Washington_Bayou
Member
Hoping to get some insight into the appropriate response to oil found in my intercooler pipes.
I purchased a 2013 Jetta Sportwagen from a local dealer in October 2019. I love the car, it’s comfortable and great fun to drive. I placed ~10,000 miles on it over the winter and take it into my independent mechanic to do the 90k service last week. They recommend a few things over the 90k, fuel filter which was overdue and to look at the EGR / manifold as the mechanic thought the car was underpowered. Cheap enough, so I have them take a look and determine if they need to be cleaned.
I get a call the next day from the mechanic stating the manifold is fine, but the intercooler and piping has oil in it. They send a photo and state that this is usually indicative of turbo failure, which will require a drastic change in the quote (~2500$). I know the car is covered under the 4 year / 48,000 mile ‘dieselgate’ warranty, so I did some research and sure enough the turbo is a covered component. I have the independent mechanic finish the other work and deliver the car to the dealer.
I get a call this afternoon from a mechanic at the dealer, the very abbreviated gist of which is as follows:
Dealer: “I drove the car; another mechanic drove it, and the shop foreman. None of us feel that the car is underpowered”
Me: “ Ok, I can appreciate that. But I do have photos of oil in the intercooler”
Dealer: “We usually don’t replace things under warranty unless the car is throwing a code”
Me: “I would really rather not be stranded on the side of the road when the car goes into limp mode due to turbo failure (or worse, is runaway still a thing for this generation?). I am going to send you the photos this evening. Can you contact VWUSA next week to determine if we can get this fixed?”
Dealer: ”Yep, we can hold it over the weekend and see what they say next week”
That’s where I left it this afternoon. I previously took the car to the dealer right after purchasing it have them look into some 1st gear shifting issues. It hated, and occasionally still hates going into 1st. I have learned to live with it. They were “unable to replicate”.
So, I have a mechanic who is telling me my turbo is failing and a dealer who is essentially saying they won’t/can’t do anything until it has failed. The local mechanic has photos, but the dealer says it drives fine… I am leaning towards the local mechanic on this one… Given the photos below, how concerned should I be about turbo failure?
I purchased a 2013 Jetta Sportwagen from a local dealer in October 2019. I love the car, it’s comfortable and great fun to drive. I placed ~10,000 miles on it over the winter and take it into my independent mechanic to do the 90k service last week. They recommend a few things over the 90k, fuel filter which was overdue and to look at the EGR / manifold as the mechanic thought the car was underpowered. Cheap enough, so I have them take a look and determine if they need to be cleaned.
I get a call the next day from the mechanic stating the manifold is fine, but the intercooler and piping has oil in it. They send a photo and state that this is usually indicative of turbo failure, which will require a drastic change in the quote (~2500$). I know the car is covered under the 4 year / 48,000 mile ‘dieselgate’ warranty, so I did some research and sure enough the turbo is a covered component. I have the independent mechanic finish the other work and deliver the car to the dealer.
I get a call this afternoon from a mechanic at the dealer, the very abbreviated gist of which is as follows:
Dealer: “I drove the car; another mechanic drove it, and the shop foreman. None of us feel that the car is underpowered”
Me: “ Ok, I can appreciate that. But I do have photos of oil in the intercooler”
Dealer: “We usually don’t replace things under warranty unless the car is throwing a code”
Me: “I would really rather not be stranded on the side of the road when the car goes into limp mode due to turbo failure (or worse, is runaway still a thing for this generation?). I am going to send you the photos this evening. Can you contact VWUSA next week to determine if we can get this fixed?”
Dealer: ”Yep, we can hold it over the weekend and see what they say next week”
That’s where I left it this afternoon. I previously took the car to the dealer right after purchasing it have them look into some 1st gear shifting issues. It hated, and occasionally still hates going into 1st. I have learned to live with it. They were “unable to replicate”.
So, I have a mechanic who is telling me my turbo is failing and a dealer who is essentially saying they won’t/can’t do anything until it has failed. The local mechanic has photos, but the dealer says it drives fine… I am leaning towards the local mechanic on this one… Given the photos below, how concerned should I be about turbo failure?