Major problem with relatively young car

withnail_wine

Hi all

Just after some advice, really. My girlfriend's 55 plate Polo possibly has a knackered engine. Without boring you with the details, the engine management light has been coming on intermittently and after several failed attempts (and over 200 English pounds) at fixing it, the VW dealer we bought the car from three years ago have performed a compression test and found all 3 cylinders to have slightly low compression. The car idles quite roughly at times.

I'm not a mechanic, but I know poor compression test result potentially mean big mechanical problems. VW are admitting this might be the case and have quoted £300 to take the head of the engine off and then the sky is pretty much the limit once they're in there to look what the real problem is. We could be talking £2k.

Now, the car's done 24,000 miles, is 3 years old and driven nearly exclusively around town. I'm sure you'll all agree the thought of such a car having a knackered engine is barmy.

I'm very angry but have no idea where I'd stand in getting this sorted. We're heading to VW tomorrow to speak to a manager but this isn't something that can drag on - we need the car. We're even considering trading it in and getting something new soon.

Thoughts welcome

ariba10

Why would you think that slightly low compression means that the engine is knackered?

Around the town driving only, is the worst treatment for an engine.

withnail_wine

ariba10 wrote: »

Why would you think that slightly low compression means that the engine is knackered?

Around the town driving only, is the worst treatment for an engine.

That may well be over-egging it, but there is something wrong, and it could be something serious. Regardless, it's going to cost at least £300 before we even know what it could be.

As for the comment about around town driving - this car is a modern car that has done 24,000 miles. And it's been driven by my girlfriend, not Lewis Hamilton. It is appalling there could be potentially something wrong with the engine.

ariba10

Short trips, a lot of cold starts, is doing no favours to an engine.

withnail_wine

ariba10 wrote: »

Short trips, a lot of cold starts, is doing no favours to an engine.

Without going on too much longer about this, are you telling me that it should be reasonable to expect a modern 1.2 3 cylinder engine to have a mechanical problem with the engine after 24,000 miles when it has been used for what it is intended?

Has consumer confidence in modern day products really got that low that the above is acceptable?

By comparison, my 1.5 year old Vectra has done 36,000 miles and has been driven very hard both on motorways and, more usually, around town. Lots of cold starts and short trips too. It hasn't missed a beat and runs perfectly.

Money_Grabber13579

No that is far too short a life to be expected to be normal. Is it using a lot of oil? If so that could explain the compression being low. Dad had the same problem, on a different type of car, but it ended up in him needing a new short engine. I'd say there was a fault with the engine from new, and I'd be looking at getting VW to at least put a part payment towards it.

By the way, does it have a full VW service history?

withnail_wine

Money_Grabber13579 wrote: »

No that is far too short a life to be expected to be normal. Is it using a lot of oil? If so that could explain the compression being low. Dad had the same problem, on a different type of car, but it ended up in him needing a new short engine. I'd say there was a fault with the engine from new, and I'd be looking at getting VW to at least put a part payment towards it.

By the way, does it have a full VW service history?

Thank you for a considered response!

No, oil consumption appears to be normal. I agree with it having been there from new; it simply hasn't done enough miles to warrant such work needing to be taken out.

I'll see what they say tomorrow. Whatever happens, we're going to loose money in some way as we still have a loan outstanding for the car.

EDIT: yes, it has full VW service history for the first three years, but the last one was performed by a local garage.

goldspanners

did the last garage to service it use the right oil, modern engines can be very sensitive to which oil they use.
it does seem a bit premature for an engine to be worn out,but it could be the headgasket or a sticky valve causing the problem, not the whole engine.

jeannieblue

Exactly how old is it? In other words, how much over the 3 year warranty. You could try VW customer services. There could (hopefully) be some good will there - if they want people to keep buying their cars, I would expect them to put it right - at their cost. The dealer won't make so much out of it tho... tough.

Mind you - have had two customers lately that have been basically told 'tough' by Lexus customer services! Cars only being weeks out of warranty! And they expect people to go back and buy another of their cars?? In this climate? You would've thought that they would be bending over backwards to get a good reputation and pull in the punters!

Its beyond me...

Try them - and good luck!! At least make a fuss, be more American and less British!

withnail_wine

goldspanners wrote: »

did the last garage to service it use the right oil, modern engines can be very sensitive to which oil they use.
it does seem a bit premature for an engine to be worn out,but it could be the headgasket or a sticky valve causing the problem, not the whole engine.

Difficult to say on the service front - they may have used incorrect oil, but I think they're respectable enough to have used the proper stuff. Who knows.

And yes, perhaps it's something relatively simple - I still think either of the issues you mention above are out of order.

Exactly how old is it? In other words, how much over the 3 year warranty. You could try VW customer services. There could (hopefully) be some good will there - if they want people to keep buying their cars, I would expect them to put it right - at their cost. The dealer won't make so much out of it tho... tough.

Mind you - have had two customers lately that have been basically told 'tough' by Lexus customer services! Cars only being weeks out of warranty! And they expect people to go back and buy another of their cars?? In this climate? You would've thought that they would be bending over backwards to get a good reputation and pull in the punters!

Its beyond me...

Try them - and good luck!! At least make a fuss, be more American and less British!

Couldn't agree more - I'll definitely get in touch with customer services too.

I'll try the American tactic tomorrow. Thankfully, the dealer is relatively small and the service desk is right next to the sales desk. I'm sure they don't want a disgruntled Polo owner dirtying their name as they're getting some poor sod to sign on the dotted line...

Sirbendy

if it was me, I'd take it and rag it about on the dual carriagway to give the engine a damn good workout and see if its any smoother after.

Did you ever get the engine management system readout? If so, what did it show? LOTS of things can cause bad idling and EML warnings. First stop, find out EXACTLY what the onboard systems think are amiss, and don't necessarily trust dealers either.

MOST garages can do diagnostics. I have occasional EML lights on my Astra, the dealers paint a "doom" picture every time. I plug in my laptop, it's ALWAYS the EGR system, it's never been severe (just paranoid), and I clear it every time. EGRs on Astras is common.

Get a decent independant opinion, and NOT from kwik-fit or the like, or you'll likely be told !!!!.

My last car had low compression on cylinder 4..I could hear it on turnover. At 117k it NEVER caused me any problems.

Low compression may be sticking valves...corsas do that if you pootle them about. It may be sticky rings..again, pootling won't help a lot.

It was the best advice I ever had..When you get a car, and before every MOT, thrash the nuts off the engine and get everything hot and flowing well, and blow out the cobwebs. Not necessarily high speed - even revving the thing through the gears is better than nothing. As I have automatics I do either have to manually drop the range or just turn on sports mode.