1.4 tsi 160bhp

[Danharris90]

Hi all

Not long purchased my first rocco and I'm massively regretting it. One of the best looking cars I've owned but so problematic.
Any one had any problems with the engine on idle mine is around the 700 mark but I can feel the engine shaking almost as if it's struggling to find its true idle position. Done some digging online but there's so many horror stories its making me wish I never got the car in the first place.

Any suggestions or help would be highly appreciated.

Thanks Dan

[Jester]

What year is it man? I owned the 1.4 160 for just under 2 years and would often feel a slight judder at idle, it isn't anything to be concerned about enjoy the car its gorgeous!

[Danharris90]

It's a 60plate! Cheers mate it's the best colour the done aswell haha

[blower]

I bought my 1.4 tsi 160 with 30k on the clock, and it had a bit of a judder at idle.

Changing the plugs to the latest revision (03C905601B) helped, putting in the latest revision coil packs (036905715G) which produce a slightly stronger spark - helped a bit more.
Although it still had a bit of a judder at idle, it became more intermittent and generally was worse in damp/wet weather....it is annoying, you would feel a little kick from the engine every now and then when you were sat at the lights, as if the engine was fidgeting around in the engine bay.

I have just rebuilt my engine (nothing wrong with it, was part of a project to change a load of stuff and also fit forged pistons).....when i took the head off i was greeted with this:



No wonder the idle had issues - i'm surprised it wasn't shaking like a bucking bronco!

Having cleaned all the crap out, it now idles completely smooth with no tremors/judders.
Unfortunately this is the result of direct injection (and too many short stop/start traffic journeys by the previous owner). The intake will be coked up and you need to walnut shell blast the ports and valves to clear it out. Only real solution to sort the idle out if its still juddering after changing plugs/packs.

No need to remove the head like i did, but the intake manifold and fuel rail will have to come off...about 3 hour job to disassemble (lots to take off to get to it) and 3 hours reassemble, 1 hour clean....so 7-8 hours labour. You will be looking at £400-£500 taking it to a shop which does the walnut shell blasting. No other form of cleaning will do anything useful (seafoam - pointless does nothing, hydrogen cleaning is useless will remove next to nothing, fuel based cleaning is useless on direct injection). You need to get in there and blast all the crud off, and with this engine having very deep ports on the back of the engine, you cant manually clean it with brushes and chemicals

[Danharris90]

Thanks for the information.. I'm guessing that even tho my car is under warranty with the garage I purchased it from won't cover that under the warranty as the engine is not showing any faults but has the annoying rough idle