I've actually had this problem and know exactly what it is, the adjuster for the valve timing has 2 parts, a mechanical valve that allows oil to flow, and an electronic pusher that moves the valve, they're both on the front of the intake cam, replace the electronic part first, it usually goes wrong.
@@Null_Experis afterall, working on electronics/mechanical machinery is just a way WAY less riskier form of surgery, with actual surgery you cant mess up at all, doing so easily risks leaving permanent damage, however for electronics/machinery there is almost always a way to undo said damage, the main reason electronics/machinery end up in landfills still is because said damage ranges massively in difficulty to overcome, leading to people going "im not going to do this anymore i give up" and just chucking it in the bin... so yes, it can fix cars and is more than capable of doing so.
@@OnionChoppingNinja I think it was one of the old premium vids, or Cashies.. cus I remember him trying to run over speakers with tony, and then one of the garage episodes with tony in the background holding the fan again.
My mates Polo did this and the VW approved guys just kept replacing bits and charging her a fortune, went to some bloke that had a garage and a lift on a farm outside town and he had it fixed same day. It was the intake valves. Her cleaned them up somehow and gave it an Italian tune up test drive. Works perfect now.
Hey dank, VW, audi tech here. Please please please pull the intake off and check the carbon buildup on the intake valves. These direct injection cars build up a ton of carbon on the intake Valves that causes these issues. You’ll have to scrape the big carbon bits with a screw driver and vacuum it out then get a special tool that fits over the intake port and walnut blast the intake valves. Of course make sure the cylinder is at TDC before starting on the next one
I had the same issues with my 2006 VW Touran (Golf 4 plaform, FSI engine) I was planning on having the valves walnut blasted, but then the gearbox decided to blow up. So I just had it towed to a junkyard. Good to know 10 years later those engines still stuffer with the same issues :)
Hey, not sure if anyone else has suggested this. I used to work at a vw shop for about 4 years. I would check the intake valves for any carbon buildup as it's the direct injected engine. The symptoms sound very similar to that. Also, I would check and make sure that you don't have any vacuum leaks, especially from the rear main seal. All of these symptoms point to either a vacuum leak or carbon buildup in the engine.
Also, low pressure fuel pump in the tank/filters. The system will adjust the injector timing to make up for the strange pressures, and then when the injectors open more to rev, it has to adjust again! But intake valves for sure need inspected. Should be able to look in the intake ports and see if they are bad.
yap between you and the guy in the replay sounds about right these terbo direct injection engines if not whaled on sometimes and "forced to wash" the intake valves will get really bad really fast also the terbos blow up when they go 150k miles without ever spooling on these german vehicles. but i have seen a Buick do exactly this with carbon on the valves keeping a single cylinder from ever closing found it by taking off the intake and compression was spraying out the open valves.
My 19 Chevy Malibu had similar issues due to carbon buildup, it's also a small combustion engine. The codes never really seemed to know what was going on, kind of similar to this. Maybe also check the o2 sensor while they're at it?
Also: Some of the older ones, in particular golf 3 (curse those cars), really liked to burn holes in their valves so I suppose a simple compression test could also be in order.
I once had this issue on my Cruze. Turned out it was the air intake hose from the air-filter box that had a crack on it's bottom side and it was losing intake pressure. $5 for a used one at the junkyard, and two hose clamps later, and the car was back in business.
Seeing the medical tablet from James Channel was such a flashbang but it also makes so much sense, its already built to handle all sorts of fluids and crap, what better use for it than messing with cars and not worrying too much for all the grime and gunk ruining it.
-Check AFR while driving -Check valve timing status while driving -Check intake and valves for carbon buildup -Get injector test kit if you really want -Smoke test the whole thing -ECU and connections, check for water as well -Turbo seals/wastegate
The VW knows what happens to working cars on this channel. It's probably just playing dead to avoid having its cooling system filled with a keg of Weissbier.
Roof rack capacity of late Soviet cars were AMAZING. You could put your whole family and their possessions up there and have roof to spare. That was also the only kind of cargo-carrying capacity available on them, so we improvised a lot.
It's a clothes dryer actually, there's a vent on the bottom left. As a fellow Aussie it looks almost identical to the Simpson Ezi Loader dryer I have (only difference is the energy star sticker placement, but the rating is exactly the same). Considering that it's an Extremely Dumb Dryer (not a single IC inside of it, 100% analog circuitry), I'm not surprised that they picked it up. Mine has lasted well over 15 years and has only needed belt replacements when they stretched out (and a new door a few months ago, the polycarbonate cracked after a gazillion thermal cycles, which was fixed when someone down the street miraculously was getting rid of theirs about a week later). They're fantastically easy to service and run forever. I love dumb appliances! :D
Seen some of this suggested in other comments. But I worked at a VW specialist and these are the common issues that we had on these engines. Timing being out due to either the camshaft adjuster failing or the timing belt having been changed and the timing not set correctly. The latter was so common they brought out a more accurate timing tool that measures it to 0.01 of a degree. And we would always ask if it had a timing belt recently when it was booked in with issues like these. As it's normally what caused the problem. Intake valves carboning up due to being direct injection, Had issues as low as 30000 miles. Fuel rail/injector bolts backing out causing the injectors to leak down the front of the engine, if you are taking the intake off locktite these. I quite often found these loose but not leaking yet. But when they do leak you normally smell it in the engine bay. This was more an issue on n/a engines but the O2 sensors are a common failure. The high pressure fuel pump can leak petrol into the engine and cause all sorts of issues. And while you have replaced the pump it generally needs an oil change due to the amount of petrol in the oil. Which will throw the air fuel ratio off due to the pcv system. Never seen it on a petrol but on diesel if it's been misfueled the fuel lines on top of the fuel tank at the pump are commonly put back round the wrong way. The vehicle would run and drive fine normally until you floor it and then it can't deliver enough fuel. And the 2 1 of 1 cases, An RS6 had 8 faulty injectors at 38000 miles due to using poor quality fuel. And had near enough these exact symptoms. Then on a 1.0 tsi we had it throw faults for the high pressure fuel pump as well as misfire/fuel pressure faults due to noise on the signal wire to the high pressure fuel pump. The noise was from the ignition coils as the wiring runs in the same harness. Hope this helps.
Got the same engine and had my fuel rail bolts loosen then explode a few weeks ago. Otherwise got over 100k out of a 1.2 tsi mapped to 150bhp on the og timing belt. Till I tried to replace said belt and it went wrong...
@edwardimray4075 Those fuel rail bolts if memory serves me correct are torqued to 8nm with no lock tight. It's no wonder they come loose. And the repair manual for the timing belt makes it overly complicated, It's a simple belt to do if you just ignore them and do it how you would normally. But it is very easy to make a mistake following the repair manual. Did you slacken the camshaft bolts by chance? Generally though I'd say they are good reliable engines and with a remap are decent performance.
I keep seeing timing and I'm inclined to agree. Its running like its skipped a tooth on the intake cam but all of this shit is electronic.now for full VVT so i figured it was an actuator of some kind for either side. Good to see my instincts were correct.
Not to be weird or anything, but I hecking love you guys. Just loaning friends cars, making good content on car things that are niche with a bloke that I'm confident is a mad scientist. Just too good blokes! Keep it up.
I had an Autocare Center do just that. Took it in for an inspection, they charged me $90 to say "Yeah mate you got a gas leak." I know I have a gas leak. That's why I took it in to you guys to get it patched or replaced. "Nah mah, your entire system's shot. Everything from the cap to the tank. We'll fix it for only $900, and we'll ensure we only use the finest junkyard finds. We don't trust Rockauto for things as critical as gas tanks." Got the parts myself for $200, called in a favour with a mechanic buddy to use his shop after hours, everything was fine I just needed a new fill neck. Tank was shiny on the inside. For the hell of it, I checked dashcam, they only fired it up to loop around the five car parking lot to make it look like it was pulled inside.
@@Skorpeonismyrealname literally had the same problem with my bikes fuel pump assembly, the dealership (fyi it was yamaha) tried to charge me 1000 bucks to get it fixed, told me that everything was busted, i ordered the part online along with two wrenches for 30 total. about a month later i did replace the whole fuel system aside from the tank cus i was paranoid about a leak but that turned out to be just bull
I took my V8 4Runner into Toyota for grinding noises and/or slow crank on startup. Told them I thought it needed a new starter since at the time it was a 250K mile car. They had it for 4 hours, and called me to tell me they "took a look at the starter and could not replicate the problem", but recommended replacing the battery as it was old. "That'll be $300." Fine. Picked it up, same problem. Then I actually bothered to do research on that engine and it turns out that the starter is buried in the engine valley itself, and there's absolutely no way they could've taken the engine apart, "looked at" the starter", reassembled it, and tested it in the time they had it. Bought a new starter from Toyota, took it to a friend's shop, and asked them to install it. Problem was gone. That dealer is either a bunch of idiots or a bunch of scam artists.
A relative of mine has a Vauxhall Zafira he brought second hand. Central locking system was completely shot none of the doors can be opened from either the buttons on the key or inside the car, and it's a 4-door 7-seater, so it's pretty annoying to have to finagle the handles from the inside and use the key instead of the button on the keyfob. Took it to a Vauxhall dealership, they said it was the door handle switch (???), so they replaced it, didn't do anything, and they said there was nothing they could do. We even had the car's CPU replaced with a known good one, it still doesn't work. Who knows whats going on lol, but apparently not the dealership.
Idk, I feel like they should replace the coolant with urine and it will run perfectly. Vws want abuse. If the dash isn't lit up like a Christmas tree something is major wrong.
He keeps buying petrol Volkswagens and then says Euro cars are rubbish. It's barely better than getting a Fiat 126 and then saying that European cars are shit. There's a reason why petrol VAG cars pretty much don't exist in Europe. They were rubbish. Though the diesels now are barely any better. Just avoid all cars made after 2011. But I guess a diesel is worthless to him cause a car that never breaks is not good for producing content about it.
As a VW owner, I have a pre-diesel gate diesel. I really feel the pain. I absolutely hate how the system puts itself into limp mode whenever it gets a little trouble. I've driven American domestic cars that are half broken and they never put themselves into limp mode.
Pre-diesel gate VW Golf owner from Aus here. I had the same crappy limp mode and even poor/stuttery throttle response which ended up being the injectors. Had to get them all replaced for an absurb amount of money as the mechanic believed some "bad quality diesel" ruined them. Found out during the ordeal that there was a recall for injectors of my car but checking the recall history showed they were already replaced by VW, however the issue i experienced was exactly what was described in the recall.... So of course VW refused to look or pay. Also a funny yet painful related side-note. I had some rattling recently while driving until suddenly my entire engine fell over on the right side (transmission side) while i was on the road. Found both bolts for that side completely sheered in two. I was told it's possible another mechanic removed them to order to replace the injectors, and apparently you cannot simply reuse these engine mount bolts and you need new ones whenever you touch them? I swear to all things Tony i get what sounds like some made-up bullcrap everytime something is wrong with the car... bought it back in the day for $10k, i think I've spent just over half that on various fixes. Pretty sure it's cursed so maybe needs to be donated for a good nogging. :V
the virgin VW going into limp mode for a faulty canister purge solenoid vs. the chad Chevy with a transmission that doesn't go in reverse and is covered in Michigan Weight Reduction but still has all 4 forward speeds, the chad Dodge with enough lifter tick to make Big Ben blush, and the chad Ford with 6 of 10 spark plugs blown out but still running somehow on 4 cylinders despite being a V10.
@@lsswappedcessna Ha! I had a bad purge solenoid last year in my Dodge, it was hard to start after a fill-up and idled like crap at the stop lights, other than that the worst it did was illuminate my check engine light. What are they _doing_ in Germany these days?
Green 2002 Golf GTI. Intermittent misfires on all cylinders, rough idling, no power, to lean and too rich. The cat was clogged so exhaust couldn’t get out. The computer was trying to compensate which was causing the error codes and the misfires. My wife and I enjoy watching all of your channels and her favorite is the drum thing.
We used to use Motion tablets where I worked for vehicle programming and diagnostics. They aren't specifically for medical, they're just rugged. Now we use Dell rugged tablets.
8:10 Not a mechanic here but a mate had a simmilar problem on a similar engine (Audi A2). Try unplugging the mass air sensor, so the car is forced to imagine the air-fuel-ratio. If the car has no data from the sensor it usually goes into a failsafe mode for air-fuel-mix. If you replace the sensor sometimes it is necessary to program it into the car or the car needs to know that there is new sensor data to learn from. Greetings from Germany
Also a parts guy. If these are direct injected, the valves could just be covered in soot. Worth sticking a bore scope down the intake and having a look-see, if such things are possible on these overengineered turds.
we have a 1.2 tsi skoda. we were having limp mode issues, after months of searching, the problem turned out to be a wastegate actuator spacer washer. you can check it out there are posts on the internet.
Something to hopefully help, but here in the US we don't get Polos, but we have to deal with the 2.0 Turbo in the golf's so take this with a grain of salt. But monitor the fuel pressure before and after you start it. Before you start it, there in an in take pump feeding that high pressure pump, I have seen many a VW run like crap because of that. And check it after it's running, most direct injection systems hold their pressure well after the vehicle shuts off. If the pressure bleeds off immediately after you shut the car off you have a leaky injector, if it takes it more than like 10-20 minutes you should be okay. After that I'd try to smoke yest the entire intake and PCV system to test for possible leaks
tbh it seems like they don’t know what they r doing. they r throwing parts at it without looking at the live data. i had a similar issue and it was leaky injectors. car didn’t hold fuel pressure after turning off.
I'm working in a car repair shop and I've seen this issue multiple times. The most common fix turned out to be the throttle valve in the engine bay, next on the list is a throttle pedal.
Guys, I think your issue will be in the tank, being direct injection petrol its likely to have a lift pump which has a high and low mode for load and idle. If the pump is weak, it'll show in the low mode. I'd reccomend a new sender assembly in the tank and if it has an inline fuel filter. Throw that in, I've had issues near identical to this, also I base this idea on the small amount of fuel that was pumped into the bucket considering the amount of time it was cranked. It should have blasted into the bucket.
I know this is unrelated, but this channel has really reignited my love for cars, I finally decided to buy a crapbox 1999 audi a4 to project out, I just need to find myself a James, thank you Wade for creating the nuggetier I never knew I had in me
Ah VW's.... I cannot state how much I dislike anything from VW now days. I had a 2012 Skoda Fabia VRS, bought the thing for 14k with 52000KW on it. Looked after that car so damn well, did all the maintence it needed on it. Always on time with oil and did exactly what Skoda asked for me to do it. After 4 years, the engine started knocking...at 105000k.... STAY AWAY FROM THE 1.4 TWIN CHARGE (Guess the 38PSI STOCK should of been a big enough warning 😭😭) Sold the thing for half of what I paid for it for 7.5k and I'll never touch another VW product again. That and between dieselgate; yeah nah this company can go in the bin. From what I sold that car for I got a 2003 Lexus GS300 with all options, and also got a 2004 Vy Holden Commodore Acclaim. I daily the Holden now and...I don't think I've ever appericated a car that's SO EASY to work on. That car is made for self repair! Two downsides though, everyone calls you a bogan and oml the fuel in the city.
My 2005 Ford did something similar to this over the summer right before my Throttle body completely gave up. It would work fine for ages, then it would throw a code, you'd clear it, it'd misbehave just a little bit. Check the air.
I can't help but think it's something like a perished vacuum line somewhere hidden. Im so glad my motorcycle has 4 carburettors not throttle bodies lol
There was some video a little while back with a 90s GM car and the crack in the rubber hose would suck in and open up under revs, but at idle it would completely disappear.
My experience with an audi: Faulty lambda sensor, after code clear the fault would come back in over 50kms driven, passed emission inspection no problem, no change in performance after fixing it Faulty intake flap, code would come back in 25-30kms driven, no change in performance, mechanic refurbished it High fuel pressure once in a blue moon, no missfire or performance change, very rarely would it go into limp mode in under 1km driven, would turn off the turbo but after shutting off the engine and starting it back up no complaints from the car, right now probably +3 tanks in and didn't reoccur, can't afford going through sensors, injectors, hpfp, lines to fix something so insignificant, the limp mode is from a "pending" fault that goes away immediately after restarting the engine, so the car clears it every time
My mum has almost the same Polo, but with the 1.2 3-cylinder engine, which has never had any fault since 2012. To me, it’s like mum‘s Corolla in DankPods. Learned driving in it, did quite some roadtrips with it, and I just love it to bits. Not the fastest thing in the world, but its 70 hp are adequate. Good luck fixing your nugget, I’m sure the comment section has you sorted.
Euro cars man. When everything works, it’s a marvel of engineering. Seriously, the fact that any combustion engine runs is a little miracle, but when you have all these little parts intricately assembled into an awkward chassis, something about it is just really satisfying. And then something breaks and you wish you had a Tony. I’m probably going to drive into the 2050s in a 2000s Corolla after wasting my money and energy in my 20s on a “cheap” early 2000s Merc. When it’s good it’s good, but when it’s bad… oh no. My vote is on a leak somewhere. Mass Air Flow meter sounds about right, as mentioned by others.
Germans assemble! Let the Aussies hold our beers while we take 20 years to build an airport, another 3 for pandemic and 2 more to get there. Then we'll start fixing the car.
Let's take a second to chat as mechanic to mechanic @ james, How many mechanical components have you checked? I.e. compression, valve lash, timing (especially the advance system if it has it), leak down testing, vacuüm or evap system (smoke test), external emission test (lambda sensors) etc. Also, always re-check if the work of the previous has been done correctly! Not every one is as bright, and the fact someone works for a dealership doesn't directly mean they're an expert. It always depends on the person if they do a good job or not. Not the company. Then again, that many random fault codes could also be as simple as a bad battery f'ing up CAN signals (i've experienced this many times with BMW in particular) Without propper diagnosis you can keep throwing money, but you always have to make sure the fundamentals are fine before spreading out the search area. For example: I had a bike come in wich was running on 1 cylinder, but next time you started it up it was running like a dream on both. After compression testing found out it had 4 bar on #1, 14,5 on #2. Did a leakdown test, full blowby on #1, Cracked exhaust valve. Just trying to say, it could be as simple as a faulty fuel cap, as bad as a cracked cylinder or a timing advance fault. Trying your luck on $100+ parts is not the way to go, you can change over 20 random parts with no difference or you can spend a day to diagnose all essentials for (basically) free in the hopes of finding a propper culprit. Hope to get an answer or to be of any help, cheers guys! You always manage to put a smile on my face!😊
It is remarkable the bad luck you keep having with these VWs, I’ve been driving a thrashed 2015 Beetle that used to be a rental car and has 150k on it and it’s still going like a dream
I wonder if it will encounter biohazards more frequently now that it's being used in an environment that is {less frequently sanitzed but isn't "supposed" to see any} (instead of one that is {supposed to be sanitized regularly in the expectation that it will host many} ). ... and what fraction of those hazards encountered were/are lunch/dinner.
Now, it can very much be that you have a different problem. But my sister's Polo had similar issues once and it turned out that the turbo internals had torn themselves to shreds. Maybe it's something with that?
My mini, which I still have, had a very similar problem a couple years ago. Under 3300rpm it ran like garbage. With $7k in repairs and parts and no resolution I decided to have the ecu or dme, idk which one vw uses, flashed to a new unit. That fixed it. There’s a USA based company I sent all my cars brain stuff to and they took the info from that junk and put it on new-to-me junk. Work mint.
3:12 my last two cars use metal so thin, the hood flexes on the highway and it looks like it's half-open but it isn't. In the never-ending quest for lighter weight, perceived quality has taken a nosedive.
You are such a cool and nice friend!!! You fix peoples cars. You loan people cars. I wish I knew somebody like you in real life!!! The WORLD NEEDS MORE PEOPLE LIKE YOU AND JAMES!!! I Salute YOU!!!!
Off the top of my head, check your knock sensor(s). Wiring from the ecu to the various sensors for any damages or high/changing resistance. Vw has a tendency to have wires rub through against the loom protective casing and cause intermittent issues, even on newer cars. In VCDS check if you can read injection quantity values for each of the cylinders while its running. If you can see IQ, that will give you an idea of whats going on with the engine fuel wise. For example my VAG 1.9tdi has issues with injectors, and my IQ deviation shown in vcds told me that as it is out of spec, but NO fault codes are posted! Rule out that first. Then, look at spark plug gaps, make sure they are to spec, even brand new plugs come way out of wack at times, an improper gap can cause nightmares (my years fixing motorcycles taught me one important thing, make sure your gap is not too small!). Cheers all the way from South Africa (the home of the VW Polo)
Honestly, even if the issue is another problem (as people have noted, it's possibly carbon buildup on the intake), the lack of fault reports is making me suspicious of the sensors being up to snuff and/or a fault not being covered by an error code but obvious on actually looking at the sensor data. It's very easy for cables to get unseated just enough so that they still return data (and therefore, the ECU doesn't scream they're gone) but the numbers are off. Literally had this happen recently with by cable modem, the cable had unscrewed enough that my Mbs had dropped drastically, but the modem still thought it had a strong signal. Also, the sensors themselves should be checked, because I'm sure some of them are in areas where various Car Liquids(TM) live and can gunk them up.
I work at a VAG shop and these engines have had problems with injectors getting clogged beacuase of carbon build up in the combustion chamber. same with the top of the intake valves, carbon build up and soot can cause them to not seal properly when closed. could be worth checking that out.
I've had similar issue with my Passat. Some of the VW engines have second intercooler inside the engine which cools the air using water and mine was leaking, which made random misfires in each of the cylinders. It took the mechanics 3 weeks to figure this out.
It's really cool seeing James improve even more as a host or whatever you call it in this case, not that he was bad before, but ever since he started his own channel he's improved even more!
Could be a blocked air filter (Air Fuel Ratio) as low down it cant burn fuel but higher up the ECU notices the lack of air intake and makes it run lean
This could be an airleak after the airflow meter, any air dragged in here isn't 'seen' by the ECU and so not compensated for and can lean the engine out causing rough running. As its a mechanical fault it may not to turn on the fault light and you can sometimes hear a 'hissing' noise with the engine running. Check the hose clips for tightness and inspect the trunking for any cracks or splits and also all the vacuum system, the small bore pipes and fittings for cracks and missing parts. Since it's running at such high pressure, leaks would have a more dramatic effect.
Check your battery connection from battery to starter and check ground . Had this problem in my Audi q7 and the problem was one of the wires were not connected properly
once happened in a 2.0 tsi tiguan, multiple misfires at low rpms. it was the pcv valve diapragm, you could remove the hose that goes from the pcv to the intake manifold and block the hole on the manifold side
another day, another story that makes me glad that the issues ive had with my current 09 santa fe are things like "the trunk latch broke" and "the volume knob doesnt know which direction its turning"
Y'all built "an car" from the ground up, made a car run on pepsi, nutella, pilk, and eggnog, and did UNSPEAKABLE things to Tony. All ran fine (for a bit) Yet this car simply refuses to run.
The radiator in the intake is the air to water intercooler. I would suggest taking the intake manifold to see if the intake runners are blocked with soot and gunge.
I'd check the MAF and the exhaust O2 sensor after the injectors. The ECU continuously calculates the amount of fuel needed to run at the right A/F ratio based on these two. That could explain why all cylinders are running rough together. Someone also mentioned air leaks in the air inlet piping. That's a valid check too as the amount of air seen by the MAF and the actual amount of air entering the engine would be different, screwing up the ECU's calculation again. Best of luck mate!
I had a 2006 Saturn Ion with a similar problem at idle rpm. It wasn't nearly this bad, but it had an O2 sensor fault code when I was driving it and definitely had some rough vibrations when slowing down, sometimes it would even stall even though it was an automatic. I could only imagine this or some air leak somewhere combined with a complicated af VW engine would make this a massive PITA to fix since any change in the AFR could make it run rich and lean at different points.
Mum had something similar on a 1.6 BLF Golf. Checked all the normal things but in the end, sent away the injectors for rebuild (Because cheaper than buying brand new) Refited then it ran perfectly after that and still does now.
My mate has a 2022 equinox with the same set-up. Tiny engine, tiny turbo, super fuel efficient. Had eeriely similar issues. Grumpy idle with no codes then all of a sudden limp mode. Clear it and it would be back to grumbles. Until one day it just wouldn't come out of limp mode. He had regular dealership visits the whole time. They eventually found out that the camshaft had snapped and it was running on 1 cylinder. The bearing cap finally let loose on the single running cylinder. Dealership ended up replacing the whole engine under warranty but it took 4 months from start of issue to eventual replacement
I had a Passat with the same issue, it's the O2 sensors, I had to replace 3 in total, pre turbo, post turbo and exhaust sensor. The weird part is that since the sensors weren't "dead" the codes never got thrown but from how it was behaving I had a hunch and replaced the first to solve the low rpm issue but then it would have trouble after 5 mins so I replaced the others and that got it going
As someone that has the same VAG frame based vehicle: check the connectors for the ecu and sensors for corrosion. Scrape em to reveal good contact and apply dielectric grease before reassembly. Have a nice day!
Ah polos such lovely cars, I own one too! (Slightly older similar mileage) It had timing chain issues and the previous owner broke things while fixing it and now I have it and it's leaking oil everywhere. GL and looking forward to the follow-up video!
I've had something very similar to this, misfiring on all 4 cylinders and very rumbly. Turns out the crankshaft position sensor was going bad, so it was only intermittently sending signal.
You keep showing these VW's that I see on the road all day. In the state that these are in, I dread the state of the polo that's overtaking me doing 130 in a 100 zone.
what hes showing is unrealistic, the post 2015 1,2 tsi engine is very solid, i can find some here in germeny which have gone 300k kilometers, this one is just a shit example
Alright, former AUDI tech here and I thought I'd chime in. As a Polo is basically just an A2, we can apply the same principles and those are telling me that your engine has no idea what's going on in terms of it's air/fuel ratio. What it is expecting to receive in air volume, is not actually being received by the cylinder and causing the ECU to allow the incorrect fuel mixture into the cylinder, this cyclic adjustment is causing both a "rich fuel mix" warning as well as a "lean fuel mix" warning. My first thought was your air flow meter. Check to see if there are any splits or cracks in the intake hose somewhere between the air mass meter (attached to the air filter enclosure) and the throttle body. this would account for all cylinders showing a misfire as well as the inconsistent power delivery. If the ECU gets enough conflicting information, it will do exactly what it did and go into limp mode. If no slits in the intake, check vacuum lines and finally operation of air mass meter lastly as it is an expensive part.
That's what I'm thinking. had my 04 leon cupra running horribly, misfiring, the whole lot and not showing any codes until I drove it enough to get it to show a MAF code
Those TSI models don't use MAF sensors, they all just check intake manifold absolute pressure (for vacuum and boost) and calculate off that. Might still be a lead, if something in the air system is wonky / leaky that may cause problems. My 1.4 had a turbo going downhill and always just showed Intake pressure over max and Intake pressure under min.
I'm going to gather all advices in the comments section, here it is : It can be this, this and that sensor, It can be any or all components of the fuel system, it could be the turbo. So here's my take : it could be literally anything but like... Test first? Wdym it's not possible to test anything, no it's not, it just takes too much time? Require specialized equipment? With 5k in unnecessary replaced part and time you could probably buy half the specialized equipment already.
My Volkswagen fox had similar issues would run ok at startup and absolutely fucked after 30 min at idle and higer revs. After trying everything it was the ignition coils (bombine in my language). The plastic was deteriorated and when the engine heated up to a certain point the contacts in There became intermittent. I hope this helps.
I love my LEAF so much. I have the next generation (SL+) and I can fit so MUCH GEAR inside. Full kit, guitarist's amp, merch AND my guitarist. You can also haul 10ft boards with the trunk/boot closed. I couldn't be happier with it. Besides the massive battery recall and I can't fast charge anymore.....
Not a mechanic by any means but i found a few forum posts talking about carbon buildup causing misfires. I do know direct injection causes some pretty bad carbon buildup over time and cleaning it up might fix the problem. The mileage seems awfully low for that to be a problem but worth a try.
Rich on idle and lean while driving would point to something in fuel/air control. I don't know these engines, but it boils back down to the old "suck/squeeze/bang/blow" adage. If it's "drive by wire" with an electronic intake valve, it could be reacting slow or sticking. If the turbo doesn't spool as it should or has an exhaust restriction, it could cause this (yes, the turbo spools and boosts almost 100% of the time it's running). Just some thoughts...
I'd tell that : it's unmeasured air. Lean on idle, rich on throttle. It gets unmetered air when idling as intake manifold is neg pressure compared to atmospheric, and on throttle some of the air goes off this same hole out. It can also be intake valves / variable cams.
I had a similar problem but with the added symptoms of when the car went into limo mode it refused to go into gear and was effectively stuck in neutral (its a dsg auto) Turned out to everyones surprise it was my throttle body position sensor giving false info. The gearbox relied on the throttle positioning to even attempt to shift at all so when it wasnt sending the right into the car would shudder, barely move and then go into limp/neutral and be stuck. Turning it off and on again would get you out of limp mode long enough to crawl into a driveway at idle.
Might be a shot in the dark, but perhaps the old fuel pressure sensor was bad but it adjusted to Account for it, now with the new sensor it is completely out of adjustment
I've actually had this problem and know exactly what it is, the adjuster for the valve timing has 2 parts, a mechanical valve that allows oil to flow, and an electronic pusher that moves the valve, they're both on the front of the intake cam, replace the electronic part first, it usually goes wrong.
Commenting cause hopefully this is it and it’ll boost it
OI WADE... here is a possibility
Sounds promising boooosting :3
Check it out Wade!!
Oi, this it?
Using the windows 7 medical tablet as a code flasher is amazing work.
you know its bad when James can't fix it
with GTA 4 installed
If it can fix people, it can fix a car!
@@Null_Experis afterall, working on electronics/mechanical machinery is just a way WAY less riskier form of surgery, with actual surgery you cant mess up at all, doing so easily risks leaving permanent damage, however for electronics/machinery there is almost always a way to undo said damage, the main reason electronics/machinery end up in landfills still is because said damage ranges massively in difficulty to overcome, leading to people going "im not going to do this anymore i give up" and just chucking it in the bin...
so yes, it can fix cars and is more than capable of doing so.
@@Shiznit304 and also project64
LMAO THE MEDICAL COMPUTER I AM SO HAPPY
James Channel x Garbage Time crossover
So glad to see it’s still getting use
man I saw it and started laughing XD
@@maxobyrne1474 Fantastic application of that bad boy, James.
with gta 4
9:35 - Member when Tony held that fan like a champ? Now he's holdin that washin machine like a even BIGGER champ! GO GET EM TONY HOLD THAT WASHER!
which video was Tony holding up that fan? I forgot
@@OnionChoppingNinja I think it was one of the old premium vids, or Cashies.. cus I remember him trying to run over speakers with tony, and then one of the garage episodes with tony in the background holding the fan again.
My mates Polo did this and the VW approved guys just kept replacing bits and charging her a fortune, went to some bloke that had a garage and a lift on a farm outside town and he had it fixed same day. It was the intake valves. Her cleaned them up somehow and gave it an Italian tune up test drive. Works perfect now.
Called a carbon cleaning. Needed with DI engines.
Hey dank, VW, audi tech here. Please please please pull the intake off and check the carbon buildup on the intake valves. These direct injection cars build up a ton of carbon on the intake Valves that causes these issues. You’ll have to scrape the big carbon bits with a screw driver and vacuum it out then get a special tool that fits over the intake port and walnut blast the intake valves. Of course make sure the cylinder is at TDC before starting on the next one
I had the same issues with my 2006 VW Touran (Golf 4 plaform, FSI engine)
I was planning on having the valves walnut blasted, but then the gearbox decided to blow up. So I just had it towed to a junkyard.
Good to know 10 years later those engines still stuffer with the same issues :)
or use seafoam, works good also, less work.
So what I’m hearing is walnut= good but hazelnut = bad
Zipties and valve cleaner works good if you can't set up a walnut blaster.
This sure does sound very likely and like a VAG solution
Hey, not sure if anyone else has suggested this. I used to work at a vw shop for about 4 years. I would check the intake valves for any carbon buildup as it's the direct injected engine. The symptoms sound very similar to that.
Also, I would check and make sure that you don't have any vacuum leaks, especially from the rear main seal. All of these symptoms point to either a vacuum leak or carbon buildup in the engine.
Also, low pressure fuel pump in the tank/filters. The system will adjust the injector timing to make up for the strange pressures, and then when the injectors open more to rev, it has to adjust again!
But intake valves for sure need inspected. Should be able to look in the intake ports and see if they are bad.
yap between you and the guy in the replay sounds about right these terbo direct injection engines if not whaled on sometimes and "forced to wash" the intake valves will get really bad really fast also the terbos blow up when they go 150k miles without ever spooling on these german vehicles.
but i have seen a Buick do exactly this with carbon on the valves keeping a single cylinder from ever closing found it by taking off the intake and compression was spraying out the open valves.
My 19 Chevy Malibu had similar issues due to carbon buildup, it's also a small combustion engine. The codes never really seemed to know what was going on, kind of similar to this. Maybe also check the o2 sensor while they're at it?
@@hypocriticalharambe8274 sadly, whaling on these motors doesn't help with carbon buildup because no fuel goes over the valves to clean them.
You volkswagens and your vacuum leaks
Check for air leaks. Fairly common to get contradicting lean/rich errors and MASSIVE misfires
Had that on my car. Sprayed brake cleaner on the engine while it was running to spot the leak.
It’s not always lean otherwise yes. MAF sensor could be the issue though. It’s on half of the shots in the video 😅
@@Proximax9that's genius
Also: Some of the older ones, in particular golf 3 (curse those cars), really liked to burn holes in their valves so I suppose a simple compression test could also be in order.
I once had this issue on my Cruze. Turned out it was the air intake hose from the air-filter box that had a crack on it's bottom side and it was losing intake pressure. $5 for a used one at the junkyard, and two hose clamps later, and the car was back in business.
Seeing the medical tablet from James Channel was such a flashbang but it also makes so much sense, its already built to handle all sorts of fluids and crap, what better use for it than messing with cars and not worrying too much for all the grime and gunk ruining it.
-Check AFR while driving
-Check valve timing status while driving
-Check intake and valves for carbon buildup
-Get injector test kit if you really want
-Smoke test the whole thing
-ECU and connections, check for water as well
-Turbo seals/wastegate
this is great advice
The Goober has been avenged by the VW who just doesnt want to live
The anti-Goober if you will. No abuse, dies anyway.
The VW knows what happens to working cars on this channel. It's probably just playing dead to avoid having its cooling system filled with a keg of Weissbier.
"Nah mate nah."
- The White VW when asked to function
The indomitable spirit of the goober vs. the depressed VW
1:25 I don´t know why I find it hilarious that James is using the dumb medical tablet he reviewed in his channel to probe the car
A little easter egg for fans of the network.
I hope it becomes a recurring character... The lore deepens!!
J A M E S L O R E
What a splendid thing
Running Windows 7, with the Opera browser installed. haha If that isn't from a point in time....
AND with gta iv lmao
0:01 never mind Tony in the background with a washing machine on his head
Hahahahaha that's just Tony things
it's his hat
@damon7434 hahaha good one
Roof rack capacity of late Soviet cars were AMAZING. You could put your whole family and their possessions up there and have roof to spare.
That was also the only kind of cargo-carrying capacity available on them, so we improvised a lot.
It's a clothes dryer actually, there's a vent on the bottom left.
As a fellow Aussie it looks almost identical to the Simpson Ezi Loader dryer I have (only difference is the energy star sticker placement, but the rating is exactly the same).
Considering that it's an Extremely Dumb Dryer (not a single IC inside of it, 100% analog circuitry), I'm not surprised that they picked it up. Mine has lasted well over 15 years and has only needed belt replacements when they stretched out (and a new door a few months ago, the polycarbonate cracked after a gazillion thermal cycles, which was fixed when someone down the street miraculously was getting rid of theirs about a week later).
They're fantastically easy to service and run forever. I love dumb appliances! :D
Seen some of this suggested in other comments. But I worked at a VW specialist and these are the common issues that we had on these engines.
Timing being out due to either the camshaft adjuster failing or the timing belt having been changed and the timing not set correctly. The latter was so common they brought out a more accurate timing tool that measures it to 0.01 of a degree. And we would always ask if it had a timing belt recently when it was booked in with issues like these. As it's normally what caused the problem.
Intake valves carboning up due to being direct injection, Had issues as low as 30000 miles.
Fuel rail/injector bolts backing out causing the injectors to leak down the front of the engine, if you are taking the intake off locktite these. I quite often found these loose but not leaking yet. But when they do leak you normally smell it in the engine bay.
This was more an issue on n/a engines but the O2 sensors are a common failure.
The high pressure fuel pump can leak petrol into the engine and cause all sorts of issues. And while you have replaced the pump it generally needs an oil change due to the amount of petrol in the oil. Which will throw the air fuel ratio off due to the pcv system.
Never seen it on a petrol but on diesel if it's been misfueled the fuel lines on top of the fuel tank at the pump are commonly put back round the wrong way. The vehicle would run and drive fine normally until you floor it and then it can't deliver enough fuel.
And the 2 1 of 1 cases,
An RS6 had 8 faulty injectors at 38000 miles due to using poor quality fuel. And had near enough these exact symptoms.
Then on a 1.0 tsi we had it throw faults for the high pressure fuel pump as well as misfire/fuel pressure faults due to noise on the signal wire to the high pressure fuel pump. The noise was from the ignition coils as the wiring runs in the same harness.
Hope this helps.
Got the same engine and had my fuel rail bolts loosen then explode a few weeks ago. Otherwise got over 100k out of a 1.2 tsi mapped to 150bhp on the og timing belt. Till I tried to replace said belt and it went wrong...
@edwardimray4075 Those fuel rail bolts if memory serves me correct are torqued to 8nm with no lock tight. It's no wonder they come loose.
And the repair manual for the timing belt makes it overly complicated, It's a simple belt to do if you just ignore them and do it how you would normally. But it is very easy to make a mistake following the repair manual. Did you slacken the camshaft bolts by chance?
Generally though I'd say they are good reliable engines and with a remap are decent performance.
I keep seeing timing and I'm inclined to agree. Its running like its skipped a tooth on the intake cam but all of this shit is electronic.now for full VVT so i figured it was an actuator of some kind for either side. Good to see my instincts were correct.
Not to be weird or anything, but I hecking love you guys. Just loaning friends cars, making good content on car things that are niche with a bloke that I'm confident is a mad scientist. Just too good blokes! Keep it up.
What do you mean "James can't fix it"? James managed to shove a playstation into a SNES case! You're telling me that expertise doesn't apply to cars?!
I'm not sure the car equivalent of "James electronics fix" is necessarily road legal, but you're right, it sure would be running in some sense
and don't forget about the magpie
It's a TSI, no one knows how to fix those properly, just too complex.
James shoved an NES into a goddamn NES cartridge
I agree. This car clearly needs some gentle, but liberal, angle grinder application to various crucial bits.
Dealership: "we looked at it, from the break room, that'll be 50 bucks"
I had an Autocare Center do just that. Took it in for an inspection, they charged me $90 to say "Yeah mate you got a gas leak."
I know I have a gas leak. That's why I took it in to you guys to get it patched or replaced.
"Nah mah, your entire system's shot. Everything from the cap to the tank. We'll fix it for only $900, and we'll ensure we only use the finest junkyard finds. We don't trust Rockauto for things as critical as gas tanks."
Got the parts myself for $200, called in a favour with a mechanic buddy to use his shop after hours, everything was fine I just needed a new fill neck. Tank was shiny on the inside. For the hell of it, I checked dashcam, they only fired it up to loop around the five car parking lot to make it look like it was pulled inside.
@@Skorpeonismyrealname literally had the same problem with my bikes fuel pump assembly, the dealership (fyi it was yamaha) tried to charge me 1000 bucks to get it fixed, told me that everything was busted, i ordered the part online along with two wrenches for 30 total. about a month later i did replace the whole fuel system aside from the tank cus i was paranoid about a leak but that turned out to be just bull
I took my V8 4Runner into Toyota for grinding noises and/or slow crank on startup. Told them I thought it needed a new starter since at the time it was a 250K mile car. They had it for 4 hours, and called me to tell me they "took a look at the starter and could not replicate the problem", but recommended replacing the battery as it was old. "That'll be $300." Fine. Picked it up, same problem. Then I actually bothered to do research on that engine and it turns out that the starter is buried in the engine valley itself, and there's absolutely no way they could've taken the engine apart, "looked at" the starter", reassembled it, and tested it in the time they had it.
Bought a new starter from Toyota, took it to a friend's shop, and asked them to install it. Problem was gone. That dealer is either a bunch of idiots or a bunch of scam artists.
A relative of mine has a Vauxhall Zafira he brought second hand. Central locking system was completely shot none of the doors can be opened from either the buttons on the key or inside the car, and it's a 4-door 7-seater, so it's pretty annoying to have to finagle the handles from the inside and use the key instead of the button on the keyfob. Took it to a Vauxhall dealership, they said it was the door handle switch (???), so they replaced it, didn't do anything, and they said there was nothing they could do. We even had the car's CPU replaced with a known good one, it still doesn't work. Who knows whats going on lol, but apparently not the dealership.
Only 50 bucks? BMW dealership near me charges $250 just to look at a fault lmao
You angered the VW gods and they had their revenge
Idk, I feel like they should replace the coolant with urine and it will run perfectly.
Vws want abuse. If the dash isn't lit up like a Christmas tree something is major wrong.
friends don't let friends pay for VAG. Pretty junk.
The gods above had the last laugh, as VW is closing its factories in Germany and enters massive financial and production struggle.
VW has no gods
He keeps buying petrol Volkswagens and then says Euro cars are rubbish. It's barely better than getting a Fiat 126 and then saying that European cars are shit.
There's a reason why petrol VAG cars pretty much don't exist in Europe. They were rubbish. Though the diesels now are barely any better. Just avoid all cars made after 2011.
But I guess a diesel is worthless to him cause a car that never breaks is not good for producing content about it.
As a VW owner, I have a pre-diesel gate diesel. I really feel the pain. I absolutely hate how the system puts itself into limp mode whenever it gets a little trouble. I've driven American domestic cars that are half broken and they never put themselves into limp mode.
Pre-diesel gate VW Golf owner from Aus here. I had the same crappy limp mode and even poor/stuttery throttle response which ended up being the injectors. Had to get them all replaced for an absurb amount of money as the mechanic believed some "bad quality diesel" ruined them. Found out during the ordeal that there was a recall for injectors of my car but checking the recall history showed they were already replaced by VW, however the issue i experienced was exactly what was described in the recall.... So of course VW refused to look or pay.
Also a funny yet painful related side-note. I had some rattling recently while driving until suddenly my entire engine fell over on the right side (transmission side) while i was on the road. Found both bolts for that side completely sheered in two. I was told it's possible another mechanic removed them to order to replace the injectors, and apparently you cannot simply reuse these engine mount bolts and you need new ones whenever you touch them? I swear to all things Tony i get what sounds like some made-up bullcrap everytime something is wrong with the car... bought it back in the day for $10k, i think I've spent just over half that on various fixes. Pretty sure it's cursed so maybe needs to be donated for a good nogging. :V
There's a old saying about certain older GM or Chevy cars, they may run like crap, but they'll run like crap longer than other cars will run.
the virgin VW going into limp mode for a faulty canister purge solenoid vs. the chad Chevy with a transmission that doesn't go in reverse and is covered in Michigan Weight Reduction but still has all 4 forward speeds, the chad Dodge with enough lifter tick to make Big Ben blush, and the chad Ford with 6 of 10 spark plugs blown out but still running somehow on 4 cylinders despite being a V10.
@@lsswappedcessna Ha! I had a bad purge solenoid last year in my Dodge, it was hard to start after a fill-up and idled like crap at the stop lights, other than that the worst it did was illuminate my check engine light. What are they _doing_ in Germany these days?
Green 2002 Golf GTI. Intermittent misfires on all cylinders, rough idling, no power, to lean and too rich. The cat was clogged so exhaust couldn’t get out. The computer was trying to compensate which was causing the error codes and the misfires. My wife and I enjoy watching all of your channels and her favorite is the drum thing.
I love that James is running VCDS on a hospital medical tablet
*pirated VCDS lol
boohoo @@_DSch
We used to use Motion tablets where I worked for vehicle programming and diagnostics. They aren't specifically for medical, they're just rugged. Now we use Dell rugged tablets.
@@_DSch as he should, using pirated VCDS to diag a VW with weird issues is the true balkan mechanic experience
should be Widows XP
The washer on top of Tony is probably the most Garbage Time thing ever
LMAAOOOO YES
At the start of the video, in the background, lmao
Honestly, it's just the Polish car doing Polish things, my family told me stories about moving with the Fiat and strapping a sofa to the roof.
Considering James brought an arcade cabinet on his own Maluch, it's only natural the roof is used as a second trunk (roofunk?)
i didn't even see that, thanks for pointing it out cuz this is way too funny
James minecraft hospital computer!
8:10
Not a mechanic here but a mate had a simmilar problem on a similar engine (Audi A2).
Try unplugging the mass air sensor, so the car is forced to imagine the air-fuel-ratio. If the car has no data from the sensor it usually goes into a failsafe mode for air-fuel-mix.
If you replace the sensor sometimes it is necessary to program it into the car or the car needs to know that there is new sensor data to learn from.
Greetings from Germany
Parts guy here, Personally id check the O2 Sensors and the MAF/MAP, these both also adjust fuel ratios for performance/emissions.
Also a parts guy. If these are direct injected, the valves could just be covered in soot. Worth sticking a bore scope down the intake and having a look-see, if such things are possible on these overengineered turds.
@@lsswappedcessna definitely worth a look and a clean while you're in there, especially since this is TURBO'd.
we have a 1.2 tsi skoda. we were having limp mode issues, after months of searching, the problem turned out to be a wastegate actuator spacer washer. you can check it out there are posts on the internet.
also our number 3 ignition wire always goes bad, it is right on top of the engine
Something to hopefully help, but here in the US we don't get Polos, but we have to deal with the 2.0 Turbo in the golf's so take this with a grain of salt. But monitor the fuel pressure before and after you start it. Before you start it, there in an in take pump feeding that high pressure pump, I have seen many a VW run like crap because of that. And check it after it's running, most direct injection systems hold their pressure well after the vehicle shuts off. If the pressure bleeds off immediately after you shut the car off you have a leaky injector, if it takes it more than like 10-20 minutes you should be okay. After that I'd try to smoke yest the entire intake and PCV system to test for possible leaks
Gasoline smell in fresh oil is also dead giveaway
tbh it seems like they don’t know what they r doing. they r throwing parts at it without looking at the live data. i had a similar issue and it was leaky injectors. car didn’t hold fuel pressure after turning off.
No need to apologize for no uploads mate, you got a life after all! I'm always glad to see a new upload anytime
I'm working in a car repair shop and I've seen this issue multiple times. The most common fix turned out to be the throttle valve in the engine bay, next on the list is a throttle pedal.
Guys, I think your issue will be in the tank, being direct injection petrol its likely to have a lift pump which has a high and low mode for load and idle. If the pump is weak, it'll show in the low mode. I'd reccomend a new sender assembly in the tank and if it has an inline fuel filter. Throw that in, I've had issues near identical to this, also I base this idea on the small amount of fuel that was pumped into the bucket considering the amount of time it was cranked. It should have blasted into the bucket.
"nut lathe" on the adjustable wrench lmao
That was a joke strictly for the mechanics 😂
Swedish nut rounder
I know this is unrelated, but this channel has really reignited my love for cars, I finally decided to buy a crapbox 1999 audi a4 to project out, I just need to find myself a James, thank you Wade for creating the nuggetier I never knew I had in me
"Be the James you want to see in the world." - Dankhi
Me too, and I never had it in the first place. Sports cars have never interested me, I love these nugget actual driver cars though.
Love how James is using the medical tablet PC to diagnose cars, that is so clever, and he didn't even change the wallpaper!
My uncle had a similar issue and the garage eventually worked out that half the catalytic converter had collapsed
Ah VW's.... I cannot state how much I dislike anything from VW now days. I had a 2012 Skoda Fabia VRS, bought the thing for 14k with 52000KW on it. Looked after that car so damn well, did all the maintence it needed on it. Always on time with oil and did exactly what Skoda asked for me to do it.
After 4 years, the engine started knocking...at 105000k.... STAY AWAY FROM THE 1.4 TWIN CHARGE (Guess the 38PSI STOCK should of been a big enough warning 😭😭) Sold the thing for half of what I paid for it for 7.5k and I'll never touch another VW product again.
That and between dieselgate; yeah nah this company can go in the bin.
From what I sold that car for I got a 2003 Lexus GS300 with all options, and also got a 2004 Vy Holden Commodore Acclaim. I daily the Holden now and...I don't think I've ever appericated a car that's SO EASY to work on. That car is made for self repair! Two downsides though, everyone calls you a bogan and oml the fuel in the city.
No excuse for the knocking engine, but 7,5k depreciation in 4 years time isn't bad at all, is it?
My 2005 Ford did something similar to this over the summer right before my Throttle body completely gave up. It would work fine for ages, then it would throw a code, you'd clear it, it'd misbehave just a little bit. Check the air.
4:04 was, as a body repair guy at Volkswagen who just came home from work, pure pain. They put this in every vehicle I work on.
I can't help but think it's something like a perished vacuum line somewhere hidden. Im so glad my motorcycle has 4 carburettors not throttle bodies lol
There was some video a little while back with a 90s GM car and the crack in the rubber hose would suck in and open up under revs, but at idle it would completely disappear.
My experience with an audi:
Faulty lambda sensor, after code clear the fault would come back in over 50kms driven, passed emission inspection no problem, no change in performance after fixing it
Faulty intake flap, code would come back in 25-30kms driven, no change in performance, mechanic refurbished it
High fuel pressure once in a blue moon, no missfire or performance change, very rarely would it go into limp mode in under 1km driven, would turn off the turbo but after shutting off the engine and starting it back up no complaints from the car, right now probably +3 tanks in and didn't reoccur, can't afford going through sensors, injectors, hpfp, lines to fix something so insignificant, the limp mode is from a "pending" fault that goes away immediately after restarting the engine, so the car clears it every time
My mum has almost the same Polo, but with the 1.2 3-cylinder engine, which has never had any fault since 2012. To me, it’s like mum‘s Corolla in DankPods. Learned driving in it, did quite some roadtrips with it, and I just love it to bits. Not the fastest thing in the world, but its 70 hp are adequate. Good luck fixing your nugget, I’m sure the comment section has you sorted.
1:34 oh my god it’s the medical tablet things must be bad
James literally titled it’s video “The tablet for when you’re dying”
Well, what is a mechanic if not a car doctor? 😂
Euro cars man. When everything works, it’s a marvel of engineering. Seriously, the fact that any combustion engine runs is a little miracle, but when you have all these little parts intricately assembled into an awkward chassis, something about it is just really satisfying.
And then something breaks and you wish you had a Tony. I’m probably going to drive into the 2050s in a 2000s Corolla after wasting my money and energy in my 20s on a “cheap” early 2000s Merc. When it’s good it’s good, but when it’s bad… oh no.
My vote is on a leak somewhere. Mass Air Flow meter sounds about right, as mentioned by others.
Germans assemble! Let the Aussies hold our beers while we take 20 years to build an airport, another 3 for pandemic and 2 more to get there. Then we'll start fixing the car.
You say that but a cheap Fiat would be way more reliable than that vag garbage
Let's take a second to chat as mechanic to mechanic @ james,
How many mechanical components have you checked? I.e. compression, valve lash, timing (especially the advance system if it has it), leak down testing, vacuüm or evap system (smoke test), external emission test (lambda sensors) etc.
Also, always re-check if the work of the previous has been done correctly! Not every one is as bright, and the fact someone works for a dealership doesn't directly mean they're an expert. It always depends on the person if they do a good job or not. Not the company.
Then again, that many random fault codes could also be as simple as a bad battery f'ing up CAN signals (i've experienced this many times with BMW in particular)
Without propper diagnosis you can keep throwing money, but you always have to make sure the fundamentals are fine before spreading out the search area.
For example: I had a bike come in wich was running on 1 cylinder, but next time you started it up it was running like a dream on both. After compression testing found out it had 4 bar on #1, 14,5 on #2. Did a leakdown test, full blowby on #1, Cracked exhaust valve.
Just trying to say, it could be as simple as a faulty fuel cap, as bad as a cracked cylinder or a timing advance fault. Trying your luck on $100+ parts is not the way to go, you can change over 20 random parts with no difference or you can spend a day to diagnose all essentials for (basically) free in the hopes of finding a propper culprit.
Hope to get an answer or to be of any help, cheers guys! You always manage to put a smile on my face!😊
It is remarkable the bad luck you keep having with these VWs, I’ve been driving a thrashed 2015 Beetle that used to be a rental car and has 150k on it and it’s still going like a dream
Hahaha! What a great use for the "splash rated" hospital nugget!
I wonder if it will encounter biohazards more frequently now that it's being used in an environment that is {less frequently sanitzed but isn't "supposed" to see any} (instead of one that is {supposed to be sanitized regularly in the expectation that it will host many} ).
... and what fraction of those hazards encountered were/are lunch/dinner.
Now, it can very much be that you have a different problem. But my sister's Polo had similar issues once and it turned out that the turbo internals had torn themselves to shreds. Maybe it's something with that?
why would that interfere at low rpm though?
@@TheSupersilver12 yeah my thought as well, the turbos shouldn't even be spinning at low rpm right?
@@TheSupersilver12VTG
@@laluzdelsol7587on these tiny turbo engines a bad turbo can certainly cause these issues.
Well it's one thing I thought might help, the low RPM stuff was also kind of weird to me, but again, similar issues as my sister had
My mini, which I still have, had a very similar problem a couple years ago. Under 3300rpm it ran like garbage. With $7k in repairs and parts and no resolution I decided to have the ecu or dme, idk which one vw uses, flashed to a new unit. That fixed it. There’s a USA based company I sent all my cars brain stuff to and they took the info from that junk and put it on new-to-me junk. Work mint.
I see the problem here, it's a volkswagen. You know what volks stand for right? Fix it again Tony.
3:12 my last two cars use metal so thin, the hood flexes on the highway and it looks like it's half-open but it isn't. In the never-ending quest for lighter weight, perceived quality has taken a nosedive.
You are such a cool and nice friend!!! You fix peoples cars. You loan people cars. I wish I knew somebody like you in real life!!! The WORLD NEEDS MORE PEOPLE LIKE YOU AND JAMES!!! I Salute YOU!!!!
Off the top of my head, check your knock sensor(s). Wiring from the ecu to the various sensors for any damages or high/changing resistance. Vw has a tendency to have wires rub through against the loom protective casing and cause intermittent issues, even on newer cars.
In VCDS check if you can read injection quantity values for each of the cylinders while its running. If you can see IQ, that will give you an idea of whats going on with the engine fuel wise. For example my VAG 1.9tdi has issues with injectors, and my IQ deviation shown in vcds told me that as it is out of spec, but NO fault codes are posted! Rule out that first.
Then, look at spark plug gaps, make sure they are to spec, even brand new plugs come way out of wack at times, an improper gap can cause nightmares (my years fixing motorcycles taught me one important thing, make sure your gap is not too small!). Cheers all the way from South Africa (the home of the VW Polo)
Honestly, even if the issue is another problem (as people have noted, it's possibly carbon buildup on the intake), the lack of fault reports is making me suspicious of the sensors being up to snuff and/or a fault not being covered by an error code but obvious on actually looking at the sensor data. It's very easy for cables to get unseated just enough so that they still return data (and therefore, the ECU doesn't scream they're gone) but the numbers are off. Literally had this happen recently with by cable modem, the cable had unscrewed enough that my Mbs had dropped drastically, but the modem still thought it had a strong signal. Also, the sensors themselves should be checked, because I'm sure some of them are in areas where various Car Liquids(TM) live and can gunk them up.
Home of the Polo AND the Citi Golf. 😂 How times have changed.
I’m hoping my 2008 polo 1.6 petrol can last I’ve been needing to change the dsg fluid I really want to keep this care because it has no turbos
I work at a VAG shop and these engines have had problems with injectors getting clogged beacuase of carbon build up in the combustion chamber. same with the top of the intake valves, carbon build up and soot can cause them to not seal properly when closed. could be worth checking that out.
Might have to give it the "donkey van" treatment with a can of white smoke creator haha
I've had similar issue with my Passat. Some of the VW engines have second intercooler inside the engine which cools the air using water and mine was leaking, which made random misfires in each of the cylinders. It took the mechanics 3 weeks to figure this out.
It's really cool seeing James improve even more as a host or whatever you call it in this case, not that he was bad before, but ever since he started his own channel he's improved even more!
Could be a blocked air filter (Air Fuel Ratio) as low down it cant burn fuel but higher up the ECU notices the lack of air intake and makes it run lean
i don’t think that they are that dumb but if it’s that that would be insane
@random13627 worth a try at the end of the day it is a VAG so could be cheap wires as well on the ECU
@@random13627Sometimes the most brilliant troubleshooters can overlook the most simple causes.
@@random13627 It's not that they're dumb, it's just that you can't think of literally everything and sometimes you miss the obvious stuff.
This could be an airleak after the airflow meter, any air dragged in here isn't 'seen' by the ECU and so not compensated for and can lean the engine out causing rough running. As its a mechanical fault it may not to turn on the fault light and you can sometimes hear a 'hissing' noise with the engine running. Check the hose clips for tightness and inspect the trunking for any cracks or splits and also all the vacuum system, the small bore pipes and fittings for cracks and missing parts. Since it's running at such high pressure, leaks would have a more dramatic effect.
Could also be a timing belt tensioner problem, very common on these VW 1.2 TSIs
I love that James is using that dumpy hospital tablet PC for car diagnostics.
Check your battery connection from battery to starter and check ground . Had this problem in my Audi q7 and the problem was one of the wires were not connected properly
once happened in a 2.0 tsi tiguan, multiple misfires at low rpms. it was the pcv valve diapragm, you could remove the hose that goes from the pcv to the intake manifold and block the hole on the manifold side
0:12
“Adeptus Mechanicus explaining machine spirits to his apprentices”, colorized 40,000 ad
Homo Inmobilus
For the Omnissiah
They clearly aren't using the correct binaric hymns
Modern VAG cars have left a proper rotten taste in my mouth, would genuinely try out a Dacia at this point
Dacias are genuinely reliable though, VAG is anything but!
Dacia is just Renault tho
Good News!
@@hagridflower2907 Excactly, same reliability, half the price. Quarter the price with a Dacia
sounds like you don’t know how to change the oil, 104k on my cc hard miles just did the timing chains guides everything good for another 100k
If you haven’t already, try doing a vacuum test, those are pretty simple tests that will tell you quite a lot.
i love when james held up the car diagnostic program you can physically see him laugh at the term "vag number"
another day, another story that makes me glad that the issues ive had with my current 09 santa fe are things like "the trunk latch broke" and "the volume knob doesnt know which direction its turning"
Y'all built "an car" from the ground up, made a car run on pepsi, nutella, pilk, and eggnog, and did UNSPEAKABLE things to Tony. All ran fine (for a bit)
Yet this car simply refuses to run.
It does run. It's just limping
The radiator in the intake is the air to water intercooler. I would suggest taking the intake manifold to see if the intake runners are blocked with soot and gunge.
I'd check the MAF and the exhaust O2 sensor after the injectors. The ECU continuously calculates the amount of fuel needed to run at the right A/F ratio based on these two. That could explain why all cylinders are running rough together. Someone also mentioned air leaks in the air inlet piping. That's a valid check too as the amount of air seen by the MAF and the actual amount of air entering the engine would be different, screwing up the ECU's calculation again. Best of luck mate!
I had a 2006 Saturn Ion with a similar problem at idle rpm. It wasn't nearly this bad, but it had an O2 sensor fault code when I was driving it and definitely had some rough vibrations when slowing down, sometimes it would even stall even though it was an automatic. I could only imagine this or some air leak somewhere combined with a complicated af VW engine would make this a massive PITA to fix since any change in the AFR could make it run rich and lean at different points.
Mum had something similar on a 1.6 BLF Golf. Checked all the normal things but in the end, sent away the injectors for rebuild (Because cheaper than buying brand new) Refited then it ran perfectly after that and still does now.
My mate has a 2022 equinox with the same set-up. Tiny engine, tiny turbo, super fuel efficient. Had eeriely similar issues. Grumpy idle with no codes then all of a sudden limp mode. Clear it and it would be back to grumbles. Until one day it just wouldn't come out of limp mode. He had regular dealership visits the whole time. They eventually found out that the camshaft had snapped and it was running on 1 cylinder. The bearing cap finally let loose on the single running cylinder. Dealership ended up replacing the whole engine under warranty but it took 4 months from start of issue to eventual replacement
Cheers mate, I'm not even a car guy but always love the chaos and nonsense.
I had a Passat with the same issue, it's the O2 sensors, I had to replace 3 in total, pre turbo, post turbo and exhaust sensor. The weird part is that since the sensors weren't "dead" the codes never got thrown but from how it was behaving I had a hunch and replaced the first to solve the low rpm issue but then it would have trouble after 5 mins so I replaced the others and that got it going
As someone that has the same VAG frame based vehicle: check the connectors for the ecu and sensors for corrosion. Scrape em to reveal good contact and apply dielectric grease before reassembly.
Have a nice day!
This is why I love my 2006 Sentra nugget, bought in 2010 as a second owner. Been keeping maintenance on it and low mileage, only 89,800 miles
Ah polos such lovely cars, I own one too! (Slightly older similar mileage) It had timing chain issues and the previous owner broke things while fixing it and now I have it and it's leaking oil everywhere. GL and looking forward to the follow-up video!
I've had something very similar to this, misfiring on all 4 cylinders and very rumbly. Turns out the crankshaft position sensor was going bad, so it was only intermittently sending signal.
"7 minutes ago from Garbage Time" hell yeah, cought it right on time
You keep showing these VW's that I see on the road all day. In the state that these are in, I dread the state of the polo that's overtaking me doing 130 in a 100 zone.
what hes showing is unrealistic, the post 2015 1,2 tsi engine is very solid, i can find some here in germeny which have gone 300k kilometers, this one is just a shit example
@@keine_ahnung_wie_der_heisstin Australia people don't service Thier cars anywhere near the service schedule so they end up like this.
Alright, former AUDI tech here and I thought I'd chime in. As a Polo is basically just an A2, we can apply the same principles and those are telling me that your engine has no idea what's going on in terms of it's air/fuel ratio. What it is expecting to receive in air volume, is not actually being received by the cylinder and causing the ECU to allow the incorrect fuel mixture into the cylinder, this cyclic adjustment is causing both a "rich fuel mix" warning as well as a "lean fuel mix" warning. My first thought was your air flow meter. Check to see if there are any splits or cracks in the intake hose somewhere between the air mass meter (attached to the air filter enclosure) and the throttle body. this would account for all cylinders showing a misfire as well as the inconsistent power delivery. If the ECU gets enough conflicting information, it will do exactly what it did and go into limp mode. If no slits in the intake, check vacuum lines and finally operation of air mass meter lastly as it is an expensive part.
Obviously it just needs some eggnog, it’s been a rough 10 years…
2:24 ahhh, the car just wants to save fuel. It’s being good for the environment!
boop
Mass air flow meter?!
That's what I'm thinking. had my 04 leon cupra running horribly, misfiring, the whole lot and not showing any codes until I drove it enough to get it to show a MAF code
Me on MK3 golf GTi same and 2010 fox
Doesn’t have one, only a MAP sensor.
Those TSI models don't use MAF sensors, they all just check intake manifold absolute pressure (for vacuum and boost) and calculate off that. Might still be a lead, if something in the air system is wonky / leaky that may cause problems. My 1.4 had a turbo going downhill and always just showed Intake pressure over max and Intake pressure under min.
@@MartijnPeek does that not give off similar symptoms to a failing MAF sensor?
I'm going to gather all advices in the comments section, here it is :
It can be this, this and that sensor,
It can be any or all components of the fuel system, it could be the turbo.
So here's my take : it could be literally anything but like... Test first? Wdym it's not possible to test anything, no it's not, it just takes too much time? Require specialized equipment? With 5k in unnecessary replaced part and time you could probably buy half the specialized equipment already.
Evap Purge valve or back pressure from a clogged cat are my guesses
Can confirm, had a Polo with a repaired door and it sounded completely different to all the other doors
As revenge you should put tire sealant in the oil system. Assert dominance
My Volkswagen fox had similar issues would run ok at startup and absolutely fucked after 30 min at idle and higer revs. After trying everything it was the ignition coils (bombine in my language). The plastic was deteriorated and when the engine heated up to a certain point the contacts in There became intermittent. I hope this helps.
Poor Polo, it had the EggNog treatment from the seller
I love my LEAF so much. I have the next generation (SL+) and I can fit so MUCH GEAR inside. Full kit, guitarist's amp, merch AND my guitarist. You can also haul 10ft boards with the trunk/boot closed.
I couldn't be happier with it.
Besides the massive battery recall and I can't fast charge anymore.....
I love James using his weird hospital computer to check the codes.
Not a mechanic by any means but i found a few forum posts talking about carbon buildup causing misfires. I do know direct injection causes some pretty bad carbon buildup over time and cleaning it up might fix the problem. The mileage seems awfully low for that to be a problem but worth a try.
Rich on idle and lean while driving would point to something in fuel/air control.
I don't know these engines, but it boils back down to the old "suck/squeeze/bang/blow" adage.
If it's "drive by wire" with an electronic intake valve, it could be reacting slow or sticking.
If the turbo doesn't spool as it should or has an exhaust restriction, it could cause this (yes, the turbo spools and boosts almost 100% of the time it's running).
Just some thoughts...
I'd tell that : it's unmeasured air. Lean on idle, rich on throttle. It gets unmetered air when idling as intake manifold is neg pressure compared to atmospheric, and on throttle some of the air goes off this same hole out. It can also be intake valves / variable cams.
2:53 Wade swearing?
Yup.
He said “Volkswagen life” lulz
I had a similar problem but with the added symptoms of when the car went into limo mode it refused to go into gear and was effectively stuck in neutral (its a dsg auto)
Turned out to everyones surprise it was my throttle body position sensor giving false info. The gearbox relied on the throttle positioning to even attempt to shift at all so when it wasnt sending the right into the car would shudder, barely move and then go into limp/neutral and be stuck. Turning it off and on again would get you out of limp mode long enough to crawl into a driveway at idle.
1) excessive carbon buildup on the intake valves
2) mass airflow sensor (unplug to put in failsafe mode to test it)
I’d bet money on #1 though
Might be a shot in the dark, but perhaps the old fuel pressure sensor was bad but it adjusted to Account for it, now with the new sensor it is completely out of adjustment
Code clear and battery reset would fix that.
Love seeing james using the medical computer!
2:05 900 Bucks? big ripoff
The fact James is using the medical PC as a diagnostic computer is some cross channel continuity I was NOT ready for!
I had similar problems with my Subaru, ended up just being a mass airflow sensor🤷🏻♂️