[shorya_10]

Dear BHPians,
I've been an avid fan of this forum since long, unfortunately could not participate as much as I would want.

I live in Pune, and have recently been provided a used 2016 Polo 1.2 Petrol Highline from my company, driven around 16700 kms when I got it. Showed the service being done at nearly 15000 kms.
So far I've driven it to 17300 kms.

The basics: engine, gearbox, clutch, brakes, cooling, steering and suspension etc seem fine, with expected noise and feedback as we read in Polo reveiws.

Below are some observations I have noticed that concern me, please let me know what you make of these. I think its better to have some feedback before I take it up to service, in case they charge me for unnecessary repairs.

1- As I crank the car, it makes a slight screeching sound right after the crank phase, as if coming from the engine starter. No sounds or issues as I begin to drive/shift gears. Feedback from the clutch, transmission and engine seem okay.

2- About 2 days back until now, the INSP message with the blinking spanner has come up. I noticed that the kms reading set during the service is now at zero kms, which was previously near 15000 kms. Is it possible that the car would need another service so soon after the previous one, or could there be a fault in the system?

3- Although there is no noise or fade from the brakes, I noticed a slight circular pattern on the discs. Since the brakes are working well I wonder if this is something that could happen naturally.

Please let me know how I can keep this baby rocking. I know that VW comes with a service premium bmand I hope that maintenance costs will be justified with the quality and rideability.

Any further tips on maintenance and general upkeep would be most welcome.

Thanks.
SS

[ManishSoni]

Mod note: Adding Para spacing for readability.

Ok, so here comes the first major niggle in 3.5 years ownership of Polo 1.5 TDI.

While driving from Gurgaon towards Delhi, I suddenly got the coolant light flashing in red. The car was serviced only a month back, so the first reaction was cursing the service center for not taking care. Pulled up near the petrol pump on the left and saw coolant dripping. The entire coolant container was emptied. Called up VW RSA to find out that it expired without any notification. ICICI insurance's RSA wasn't much help either. Finally arranged a pick-up van to take it to VW Gurgaon Service Center.

SA has said that it might be issue with cooler assembly and if so, it will be covered under extended warranty. If not, then it might be case of seal rupture, and will have to be paid.

He said they will have to make a deassembly video and warranty will be applied on the basis of video recording. I will keep the thread updated with outcomes.

Has anyone else faced similar issue before? What can this possibly be? The car was working perfectly ok, and I can't recall any impact to the car.

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by ManishSoni

Has anyone else faced similar issue before? What can this possibly be? The car was working perfectly ok, and I can't recall any impact to the car.

Any info or picture of where the coolant was dripping from?

Polo's have a bad design for the radiator which get damaged due to small impacts from the bottom. Basically made of plastic stuff which gives off. If the leak was from the front, around bumper area it mostly would be the radiator assembly leaking. Maybe even one of the hoses or loose clips of the system can cause such leaks.

How much has your car done (kms)?

[ManishSoni]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Any info or picture of where the coolant was dripping from?

Polo's have a bad design for the radiator which get damaged due to small impacts from the bottom. Basically made of plastic stuff which gives off. If the leak was from the front, around bumper area it mostly would be the radiator assembly leaking. Maybe even one of the hoses or loose clips of the system can cause such leaks.

How much has your car done (kms)?

It was deep inside so couldn't take pics, behind the radiator though. The SA mentioned that it is the assembly where coolant and engine oil both are flowing.
The car has done close to 60k in last 3 years.

[ManishSoni]

Update from the service center.

The SA called up and said that there's some issue with the cooler assembly, and they will change the entire unit under extended warranty. Someone from warranty team supposedly inspected the car and gave his approval. The tricky part starts now. As per the replacement required, they will have to fill the coolant afresh and will also change the engine oil. And, to my surprise, both of these will be charged to me. The service center attitude is like, you are getting the entire assembly worth 30k replaced under the warranty, however, the warranty is not applicable to consumable products such as oil, coolant, etc.
I shot back saying that I am not asking for warranty on consumables,but just that they should refill whatever is lost due to warranted part failure. The issue isn't resolved at Gurgaon VW service, and it seems will need to be escalated to VW.

[KkVaidya]

Originally Posted by ManishSoni

Update from the service center.

I shot back saying that I am not asking for warranty on consumables,but just that they should refill whatever is lost due to warranted part failure. The issue isn't resolved at Gurgaon VW service, and it seems will need to be escalated to VW.

Ask them to put the same oil and coolant back. If you had recently replaced both, no problems in putting it back again

[sankdadevil]

Originally Posted by mishraak

Hi,

Finally the TB has got replaced, the car now feels smoother with better throttle response. Noise also feels somewhat reduced.

It took one full day for them to fix the same as their computer was down from Pune. but all is well that ends well.

Another problem has been told about by the SA, he says gearbox side mount is not ok and is giving some chuk chuk noise on cold starts and jerks. It too has been backordered and the again would take upto 20 days to arrive. Anyways.

Also while getting the delivery of the car, I met a couple of other customers who were facing the same TB problem and were also taking delivery after the reinstall. If VW are aware of the fact, shouldn't they be stocking the TB at dealer for immediate response to the customer.

SA says we can not order/replace the TB until the MIL light comes upon even if you are facing engine harshness.

One thing worth mentioning that I was given an invoice for 23 thousand something and interesting part was it was billed to VW Group Sales Ind P Ltd and my details were mentioned below the complete customer address (which ofcourse was some VW Andheri address) just like remarks. Likely that dealer is paying for the part intially and VW is reimbursing them, I may be totally wrong though.

Apologies for picking an old discussion. I have been asked by VW service to get my throttle body replaced. Hence wanted to confirm with experts what are my options.



The vehicle, VW Polo - 1.2 Petrol purchased in 2012, has been running fine till about 3 months back when it lighted up Check-Engine light. On visit to service center I was informed that the wiring harness needs to be worked upon to replace a Silver wire with a Golden one.



A few weeks back EPC light started lighting up randomly. On turning the ignition off and on, it would disappear. Reappearance is totally random, at times once in a day other times once after 2-3 days. There are no other symptoms usually associated with Throttle Body problem. No jerking, no issues in pick-up, no unusual vibrations, no unusual noise. Even with the EPC light on, there is no throttling i.e. I can still drive upwards of 3000 RPM and over 80KMpH.


I was wondering what should be the next line of action. Service center is advising a replacement of Throttle Body with a price tag of approx. INR 35,000/- As per "mishraak" above, there was a campaign for replacing faulty Throttle Body for manufacturing defects. Is that campaign still valid? If replacement is the only option, what can be done to bring down the cost of such replacement? Any ideas/suggestions

[Ketan T]

Originally Posted by sankdadevil

Apologies for picking an old discussion. I have been asked by VW service to get my throttle body replaced. Hence wanted to confirm with experts what are my options.



The vehicle, VW Polo - 1.2 Petrol purchased in 2012, has been running fine till about 3 months back when it lighted up Check-Engine light. On visit to service center I was informed that the wiring harness needs to be worked upon to replace a Silver wire with a Golden one.



A few weeks back EPC light started lighting up randomly. On turning the ignition off and on, it would disappear. Reappearance is totally random, at times once in a day other times once after 2-3 days. There are no other symptoms usually associated with Throttle Body problem. No jerking, no issues in pick-up, no unusual vibrations, no unusual noise. Even with the EPC light on, there is no throttling i.e. I can still drive upwards of 3000 RPM and over 80KMpH.


I was wondering what should be the next line of action. Service center is advising a replacement of Throttle Body with a price tag of approx. INR 35,000/- As per "mishraak" above, there was a campaign for replacing faulty Throttle Body for manufacturing defects. Is that campaign still valid? If replacement is the only option, what can be done to bring down the cost of such replacement? Any ideas/suggestions

I have been facing this engine light issue over a year now. I own a 2013 Polo petrol MPI. The VW SA here told me to ignore the light if the car drives and feels normal. So I ignore it as the car runs fine. It goes off on its own. I also have OBD2 scanner, use Torque app to clear the error. I am not sure about 35k for throttle body. I think you can also get it cleaned.

Hope this helps.

[mishraak]

Originally Posted by sankdadevil

Apologies for picking an old discussion. I have been asked by VW service to get my throttle body replaced. Hence wanted to confirm with experts what are my options.



The vehicle, VW Polo - 1.2 Petrol purchased in 2012, has been running fine till about 3 months back when it lighted up Check-Engine light. On visit to service center I was informed that the wiring harness needs to be worked upon to replace a Silver wire with a Golden one.



A few weeks back EPC light started lighting up randomly. On turning the ignition off and on, it would disappear. Reappearance is totally random, at times once in a day other times once after 2-3 days. There are no other symptoms usually associated with Throttle Body problem. No jerking, no issues in pick-up, no unusual vibrations, no unusual noise. Even with the EPC light on, there is no throttling i.e. I can still drive upwards of 3000 RPM and over 80KMpH.


I was wondering what should be the next line of action. Service center is advising a replacement of Throttle Body with a price tag of approx. INR 35,000/- As per "mishraak" above, there was a campaign for replacing faulty Throttle Body for manufacturing defects. Is that campaign still valid? If replacement is the only option, what can be done to bring down the cost of such replacement? Any ideas/suggestions

I still got CEL twice after that and while checking with OBDELEVEN tool it says some problem with throttle body. VW will not replace the TB being out of warranty. I have good repo with my SA and he advised against going for the replacement again. He just opened the TB and cleaned the butterfly valve inside and reset the error with VAS computer. Thats it.

Its an issue with that particular batch of Polo MPIs with no solution other than to clean it. It's a half hour job for them. Nothing to worry about, get it cleaned and you are good to go for another 15-20000 kms or more. Car will drive much smoother, you will feel the difference immediately.

[sankdadevil]

Thanks to guidance from @comfortablynumb I had a word with my SA and reasoned with him to thoroughly clean the Throttle Body. He agreed and kept my car for one more day to test. The EPC light didn't come up again in their testing. Since receiving the car back, the EPC light has not come up yet. Fingers Crossed!

Originally Posted by mishraak

Car will drive much smoother, you will feel the difference immediately.

Absolutely true. The car drives as if new. The silver lining

[Ambersariya87]

I own a 1.2 MPI Polo 2012 model. Of the late I realised that even if central locking is on, the rear doors can be opened from inside. Now I know that it is true for front doors as a safety mechanism, I was sure that the same doesn't apply to rear door. I admit that I never checked that until my 1.5 yr old son reached out to the door opening lever ( while being secured on a car seat) and pulled it. To my wife's horror the rear door opened.

Now this has come to me as a shock as my wife usually picks my son alone in evening from day care and this incident has scared her a lot.

I haven't taken my car to any service centre yet and thought of checking online if it's as designed or not.

[msiva75]

@Ambersariya87

Rear doors also open from inside though central locking on. You need to use child locking for rear doors if kids are traveling.

[vineet1712]

Experts,
I own 2012 Vento TDI highline and got my 85K service done which costed around 11K and additional 3K for some AC parts.
Major problem was with complete assembly of front shockers, disk brake, pads, link rod, bush,mounts etc. My car was making squeaking noise whenever I go over a bump and it was getting irritating. I have taken my car today to Go Mechanic and got an estimation of 38K for replacing everything with OEM part and rates are including labor.

Please suggest if you think estimation make sense.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by vineet1712

Experts,
I own 2012 Vento TDI highline and got my 85K service done which costed around 11K and additional 3K for some AC parts.
Major problem was with complete assembly of front shockers, disk brake, pads, link rod, bush,mounts etc. My car was making squeaking noise whenever I go over a bump and it was getting irritating. I have taken my car today to Go Mechanic and got an estimation of 38K for replacing everything with OEM part and rates are including labor.

Please suggest if you think estimation make sense.

Would it not make more sense to try and pinpoint the root cause of the squeaking noise first before replacing everything? I would like to understand what is squeaking. I can think of an almost endless list of causes that might cost next to nothing to fix.

Good luck

Jeroen

[KkVaidya]

Originally Posted by vineet1712

Experts,
I own 2012 Vento TDI highline and got my 85K service done which costed around 11K and additional 3K for some AC parts.
Major problem was with complete assembly of front shockers, disk brake, pads, link rod, bush,mounts etc. My car was making squeaking noise whenever I go over a bump and it was getting irritating. I have taken my car today to Go Mechanic and got an estimation of 38K for replacing everything with OEM part and rates are including labor.

Please suggest if you think estimation make sense.

I got all 4 shocks, springs, Discs, Pads, Steering Linkage etc replaced along with complete clutch overhaul last month during my 85k service. I paid around Rs. 65,000 for this. The only thing I wanted was to be sure of the parts replaced (i got all the old parts back) and work being carried out as per SOP.