Engine misfire/compression advice needed

samwhunt · Post by **samwhunt** » Fri Nov 07, 2014 1:50 pm

Dear Gents and Ladies, I hope you could provide me with some advice as I'm at a lost cause. I appreciate there are other feeds that cover misfires, but they haven't provided much specific advice.

Long story short;
- In June I bought a 1.4 (160) Scirocco from a respectable garage, was very happy it and loved every drive.
- In July I took it to a local garage after 1 cyclinder misfired. They changed injectors, coil pack and spark plugs, this (what I assumed) fixed the problem.
- Yesterday I took it into a different garage after EPC light and emission light came on (as before) and a severe lack of power. Diagnostics recorded no compression in one of the cyclinders.

After a phonecall today after they looked into the engine, apparently a piston head is broken, which has damaged the valves and bore. He gave me 2 options;
- Risk replacing the components which may not work and will cost approx £2k
- Replace the engine, total work and parts costing approx £6k

I am at a lost cause and after the grief it has given me (a pen managed to destroy the ventilation fan), am ready to drive it off a cliff. I was wondering if anyone had any advice about if those resolutions sound correct and what they recommend. After paying £13k for the car, I want to sell it but obviously with a minimal loss.

Again, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Sam

lewihoga · Post by **lewihoga** » Fri Nov 07, 2014 2:40 pm

"Your rights when you buy a car from a dealer

When you buy a car from a dealer, the car must:

be of satisfactory quality
be fit for the purpose it's being used for, and
match its description.
Your rights are not affected by any breakdown insurance, guarantee or warranty you have. These offer you additional ways of sorting out problems but they do not take away a dealer’s responsibilities.

Satisfactory quality

There are no precise standards for what satisfactory quality means for a used car. What you'd expect from a ten-year-old Ford used as a towing vehicle would be very different from a two-year-old Ferrari with a low mileage.

Before you buy, make sure you're happy with the quality of the car taking into account:

its age and make
its past history and mileage
its description
the price you intend to pay
what you intend to use it for
any other relevant circumstances
The car shouldn't have any defects, except what the seller points out to you before you agree to buy it. Or anything obvious that you should be able to see when you inspect the car.

Dealers are not liable for:

fair wear and tear, for example if the car breaks down during normal use
if you mis-use the car
if you cause accidental damage."

^^From Consumer advice

I think its a very difficult situation. With regards to the defects bit (bold) it would be hard for you to differentiate between when the car first developed this fault. Obviously we know you found the symptoms in July, however, deciding whether or not the car was sold to you with this fault is a complete different matter. I would suggest contacting the dealership/garage that you bought the car from and questioning them. See what their initial response is before you demand money/stating your rights. After you've recieved their response contact Citizens advice or similar and ask them if you have any ground. Best luck!

salsajoe · Post by **salsajoe** » Fri Nov 07, 2014 3:20 pm

Sorry to hear about your expensive problems. If this is an early 2008/09 model then piston problems are a known fault and you need to get in touch with VW customer service to see if they will offer some goodwill. There are threads on websites indicating this was a problem. You need a really good engineer to sort it and offer advice. If it is a 2008/09 build could be that all the pistons need replacing. Otherwise a £2k rebuild and part exchange would be my suggestion!!

Karlos1544 · Post by **Karlos1544** » Fri Nov 21, 2014 6:58 am

Really feel for you man. I almost bought a 160 Tsi and was interested in the fuel economy. But every time I googled the engine to find out more about it, I just I saw pages problems.

I m sure I read somewhere that if your car has a full VW service history they would replace your engine for free. Sounds pretty optimistic to me, but might be worth a phone call to VW - customers service 08000 833 914.

Best of luck mate.

Ps. Just noticed I'm a bit late to the party, did you manage to get it sorted?

samwhunt · Post by **samwhunt** » Fri Nov 21, 2014 12:17 pm

Hi guys. Thanks for your advice. I have taken the car off the garage's hands and had my mechanic friend have a look at the engine (to keep costs down!). He sent the following pics of the piston/head I thought I would upload.

I'll be contacting my VW garage in Ashford, Kent to see what they say (I think I have seen a member take his to the same garage for the same reason). Its a 2011 plate also.

criths · Post by **criths** » Sat Nov 22, 2014 11:57 pm

Sorry to read your posts, I hope you get it sorted and it doesn't set you back much. I bought the same model 5 weeks ago and then found out about the engine issues afterwards. The water pump blew up on Monday but fortunately I inherited the VW Extended Warranty and the car has full dealer service history. The car is going in Autotrader in the next 10 days. Can't live with a car I can't trust long term. Again, good luck with yours.

Stefano82 · Post by **Stefano82** » Sun Dec 14, 2014 9:43 pm

samwhunt wrote:Hi guys. Thanks for your advice. I have taken the car off the garage's hands and had my mechanic friend have a look at the engine (to keep costs down!). He sent the following pics of the piston/head I thought I would upload.

I'll be contacting my VW garage in Ashford, Kent to see what they say (I think I have seen a member take his to the same garage for the same reason). Its a 2011 plate also.

Hi! I'm very sad to hear about your engine issue!
What your mechanic say to you about the possible cause of the engine failure?
I saw all the piston bore is damaged ..
When your car has been produced?
Thanks!
Stefano

lee63 · Post by **lee63** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 4:21 am

Loads of threads on here about the 160 and how unreliable they are :-( I feel for every poor sod that has had these engines. absolute bags of S***E

samwhunt · Post by **samwhunt** » Tue Dec 23, 2014 9:37 am

Hi all, just to update.

So I withdrew the car from the garage that wanted to charge me £6k for a new engine. My mechanic friend and I spend a couple of days hunting for a new engine. The company we went with (http://www.nirro.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) were really good. After some haggling we got a replacement (that had done 34k miles). The engine showed early signs of the same problem, therefore we asked for another one. They supplied us with an automatic 1.4 engine, which obviously had been under less stress and has been working a dream ever since it was fitted.

This unfortunately will not sway me to keep the car so in the new year I will be changing it in for a 2 ltr diesel (still candy white!)

If anyone wants to know more about the work I had done on the car give me a shout as the final bill came to £2,400.....a big saving.

Stefano82 · Post by **Stefano82** » Tue Dec 23, 2014 9:55 am

Hi! So every 1.4 engine has this issue? What your mechanic say about the engine problem?
Thanks!

Lewis Miller · Post by **Lewis Miller** » Tue Dec 23, 2014 11:26 am

Stefano82 wrote:Hi! So every 1.4 engine has this issue? What your mechanic say about the engine problem?
Thanks!

Seems to only be the 160 not the 120.

moulin12 · Post by **moulin12** » Tue Dec 23, 2014 2:31 pm

Stefano82 wrote:Hi! So every 1.4 engine has this issue?

Pre 60 plate models and earlier; not all, but a weakness nonetheless.

Stefano82 · Post by **Stefano82** » Tue Dec 23, 2014 3:08 pm

Thank you for your answer! 60 plate means which model year and date?

/////AMG · Post by **/////AMG** » Tue Dec 23, 2014 3:10 pm

In regards to your pen damaging the heater blower motor, was this done through the glove box?

I had the same issue with mine. If your car has climate control then I can give you a link for a replacement heater motor (very easy to replace yourself, 2 minute job). The eBay link also saved me about £120!

moulin12 · Post by **moulin12** » Tue Dec 23, 2014 5:53 pm

Stefano82 wrote:Thank you for your answer! 60 plate means which model year and date?

MY2011, but on a 60 plate, not 10 plate - i.e., from September 2010.

http://www.sciroccocentral.co.uk/forum/ ... =2&t=18021" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Stefano82 · Post by **Stefano82** » Sat Dec 27, 2014 6:06 pm

OK thank you for the link.
I heard first model has software with bad knock sensors management. You know if it is true and a cause of the issue?

salsajoe · Post by **salsajoe** » Sun Dec 28, 2014 3:23 pm

Stefano82 wrote:OK thank you for the link.
I heard first model has software with bad knock sensors management. You know if it is true and a cause of the issue?

2009 models had software issues and there was an upgrade for that sometime in 2010 that dealers did at the next service (not a recall). The other fault on early models was poorly designed pistons that caused engine damage. Revised spark plugs and revised pistons were fitted to later models. Not sure of the exact dates of any of this but generally 2011 models of the 160 should be clear of faults.

Stefano82 · Post by **Stefano82** » Sun Dec 28, 2014 5:21 pm

Yes, in fact my MY 2011, September 2010, was born with the software upgrade but if you look on ETKA you can see the pistons code change later and later from MY 2012 and MY2013 ... You know if revised pistons have same ETKA code or not ?
I ask you that 'cause if you compare a MY2009 and a MY2011 ETKA provides still the same code for pistons ...

askeur · Post by **askeur** » Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:20 pm

I too am having the exact same trouble that you have just listed.

I am being quoted £700 from VW to run diagnostics then probably in excess of £3k to completely solve the issue. Absolute nightmare, as I have only purchased c8months ago and had so many issues with the roc.

All do note, the early warning signs for this failure is that the engine warning light continuously flashes. VW looked into the issue on 4 occasions and claimed faulty lambda probes. Now my roc shudders when driving and misfires.

I am looking at a private garage also to keep cost down.

Absolutely sickened by this and would advise not to buy the 1.4 TSi, avoid at all cost!

Stefano82 · Post by **Stefano82** » Wed Mar 25, 2015 8:55 pm

At first, Have you checked the coil pack ?
Right now my 1.4 has 100.000km with no issue. At 80.000km I replaced the coil pack due to misfires on 2 cylinders

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