have a plastic impeller which can break-up with age.

Other possibilities on a diesel car could be the clutch and the dual-mass flywheel.

Any of the work above will normally result in the removal of certain engine mount bolts. Those concerned with the works I mention above are referred to as "stretch bolts" and they must be replaced with new bolts - VW workshop practices and safety considerations require this. The bolts are part of the energy absorbing safety features in cars and when tightened to the appropriate torque they "give way" under certain pressures and in a set sequence to protect passengers and to help prevent the engine / gearbox entering the passenger cell.

"My husband talked to one of the Mechanics in the garage and he said that the bolts were tightened. "

It is unusual that a mechanic would choose to volunteer this information as checking the tightness of these factory-installed bolts would not be a regular service procedure; therefore may we assume he was involved in replacing parts that required the removal of the originals and either new bolts were not used (as required) or the new bolts if used were incorrectly torqued?

All of which is pretty much by the by; you were sold a vehicle that was not fit for purpose (a reasonable person would expect it to be free from major defects, like the engine falling out, for more than eight months), so sue them This is your friend and supercedes any warranty, or none as the case may be.

Were you told of any major service items being undertaken prior to purchase?

This is ridiculous!

Engines don't just drop out of cars.
I think the garage you purchased the car from is on the hook.

#1

There is an anti-corrosion warranty on some VW's that is eleven years old.
If thee is a suggestion that the bodywork failed dropping the engine I would come at VW under that.

#2

However I am afraid that it seems far more likely that your car had an "engine-out" job done on it and the engine block was not refitted and mechanically secured.
Another poster has mentioned an automotive engineer - its important you appoint one forthwith and get a solicitor on board as well - you've been sold a pup IMHO and need to act surely and swiftly.