27 minutes ago, Wino said:

 

Sit down before you get the answer.

 

 

 

 

Jesus that’s about double what I expected. I think I’ll find a 1.8 donor car lol. But in all seriousness I hope the break is easy to find now lol.

Injector wiring is simple enough. Red/yellow wire of each injector is connected to all the others, so disconnect all 3 loom plugs then continuity test each pin 1 to its neighbours while gently pulling and wiggling.

Each of the other wires goes straight to an engine ECU pin, numbers as shown here:

 

Edited 29 May, 20197 yr by Wino

@Wino the ECUs pins being 88, 87 and 85? Don’t suppose you know where I can get a diagram for the ECU connector do you?

 

Did have some fun earlier had a incident with a recently new coil pack having come apart whilst it was in the car. Just keeps getting better.

5 minutes ago, mikey362 said:

the ECUs pins being 88, 87 and 85

Yep.

Should be marked on the plastic of the connector, but this is the layout according to the WD.

 

Much appreciated wino. Now I’ve finished the decking on our back garden I’m back on to the car lol

Soooooo did the continuity test and everything is fine for those connections although the age of this car is showing as pretty much every plastic clip I touched broke!

 

I did find another air leak which I have fixed and I am hoping that will help but I’m now wondering if it could be the timing is out? Just by a tooth or something daft enough to effect it at idle but not at like 1600 rpm and above?

 

 

Have a look at this page: http://pmmonline.co.uk/technical/timing-chain-replacement-vw-polo/

It shows how to check the timing on the 6-valve engine. Not easy without the locking tools, but if you can get No.1 cylinder to TDC on the compression stroke by putting something down the spark plug hole and rotating the engine in the normal direction until that 'something' is highest; then remove the cam sensor as shown in the early pictures, looking for that cam slot to be central within the hole (such that the locking tool would fit if you had one. If there's no sign of the slot in the cam, rotate the crank another 360° and have another look.

 

One tooth out on the cam sprocket is 10° (there are 36 teeth) so should be reasonably obvious I think.  Not sure how easy it is to find TDC on the 6-valve engines though, probably a lot trickier than on the 12-valvers where the spark plug holes go straight down vertically.

 

Edit: Quick look on ebay suggests you can acquire a set of the locking tools pretty damn cheaply these days, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Engine-Setting-Locking-Timing-Tool-Kit-For-VW-Polo-Fox-Seat-Ibiza-1-2-6V-12V-/391821968761

But the crank sensor is a pain to get to, even to see...

 

 

Edited 4 June, 20197 yr by Wino

Thanks wino, I’ve already read that through link as I’ve been researching it this morning/afternoon.

 

I think the chain will want doing sooner or later as there is no history of it ever being changed and we have just reached 85k miles. That said I dont actually know when it is recommended to be done lol.

 

whilst I was doing the continuity test I unplugged everything I could get and cleaned all the plugs and connections (the engine bay itself is very dirty) and it hasn’t actually done it again and I’ve been out on two runs so far. Fingers crossed it’s sorted itself out lol

Vac leak could've been all that was wrong.

Chain is in theory maintenance free for the life of the engine.  

Ours has done about twice the miles yours has, so I wouldn't worry about that unless you know that oil changes have been neglected in its past.

@Wino looks like it’s actually burnt valve.

 

Looking at this kit to replace all the valves, stem seals etc https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F173276210487

 

obviously I’ll be taking the head to a machinist to have the seats ground and seals fitted etc as I’ve no idea when it comes to that kind of stuff.

 

had a couple of quotes from garages at £750 and £850 😦

It would be good idea to change the cam chain as well while you have it in bits.

36 minutes ago, mikey362 said:

@Wino looks like it’s actually burnt valve.

 

I have to admit, I was afraid of that from the start of this thread, as it's such a common failure on these engines.

Is the car really worth repairing?

Well we’ve got a Fabia 2 Monte Carlo aswell now so it’s not like I’ve got to do it in a rush. But to be honest not much else can go wrong with it. 

 

Its got pretty much new suspension the entire way round. Aswell as new coils, breather pipes, filters, it’s had a proper service, new discs and and pads and so on. The body work is still in pretty good condition bar a few scratches.

 

we need two cars and by September when I go back to uni and paying for the kit and for someone to do the machine work etc is going to be cheaper than another car and I know this one. 

 

I suppose im in to it this far I may aswell fix this. I really need it to last the next two to three years whilst I finish uni and find a job.

 

Logically it probably doesn’t make sense but I’d rather fix it and know my car then spend 1k on another cheap used car and it go wrong anyway 

Edited 11 June, 20197 yr by mikey362
Justifying this repair to myself lol

55 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

It would be good idea to change the cam chain as well while you have it in bits.

 

@sepulchrave Yes thought about that and possibly the water pump? 

8 minutes ago, mikey362 said:

it’s not like I’ve got to do it in a rush

 

Ah, OK, I had the impression from the garage quotes that you were thinking of getting it done professionally, at those scary prices.

If you can do all but the head refurb/machine shop bit yourself, absolutely, go for it. I would.

I probably will if/when ours needs similar treatment.

The repair kits were awesome VFM when these were failing under warranty. About £600 and you got a brand new cylinder head, manifold/cat, timing chain kit and all the sealers and bolts and washers.

 

If they weren't special order per VIN we would have got loads in for stock.

@Wino I’m at a point now where I’ll check with a garage and if I deem it reasonable I’ll be like yeah saves me hassle but when I can save literally hundreds then I’m like errrrrm no I think I’ll do it.

 

I’ve just started digging out the front garden ready to put a drive in so it’ll be at least a month till I start it anyway I’m just hoping it squeezes through the MOT as it is so I can keep using it till I’m ready.

 

@Tech1e can you still get that kit? Depending how much it costs to get the machine work done as I can’t do the stem seals it might be easier/faster if the the head is already assembled.

Stem seals are easy, it's the valve guides that are trickier.

Edited 11 June, 20197 yr by Wino

7 minutes ago, mikey362 said:

 

@Tech1e can you still get that kit? Depending how much it costs to get the machine work done as I can’t do the stem seals it might be easier/faster if the the head is already assembled.

 

Nah, was a warranty kit. Years out of warranty now.

 

Valve seats were tricky to sort out as well as the guides.

Meant valve guides haha! I can seat the valves, done that on several classic mini cylinder heads lol. The rubber stem seals shouldn’t be too tricky but the guides I’ve never done and don’t fancy messing it up.

 

there are a few places fairly close by that recondition cylinder heads for all manner of vehicles so im probably going to make some phone calls tomorrow.

 

Im up to £225 in parts including the head kit, timing chain kit and water pump just because.

Don’t know if anyone is interested but I’ve got a price to have the head fully refurbished, cleaned, new inlet and outlet valves, stem seals, head bolts  and guides for £220.

 

which I’m actually pretty pleased with so I better get on with building the drive so I’ve got some where to do it lol 

1 minute ago, mikey362 said:

Don’t know if anyone is interested but I’ve got a price to have the head fully refurbished, cleaned, new inlet and outlet valves, stem seals, head bolts  and guides for £220.

 

which I’m actually pretty pleased with so I better get on with building the drive so I’ve got some where to do it lol 

 

At that price I'd just crack on and rip the head off the car wherever it's parked before the engineer changes his mind!

 

You can build the drive while you're waiting for the head to be done.

I’d debate it but it would need to go back on all 4 wheels whilst the head is been done so it can be moved if needed. 

 

But without the head on I’m not sure how safe the top engine mount would be to support the engine so leaves me abit stuck. 

1 hour ago, mikey362 said:

I’d debate it but it would need to go back on all 4 wheels whilst the head is been done so it can be moved if needed. 

 

But without the head on I’m not sure how safe the top engine mount would be to support the engine so leaves me abit stuck. 

 

The head comes off from the top of the engine leaving everything else in the engine bay, you don't need to remove the wheels and engine mounts to get the head off and take it for a rebuild. You'll need access if you're replacing the cam chain but that's at the end of the job, not the start.

19 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

 

The head comes off from the top of the engine leaving everything else in the engine bay, you don't need to remove the wheels and engine mounts to get the head off and take it for a rebuild. You'll need access if you're replacing the cam chain but that's at the end of the job, not the start.

 

The engine mounting bolts to the timing case, the timing case has to come off to get the cylinder head off.