Poorly TFSI vRS

[Stu08]

Hi everyone,

Driving my car home tonight, gave it some throttle and it missed slightly. Odd I thought so Tried again, car held back and misfired. Yellow exhaust emissions light flashed on the dashboard. I limped the car home a mile with the light flashing.

Car is mapped with a custom exhaust fitted. Any ideas?

Thanks for any info.

[Kuka]

I'd have a guess at an ignition coil but would need it to be scanned to be honest pal.

[robertwaite]

As above most likely a coil pack gone. Call out the aa or rac and they will be able to scan it and tell you which cylinder. They normally carry one with them as they go all the time. Cost about £30.

[mr_awol]

Hopefully ignition coil - if not then hopefully injector.

REALLY hope you don't have the carbon deposit problem I had - unless you have a spare £2k laying around that is.......

[Stu08]

Thanks for the info guys, only had the car 3 weeks.

Very worried that it may be the cam follower? Typically I have it booked in to be done Monday. No history of it ever being changed, car on 95k.

Mapped 2 weeks ago. Car has behaved oddly of late. First and second gear have felt flat, like the car isn't giving it all it has.

Third gear has been impressive since the map. However, it had a mind of its own today. One minute third felt flat under full load. Next minute it feels rapid?!

Slight burning (hot) smell when I opened the bonnet?

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

[martziniuk]

The burning smell could be a coil pack burning out. There is a recall on coils on some older vrs's so get your VIN checked with Skoda and you may get 4 new coils.

[Stu08]

Cheers for the responses guys.

Phoned Skoda and they said my car needed to be recalled due to ignition coil pack fault. However, they cannot do it for a week and my car is barely drivable! No way am I going to try and drive it up NSL roads to get there.

Also the fact the car has been mapped makes me feel if they did get hold of it to do the FOC repair, it would be found to be mapped and the repair stopped.

Bitten the bullet and paid for 4 new coils and spark plugs. My mate who is a mechanic is coming over to do the work for me. Hopefully it is the coils.

[Grizzle]

Coils are so easy to change, if i can do it anyone can, the hardest part is removing the engine cover.

[vrs777]

As above, soooo easy to change yourself. The cover is the hardest part and yes the problem will be your coil packs.

[Stu08]

Haha, you guys are right! The engine cover was the trickiest part of the job!

Coils changed along with spark plugs. The plugs looked original! So much for FSH!!

Put it back together and back to normal! Very happy.

Thank-you to everyone for the advice and info.

[Kuka]

Good stuff pal, glad you got it sorted.

[Wardy]

Glad you're sorted. Did you swap all of the packs out? And hopefully you got some later revision ones which tend to be a bit more reliable.

Had one on my old vRS start to smoulder, when I stopped after seeing similar symptoms to you. Not fun!

[Stu08]

Wow! Mine weren't that bad.

It's funny how the coil packs can fail so dramatically. My first thoughts were cam follower failure, or coked up valves. Really felt terrible!

All 4 coil packs were replaced along with all plugs. Figured it would be best to change the lot whilst there.

[Wardy]

Yep, not sure how it managed to fail that badly! Thought the engine bay was going to go up in smoke at the time....

Right call swapping them all out - do you know what revision the ones fitted were, and what went in?

[Chappers.]

Coil packs do seem to be a weakness on more modern petrol engines - the BMW 120i that I had before the vRS had two sets of (revised) coil packs in my 7 months of ownership. Thankfully the work was done under recall & warranty but certainly gave me concern for long term ownership.

[Wardy]

Definitely agree. Thought they might have solved them on the vRS Mk2 but obviously not!

[Stu08]

I'll take a look when I get home tonight which ones they are.

Having read a few stories about new revised coil packs failing, I decided to try another brand of coil pack. If they aren't up to the job I'll try VAG coils.

[blueR36]

The dealerwould have replaced no problem as mine is mapped and mine went the day after rhetorically recall.Done next day.

[VRSerious]

Same here on the remapped front, no issue, they just replaced them

[Stu08]

Thanks guys.

I'm going to see if I can get reimbursement for the cost of parts. I work full time and am currently doing a full time degree in Oxford. Having my car off the road for a week wasn't an option. Also, the car was not driveable, and would of required the RAC to take my car to the garage.

[brucey1]

I suffered a failed coil pack this morning , got it replaced today all seemed well for a while ! On the way home floored it when accelerating on to motorway the car miss fired at 2000 rpm then again at 2500 . Not sure if this is the new pack is faulty or another one is ready to go !

Edited 12 December, 2012 by brucey1

[vrs777]

I suffered a failed coil pack this morning , got it replaced today all seemed well for a while ! On the way home floored it when accelerating on to motorway the car miss fired at 2000 rpm then again at 2500 . Not sure if this good be the new pack is faulty or another one is ready to go !

Replace all 4 together, one fails and then seems to make the others fail very soon after.

[vrs777]

Haha, you guys are right! The engine cover was the trickiest part of the job!

Coils changed along with spark plugs. The plugs looked original! So much for FSH!!

Put it back together and back to normal! Very happy.

Thank-you to everyone for the advice and info.

The plugs may be original, they are good for 60K. So may of not been changed or just changed once.

Edited 12 December, 2012 by vrs777

[mr_awol]

I suffered a failed coil pack this morning , got it replaced today all seemed well for a while ! On the way home floored it when accelerating on to motorway the car miss fired at 2000 rpm then again at 2500 . Not sure if this is the new pack is faulty or another one is ready to go !

Did you have rhe coil pack (ie all four) replaced or a single coil? if just one, ask the garage which coil they replaced (one garage I used forgot, which was unhelpful) and get them to re-scan the car to see if the misfire is on the same cylinder. If it is a different cylinder, you need another new coil.

If it is the same cylinder or a whole new pack was fitted, get tem to swap the coil from the misfiring cylinder with one of he others. If the misfire follows the coil, it is faulty and you deserve a free replacement. If the misfire stays on the same cylinder then it probably wasn't the coil in the first place.

[brucey1]

It was only one pack on cylinder number one , I am going back in on Friday to pay the bill so will mention it then . I am now checking my service history to see if the recall has been done on my car , hoping it hasnt been so I can get the lot done free !