I'm currently driving a 1.4MPI 8V and have been driving it for just over 3 months. There's a light on the dash which is almost constantly on, which I believe to be the emissions light. I've taken it to a garage close to my house and he's plugged it in and the error which returned was P0303.
This code means that the there is a misfire detected in the third cylinder - as I've been told.
My first port of call was the change everything ignition related, because if it's most likely down to the ignition side more than anything else...
I then replaced the spark plugs, HT leads and ignition coil, all with OEM parts but the issue persisted.
Recently I've started to notice that there's a very constant "piston slap" sound when in low revs, but even worse when under load. It's typically between 1000 and 2000 revs when it's worst, but during high revs it's fine.
When driving normally, acceleration in third, fourth and fifth is really sluggish, the only gears where the acceleration can be felt is first and second.
At first, before changing all ignition components, if the engine was left to idle, it would slowly judder more and more until the third cylinder stopped firing completely and then my 1.4 Polo became a 2.0 Subaru (or at least that's what it sounded like)
I've also started to notice that the oil smells like petrol and is sometimes that hot that it's burning and can be smelled from within the car. I've also taken off the manifold cover and noticed that the throttle body is covered in fluid which looks and smells like a mixture of oil, water and petrol.
When I originally had the bought the car off my "friend" he said that the light came on and off intermittently with no real symptoms, he had taken the car to a garage and they couldn't detect an issue (sounds like a load of s**t to me
)He mentioned that he thought the issue was down to the cold as it only came on when it was cold..............
If anyone has any information, suggestions or even similar issues, please don't hesitate to respond.