Ok, update.

Driven and it’s the same. So it’s off to ‘Harris On Ford’ in Keynsham next week…

I’m not joking about his garage name either!

any news?

With a split pipe I would expect loads of sooty, black smoke out the exhaust when the revs get high enough to engage the turbo…

See, I ran my Mondeo for a month with a big split in the turbo pipe and there wasn’t any obvious sooty black smoke from the exhaust, in the rear view mirrors. I just had no power when the turbo was supposed to kick in and oily residue all around the turbo pipe area. Had it safety checked prior to a holiday to Italy and the turbo pipe was replaced as part of that.

Argh, so the recommended ‘specialist’ had it all weekend, didn’t contact us, didn’t answer the phone and then still had the bonnet open and hadn’t fixed it when I arrived Monday morning to pick it up. Baring in mind I had just returned a hire car and he knew I wasn’t local, this was pretty poor form.

I don’t know for sure but my suspicion is that he had only just started looking at it that morning. Eitherway, I drove it away as I had no choice, and have decided to just take it to Ford which is practically next to where my Wife works and is at least convenient. Very frustrating though!

However, I do know that the Turbo is fine and this second Garage found a fair amount of oil all over the back of the engine and there was quite a lot in the drip tray while he was ‘working on it’.

*sigh*

If you’re thinking of replacing, steer clear of the VW Touran. Big heap of sh*te they are, and costly when they (often) go wrong.

Mine has had at least £1,000 of repairs every time the bloody thing goes in for what is jokingly referred to as a ‘service’.

The turbo is one of those things that’s already been replaced.

I would strongly recommend against the Touran. Buy ANYTHING else.

Yeah unless the inlaws decide to buy us a new one, I can’t see replacing it ending up any more economical than maintaining this one (they’ve offered but we want to avoid as we’re hoping for house deposit help soon!)

Skodas seem to score well on reliability but it shows in the residuals. Octavia Estate would be nice but £££

Did think about leasing new when we got the C-Max but banked on long term ownership being the shrewder option given we were planning on children (and have since had one). If we were to replace the car now, that would be all of our saveable income gone so not really an option I want to consider.

*sigh* I chuffing cycle to work too!

Tourans are the same inside as any other VAG car really.

As for £000s of repairs every time it goes in – you may be being taken for a ride. Is the car fine until they find loads of things that are mysteriously just about to fail?

Skodas seem to score well on reliability

Again, same as Tourans underneath. Engines and running gear are the same.

Engines and running gear are the same.

I assumed this to be the case, yet when you look at driver power survys etc, Skodas are consistently top, Superb and Octavia, even older versions.

Tbh, I thought the Focus reliability looked ok which is why I bought the C-Max, turns out the C-Maxs are made in a different factory and have much worse reliability record than the Focus hatch despite same engine and running gear.

I hate cars.

I know that Seat were using older versions of engines than VW, when I test drove cars last at least. So maybe they let the VW brand take the hit on early issues, I dunno..

Still, a 2.0 TDI 140 is the same in a Skoda or a VW, afaik.

Or maybe as you say it’s a factory issue. One of the biggest issues VW had was catastrophic engine failures when just driving along, caused by the oil pump – it was a dodgy design used in one factory, but it was one of the first big issues that started to tarnish the brand image.

I think they still are overall pretty reliable, but they had a few dramatic single issues. The injectors were the other problem on my car – they’d suddenly pack up without warning. Apparently took years of campaigning to get VW to issue a recall.

Right, I think we have a resolution! Well, mechanic to wife to husband translation anyway.

Two things disel vacuum pump needs replacing. Which is fair enough as a local garage cleaned and bodged it two years ago claiming it would do us ‘a few months at best’.

Otherthing is Mass Air Flow something, I’m assuming sensor from a bit of googling. Anyway, reckon it’ll be fixed tomorrow and could have been worse based on my OP…

Seems a bit steep at £400 including the diagnostics, but we’ve been let down by two independents now so sod it…

Not convinced by it being the mass air flow meter as if thats faulty then the car would run like a lumpy bag if poo all the ttime!!

Renton, interestingly, we did have it running like a lumpy bag of poo over the winter but I put it down to being so wet…?

I can image if the airflow metre is screwed, it would go into limp home mode which is exactly what it currently feels like?

we did have it running like a lumpy bag of poo over the winter but I put it down to being so wet…?

solution located 🙂

diesel vacuum pump wouldn’t do it, that’s just making vacuum for your clutch/brakes/etc

Renton, interestingly, we did have it running like a lumpy bag of poo over the winter but I put it down to being so wet…?

Diesels not affected by wetness like old petrol cars used to. And modern petrols should not be lumpy in the wet anyway, this isn’t the 1970s 🙂

Ok I’m still not convinced that it will cure your problem!

Fingers crossed fir you though!!

Diesels not affected by wetness like old petrol cars used to. And modern petrols should not be lumpy in the wet anyway, this isn’t the 1970s

Of course you’d think! But I did read some stuff online that the C-Max diesels don’t like getting too wet…

Man, what a POS…