2004 Polo - Engine Trouble

blue-army

Having some engine problems with my car lately.

At times, the engine goes very jumpy and sounds/feels like it's in the complete wrong gear. (it's not!)

I'd bring it to a mechanic.. however it only happens the odd time.
It was awful on Thursday. Thought it was going to break-down on the way home, yet on Friday morning it was running perfectly again.


Any ideas?

Plug

3 cylinder thing? What litre. Engine light on?

blue-army

Plug wrote: »

3 cylinder thing? What litre. Engine light on?

Cheers for the quick reply..

Unsure what cylinder.. I'll find out.

It's a 1.2L.

and yeah, the engine light did come on, but only for a few minutes.

Alanstrainor

blue-army wrote: »

Cheers for the quick reply..

Unsure what cylinder.. I'll find out.

It's a 1.2L.

and yeah, the engine light did come on, but only for a few minutes.

3 cylinder.

Plug

You would have to get it checked with a diagnostic computer. It might be a coil, they can give trouble on these and since you say it goes very jumpy that could be the engine running on just two cylinders. We won't know till you get it scanned though. Speculating really.

blue-army

Plug wrote: »

You would have to get it checked with a diagnostic computer. It might be a coil, they can give trouble on these and since you say it goes very jumpy that could be the engine running on just two cylinders. We won't know till you get it scanned though. Speculating really.

Cheers for that.
Would you have a rough idea of the price?

Alanstrainor

Moved to motors, as it's not DIY

krochford

it sounds like a coil is giving up.

mathepac

krochford wrote: »

it sounds like a coil is giving up.

Yep, it would certainly be my first port of call in fault-finding.

Nissan doctor

I'd agree, coil has to be the most likely on this engine.

Saab Ed

OP I dont want to alarm you so I'll go with the others suggestion of a coil on the way out for now. But this engine is known to strecth its timing chain if regular servicing isn't done and this will also produce the same problems that your car is showing. As I said I dont want to be alarmist but this can be the end of your motor so it might be advised not to drive the car until its looked over.......probably not the problem but better safe than sorry

Nissan doctor

Saab Ed wrote: »

OP I dont want to alarm you so I'll go with the others suggestion of a coil on the way out for now. But this engine is known to strecth its timing chain if regular servicing isn't done and this will also produce the same problems that your car is showing. As I said I dont want to be alarmist but this can be the end of your motor so it might be advised not to drive the car until its looked over.......probably not the problem but better safe than sorry

Its the tensioner that fails on those when they've been poorly serviced causing the chain to slip teeth as opposed to the chains themselves stretching;)

If this had happened then the chain would be very noisy and even it it had managed to only slip one tooth it would be running poorly all the time as opposed to intermittently.

blue-army

It's been regularly serviced anyway at the Volkswagen garage where I bought it so hopefully that's not the case!

I will certainly get it looked at ASAP anyway.

Cheers for the replies, lads!

krochford

iv the same car with the same engine. an the coils went at around the 50k miles mark. make sure the mechanice replaces all three coils, i went to a fella with the problem replace the coil that was gone, a week later had the same prob again. he replaced the other two and told me he should have done the lot of them the first time. i was lucky that he only charged me for parts the 2nd time.

other then that its a lovly little car only prob iv had is the eletrics on the central locking seem to be on the blink, its not an issue, if anything it gives the car a bit of caricter

Frisbee

I'd say it's a coil too.

I had the same problem with mine (2005 Polo) two years ago and it turned out to be the coil that went.