Hi there - i have an ongoing problem with my golf 01 reg/ 16v/manual/52k miles.
Every so often while idling, the engine will begin to run very roughly, the engine light will begin blinking and there will be a big loss of power.
After turning it off, waiting for a few minutes and restarting the misfire will disappear and the engine light will be on but will no longer be blinking.
After a day or so the engine light will go off.
I have been back and forward to the local vw dealership and they always seem to replace the ignition coils. And this is starting to get very expensive.
To me it seems that they are fixing the symptom rather than the problem - are ignition coil packs that unreliable?? Or could something else be causing the coil packs to fail.
It seems very wierd that this only happens intermittantly and not all the time. The car has only done around 1500 miles in the last year and I have had it at the dealership 4 times for this problem.
Does anyone out there have any idea as to what is causing this problem?
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Where about in the country are you? Maybe someone could recommend a good independant to help trace the fault.
Do you know the fault codes that have been retreived?
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thanks Dox, Im Based in ealing, west london - if anyone knows a good independant place around there that knows their way around vw's then please let me know.
Not sure what the fault code is that they have retrieved. I would guess that the computer would store something about the misfire.
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Could it be heat related, possibly high temperature causing the coils to fail?
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I guess it could be as it normally occurs after the car has been running for more than a few minutes.
But the engine doesnt seem to run hot at all. The temperature gauge never goes into the red. It seems to happen when i am waiting for traffic lights and the car is idling along normally. If that does happen i turn the ignition off, wait for a little while then start it up again. More often than not the misfire goes away and wont come back that day.
I havent had the problem while moving at any great speed (yet) but the car is mainly used for short trips (<10 miles) around london - which is maily spent in slow moving traffic
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I take it this is the AZD engine? [There are two different 1.6 16v on this year.]
Do the garage change a set of coils or just one? Is it always the same one [parts warranty claim?] or have they now changed the set? The early version of these coils was rubbish and they would nearly always give you a whole new set free if you made a fuss.
Have you ALWAYS used 98RON unleaded? If not; the inlet valves will stick and the seats will burn [around 50-60,000] and the ECU will detect a misfire-caused emission error [always at idle] and shut off the injector on the offending cylinder; [#2 by any chance?] resetting itself after switching off.
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Yep it is the AZD engine and I am pretty sure that they only changed the offending coil rather than the whole set.
I know for certain that it HASN'T always been filled with 98RON unleaded. As far as I knew (and as far as the manual says it could live with both 95 or 98 so I had been using 95.
What you are describing (the emission error and the shutting down of the cylinder) sounds pretty consistent with what has been happening. Is there any way to prove that there is a problem with the inlet valves/valve seats?
What can be done to fix this sort of thing? I guess that switching to 98RON unleaded help at this stage wont do me much good?
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I believe it's a requirement that all petrol cars sold in the UK must be ABLE to run on 95 RON; doesn't necessarily mean that the engines will last long if they do. These are 98 RON - or risk a new one every 60K.
So you've had four coils in a year and maybe all on one cylinder? The dealer should have seen the tell-tale fault-codes and must be aware of the issue with these engines; are they trying to fob you off? If it were really the same coil[s] repeatedly failing; why aren't they fitting these replacements free under the 12-month parts warranty?
A cylinder leakage test will best show up any valve/piston leakage; a compression test can sometimes show a low cylinder, but there's often little obvious difference. If that turns out to be your problem, create a fuss with your dealer for a free exchange engine and let us know their excuses for their misdiagnosis.
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It's a legal reqirement that all gasoline engines sold in the EU must be able to run on 95 RON.
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I think screwloose has hit the nail on the head! if its only intermitant then try runin it on bp ultimate, and run some injector cleaner through it and see how you get on. coil packs should be replaced in sets and i think are under warrenty for 5 years instead of the normal 3 year term.
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I had this problem with my Bora 1.6 a few weeks ago.
All that needed to be done was to clean up the battery terminals, reapply Vaseline and replace the leads.
The terminals build up a resistance after some time so cleaning them to a bright finish again with emery paper restores the proper performance.
Because the Blaupunkt Gamma radio/cassette/CD unit is dedicated to the particular vehicle, it restores the status quo within half-a-minute or so.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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PS
I run the Bora on a full tank of Tesco Unleaded and then, for the next full tank, switch to Tesco's 99RON fuel and so on.
The 99RON is supposed to be superior engine cleaning wise to the Shell and others' similar offering.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Have you tried cleaning the battery terminals?
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Thanks for the suggestion - Will give it a go this weekend and see if this helps.
Aside from that I guess I should give an update on what has been going on with this car.
Not long after my last post I took the car back to the dealership - and they fitted 4 new coil packs (the one that failed last time was replaced under the 12 month part warrantee, the other 3 I had to pay for). When I took the car in to have these fitted I mentioned the fact that i thought it was bizzare that coil packs were consistantly failing and suggested that it could be burnt valve due to running it on 95 RON. The guy I spoke to said that it could be possible and that he would check with a "technical" guy to see if this was the case. When they came back to me they said that this wasnt the case.
Fast forward a few weeks after having them fitted and the problem started happening again.
I took it back in and they got one of their VW technicians to spend some time with me. He plugged in his computer to read the codes and found that it had a random/sporadic misfire one one of the cylinders. he then swapped the coil packs and the misfire stopped happening. Interestingly he said that just by looking at it he could tell that the engine wasnt running correctly and that the misfire would probably come back. They took it away for some tests and then called me back a few hours later. They are now saying that they have found that he compression is low and the upshot of this is that it needs a new cylinder head (total cost £1900 aaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh!!!).
Given the history they have since come back and offered me a lowered labour rate which brings the cost down to £1700 - still way more than i can pay.
I am going to write a letter to VW UK to make a complaint about the dealership and the fact that the head has gone at just over 50k. Dont know what good it will do me but Im sure it will feel good to have a good old moan to someone!
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newby06
If you run these on 95 octane, you'll be forking out for expensive engine repairs every 50-60,000. A saving it isn't.
The manual says that they CAN run on 95 octane - they can indeed; it's just that doing so will cause serious engine damage in the medium term. There's lots of VW Group engines that are the same; the 100bhp 1.4; the FSi motors, all sorts.
All will fail at low mileages if run on 95RON - it's become a very common event, particularly on lease cars. At least it's only a head on yours; often it's the complete unit at anything up to £3,700.
You could save a bit by taking it to an independent VW specialist and getting the head repaired. Then sell it.
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Checked the battery terminals and it all looks good - no corrosion at all.
Since hearing that this engine doesnt like 95RON I have only used 98. Its had this problem since I bought it so I guess the people that had it before me was running it on 95 as well.
How was I (or the people before me) to know that it really needs 98 when the manual and the sticker inside the fuel hatch says 95/98.?
As for getting the work done on it - I think that I will definatly be shopping around some independant garages if I do decide to get the work done at all.
The problem is that it is 5 1/2 years old now and according to the garage is also due for a new cam belt (£500+ at the dealer). If I add up these costs I really dont think I will get the money back when I sell it.
If i cant get it fixed soon I will probably try to get rid of it - thing is that I wouldnt wish this on anyone else so I will probably try to trade it in to a dealer rather than sell it on privately.
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Without wishing to embark on another VAG bashing spree, I'm astonished by this saga. It bears all the hallmarks of the PD diesel engine oil specification debacle which resulted in some owners (and also some dealers) putting the wrong oil into PD diesels and wrecking them.
I respect VW engineering and run a VAG diesel clone myself, but it appears that this Company has a death wish on its products.
If there is anyone from MK reading this, how about clear labels in plain language (of the market the vehicle is destined for) stuck firmly next to every hole in the vehicle which needs a fluid?
Petrol is easy but you don't, if you have any sense, baffle the public by using an engineering specification such as 506.01 to describe an engine oil to them. The label next to the oil filler should say "PD oil only" and the tin of oil should be similarly labelled.
Maybe it's a cultural difference and in Germany, mistakes would be much less likely to arise but at the moment, I see lots of otherwise perfectly good machinery being wrecked through a lack of clear information.
659.
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How do the dealers get to £500 to do the cam belts?? It's booked at only 2.2 hours? They'd easily beat that and even if they changed the water pump as well, that would still only add half an hour?
If the head's coming off; then a new belt is going back on anyway; cam belts aren't re-usable. At least you'd be saving on the cost of one job.
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Can anyone recommend a good independant garage somewhere in west london?
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This fuel problem has got me worried being a VW owner. Does anybody have a list of the engines affected and what fuel we should be using?
Does this fuel problem also affect older VW engines from the 1980s or 1990s whether it be normal type, GTI, or VR6 running 95 petrol?
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