Hi,

I bought a Polo GTi from a car supermarket called 'CarWorld' in Peterborough, along with the very poor service (AVOID AT ALL COSTS) after 5 months I had a major engine fault loss of compression in cylinder 2 due to a melted piston. I believe fuel has washed oil off the pistons which has made them overheat.

I believe I should be covered by the sales of goods act which states that if a fault occurs within the first 6 months liability falls to the seller. However, after paying for 2 inspections myself, confirming the garage is at fault and should have recognised this (apparently well known) fault before selling the car and they still won't pay.

The next step is financial ombudsman, if anyone could help shed some light on this or give any advice I would be eternally grateful as I currently am looking at a £5k bill for paying for the engine to be inspected, buying a new engine and having it fitted.

I am from Shrewsbury in the Midlands so any advice on where the best place to get this problem fixed, options if I have to stomp up the money myself (forged pistons, new engine, second hand engine) Engine Model is CAVE

Cheers Whitt

Did you get a warranty with the car? Was there any service history with the car and what is the mileage on the engine?

Did you run the car purely on V-Power or some other high octane fuel?

To be perfectly honest I don't see how the seller is at fault. Melted pistons can be caused by a number of things and after 5 months of driving the car it could have been caused by you not running it on the correct fuel for example.

The good news is lots of cars use that engine or some variant of it so finding parts shouldn't be a problem.

Full Service History With VW

1 lady owner

I was doing 50mpg so obviously wasn't thrashing it!

Used to run it on BP Ultimate

42,000 miles at point of failure

So far the cheapest option I think is bigger forged pistons due to the pistons scouring the block.

Any ideas on the best place to get these?

Is it the 2011 polo? May be within factory warranty if it was built in December 2011 (3 year/60,000 mile factory warranty) But I'm guessing it's just out of warranty.

Car super markets are shit though bought 1 car only to find out they lied about the number of owners and you can say bye to after care.

Edited 2 December, 201411 yr by vdoubleu

Yeah 2011 and yes out of warranty also

3rd Party Warranty won't look at it either

have a close look at the trade description act regarding car sales

42K with a full VW service history, I would be getting onto VW direct never mind "carworld"

I've just done a web search and it seems that you are not the only one to have problems (see Honest John, amongst others).

They are saying that the problem is down to high oil consumption, so are you sure that this piston failure of yours is in fact caused by 'petrol wash'?

As you have been getting good fuel consumption figures, I would have thought that to be unlikely.

It seems that they are putting the high oil consumption down to piston ring failure.

it looks to me also as if VW should be picking up on this, however, I believe that under consumer law, the person who sold you the goods is the one deemed to be responsible. Maybe you should try and get Car World on your side against VW.

I would also suggest that you have a word with the Trading Standards Department at your local Council, you may find if other people have had trading problems with Car World.

Regards

I have heard of a similar issue with VW's 2.0 turbo engine fitted to things like the Audi A4 etc. I know in those cases with those engines VW does foot the bill for a new engine as long as the car has done under a certain mileage, 60,000 springs to mind.

So maybe there is a similar scheme that goes on with the 1.4 engine in the Polo GTI. I would phone VW to check.

Did you notice the engine using any oil at all?

I must say this is the first case of engine failure I have heard of in the 1.4 Polo GTI. But looking online it does seem there is a number or reported cases with people getting replacement engines. Have VW built an engine more fragile than the old PY G40 lump?

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies,

In the final stages of a formal complaint against Car World, but they aren't taking any responsibility for anything, read a lot of other forum posts complaining about their customer service which is concerning.

Yes, it was using a lot of oil and had a fault with 2 of the piston rings coupled with washing the oil off the piston and lost complete compression in the cylinder so yes, probably a piston ring failure that lead onto an engine failure.

I'm currently looking at boring the block due to piston scoring the inside and custom forged pistons and rings etc to try and get the car back on the road, I'm getting the pistons from http://www.performanceunlimited.co.uk/ who order custom JE pistons from America on a regular basis this week.

Would it be a good idea to get a remap or change any other parts whilst this is going on? The engine is literally in pieces so this is the ideal time to do any work.

Thanks again, Whitt.

Surely vw should be involved - 42k and full vag history - shocking.