first car! need some advice ( mk 4 polo 1.2 )
Discussion
hi there!! i only just passed my test, and ive been driving my polo a lot more than it’s been used to. ive had it about a year, and it used to get driven maybe once or twice a week for an hour or so, and now it’s being driven almost every day for work and such.
its had a history of being a little unreliable with the engine, and it’s notoriously easy to stall, even for a petrol ( or so my dad says ) and at the moment it keeps doing this thing where the engine management light will come on when I’m idling in first or second ( only ever first or second ) and ill start to lose power to the engine, and no matter how much I rev the engine, nothing happens. it just dies. when I notice this happening, and it starts to idle really lumpy, I turn off the engine and turn it on again, and it’s fixed, despite the engine management light remaining on.
I have a black box, and it says that it’s a persistent error with my third ignition cylinder, and after the first incident of the engine sort of. dying, I took it into my garage and they replaced the spark plug and pencil coil for that cylinder, because the other two had been done recently. ( the previous owner changed one and two but not 3 ) and it was fine for about a week but now it’s doing the problem again.
It happens twice today and yesterday, which I thought might be due to it being hot and being in stop start traffic all day with rush hour, but now the box is telling me it’s ignition cylinders 3 and 2. I’m sort of at a loss for what to do.
When it was at the garage the last time, they said the spark plug and coil were the only things that needed changing, and that was only a week ago.
Am I missing something incredibly obvious? is this maybe just a small old car thing? Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated !
tldr: polo is being driven much more frequently, engine randomly starts to idle lumpy while sat in traffic and I lose power to engine, despite the temperature and everything being normal. is fixed temporarily by turning off and on again. Only happens in first and second gear or at a stand still
its had a history of being a little unreliable with the engine, and it’s notoriously easy to stall, even for a petrol ( or so my dad says ) and at the moment it keeps doing this thing where the engine management light will come on when I’m idling in first or second ( only ever first or second ) and ill start to lose power to the engine, and no matter how much I rev the engine, nothing happens. it just dies. when I notice this happening, and it starts to idle really lumpy, I turn off the engine and turn it on again, and it’s fixed, despite the engine management light remaining on.
I have a black box, and it says that it’s a persistent error with my third ignition cylinder, and after the first incident of the engine sort of. dying, I took it into my garage and they replaced the spark plug and pencil coil for that cylinder, because the other two had been done recently. ( the previous owner changed one and two but not 3 ) and it was fine for about a week but now it’s doing the problem again.
It happens twice today and yesterday, which I thought might be due to it being hot and being in stop start traffic all day with rush hour, but now the box is telling me it’s ignition cylinders 3 and 2. I’m sort of at a loss for what to do.
When it was at the garage the last time, they said the spark plug and coil were the only things that needed changing, and that was only a week ago.
Am I missing something incredibly obvious? is this maybe just a small old car thing? Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated !
tldr: polo is being driven much more frequently, engine randomly starts to idle lumpy while sat in traffic and I lose power to engine, despite the temperature and everything being normal. is fixed temporarily by turning off and on again. Only happens in first and second gear or at a stand still
My Son has a 2004 Polo 1.2. I bought it a couple of years ago it as a non-runner for £200 and the fault was a coil stick but it took out the engine management fuse when it failed so the car wouldn't start.
I bought a £30 coil from the local motor factors and it was OK for a year until the same coil failed again. Replaced that with a better quality coil and it's been fine since. Due to not knowing the service history I did also change the plugs at the same time as the oil & filters etc.
I don't know if coils are a weak point on these cars but ours has done 120 something thousand miles so probably to be expected? but although it's a bit tatty the engine runs pretty well on ours.
I don't know if the older cars have this feature but my S4 had an intermittent faulty coil and if it detected a series of (5 consecutive IIRC) misfires it will shut down the cylinder and run on just the remaining, but it will all reset & re-start if the engine is stopped/started, which sort of sounds like what you're describing...
I bought a £30 coil from the local motor factors and it was OK for a year until the same coil failed again. Replaced that with a better quality coil and it's been fine since. Due to not knowing the service history I did also change the plugs at the same time as the oil & filters etc.
I don't know if coils are a weak point on these cars but ours has done 120 something thousand miles so probably to be expected? but although it's a bit tatty the engine runs pretty well on ours.
I don't know if the older cars have this feature but my S4 had an intermittent faulty coil and if it detected a series of (5 consecutive IIRC) misfires it will shut down the cylinder and run on just the remaining, but it will all reset & re-start if the engine is stopped/started, which sort of sounds like what you're describing...
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