Major problem with relatively young car

gilbert_and_sullivan

jeannieblue wrote: »

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!

!

Now i'm shocked, i'd suggest a letter to Lexus HQ is called for by those customers.
And i'd like to see a copy posted of the replies.

When Lexus Japan read about their customers being told 'tough' i'd give it a count of three before the miscreant is looking for a new job.

jeannieblue

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

Now i'm shocked, i'd suggest a letter to Lexus HQ is called for by those customers.
And i'd like to see a copy posted of the replies.

When Lexus Japan read about their customers being told 'tough' i'd give it a count of three before the miscreant is looking for a new job.

Totally agree. I told one of the customers to push it a bit more but I think he had come to the end of his tether. We put it right, it wasn't cheap, but at least he didn't pay Lexus dealer labour prices. But it still isn't good enough.

Us British are a bit wimpy at times...

Edit: Agree - Japan would be horrified - they are perfectionists. Which is why alot of people prefer to buy an import from Japan as the standard is higher than those made in Europe. True, but sad really.

withnail_wine

Sirbendy wrote: »

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.

Thanks for the advice mate. I'm getting more and more suspicious about the whole thing.

Now you mention it, I wasn't given a clear answer on the result of the engine management light which was on when we delivered it to the dealer. It was off when we left, but if flashed on briefly today.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is an EGR?

epninety

withnail_wine wrote: »

Hi all
...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. ...

'Slightly' low compression? Meaning what? Did they give you any numbers to back up what they said?

Take it away from the dealer, and to a garage that actually fixes things instead of replace them. If they were serious about diagnosing a problem, they would at least have done the test again with some oil in the bores, and been able to give you a pretty good idea if the problem was top end (valves and seats) or bottom end (rings and bores).

Slightly low compression on all cylinders on a low mileage engine sounds to me like either the bores are glazed (polished) because the engine hasn't run in properly, or they got the compression test wrong.

Also, if the compression were 'slightly' low, but even across all cylinders, that generally wouldn't cause a particularly rough idle on its own, and especially not just 'at times'.

As others have suggested, give it the 'italian tune-up'. Take it out for a good run, get it properly warmed up then some 'spirited' driving. Run the engine over the full rev range, hold the gears longer (higher revs) than normal, and accelerate briskly. If the car isn't normally revved very highly, don't go all the way to the redline straight away, but each time allow it to rev slightly higher than the time before.

jeannieblue

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...[/QUOTE]

I mean contact VW customer services direct (VW HQ). Try the dealer tomorrow but if they do not budge, tell them that it is not good enough and that you will go to VW direct. Be polite and dignified but firm (my mum always advised that and it does work!). If you shout and get abusive (not that you would ), it gets you nowhere.

How much over the warranty is it?

withnail_wine

jeannieblue wrote: »

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...

I mean contact VW customer services direct (VW HQ). Try the dealer tomorrow but if they do not budge, tell them that it is not good enough and that you will go to VW direct. Be polite and dignified but firm (my mum always advised that and it does work!). If you shout and get abusive (not that you would ), it gets you nowhere.

How much over the warranty is it?[/QUOTE]

Oh, no I wouldn't have done that - I knew what you meant :rolleyes: I'm too English to get all hot, sweaty and shouty.

It's about 6 months out of warranty, so I don't hold out a huge amount of hope for the 'good will'...

Thanks for all your comments, I'll see how we get on.

jeannieblue

Oh, no I wouldn't have done that - I knew what you meant :rolleyes: I'm too English to get all hot, sweaty and shouty.

It's about 6 months out of warranty, so I don't hold out a huge amount of hope for the 'good will'...

Thanks for all your comments, I'll see how we get on.[/QUOTE]



6 months is not alot considering what could be a major problem. I would really go all out to get VW to listen to you. No one likes bad publicity - and if we put VW on here alot. VW etc. You know VW. That can put the thread on first page of google if you put VW alot.... and someone googling VW could get a link to this.... not good publicity.

I have a feeling that VW may listen to you if you get to speak to the right person. And putting it all in writing will help. Get all you can from the dealer in writing, photocopy it all so that you can send it off to VW HQ.

Make them realise that you are not going away!

Edit: VW may have better staff at customer services than Lexus do - I hope so....

withnail_wine

jeannieblue wrote: »

Oh, no I wouldn't have done that - I knew what you meant :rolleyes: I'm too English to get all hot, sweaty and shouty.

It's about 6 months out of warranty, so I don't hold out a huge amount of hope for the 'good will'...

Thanks for all your comments, I'll see how we get on.

6 months is not alot considering what could be a major problem. I would really go all out to get VW to listen to you. No one likes bad publicity - and if we put VW on here alot. VW etc. You know VW. That can put the thread on first page of google if you put VW alot.... and someone googling VW could get a link to this.... not good publicity.

I have a feeling that VW may listen to you if you get to speak to the right person. And putting it all in writing will help. Get all you can from the dealer in writing, photocopy it all so that you can send it off to VW HQ.

Make them realise that you are not going away!

Edit: VW may have better staff at customer services than Lexus do - I hope so....[/QUOTE]

Yes, hopefully VW will listen, because it's VW at fault here and VW need to realise that, if they want more VW customers, they are going to have to show that VW are a company that can be trusted. When we first went to VW, that was the premise on which we were sold our VW car, afterall.

plane_boy2000

I thinks its unaceptable that you have got such problems at this low mileage, but to be honest you have little chance of goodwill given you have taken the car out of the dealer network for its last service, and then gone back to VW when you have a problem. Goodwill works both ways and usually depends on you using their servicing department.

I think you really need to clarify what oil was used during the last service - correct VW oil can be expensive, so if you paid £99 for a service then its possible that it didnt meet the correct VW spec.

Can you tell us what engine you have, is it on long life servicing, and what oil was used at the last service?

Sirbendy

EGR - Exhaust Gas Recirculation...basically pulls back some exhaust gas into the engine for a reburn to assist in combustion..:) It's usually done by an electric valve..on Astras (and Vx in general I hear) it plays up quite often.

I WILL whip mine off at some point and beat it with a hammer and some tools...for now I just reset the warnings and they go for weeks at a time. The valve works, but I get the impression it's sticking a bit.

And long-life servicing...I hate. According to the car/my laptop, the Astra wants a service every 20,000 miles. No chance, it can have one every 12000/12 months same as my others. Better safe than sorry, IMO. I'm going to see if I can reprogram mine to ask every 12000 miles.