Engine Fault 1.4 TSi 160, be aware

[janherko]

Dear guys,

first off I wanted to share my joy with you as I managed to completely get rid of the annoying creak coming from the driver's/back side of the car...just out of coincidence, I was leaning towards the driver's door one day when resting at a gas station and as I moved apart a little bit I suddenly heard that exact creaking noise... I opened the door and found out the black locking mechanism on the door's side is THE issue...sprayed it with a great amount of WD40 all over the place and the noise is gone...

So I was pretty happy at the time...but...
Just yesterday, I unfortunately experienced the biggest "Rocco nightmare" one can imagine...while driving over the town, with absolutely no prior warnings or notices, the car had started to act erratically, total loss of power and in a minute exhaust lamp + EPC lights came up, followed by totally destroying announcement on MFD saying "Engine fault - workshop"
I pulled over immediately, waited a few minutes, then started the car again only to get back in the previous state. I then very slowly drove it to the nearest VW dealer, as it was evening already I had to wait till this morning to witness following scenario:

Mechanical compression test has confirmed that cylinder no. 3 has low compression (cca 6.6 bar as opposed to 11-12 on the three remaining). The dealer is unable to tell me if the cylinder or its head is completely damaged and what is the situation with pistons, yet, as they'd need to disassemble pretty much whole engine which takes some 8 to 10 hours work according to their statement. The car is 07/2009, it just turned 4 now and has 115 000 km. I bought it 6 months ago and did some 12 000 problem-free km. Previous owner bought it new here in Slovakia. I'm not aware of any crucial interventions in the engine before.
The only job performed in the engine was a water pump replacement in February due to recurrent low level of coolant (notice coming up on MFD). As I read the late and great RW1's comprehensive guides about misfiring and related issues I intentionally had the spark plugs changed 2 months ago. Coil pack seemed fine and switching positions didn't help at the dealer's today, as it was another test they tried.
So the dealer basically put me in the position to make up my mind on what's next:
a disassembly of the engine itself is cca 600-700 euros, they said if it's a broken piston/ring it could be possible to get to it from underneath without a need to perform the whole disassembly but allegedly, putting it back together is not possible this way...they also said a complete piston with ring is replaceable, OE no. is 03C 107 065 BF, 06A 107 441, cost cca 215 euros. If, however, a cylinder itself is damaged, the next available option is OE no. 03C 100 091 TX, which basically is a new engine at some 4900 euros:)
Are they kidding me?
The car is out of warranty and the dealer said VW would not cover any part of the costs due to alleged absence in service interval a few years back according to the VIN...
There are 5 more VW dealers here in Bratislava, do you think I am about to listen to the same story all over the place?

What else do you suggest?
Sorry to say that but this 1.4 TSi in Rocco just showed its ugly face to me totally out of the blue and got me thinking about getting rid of the car as fast as possible.

Thanks for the opinions, I do appreciate it.
Jan

edit: I found out that previous owner had the Bluefin installed in the car, which was erased by 24s4 campaign in January when I took the car in the garage just after the purchase. Do you think it could "help" the abovementioned situation?

[the_winner]

The piston in the 3rd cylinder is broken ! 100% this is your problem ! Classic problem on 1.4 TSI

[janherko]

Thanks for the reply, what´s the best available solution?
Paying the stealers some 600 euros only for disassembly of the engine is just out of my vision...

[the_winner]

Ok. If you have do all the services in the time at a VW Dealer you can take a 70% discount at all the repair or a 100% Because is a common problem on 1.4 TSI .
Also if you have the 24S4 update , all services in time at VW Dealer, no medications at the engine i think you can claim to fix your engine under warranty .

IF you can do all the above. Take your car to a good VW - Audi- Seat- Skoda service (no dealer) open the engine and fix the damage with lower cost than you will fix it at a Dealer Service .

But first fight with the dealer to fix it under warranty because is common problem a broken piston in a 1.4 TSI CAV Engine

[janherko]

Yep, thanks for the advice...
I'm scheduled to meet with manager of the VW dealer where the car was bought by previous owner...however, the date of sale was in July 2009 so it's some time out of warranty. I'm curious what they'll say about servicing according to the car's VIN as there's a gap in service book between 40 000 and 100 000 km:(
And to be honest, I highly doubt I can expect any kind of intervention from them given above...
But we'll see...

One more question, does a replacement of only one new piston with rings etc. solve the issue? Or am I about to wait for another breakdown in next 15 000 km?
If it's highly possible I'm probably looking at one and only option: to have it repaired as best as possible and sell it away as soon as possible...and then get some decent 2.0 as I do like Sciroccos

[hoganb]

The piston in the 3rd cylinder is broken ! 100% this is your problem ! Classic problem on 1.4 TSI

Is piston breakage a"classic problem" ? Expound that please!

[the_winner]

You can change only the one piston-rings (hope the cylinder is not damaged ) BUT all of your pistons are weak ! VW has update the piston with new part number (better quality)

And yes in 1.4 TSI the breakage of pistons are common problem ! Just make a search and you will see

[hoganb]

[/quote]And yes in 1.4 TSI the breakage of pistons are common problem ! Just make a search and you will see[/quote]

I have never heard of that! But I am not a mechanic.

Anyone with knowledge about this who can confirm!?

[janherko]

You can change only the one piston-rings (hope the cylinder is not damaged ) BUT all of your pistons are weak ! VW has update the piston with new part number (better quality)

And yes in 1.4 TSI the breakage of pistons are common problem ! Just make a search and you will see

I'm waiting for the VW's resolution in my case, the car is parked for the weekend at the dealer where it was initially bought by previous owner...I also spoke to him and there might be a way he can get hold of some confirmation the car actually was serviced within that gap...once I submit such confirmation to the dealer it's highly possible VW will intervene and fit new engine...

Another scenario , if above said won't happen, is bringing the car to a specialist I also spoke with this morning (non-authorized), who however acknowledged me that there's no way he would replace only the broken piston but the whole pack...it's possible to get it done for cca 1000 euros, labor included...
It just sucks either way, though...

[Gray170TDI]

The 1.4TSI is trouble in its higher outputs, particularly the 180ps version in the Polo GTI. It's very nearly sticking time bomb, which is a shame for such an advanced engine

[the_winner]

The 1.4TSI is very good engine with high tuning capabilities . Here in Greece the 1.4 TSI Engine is very famous due to high taxes on 2.0L+ Engines and here we tune a lot the 1.4 tsi .
We have Big Turbo 1.4 TSI , Hybrid Turbo 1.4 TSI (stock engine) . GTX2867 1.4 TSI , GT25 Turbo 1.4 TSI , TD04 Turbo 1.4 TSI . The most of the tuned 1.4 tsi have stock pistons without problem, pistons are durable till 270hp

BUT
1.4 TSI 180hp version( Polo GTI, Ibiza Cupra,etc) have problems with high oil usage .
Also the first 1.4 TSI CAVD(Scirocco) at 2008-09 production had problems with broken pistons this is why the 24S4 Update was a MUST from VW .
After that VW change the part numbers at the pistons and make more durable pistons . Also there are defected Fuel injectors at some MY2010 production cars(you can confirm that via Revo Technik ) So with bad fuel injector AGAIN Breakage of the piston ...

[ZephyR]

Brilliant engine though it is, its issues like these that persuaded me to part with my 1.4 TSi Roc.

[skippy]

Yes - we also own a Polo GTI (180 PS) and had terrible issues with oil consumption. It took me 2 years to get VW to eventually replace the engine. Touch wood, all good since the replacement engine.

[janherko]

Still waiting for the resolution from goddamn VW, can anyone please confirm whether the 24S4 update brought gear indicator also to the manual transmissions with RED display? I´m just curious because my Rocco with red display never had it, though the update had been performed...and since the 24S4 update was the one aiming to fix the misfire troubles which could lead to possible piston/cylinder damage, this all might as well have been srewed up by the dealer who did the job in January, when I bought the car from previous owner and went straight for the service...

[Deacon]

It didn't add the gear indicator to the red display.

[janherko]

It didn't add the gear indicator to the red display.

alright, thanks a lot

[tony4147]

I had a 1.4TSI, car was great until the first service (18,000 miles) the garage did the ECU update 24S4, and from that point on it was flying through oil, ended up trading the car in for another VW, heard that they put a new engine in it.

[skyblues11]

what can we do to prevent it happening in the first place? minimise cold starts and things like that? never realised pistons can be so fragile...

[janherko]

I had a 1.4TSI, car was great until the first service (18,000 miles) the garage did the ECU update 24S4, and from that point on it was flying through oil, ended up trading the car in for another VW, heard that they put a new engine in it.

I'm suspecting the same...though the flash of ECU was supposed to help the engine, it might as well have gotten it so confused that it eventually cracked...according to diagnostics performed every six months while with previous owner, there was absolutely no signs of anything approaching such disaster as in my case...once the 24S4 was done in January, the problems have started to come up: water pump, some oil leakage, one or two small misfires and finally low compression on 3rd cylinder with probable piston failure...if I was able to get hold of some official VW statement saying that this update, if performed on engines made within that vulnerable period in 08/09 can cause some potential harm, I could easily force the dealer who performed it to fit the new engine at their costs

[tony4147]

To my knowledge the only engines affected were made in the first 6 months of 2009, I would be interested to know if engines in 2010,11,12,13 were ok.