VW Polo Advice Please

Ransoman

was the car fine before the service?

Just a thought, I bought a Punto HGT a few years back that had just had a main dealer service. It had a similar problem to what you describe, a light misfire when trying to maintain steady speeds. As I do all my car repairs myself I thought nothing of pulling the spark plugs out to check the condition. They were fine but when I put a feeler gauge in the electrode to ensure the gap was correct I discoverd all the gaps were wrong. A Quick adjustment and the car was perfect after that.

Mechanics/forum geeks etc will tell you that spark plugs always come with the gap correctly set however i have never found this to be true. I have always had to re-set the gap for every car i have serviced. It might be worth suggesting this to your mechanic if you don't feel comfortable doing this yourself.

toby_puppy

hi ransonman,
thank you for that tip, its definetely worth a try. You are correct in saying that the emissions warning light only came on after the service, albeit the car service was 12 april and the first time the light came on was 3 may, not sure if if would have shown sooner than that if it was the new spark plugs causing it, but I will get that looked at.

UPDATE

When I went to collect the car today, expecting to be booking it in for a new cat, it didn't quite turn out like that. The only error code it shows is the cat performance incorrect, emissions below threshold or something like that.

However, was told that the car has TWO cats, one inside near the manifold and one on the outside. The mechanic examined the physical condition of the cats and they don't appear to be gunked up or breaking up. He said that you can only see the bottom end of each cat, it's impossible to see the top end of them due to where they are situated.

Looking at the physical condition of them, his opinion is that they do not need replacing.

I mentioned the lambda sensors and he said that the fault code would show up for these on the diagnostics, but there is only the one fault.

To replace the whole exhaust system, with cats etc would cost in excess of £1000 :eek: that's more than half the value of the car so apart from not having that money, I just think it's an uneconomical idea.

He said that the car will not break down and I will not damage the engine by driving it with the warning light on (that's assuming it will be back on again soon as it's been turned off today).

The only other option he said would be to spend money having a diagnostic at a vw dealership - not sure what else that would tell me about the car though?

Totally fed up now as it seems to be one of those where the mystery can't be solved.

Presumably if that comes back on again, it will fail an mot and then I will have a worthless car - it's got ten months mot on it, so maybe I will have to scrap it when it won't go through an mot.

NEH

Aww shucks...

All i can say is other specific electrical garages can put it on their diagnostic system and be able to tell you what the matter is, it doesn't have to be a VW dealership...

Personally if it's off now, given my experience of my Polo i would consider selling it or trading it in whilst it's not showing anything....but that's only my personal opinion given my own never ending electrical faults with my Polo....

Unfortunately now with a lot of cars there comes electrical faults and that's why i won't buy one too old or let mine get too old (having said that my Polo was only 5 years old when it got traded in and was at the end of it's life)...My current car is 7 years old but i know i need to get rid of it in the next year or so....New cars and the way they're built they don't seem to last and unfortunately you can't get an old fashioned mechanic to look at them as everything is diagnostics and electrical these days before you've even started...

attila_

Before spendin that kind of money please get the ignition coil changed. Then when the garage is doing that get them to check all the leads. I have had 2 polos with misfires across the rev range and both turned out to be ignition coil....

toby_puppy

Thank you - I will have to go through this thread again and perhaps make a list of all the "inexpensive" things I can start with, really at a loss as what to do.

I really like the car and just hope that its not going to get damaged by me running it with an unknown fault as I am loathe to spend a grand on new cat/s when it might not even be rectified.

Out of interest, does anyone know why there are 2 cats on this model - if it had one I think I would have spent £500 and got it done, but if it is a cat problem, who's to know which one of the two is causing it?

Will just have to try and get my use out of it, hope it doesnt start breaking down and see if it will get through an mot next april.

mikey72

Some have cats on the manifold, some have them on the exhaust.
My models eariler versions where exhaust mounted, then moved to the manifold.
Manifold mounted ones warm up quicker, and aren't as vulnerable to damage.
Also since 2001 cats had to comply with a size and density, so they had to be bigger, or fit two to comply.
The price seems a bit high, you could probably source an aftermarket one for £150 to £250 ish, for the exhaust and the manifold one respectively.
Doesn't sound like you need to yet though.

toby_puppy

Ah, thanks Mikey - that makes sense now.

Had considered your idea of an aftermarket one and then read all sorts of horror stories about them not lasting long on this model and that it should only be fitted with original vw parts. I might have another look for an aftermarket one with a warranty perhaps...

Think I've been guilty of too much googling :eek:

mikey72

There's two types, ceramic, which are cheaper, but can break, and metal, which are dearer, but are a lot more robust.

toby_puppy

When I'm driving the car I've also been able to notice a faint sound, almost like an electrical type buzzing/whining sound.

It's one of those annoying sounds that you can point out to a passenger and they can't hear it - just wondered if that could be anything to do with anything about the emissions warning light etc.

chunder

hi jostenning, please dont fall into the trap of having to fit all manner of parts ie: coils/leads/catalytic converters etc etc....

having read your diagnosis, it is a possibility that you could have an air leak due to a split breather pipe on the engine intake, these are normally under air filter/induction pipes and is a very common problem for all vw's, check this first.

we recently had a 1.4 polo doing exactly the same and after alot of testing, fitting of donor parts just as we thought it was cured the light came back on again. rechecked all wiring from ecu to all sensors, all ok.
then did a little trick that i learnt in the old skool days(well not that long ago lol) and disconnected the battery on friday night, reconnected it back on the monday..............tested fine ,no light, no hesitation, that was six weeks ago now and car runs like a rolls royce( customer well happy even though it took a while to get it sorted, but he did like our courtesty car) hope this may help