2001 VW Polo Playa Loss of power/vibrating engine

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Karmado Green
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2001 VW Polo Playa Loss of power/vibrating engine

Post by Karmado Green »

Hi All

guys I need help with my car, I drive a 2001 polo playa 1.4i that I bought 3months ago and for the first few weeks it was diving perfectly before it started to loose power when changing to higher gears and when going up slopes even gears 2 and 1 struggled. I changed the spark plugs and fuel filter but nothing changed so I drove like that for 3 weeks little did I know that I'm burning my clutch in the process so I had to replace it too but still no power, then the following day I took it to a guy who owns the same model car and he adjusted the distributor and BOOM!! the power was back but it started shaking roughly at low speeds around 20km p/h. The joy lasted for a week and 1/2 the power dropped rapidly and sometime the car wouldn't start at all so I called in a mechanic he did the timing and the car was able to start but the car was shaking still and holding back so I replaced the radiator cap and plugs the car worked perfectly like nothing ever happened but only for one week now I'm stuck again

please help guys, I know its a long story I lost hope now maybe someone might spark some solution

thanks in advance
cappel76
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Location: Centurion

Re: 2001 VW Polo Playa Loss of power/vibrating engine

Post by cappel76 »

Hi
I had the same problem with my vw touran 1.4 tsi.
Now EPC and engine light is on.
Car got towed to VW and they say there low compression and they need to unpack the engine to determine if it is valves.
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missioner
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Car Make: VW
Car Model: '87 MK1 Golf Citi

Re: 2001 VW Polo Playa Loss of power/vibrating engine

Post by missioner »

Have a compression test done.

It's likely you have a broken engine.

Lack of power and shaking engine means that it's misfiring. There are many reasons for this and some are not serious. Others are bad though and will result in expensive engine repairs.

It may be possible that the previous owner knew about the problem and sold the car to avoid fixing it.
'87 Golf 1 Olde Skewl OEM+
Karmado Green
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Re: 2001 VW Polo Playa Loss of power/vibrating engine

Post by Karmado Green »

cappel76 wrote:Hi
I had the same problem with my vw touran 1.4 tsi.
Now EPC and engine light is on.
Car got towed to VW and they say there low compression and they need to unpack the engine to determine if it is valves.
Hi Capprl76 did they get your car fixed?
Karmado Green
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Re: 2001 VW Polo Playa Loss of power/vibrating engine

Post by Karmado Green »

missioner wrote:Have a compression test done.

It's likely you have a broken engine.

Lack of power and shaking engine means that it's misfiring. There are many reasons for this and some are not serious. Others are bad though and will result in expensive engine repairs.

It may be possible that the previous owner knew about the problem and sold the car to avoid fixing it.
Hi thank you for the advise much appreciated, I also believe so too when u say maybe the seller knew the car was faulty coz it didn't take long for it to breakdown after I bought it
Karmado Green
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Re: 2001 VW Polo Playa Loss of power/vibrating engine

Post by Karmado Green »

One other thing, can the wrong type of plugs cause the engine not to ignite? coz I just bought two sets of bosch recently and they just turn black on the electrode after I tried them and there is no sign that they even distributed the spark. One friend told me this car has an electronic ignition system and there is a specific type of plug for that.... could that be one of the problems maybe?
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