Juddery symptoms/no power with gf's new Polo

[matth76 0]

Hi

 

My gf has a new (53 reg) 1.2 polo (not a vr6 I know but someone on here may know what the following problem could be). Today the "exhaust emissions warning" light started flashing and the car is all juddery... at idle and at speeds up to 60. Above that it gets smoother. The exhaust vibrates a lot. The car has absolutely no oomph like it used to. Any ideas? I suspect it could be the MAF or lambda sensor/oxygen sensor...if it has either. It certainly seems to be some kind of sensor related problem. Could possibly be a vacuum leak but unlikely or something to do with the cat. Car was running fine until today.

 

Going to ring round some local garages to see if they can put it on vag com and do a diagnostics check. They should do it for free (as its a two min job) but knowing the garages round here I doubt it...vw main dealers are even worse. Anyway if anyone knows what the problem might be or has seen this happen before this will arm my gf with some "knowledge and ammunition" when she goes to the garages to see what they say.

 

No warranty left unfortunately. Car had done approx 45k miles.

 

Cheers for any help.

 

Matt

[CazzaVR 0]

Sounds like the lambda...

[matth76 0]

Thanks for your reply. Car is drivable but just drives like a tractor. gf needs car to get to work. Main question is will continuing to drive it cause any damage or make it worse?

[CazzaVR 0]

Prob best not to drive it too much once the engine light has come on, and there's clearly something wrong. Get it on Vagcom asap.

[Roger Blassberg 0]

If it is overfueling, the cat won't like it and the oil in the bores is being washed off with petrol. If it is underfueling you risk damaging the pistons through overheating/detonation at higher engine speeds.

 

Best wishes

 

RB