Newbie Needing help with Service Problems- Polo GTI

[wwu014]

Hello, I own a 2006 Polo GTI, having grown up with a family that always owned VW's I have had a couple of earlier models which I have had no problem with. The the Polo is the first late model VW I have owned and have had nothing but problems getting it serviced professionally from two separate Melbourne dealerships. The first problem was the PeninsulaVW damaged my leather seats when I put it in for a normal service and refused to consider they may have done it and blamed me. Then a couple months later the car started then died in my driveway I had it towed to Barloworld Volkswagen who took a week to decide what was wrong with it only to find the part was not in Australia and I need to wait for up to a month to get a part. (the name of the part on my invoice is Steuergera which google translates as "Tax Screened" part number VW6Q0937049Z1M) But I was told it was some sort of Electrical Power System. Once they did get the part in and installed it they called me to say the Engine Control Unit was fried and I need to order the Engine Control Unit part VW06A906032TL saying they could not determine the second part was required until they replaced the first part. After collecting the car I almost had two serious accidents around round abouts before I discovered they gave the car back to me with all the indicator globes blown. I've taken the car on its first trip over 5km since picking the car up and now the engine emission warning light has come on telling me to take it again back to the dealer. I'd like to ask the members if my experience seem unusual or is there service level problems at VW Service Centres in general once your warranty is over? Do should I expect other Polo GTI parts not to be available in Australia? Also does anybody know what can cause all indicators to be blown (and hatch release not work) without blowing a fuse? The fuses where check before sending to the service centre and then also when I got it back and discovered the indicators not working.

[h100vw]

I would stay away from dealerships unless you have bottomless pockets. Steuergerat is basically German for control unit or controller. I was just googling to see what it might control. Can't find it in my parts catalogue but mine is pretty old.

Did they tell you what it controls?

The ECU may be repairable.

VW don't keep endless spares on the shelf unfortunately.

My advice would be to have an independent VW specialist look at it. There's a few in Melbourne. You might have saved some hassle if you had found the forum sooner. Welcome by the way!

Can you put some paragraphs in your posts too, it would make them easier to read.

Cheers

Gavin

[h100vw]

http://sziget.mine.nu/~tAB/nem_megne.../Electrica.pdf

Found the part number in this Fabia service document. It refers to a part of the dash board, a voltage controller.

Not sure why the ECU would have died unless a voltage spike has gone through it?

Modern troubleshooting seems to involve throwing parts at the car until it starts working...

You indicators may all be blown, again caused by a spike.

If something was changed in the dash cluster, possibly the central convenience unit needs to be coded again to pop the boot?

Seems like with the multiple failures, that they are looking at 1 item at a time, rather than a common denominator???

I'd be interested to see a VCDS scan of the car to see what error codes are stored.

Gavin

[wwu014]

Thanks for your thoughts. A voltage spike seems to have occurred to cause all indicators to blow, what I don't understand is how all fuses where ok before I sent it to the dealer and all ok when I got it back. Has anybody heard of all globes being blown and the ECU being fried with no fuses being blown?