GTi engine has lost power, check engine light flashes - back to dealer or third party

[methylnick]

Hey there fellow forumers,

So out for a drive this morning, my little GTI lost power and the check engine light is flashing, pulling to the side of the road switching the engine off and starting it again, engine idles very rough, setting off again, there is no power, and there is a lot of shaking coming from the engine, the check engine light started to flash again.

I have had a look around the forums and found some possible reasons for it (failed coil packs or fuel pump), First thing to check is to get the error codes from the engine. Our car is out of warranty and I just so happened I booked it in for a dealer service for tuesday.

I gave them a call about it and they have left it up to me to either limp it to their workshop or get it towed. I am taking the risk of further damage if I drive it there.

So hoping to seek some advice about this:

Knowing that dealer repair would cost a bit, would anyone know how much this would be approximately? To change the coil packs or fuel pumps from a dealer in Melbourne

Can I take it to a non-dealer workshop to get this fixed and recommendations of places in the inner eastern suburbs of Melbourne? Sounds like specialised equipment are need to extract the error codes.

Is my car in limp mode and how far can I drive it? (if the cost of a tow is expensive).

I can feel my wallet tingling any which way this goes.

Cheers

N

[kamold]

Definitely go to a good independent VW mechanic. Plenty of recommendations in the applicable forum section.

They have all the right diagnostics tools and expertise, minus the exorbitant prices (though don't expect it to be necessarily cheap to fix depending what the actual issue is).

[methylnick]

Thanks Kamold,

will do a bit more forum searching, I took the golf in for it's 120000km service, on a tow truck to VW Barloworld.

They looked at the issue with the loss in power. And as expected, was quite a pricey repair considering. The coil pack on cylinder 4 failed, cost to replace $184. They suggested that the remaining three get replaced as well at a total cost of $590 for all four replaced. I politely declined and had just the one replaced.

Knowing that dealerships are expensive, thought everyone should know what the cost would be for a coil replacement.

Glad it was just a coil and nothing more major!

[nat225]

There is coil group buy going for the R8 version. $140 or something will buy you a set!

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[Umai Naa!!]

Thanks Kamold,

will do a bit more forum searching, I took the golf in for it's 120000km service, on a tow truck to VW Barloworld.

They looked at the issue with the loss in power. And as expected, was quite a pricey repair considering. The coil pack on cylinder 4 failed, cost to replace $184. They suggested that the remaining three get replaced as well at a total cost of $590 for all four replaced. I politely declined and had just the one replaced.

Knowing that dealerships are expensive, thought everyone should know what the cost would be for a coil replacement.

Glad it was just a coil and nothing more major!

If the set were replaced previously under the campaign they ran on them, you might've got it under warranty.

[Lucas_R]

Damn :0 $180 for 1x coil. Far out, thank god for online shopping. Even with crazy delivery prices from the USA, you can get a full set (x4) of coils delivered for less than the price of 1x coil here.

Do yourself a favour, and grab a set of these while you can: R8 Coil Pack group buy from ECS

[seervw]

experienced sudden loss of power when passenger in friends golf. Source of problem was loss of compression. Symptoms as described by methylnick were very similar to own experience.ie flashing engine light, rough idling, no power (max speed 80kmh) engine shake.

[methylnick]

Damn :0 $180 for 1x coil. Far out, thank god for online shopping. Even with crazy delivery prices from the USA, you can get a full set (x4) of coils delivered for less than the price of 1x coil here.

Do yourself a favour, and grab a set of these while you can: R8 Coil Pack group buy from ECS

I did just that, will rip out the replacement one from the dealership as a spare.

I also checked if there was a recall/warranty on my car, but alas that was a negative.

[The One]

In QLD you will find some particular 'specialist' hour rate is very close to the dealer, then you can find some are quite alot less, then you will find some that are over 50% less than the dealer and other specialists, but take twice as long to diagnose/fix so you are still paying the same... Shopping around is the best thing to do buddy.