UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hi i bought my first car last week a polo 1.4 cl 1998 and it runs perfect exept for one thing, at times wen im driving it, it seems to loose a lot of power and starts juddering like im in the wrong gear even though im not. even when im in like 3rd gear doing 3000rpm it will start doing it, then at about 3500-4000rpm it just regains power and shoots off as if i just used nos or something. it varies from gear to gear and it happens at different rpm for different gears. any one have any ideas what could be causing this and how mutch to fix? thanks.

ps. sorry about the crap write up but its the best i could explain

Cheers. danny

R u using supermarket fuel from before?

But does it ever stalls?

I would get some good gasoline, clean the throttle body to see if it the problem goes away.

Do a forum search about the throttle body

No it dosnt stall just judders realy bad like the fule takes a second or two to get through the system. im gona send some redex throught the fuel system tomorrow see if that does anything then check the throttle body like you said if not then il take it to dub sport and dyno it to see if everythings running okay the ECU may need remaping to send more fuel to the angine or summat.

now that mention it my daughters 1997 1.4 cl does the same though it dosen't loose power just judders if you put your foot down to far....it feels as if you are in the wrong gear although your not.........my daughter has mastered her driving style to suit but ive just bought a full service kit for the engine and im hoping it maybe something simple like a fuel filter......will clean the throttle body and maf etc and check the timing then go from there......

let us know how you get on if you fix it mate...........

Garry

iv cleaned the airfilter and throttle body and that didnt fix it but it made it a bit better. il let you know if i can find anything more out about it or if i fix it. could you also do the same for me?

cheers mate. Danny

cud maybe be dirt inda fuel, summit simple like that

will do Bullough

Don't mean to scare you mate and my problem may differ from yours. I had the same problem with fuel cutting out and sometimes juddering then pulling away again, noticed the revs kept going mad. The problem worsened after a few weeks by stalling and I couldn't even tell cos it was usually when come up to a speed bump to slow down with my foot buried on the clutch. Seemed awkward and only ever happened twice that month thinking it was a one-off ECU or sensor glitch.

Now however my car constantly does it and even plays around with the revs at idle speed or whilst driving choosing to cut out anytime (once at 50mph with no p/s or brakes). The engine decides to idle on the verge of stalling whenever it feels I've changed the distributor, sparks and leads, airfilter and cleaned the throttle out with no hope. Other members have experienced similar problems. I'm now having to take it to the dealer only purchasing the car 2months ago cos 4 machanics couldn't sort it out.

MAKE SURE YOURS DON'T START DOING HE SAME THING cos still ain't found anyone who's managed to cure the problem on their Polo

upon doing a search on here it appears that this is a common problem which nobody seems to have cured........not looked at the daughters car yet but i do know some ford ka's and fiesta's suffered very simular problems and the problems on the fords seem to lay with either the TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) or the IAC (Idle Air Control) but also faulty fuel pressure regulators can also be to blame.................

this sounds very similar to a common mk3 golf problem.
on them, and i have personal experience of it, it's caused by faulty ecu and/or fuel pump relays.
for the golf they cost about £30 for the pair.

also , it doesn't show as a fault on VAG diagnostics

I don't know if thats any use but i thought it may be worth a mention.

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk

search for "ecu relay" in the mk3 section.

have a read , see what you think.

interesting read the golf link mr monkeyalan cheers

gave the polo a bit of a service today and discovered whoever serviced it last did a pi$$ poor job....2 of the spark plugs were near on finger tight only....1 plug lead not on properly and the distributor cap had been put on 180 degrees out.....ie the lug on the cap didn't locate with the cut out on the distributor so the cap sat pi$$ed and not in the correct postion....never got round to changing the fuel filter but took her for a spin and she seemed ok although i did notice that the clutch was very slightly starting to slip when giving it some so it looks like i'll be having the box out soon........will update on the juddering to see if its been cured once we have driven it a bit more................


Garry

tell me about half arsed workmanship.

my clutch was dead heavy and the bite point was on the floor when i got my car.

turned out some idiot had fitted a new clutch cable but not adjusted it and it could be lifted out of the lever on the gearbox by hand.

i changed the oil filter and oil yesterday and took it for a spin, it seemed to drive perfect no juddering at all but after a full days driving the juddering has come back oh well it was good while it lasted

UPDATE............

well took my daughter out for another drive this morning and all is good after my little service to which we have no more juddering whatsoever even though i still have'nt changed the fuel filter (but will change when i get it up in the air to do the clutch) she pulled strong even from 20mph in 4th gear which it would never do before in 3rd gear and even at that speed of around 20mph in 2nd gear it was a little touch and go so all is good..........

i will report back and update this if any problems come back in the future and i hope you get yours sorted soon too Bullough.........

Garry