Buggered Polo :(

[laura_fairy_22]

Ok, so in the past 3 days my lil polo has been acting really weird. My "CHECK" light came on, as did the oil light, i checked oil - was fine. She was like juddering when i drive her, keeps stalling, no power... i was at 3k revs in 2nd gear and she was going like a snail.

Turns out I was running on 2 cylinders! We changed the spark plugs hoping that would help, and they were black sooty.
I left my house to go the mile (mebbe 2) to the VW garage, and stalled 10 time! 3 times pulling out of my road!

They had to replace the ignition coil and the transformer!
£120!!!! EEEEEEEEEEEKS! now im broke

[nothin2lose]

yeah i went through that recently. now one of my ignition leads got cut in half by the fan. changed the ignition lead and still got problems.

[laura_fairy_22]

had to fork out yet ANOTHER £110 today, and they still dont know "exactly" what the problem is!!!

I had to go without my car for the weekend, they gave me a 2.0 L bug to "run around" in, but that guzzled fuel like it was going out of fashion.

[nothin2lose]

consider urself lucky, i didnt even get a couresey car, u have to book like 3months in advance, but who gonna know 3months in advance when their car is gonna mess up?? and when I did get a courtsey car they gave me a bloody 1.2 polo, which got ragged, pretty much redlined it in all gears. but its just somethin u got 2 do.

[laura_fairy_22]

In the end they replaced the HT Leads!
But said it could also be the engine speed sensor, which would explain the rev counter cutting out!

They really didnt know what was wrong with it! Not a clue?!

[Sleety]

does it get stuck at 2000rpm mine did that and it was the engine timer and some other things
sleety

[JWC]

Am still in the throws of workin out whats up with mine. The EPC and Check Engine comes on then EPC goes out and check engine stay on for 5 restarts (as its supposed to).

I read out on my VAG COM and the fault codes are

1) ECU Locked - indicating that the immobiliser was activated whilst the engine is running, which is nonsense - so it just throws up an error (but not the light)

2) MAP sensor - Implausible signal - Intermittent.

I have checked out the mapsensor and it gives a pressure of 1000mb when stationary, and 300mb when idle - 700 - 900mb when open throttle- which sounds about right.

I'm beginning to suspect that the cam timing could be the problem. Its rare but the cam tensioner might be failing. This would lead to correct pressure readings, the timing wouldn't be right occasionally. Am scratching my head still.

But we all know, check engine light means <please insert £88.50 in your local VW garages account>

[inder]

Ive got this same crap now, as JWC has above, the EPC and Check light both come on, EPC light goes off and then Check is shown for the rest of the time, go to start car some other time and its gone

JWC - what computers can you talk to with vag-com? do you have their numbers, i.e. 17 instruments (i think) so i can check them also

car feels no different

[JWC]

Yeah, 5 restarts without recurrance and it will clear it for you, so when you take it to the garage, its not there and you feel like a fool.

I have a VAG-COM compatible Serial Convertor that I got from sk pang electronics http://www.skpang.co.uk/ . Then I use VAG Com from that. You can use a Maplin USB-Serial convertor, works ok.

I don't understand the last part of your question....

[inder]

You know when you scan the car, do you hit the buttons for the certain computers to check, like the button for ABS Brakes, Instruments, etc...?

Select Control Module:




I have the free/demo version with a serial cable. If so, which can you 'talk' to on your polo?

[laura_fairy_22]

in the book it says the ECP is the engine, and the CHECK light is Emmisions???

When you "insert money into VW's account" mine was like over £100!!

[JWC]

Yeah, I use the engine diagnostics 01

Then you can use measuring blocks to see whats happening when the engine is running.

Yeah, well emissions are the #1 cause of check engine light coming on. But in my case its to do with the more basic engine management stuff like when and how much fuel to squirt in!

[pberry]

Ok, so in the past 3 days my lil polo has been acting really weird. My "CHECK" light came on, as did the oil light, i checked oil - was fine. She was like juddering when i drive her, keeps stalling, no power... i was at 3k revs in 2nd gear and she was going like a snail.

A similar thing happened to me. Well, same symptoms, different cause. Bowling down the M1 fine (and carrying 4 passengers), chime sounds, oil pressure light comes on solid, engine starts to flutter. Luckily a junction was coming up so made it to a garage. Joined AA on the spot and the bloke said oil level and pressure's fine so something must be causing the indicator circuit to go marginal.

Quite clever these VW engines: you can't break them really. The oil pressure circuit is interconnected to the fuel pump. If it thinks your oil's dropped off, it cuts the fuel supply thus protecting the engine (so it doesn't seize up).

This was 2 days before a service! Thought it might be dirty oil and a regular change of oil & filter would do it. No such luck: it wasn't as simple as that. Some part of the oil pipework had cracked way back and caused the spark silos to fill up very slowly. The oil had nearly reached the spark point which was causing the engine to cut out. Needless to say it was a job for the garage. All fixed, though you have no idea how carefully I drove it for a few days afterwards!

September was an expensive month.

[laura_fairy_22]

my oil light kept coming on & off - couldnt make up its mind!

[pberry]

Hmmm... the problems with the oil pressure circuit appear to have resurfaced.

Since the repairs last September the light has only come on twice: once six months ago and again just last night. Even then it was only flashing--not solid--but cleared down after a restart without issue.

Until this morning. Got about 200 yards down the road. Engine started to flutter. While waiting at a give-way line (so revs v. low), it stalled. Parked up and called garage.

We'll see what the issue is this evening. Expecting the worst...