Hi there,
In the past 7mos I have run into a series of costly repairs on my 2014 Jetta and hoping someone with more experience might offer some insight. Most of the work has been recommended by my local mechanic to be done at the dealership and I don't have a lot of confidence in the service rep I'm working with. Anyhow, here's the skinny:
July 2022 my vehicle sustained an underside impact on a dirt driveway with a large flat rock I didn't see until too late to avoid. Later that day check oil light came on and there was no oil on the dipstick. Zero. Filled it up to appropriate level and watched for leaks, did not have any so I really don't know what happened there. Ran fine for several months, did not leak or burn oil.
November 2022 check engine light came on - code came up as cam sensor issue which was replaced and did not resolve - dealership took a closer look and found the timing was off so much 'the car believed it was a sensor issue because it couldn't believe the timing chain was stretched as much as it was'. At this time I inquired if this could be a result of the underside impact sustained a few months prior - car had not been driven much since that time. They said no. $3,500 repair later I was back on the road. Ran okay until...
April 2023 the check engine light came on again along with low oil pressure light and car intermittently stalling on startup. My little code reader said crank shaft position sensor. Brought to my local mechanic (not dealership) immediately and their code reader indicated oil pressure sensor issue. Replaced that, and after driving 10-15mi the lights came back on. My code reader again indicated crankshaft position sensor and theirs agreed this time, recommended going to dealer due to previous timing work done there in the event this was related. Dealer replaced crankshaft position sensor - stated they found it to be corroded and thought that would fix the issue. After 10-15mi driving the lights came on again and was intermittently stalling on start. Returned car to dealership. They now say it reads multiple electronic codes, they did further inspection and found oil migration into engine harness and across ECM with some ECM contact corrosion and dried oil on the contacts so believe the leak was occuring more than a few weeks ago. They now recommend replacing ECM and engine harness - they believe the oil may have come from the old oil pressure sensor that had been replaced.
So I am now facing another $3,000 dealer repair. I have put close to $5k into the thing since November so this is getting frustrating. I can't find anything online that indicates this is a common issue for the vehicle. I don't want to go into debt buying a new vehicle, but I'm also concerned about ongoing multi-thousand-dollar repairs if their hunch about cause and fix are not accurate. Agh....
Any thoughts??