Hi Guys,

Okay, a bit of background. Got a MK3 1.0 Polo. Went away on holiday start of October, car was working fine, pretty much 100%. Came back 3 weeks later and stereo is not working (3rd party JVC unit, not the original) and car has a habit of cutting out generally when moving off from standstill at junctions even after a 5 mile run. Also some sputtering of the engine in all gears.

I've been reading up on the possible issues and the cutting out could be a fuel pump relay problem, though it could be air fuel mix or fuel filter issue or something else related to the fuel system.

It seems a coincidence that the radio and the engine/fuel pump relay problems have come about at the same time. Could this be a fuse issue in the main fuse box? I've checked the relevant radio fuse under the dashboard and it doesn't appear to be fried.

Any thoughts? Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Edited 19 November, 201411 yr by mazza

Welcome to the Forum.

Is there power to the radio? If so, the problem could be aerial or speaker connection related.

If the car is anything like due for a FULL service, this alone may be the answer to the cutting out/lack of power problem.

A couple of suggestions:

(1) Buy a tin of 'carb cleaner' ( from Halfords etc.) use this to clean the throttle body (TB) - a small brush will help with this. After cleaning the inside of the TB, there will be some unusual exhaust smoke, but this will quickly clear.

(2) Get any fault codes read - It is best to clear (delete) any codes that are found, as these may be obsolete ones, which, if you take notice of, can lead you well and truly 'up the garden path'!

After clearing any fault codes, run the car for a couple of days (or so) driving it as you normally would.

After this period, get the codes re checked, any that show up at this stage, will probably point you to the engine problem.

Note. Not all problems throw up a fault code, so in the absence of any at the second check, come back to us, and we will have another stab at this problem with you.

Regards.

Hey Caretakerplus,

Thanks for the welcome and the quick response and advice. I'm going to take the car to someone with a diagnostic box soon and hopefully they can sort the thing out for me. A couple of other things need checking over on the car as well.

The engine hasn't cut out on me for the last 4 days, so it seems a very intermittent and random problem at the moment.