2011 Polo GTI Engine Issues - Advice needed.

J

jezzad

Expert Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2013
Messages
1,605
Reaction score
784
Hey looking for some advice......

Driving home last Friday night my check engine light came on. Engine was running lumpy and was misfiring.

Left it at home and then nursed it to Barons Culemborg Saturday morning at 8:30am. Car again had the check engine light and was misfiring badly.

At the dealership they plugged it into the computer and detected a misfire on cylinder four.

The pulled the coils and plugs and did a compression test on each cylinder with a digital gauge that was pushed into each cylinder not screwed in like normal.

The results were not good.

1 - 11
2 - 6
3 - 4
4 - 1

The above are rough estimates of what was recorded, apparently they all need to be around 10.

My car is out of warranty on 90 000 odd KM's and its a 2011 model.

According to the dealer they need to remove the engine, inspect and then replace cylinders rings and big end bearings if Im lucky.

The vehicle was bought second hand from Culemborg masters cars at around 60 000km and has used about 500ml of oil per 800km since I owned it.

They are doing one last warranty search on Monday and will then tell me if the rebuild is for my own account. I have checked with my insurance company and Im not covered. I have no extended warranty.

Can anyone point me in the right direction here as Im a little out of my depth.
 
If the compression is out to that level, your engine is messed pretty much... will need huge work to fix.

No warranty, you will bleed, and bleed hard on this.... I would expect the bill to be no less than R30k.
 
Eish. That's the 1.4T if I'm not mistaken? Those engines ran under a lot of stress, probably why they brought back the 1.8T
 
jeremydixon said:
... at around 60 000km and has used about 500ml of oil per 800km since I owned it.
Click to expand...

This should have set the alarm bells going off back then.
If VW can't help you with warranty, better get it to a reputable non-dealer mechanic to fix it up. At least you will save some $$$ on the labour charge.
 
jeremydixon said:
Hey looking for some advice......

Driving home last Friday night my check engine light came on. Engine was running lumpy and was misfiring.

Left it at home and then nursed it to Barons Culemborg Saturday morning at 8:30am. Car again had the check engine light and was misfiring badly.

At the dealership they plugged it into the computer and detected a misfire on cylinder four.

The pulled the coils and plugs and did a compression test on each cylinder with a digital gauge that was pushed into each cylinder not screwed in like normal.

The results were not good.

1 - 11
2 - 6
3 - 4
4 - 1

The above are rough estimates of what was recorded, apparently they all need to be around 10.

My car is out of warranty on 90 000 odd KM's and its a 2011 model.

According to the dealer they need to remove the engine, inspect and then replace cylinders rings and big end bearings if Im lucky.

The vehicle was bought second hand from Culemborg masters cars at around 60 000km and has used about 500ml of oil per 800km since I owned it.

They are doing one last warranty search on Monday and will then tell me if the rebuild is for my own account. I have checked with my insurance company and Im not covered. I have no extended warranty.

Can anyone point me in the right direction here as Im a little out of my depth.
Click to expand...

JIRRE!!!

That means your piston rings are farked. Your car should be smoking quite a bit.
Anyway, the engine needs to be opened and the rings replaced. No need to do the main bearings but since the crank will be coming out you might as well do it too.

My advice: See if you can rather buy a second hand engine from a scrap yard. Put in the second hand engine and use the parts from your current engine as and when needed. Will work you out much cheaper.
 
ToxicBunny said:
If the compression is out to that level, your engine is messed pretty much... will need huge work to fix.

No warranty, you will bleed, and bleed hard on this.... I would expect the bill to be no less than R30k.
Click to expand...

Hahahahah. I had to replace the engine on my Fiesta ST, just the sub assembly was R74K.
 
Drifter said:
Hahahahah. I had to replace the engine on my Fiesta ST, just the sub assembly was R74K.
Click to expand...

Shhh, I was trying to give him a scary number, not a number that would mean it would be cheaper to just buy another car instead.
 
Yours has the twin charged 1.4 if I'm not mistaken, would not own one of those out of plan for love or money.

This is going to be an incredibly expensive repair job, especially at the dealership. They are going to come back with a scary number, when they do take the quote to a reputable independent mechanic and see what they can do the job for.
 
My money is on a head problem. Timing chain tensioner allowing it to jump a tooth or similar. Rings won't show up so suddenly.
Oil usage is within spec.
 
Lol. Friend of mine decided to play with methanol on his Stage 1 Golf 7 GTI and blew his engine. VW came back with a quote of R200 000. He took the car to Revo and they're charging him R133 000 to rebuild it. He pretty much destroyed all his internals and he refuses to tell me whether he cracked his block or not.

A single piston is costing him R5 000. Apparently there are no aftermarket forged pistons for the Golf 7 yet.
 
XennoX said:
Lol. Friend of mine decided to play with methanol on his Stage 1 Golf 7 GTI and blew his engine. VW came back with a quote of R200 000. He took the car to Revo and they're charging him R133 000 to rebuild it. He pretty much destroyed all his internals and he refuses to tell me whether he cracked his block or not.

A single piston is costing him R5 000. Apparently there are no aftermarket forged pistons for the Golf 7 yet.
Click to expand...

That must have been a super *** feeling
 
Sinbad said:
My money is on a head problem. Timing chain tensioner allowing it to jump a tooth or similar. Rings won't show up so suddenly.
Oil usage is within spec.
Click to expand...

a pint of oil with every refill of fuel?

You can't be even remotely serious :D
 
Pitbull said:
a pint of oil with every refill of fuel?

You can't be even remotely serious :D
Click to expand...

Pretty sure they say up to 500ml per 1000km.
Some of these engines do have oil consumption issues, not related to rings.

I still think it's a head problem
 
XennoX said:
Lol. Friend of mine decided to play with methanol on his Stage 1 Golf 7 GTI and blew his engine. VW came back with a quote of R200 000. He took the car to Revo and they're charging him R133 000 to rebuild it. He pretty much destroyed all his internals and he refuses to tell me whether he cracked his block or not.

A single piston is costing him R5 000. Apparently there are no aftermarket forged pistons for the Golf 7 yet.
Click to expand...

I know of a few G7 GTI's that popped on water meth.
 
XennoX said:
Lol. Friend of mine decided to play with methanol on his Stage 1 Golf 7 GTI and blew his engine. VW came back with a quote of R200 000. He took the car to Revo and they're charging him R133 000 to rebuild it. He pretty much destroyed all his internals and he refuses to tell me whether he cracked his block or not.

A single piston is costing him R5 000. Apparently there are no aftermarket forged pistons for the Golf 7 yet.
Click to expand...

WTF would anyone do this?!?!
 
Sinbad said:
Pretty sure they say up to 500ml per 1000km.
Some of these engines do have oil consumption issues, not related to rings.

I still think it's a head problem
Click to expand...

Yup, its within "spec"..

My folks A3 was chewing oil, and within spec but getting slowly worse... ended up throwing his toys out at Audi and the redid the top of the engine almost entirely under warranty...now the thing doesn't chew oil at all...
 
Sinbad said:
Pretty sure they say up to 500ml per 1000km.
Some of these engines do have oil consumption issues, not related to rings.

I still think it's a head problem
Click to expand...

Yea I'm sure there is an allowed usage per spec but damn. That is a lot of oil. I probably need to top up oil on the Figo only around 5k or so and then it's not even a pint. Just sounds very excessive.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X