Can You Save My '06 Corolla Verso 2.2 Diesel?

[Captain_Amazing]

Hi all!

This forum has been an invaluable fount of knowledge both in the weeks before purchase and many times after, so I'm hoping some bright spark on here can save my car from the scrapper...

(Also, be gentle because I'm not a mechanic... )

We bought an 06 Corolla Verso 2.2 diesel with 63000 on it in May 2013. Since then it has had it's yearly services, needing nothing tending to outside of the remit of the service. It has been run for the last 2+ years almost exclusively on Shell V-Power Nitro+ diesel with maybe five tanks of supermarket fuel amongst that. As expected, I have had to do the EGR valve clean-up at regular intervals, perhaps four times since October 2013.

Just before Christmas it started to sound a bit clanky at idle. Not outright problematic, but just a bit more like a tractor than it usually did. Not long after, the engine light came on then followed maybe a day later by the TRC OFF and VSC lights. It was driving normally and didn't sound rough at any time other than idling. I did the EGR valve clean again but the lights stayed on. In the next couple of days it did the school run and Tesco's (sub 15mins each) before we took it to the local mechanic. He referred us to a diesel specialist who told us that one three cylinders were running normal but one was down to 80 percent compression. He said probably either injector or cylinder, but it wasn't cut and dried so he wouldn't know until he dug deep. On getting to the offending part he found that the injector was totally stuffed so he replaced just that one, put it back together, gave it a clean bill of health after he test drove it and we picked it up.

My wife was driving it home from the diesel specialist and made it six miles (during which she said it was driving like a dream) before it died. She tells me she was changing up and it suddenly felt like it was going into limp mode. She made it from the inside lane to the hard shoulder with the power just dropping off the whole time before it totally gave out as she became stationary. She recalls the Battery light and engine light coming on while this was happening which she says maybe took about four seconds from start to finish. But there were no noises, smoke, smells; it just stopped working. The electrics were still working because the lights, radio etc functioned but on pressing the start button it made the tiniest attempt at turning over and then nothing.

It has not run since.

It was towed back to our local who then spent the best part of a day trying to diagnose. They finally said it was a seized engine and everything they had tried had only succeed in getting it to partially turn over once. They also said it was nothing that they could see that may have been caused by the previous repair. They also could not say exactly what caused it unless they strip the whole thing down (which apparently would be a costly business just to confirm it's totally knackered). [UPDATE: Having spoken to the mechanic apparently the crankshaft can't even be moved manually.]

So now it sits outside here broken and it's making me sad since it had been near faultless, well-maintained, sensibly-driven (and young at 93000 in almost ten years) and ideal for our needs... it just doesn't work.

Now I will readily admit I know next-to-nothing about engines but surely if something catastrophic had happened it would have been a bit more dramatic? Noises? Explosion? Belching black smoke? And it also seems hideously unlucky that a car from such a reliable maker as Toyota should expire so early and without major warning signs.

It might well be horrifying bad luck and if it is, it is. But maybe someone out there can think of something else that might save it from scrap please chuck it down here. I don't want this to be the end!

Thanks in advance!

Cap.