[Omkar]

Ziyad sends this information in via the Team-BHP share page & is looking for advice!

Incident Overview:

• Vehicle: Volkswagen Tiguan; Mileage: 98,383 km

• Incident Date: 29/06/2024, while traveling on the Pollachi-Palani highway.

• Warning Displayed: The vehicle showed a “Check Driver’s Manual” warning with no specific alert for “Low Coolant”.

• Immediate Actions Taken: Upon noticing the warning, I stopped the car and arranged for towing, following Volkswagen’s advice.

• Towing Costs: I incurred Rs. 5,550 to tow the vehicle to the Pollachi showroom and an additional Rs. 6,000 to transfer it to Coimbatore, totalling Rs. 11,550.

• Repair Estimate: On 17/07/2024, I received a shocking repair estimate of Rs. 14,63,411.59 from the Coimbatore service centre.

• Warranty Claim Rejection: Volkswagen denied my warranty claim, asserting that the engine damage was due to driving the vehicle without coolant.

Key Issues:

1. Coolant Hose Pipe Breakage:

• The initial issue stemmed from the sudden breakage of the coolant hose pipe, which led to coolant loss and engine overheating.

• The hose pipe is designed for high thermal resistance and should have been able to withstand typical conditions. Its failure suggests a manufacturing defect, which I believe should be covered under warranty.

2. Misleading Warning System:

• The warning displayed was vague (“Check Driver’s Manual”) and did not inform me of a low coolant situation.

• By the time I received the warning, the coolant had already drained, contributing to engine damage.

3. Contradicting Claims from Volkswagen:

• Volkswagen claims I drove the vehicle after the coolant had drained, which I categorically deny. I stopped the car immediately upon seeing the warning and did not drive it further.

• The damage is directly related to the coolant loss caused by the hose pipe failure, not from any misuse on my part.

4. Unsatisfactory Goodwill Offer:

• I received a goodwill offer of Rs 2 lakhs to assist with repairs, which I find inadequate given that the vehicle is under warranty.

• I expect that all repairs and damages should be fully covered under warranty without additional costs, as the issue arose from a defective part.

5. Lack of Acknowledgment of a Manufacturing Defect:

• Volkswagen’s responses have focused on the consequences rather than addressing the root cause - the failure of the coolant hose pipe.

• I have asked for clarification on why the hose pipe broke and why it is not classified as a manufacturing defect, but have not received satisfactory answers.

6. Warranty Coverage Concerns:

• I am seeking clarification on the warranty conditions regarding the coolant hose pipe and why its failure is not being covered under warranty.

• I would like a detailed explanation of the circumstances surrounding the hose pipe’s breakage.

Conclusion:

As a long-time Volkswagen customer, I am deeply disappointed with how this situation has been handled. I expect immediate action from Volkswagen to rectify these issues without any further payment, as the failure is a manufacturing defect covered under warranty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqsqy2B1LDg

[Jeroen]

A couple of thoughts/comments.

Anything on a car and engine is subject to wear. Every single part will at some point break. So yes, parts will break. Unless it happens to early in a cars life or mileage it is simply not a manufacturing defect. So unless this was a low mileage car, I don’t think you can see this as a manufacturing defect as such. What was the age and mileage of the car? Was it still under warranty?

Not sure if this is a known weak point on this VW?

Nothing lasts forever, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes not. As the saying goes, pardon my French, shit happens.

Irrespective of this being a warranty issue or not some thoughts and comments

Good to see a very detailed report from VW with photographs and everything. Two things spring to mind immediately. There was water found in the coolant. That is a bit of a give away that not enough attention was given to the coolant maintenance.

Secondly, The damage is clearly due to no coolant resulting in an engine overheat situation. The damage shown in the images is pretty severe. Stuff doesn’t melt that easily! That means the no coolant situation would have been present for some time. I would also think this engines would have been making some awful noises.

I find it difficult to imagine how this much damage could have happened after stopping the car/engine immediately after the alarm appeared on the dash.

It is entirely possible that the owner simply did not notice the alarm initially. It’s not uncommon to simply not notice for a while. Happens to the best of us. It happens with professionals such as pilots too.

You think you see it immediately, but unless it comes with other warnings such as continuous horn, it is often overlooked, simply not noticed for a while.

We think we spot and respond immediately but that is difficult to prove.

With the engine running under load and a large leak such as this one, you loose all coolant quickly and it doesn’t take very long to have this sort of substantial damage.

So to conclude:
There is evidence of the coolant not being maintained properly. (Water)
There is a substantial damage to the engine which is unlikely not to be noticed by the driver, prior to shutting down the engine.

My personal thoughts, the car was driven whilst the alarm came on and even some odd sounds started to appear. Only then did the driver notice that indication on the dash, noticed perhaps the noises as well?

Just my thoughts on this story, which simply doesn’t add up as far as I’m concerned.

Jeroen

[GTO]

All said and done, if an "under warranty" car has its hose pipe fail, the car manufacturer has to deal with the aftermath. In fact, I am quite surprised to read about this hose pipe failure. I last dealt with pipes wearing out prematurely in the 1980s & 1990s with our Padminis, Ambassadors & Mahindras (including my '97 Classic).

VW has to own up on this one.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by GTO

All said and done, if an "under warranty" car has its hose pipe fail, the car manufacturer has to deal with the aftermath. In fact, I am quite surprised to read about this hose pipe failure. I last dealt with pipes wearing out prematurely in the 1980s & 1990s with our Padminis, Ambassadors & Mahindras (including my '97 Classic).
.

We need to understand if this car was still under warranty and how many kilometers on the clock.

Pipe failures from anything above 50k still happens on some cars. Mini and Fiesta springs to mind! Ask me how I know!

Irrespective, without any further information I find it difficult to imagine this much damage happening without the owner/driver noticing it. With or without a dashboard light.

He has not mentioned anything other than the dash light. VW mentions a different dash light than he does.
As I mentioned, that can be easily overlooked for a few minutes. But the death rattles of this engine must have been a give away something was amiss.

He should ask VW to pull the ECM data which will show what happened.

I think something doesn’t add up. This is simply not the complete story. Just my opinion.

Jeroen

[Maky]

Originally Posted by GTO

VW has to own up on this one.

I have found myself to be fairly critical of VW over the smallest things, people who have kept up with my Tiguan ownership thread (After 11 long years, we finally brought home a new car | Volkswagen Tiguan) will know this.
But this one I am not sure of, I will share opinions of not just myself but other Tiguan owners I shared the thread with and are much more technically knowledgable than myself.

To be clear each of following are the opinions of various different long-term Tiguan owners, I have punctuated best I can from group chat:


- If the engine has literally melted due to overheating, wouldn't there have been even a change in the drive experience much beforehand, engine noise, low pick up, engine temperature warning and many more signs.

- The sensor is placed in the reservoir and once the level falls,the sensor detects and sounds an alert.

- The reservoir actually stores excess coolant. Even if you empty it and drive, it will not cause overheating. There's extra volume of coolant anyway. This guy has gone way below that, possibly allowed the entire system to empty.

- Before any of this, the temp gauge would have maxed out.

- The coolant pipe breakage seems to a cover up in this case, even a low level of coolant in the reservoir gives out warning on the cluster and hard to believe that the car didn't in this case. Looks like a badly maintained tiguan with water refillings instead of coolant topups.

[AMG Power]

There are two issues at play here :

(1) Breakage of the coolant pipe while the car is under warranty

(2) CONSEQUENTIAL damages to the engine.

VW is liable for (1) subject to their condition of rubber parts having a warranty of 6 months and Point no: (2) which is as a CONSEQUENCE of point no: (1).

The only reason VW can use is that the driver did not stop the car in time. However, that cannot lead to such catastrophic damage.

If such severe damage can happen, preventive measures such as the car going into limp mode should have been triggered.

Here, the PRIMARY reason is the failure of the coolant pipe and the damages are only as a CONSEQUENCE of this breakage. If the pipe did not break none of this would have happened. A warranty of 6 months cannot preclude VW from this liability if it leads to such severe consequential damages.

VW is attempting to seek shelter under driver oversight / abuse leading to engine damage which is certainly not the case. As mentioned earlier precautionary measures such as limp mode should have been activated. (that does not usually happen - one of many VW oversights actually)

Hence IMO, VW is entirely liable for this damage and has to repair the damage at their cost and in addition is also liable for all associated costs.

[GTO]

My bad guys. The service documents show the car has covered almost 1-lakh km. Also not sure if car is under warranty.

Requesting title change.

[superblover]

I have a similar story to share for a Volkswagen Polo 2021 which was still under warranty and had run only 19k kms. One of my relatives ended up with a broken coolant hose which drained his coolant. Since it was a Polo the overheating light directly lit up. He stopped and called Volkswagen Roadside Assistance but they were unreachable. However the car started and was running fine according to him and nothing seemed untoward in the way it drove. So he drove away because he was out in the middle of nowhere and it was late at night. He ended up with a warped cylinder head for which they slapped him with 3.75 lakhs estimate for repair and refused warranty. After a lot of discussions they agreed to waive off 40% on the cylinder head, intake manifold, water pump and roller parts cost alone, which ended up getting the bill close to 2.1 lakhs. Attaching picture of coolant hose with the hole on it. It looks like a friction or heat melted failure of the hose.

[tbppjpr]

As per my understating, such damages occurring due to coolant/oil lost are covered under insurance, not under warranty. That too if the engine cover and other riders have been opted in the insurance.

This is I learnt 13 years ago during my car purchase from VW when VW-Bajaj Allianz tie-up offered few insurance covers for the first time in the mass segment at additional cost. Such covers are common across all manufacturers today.

[AMG Power]

Originally Posted by GTO

Also not sure if car is under warranty.

VW warranty is for 100,000 kms or 4 years whichever comes earlier so the vehicle is still under warranty as its done 96,383 kms. But only just.