VW Pol0 - Exhaust Engine Light

[womble]

Have a 2006 1.2 Polo.

The warning light for the exhaust came on, and with that the car lost power and started jumping and vibrating along. Turned off the engine and started it again, while the light remained on, the car was operating fine.

Brought this into VW dealer and they connected it to the diagnostics machine, and was told one of the cyclinders was damaged and it would need to be replaced and that it was expensive - no kidding €1,800

I was given two reasons, either the car was overheating or the timing chip (I think he said) may have moved in the car and hit off the cyclinder and damaged it. Obviously I need to get this fixed as the car is not working properly.

I am just wondering if I have any come back with VW at all, as the car is only 5 years old and only has approximately 35,000 miles on the clock (55,000 klm). I would have understood if I had more mileage on the car or something but this just somes unbelievable.

The garage told me that VW only have a warranty for two years, but they would ask them but they doubted that I would get anywhere

Cheers for any advice

 

[Daithim]

Have you had a service done on this car lately? oil change maybe?

 

[laobhise]

Not sure this is exactly the same problem (but it sounds like it could be!!) so here is our story with VW Polos:

My Polo in 2007 (2005 Polo) was just out of warranty- it was 2 1/2 years old when a light kept coming on. I phoned VW and they said it was fine to drive on and booked me in for a service the following week. Well the next day car started getting jumpy and power went completely when I tried to accelerate. Went to a local (non VW) garage. He said the cylinder head was warped and that he had seen it before on 3 cylinder polos-he said 3 cylinders was a poor design for the weight of the car and that it was a disgrace and shouldnt be happening to cars of that age. He said that you were more susceptible to it if you were a city driver with lots of short journeys. Cost about 1200 to fix.

Anyway fast forward 2 years my auntie bought a brand new Polo because she had always bought VW (we tried to advise her otherwise). About 1 month after the 2 year warranty the engine started sounding rough and car shook a little bit at times. She brought it to VW garage and they said that the cylinder head was warped. She had only done about 15000km at most and is a very conservative driver. She had also just had car serviced approx 2 months previously in VW garage. We gave out stink at garage and explained that this was the second person in family with same problem and that car was just recently serviced. They initially wanted to charge 1500 and they ended up paying about 1000 (still crazy I believe).

It just seems like far too much of a coincidence that 2 cars in the same family had the same problem and local (non VW) garage also said he had seen issue before. Personally speaking I would never buy a VW again- especially 3 cylinder Polos. I would definately push them for a discount as this seems to be a recurring problem that VW seem to have successfully kept under wraps.