Hi all,

my 1.4 8v polo (AEX) is having some odd issues, they’re not much of a problem at the moment but want to nip anything in the bud.

90% of the time it idles fine but occasionally it’ll idle at a noticeable higher speed for 10-20 seconds and then drop down to a near stall before stabilising again.

Recently I’ve also noticed that sometimes if I stall the car it’ll be very sluggish to start again, struggling at about 500rpm until I give it some throttle, it’ll run fine again after that.

I’m wondering if this has anything to do with the temp sensor? It seems to heat up fine and show on the gauge but the gauge has never, ever moved past about 90, even on 5+ hour motorway trips.

 

my other thought was the PCV valve? I often get a very oily petrol smell when stationary with the blowers on, and there’s a fair coating of oil in the air box.(level has never noticeably dropped while I’ve owned the car however)

 

Any idea what I can do to test all these, should I even be worried? 

Cheers

I would start with the temp sensor, the gauge indications are not the same signal as the engine ECU uses, and the gauge will always display 90c for an actual temp between 75c & 105c Only replace the sensor with a genuine spare, not a patern part from the likes of Eurocarparts or GSF as the quality is questionable at best !! 

 

Depending on the mileage the air/oil seperator box under the inlet manifold might benefit from a clean out & when was the pollen filter last replaced ? as that might be allowing more fumes into the cabin.

Cheers i'll check the oil separator for now as thats the cheapest option lol

Just done a pretty extensive service and it seems to be running way better. Spark plugs were also loose and rattling around?? These are now torqued up properly and has done the world of good.