Polo has died

[martynh]

Hi all
Hoping for some advice. My 2010 TSI died last night, left my wife stranded

RACQ towed it to a local mechanic who has had a look and it is only firing on 3 cylinders. The mechanic was shocked that we are having this problem after only ~40,000 kms. He has said we are looking at minimum $1800 for a fix probably much more

Clearly this is not good enough for such a new car, do you guys think I'll get anywhere with VW trying to get them to fix it? I'm not sure what to do, we will sell it whatever happens the mechanic reckoned our best bet is to trade it in as is.

[h100vw]

So what has the mechanic diagnosed? Running on 3 pots could be a coilpack or any number of other things?

Gavin

[martynh]

No, he said to go any further would mean taking it apart and he said the minute he does that we are looking at $1800 starting price.

Edit: He is not a VW mechanic btw, he services our other car and there were no VW dealers close enough for RACQ to tow to

[BurgundyMk3]

Is this a general workshop or a dealer/specialist?
Has the mechanic actually scanned the car for fault codes?

[martynh]

General workshop. He scanned the car with his diagnostics which said it is one cylinder down.

[staz88]

$1800 to lift a spanner?... surely some pre-repair diagnosis and investigation would be the first step for any competent mechanic.

[BurgundyMk3]

iI would seriously suggest swapping one of the coils from a cylinder that is firing with the cylinder thats not firing and seeing what happens.

So if its cylinder 3 that inst firing, swap the coils from cylinder 3 and 4 around. if cylinder 4 stops working then you will need a new coil. Thats got to be a lot cheaper that starting to pull the engine apart for $1800

[martynh]

iI would seriously suggest swapping one of the coils from a cylinder that is firing with the cylinder thats not firing and seeing what happens.

I don't know what any of that means! But thanks for all the input I'm getting the impression that is will perhaps be worth at least taking it to VW and see what the actual problem is.

[h100vw]

I don't know what any of that means! But thanks for all the input I'm getting the impression that is will perhaps be worth at least taking it to VW and see what the actual problem is.

Each cylinder has a sparkplug to ignite the fuel air mixture. Each sparkplug has a coilpack which bumps up the battery voltage to circa 30000volts to jump the gap in the sparkplug. The spark ignites the fuel.

So there's 4 coilpacks. If you take the one that has come from the bad cylinder and swap it with another, doesn't matter which. Then start the car again.

The fault will either move cylinders, proving the coilpack is bad or stay the same which will warrant future investigation of the original cylinder. While the coilpack is out it would make sense to remove the sparkplug for a look too. That could speak volumes for whats happened in there.

WHile modern cars on the whole are more "reliable" the one thing that electrics don't like is heat.

It would take a half decent mechanic 15 minutes tops to do that one piece of troubleshooting. There's plenty of stories of bad pistons etc but they only gave you half a story there.

Gavin

[martynh]

Thanks Gavin. I see you are a Brisbane man any recommendations of somewhere on the northside to get it looked at, or am I better off at the dealer?

The car is already home from the mechanic, it will shudder along with warning lights flashing and he said it's safe to do that for short distances.