VW Polo trouble

Aardvark1998

Bought myself a 2004 VW Polo back in October. It's been a really good car up until now, no issues at all. It ran perfectly when I first got it but now it's playing up. It started about 3 weeks ago. I was turning left into a side road which is actually a very steep upward hill. I slowed right down because there was a cyclist on the inside of me. I went round the corner in first and started going up the hill, staying in first because I was going so slowly. The car started shaking and bouncing around and the emissions control light (http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/warning-light/emissions-control-lamp) on the dash started flashing on and off really irregularly. I pushed down on the clutch and bit and eased off the gas, and then just carried on driving normally. It sorted itself out soon after.

About a week later, the car totally refused to start. It just turned over indefinitely and wouldn't start. I left it and came back a few hours later to try again; started first time and ran perfectly when it was at idle.

I drove again today and I've found that it is really reluctant to sit at idle. If you're parked up or sitting still in traffic with no gas, the car shudders a lot and then occasionally stalls. You have to give it a bit of gas to keep it from doing this. It's got this tendency to stall right as you really put your foot down to pull out at a junction or roundabout. It's definitely not me stalling the car, something feels really wrong. My mum was in the car too and she agreed that something was wrong and that it wasn't my driving.

Also today, I was on a dual carriageway and had to slow down just shy of 20mph. I changed down into third but as I was speeding back up, the car started shaking. It sorted itself out and I carried on, eventually shifting into fifth. Off gas, clutch down, slip the gear in and gradually ease back onto the gas. As I eased back onto the gas, the revs suddenly jumped by hell of a lot and the car started shaking. The emissions control light started flickering a lot too. I gradually slowed right down and changed down to second and then back up again and that seemed to stop it shaking so much, but the emissions control light (http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/warning-light/emissions-control-lamp) stayed on. It's still on now and hasn't flashed anymore, it just stays on constantly.

The car is going into the garage ASAP to be serviced and have this issue sorted out, but in the mean time I was just wondering if anyone had any idea what was wrong or knew roughly how much it's likely to cost me to sort out? Thanks!

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 1

Mr Rob

Ahoy there. I've had this problem on an old car of mine, trouble idling, stalling occasionally and all that jazz. I used my completely unprofessional knowledge of cars, to calculate it was most likely the air intake valve. Look it up, doesn't take long to fix yourself if you have half a brain cell! It's essentially a build up of carbon that clogs it all up and affects the sensor or whatever. You can use some spray to get rid of it, though its name escapes me.

Cleaned it up on my old Vectra and low and behold, it worked. If you're really having problems I think you can adjust the idle revs, but that's going to gobble up more fuel I imagine. I dunno, I'm no mechanic, but what I did worked for me!

Reply 2

CurlyBen

The idle air control valve (which is what Rob is referring to) is very unlikely to be the problem if there's an issue when the throttle is open (assuming a single problem). Throttle position sensor would be more likely, though you may be on a fly by wire throttle at that age of car in which case it's more likely to fail completely rather than hesitate. If there's a feedback pot that could also give issues, though I don't know if it's a closed or open loop system. Best bet would be to get onto a VW forum and see if anyone's had similar problems - you'll find people with a much better understanding of the particular system in that car, though some details (such as engine) would help. To me it sounds like a sensor issue, which are generally not too expensive to replace as long as it can be diagnosed accurately!

Reply 3

IntriguedUser

Check intake system for leak, MAF, Really dirty throttle body..

Quite a few things, get it on a code reader

Reply 4

Aardvark1998

Thanks guys! I had a look myself but I'm not really great with cars so I took it to a garage, just had it back from the mechanic. I asked them to service it and sort out the stalling and shaking problems, which they've done. Problem seems to be solved, drove it home with no issues and it feels/sounds great when you're driving. Gear changes are much smoother (turns out I'm not a **** driver afterall) and it's just working much more smoothly.

However. There were some notes on the bottom of the invoice, including: cylinder 1 misfire stored moved from 1 to 3 so please monitor, power supply relay malfunction fault stored, osf spring broken, front wishbone rear bushes fitted incorrectly, small oil leak from sump gasket. I'm phoning the garage on Friday to pay and have a chat about the other problems, but has anyone got any idea how pricey this sort of stuff is to get sorted/whether or not it actually needs sorting??

VW Polo trouble

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