Engine failure rates Merc does better than the German Opposition

[st4]

But from a far larger pool of cars.

And a larger number of this larger pool of cars had a failure. A greater proportion of the vauxhalls had engine failures compared to a Mercedes.

What is pertinent is that it is figures from a warranty company. Thus is a narrow sample. IE how many merc owners as a percentage of all buy an internet warranty?

Thus many mercs may fail under mfr warranty and it isnt recorded.

As no rovers can fail under mfr warranty it is more likely a Rover will be tracked by warranty direct.

I assume they have had to exclude Kia/Hyundai etc as they will all be under manufacturer warranty - or the data is old.

You see, I am not sure. WD cover a large enough amount of cars I would have thought to give a representative sample.

In other words, enough cars are covered by WD to give an accurate picture of what goes on.

 

[nick mercedes]

And a larger number of this larger pool of cars had a failure. A greater proportion of the vauxhalls had engine failures compared to a Mercedes.

Not really, they might have warrenties on 20000 mercedes, but a million vauxhalls, this meaning that the figures are skewed.

And given that the newest Rover can be from 2005, it's no real surprise that Rover did not do so well.

What would be more worthwhile would be comparing engine faliure among cars up to 36 months old, that way the results would acutually mean something.

 

[mxs]

IMHO these figures are not really representative. They only show positives and negatives in WD world! :fail

 

[st4]

Not really, they might have warrenties on 20000 mercedes, but a million vauxhalls, this meaning that the figures are skewed.

And given that the newest Rover can be from 2005, it's no real surprise that Rover did not do so well.

What would be more worthwhile would be comparing engine faliure among cars up to 36 months old, that way the results would acutually mean something.

Quite but its about relativity. 20k cars is enough to make a sample on, and say 1 million vauxhalls. So what more per 100 cars in the Vauxhall pool had issues than per 100 cars in the Mercedes lot. Its also not clear whats an engine failure, does that range from a glow plug right through to a snapped belt/chain and total engine damage. What point does engine failures kick in.

I would agree this would probably span older models too and WD will not cover new cars, manufacturers give 3yrs 36k (some greater number of miles some more years etc)

 

[grober]

I would suggest that many VAG engines are potentially weakened by their widespread use of timing belts which often drive the water pump as well. Nothing wrong with timing belts of course -- provided you change them at the recommended service interval. Push up main dealer servicing costs and cars slip out of the network and what happens??

 

[st4]

I would suggest that many VAG engines are potentially weakened by their widespread use of timing belts which often drive the water pump as well. Nothing wrong with timing belts of course -- provided you change them at the recommended service interval. Push up main dealer servicing costs and cars slip out of the network and what happens??

Or Mercedes/Nissan/BMW fitting poorer than normal chains and tensioners.....

 

[ivandraganov]

not really, they might have warrenties on 20000 mercedes, but a million vauxhalls, this meaning that the figures are skewed.

And given that the newest rover can be from 2005, it's no real surprise that rover did not do so well.

What would be more worthwhile would be comparing engine faliure among cars up to 36 months old, that way the results would acutually mean something.

+1

 

[Terry_]

The 2.0 Tdi vag engines are very poor. They are prone to burning valves out/ turbos popping/ oil pump giving up the ghost. They are very poor indeed.
Mb have their problems but most manufacturers deal with much worse.
A guy I know well is a reputed vag specialist and some of the stories I get told are shocking.
We really are lucky with our mb's compared!!!!

 

[Mr E]

What's the definition of "engine failure" being used? Totally meaningless without know that...

 

[st4]

The 2.0 Tdi vag engines are very poor. They are prone to burning valves out/ turbos popping/ oil pump giving up the ghost. They are very poor indeed.
Mb have their problems but most manufacturers deal with much worse.
A guy I know well is a reputed vag specialist and some of the stories I get told are shocking.
We really are lucky with our mb's compared!!!!

Is that the PD ones or the newer CR ones?

 

[74merc]

It's the 2.0 PD engine that has a bad reputation. In addition to the problems listed, they also had a recall on the injectors. The CR engine was introduced in 2008 and has a good reputation, so far!

 

[crockers]

Well I can only call it as from personal experience. I had more failures with my V6 cdi than any other car I've owned. Maybe I was unlucky. BUT. I was well treated by both Mercedes and WD so wasn't very much out of pocket. Only sold the car because WD reduced the level of cover offered and I was sure the inlet port motor was due to go again. Stuttering etc

 

[st4]

Hi Graham,

Olly and I chatted about your car, he reckoned it needed a new manifold as it would be clogged up and linlages breaking between the IPS motor and swirl flaps. Mine did fix the issues.

Early V6s were trouble, mine wasn't quite as bad as yours but random issues with 7g (flaring shifts) manifolds, IPS motors etc drove me nuts. Off all the CDi engines, the V6 is the only one to have presented major issues accross the board. Of course other engines have had faults but they are random. The newer 4pots had injection issues, now resolved and covered by OEM warranty. Now with the 350 iteration of the V6 theres been no reported issues AFAIK.

VAGs reputation will build again if the new CR engines are decent. I hope they are, and their V6 diesel isn't bad but not great either

 

[WesLangdon]

Work it out in terms of engine size and number of cylinders, Honda only makes a 4 cylinder engine, the others, 4,5, V6, V8, V12

 

[HumberMart]

Work it out in terms of engine size and number of cylinders, Honda only makes a 4 cylinder engine, the others, 4,5, V6, V8, V12

Erm. What about their V6 4x4 Legend?

 

[Dieselman]

I'm not sure what the number of cylinders has to do with anything.

Honda generally makes highly stressed but reliable engines, as they are predominantly an engine company with cars attached.

 

[markjay]

Work it out in terms of engine size and number of cylinders, Honda only makes a 4 cylinder engine, the others, 4,5, V6, V8, V12

This may be relevant when talking about number-of-cylinders-related damage, e.g. piston rings, con rods bearings, valves etc.

But the majority of expensive engine damage has nothing to do with all that. Cars are being written off these days for mundane issues which would have been easily rectified 20 years ago, all due to ridiculously escalating labour costs (and VAT).

For example, a coolant hose leak causing engine overheating and subsequent head gasket damage would have meant £100 in parts and probably same in labour costs 20 years ago (in today's value), now days it's a £1,000+ job.

So I suspect that the vast majority of 'engine damage' as measured in this study has little to do with failure of internal engine components, but is more likely to be the result of ancillaries failing such as turbos, fuel and water pumps, injection system, belts failure with consequential damage, sensors, ECU, etc.

 

[grober]

While in general Honda petrol engines appear to be bullet proof in the main . Their early attempts a 4 cylinder diesel were plagued with high oil consumption and noisy turbos to the extent that their second iteration of the engine actually reversed the injection inlet/exhaust+turbo orientation such that in transverse configuration the turbo is now at the front of the engine rather than next to the bulkhead. Talking of the "big boys" both BMW and JAGUAR had alloy block V8 issues in the late 90's which never bothered Mercedes with its long history of alloy block V8s. Guess restricting the categories to simply a manufacturer really skews any result since a manufacturer might have a fairly problematic engine in its range together with some really reliable ones. So for one owner this survey might be rubbish but another might well agree.

 

[joecash]

Clearly MB claims are 3x those of Honda in Warranty Direct's experience.
I wonder how many of those "engine claims" are down to poor diagnosis of problems by incompetent, but qualified benz mechanics.
There are loads of horror stories on benz forums relating to misdiagnosis of problems. In some cases bills of thousands have been incurred for so called problems that should have been put right for next to nothing.

 

[WesLangdon]

Erm. What about their V6 4x4 Legend?

sorry but these don't sell too well so I ignored them