Hi group,

My son's had his Polo for just over a year. About 6 months ago, I replaced the oil pump and replaced belts following low oil pressure light and confirming low oil pressure at idle and 2k rpm. At the time, I was in a huge rush, and in spite of noticing a LOT of metal shavings in the sump, I simply cleaned it out, making a quick inspection of the conrod play, which seemed fine, so I just buttoned it all up. Just following, there was a subtle but strange kind of whir, but I [wrongly] assumed it came from the new belts, as oil pressure was back to normal, and off he went. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, he was driving on the highway and the oil pressure light came on pretty much at the same time as a pronounced knocking. He parked in a nearby parking lot, and I brought it home on a trailer.

However when I attempted to start it, it made a GODawful screeching noise of metal on metal. I left it at that, and took off the sump and oil pump again, only to discover:

• crankcase dry as a bone (toward flywheel there was some, but not near cyliinder 1)

• healthy amount of play on conrods, but no copper, just tons of silver shavings (not good in any case, but there was still thickness in conrod bearings, and journals still in tact, with the excception of cyl. 1, which had some scoring on the crankshaft and conrod, much less on cylinder 2, none on 3 and 4)

• complete oil pump failure (inner planetary in 6 pieces, deep scoring in housing, but pressure relief valve in tact) due to crankshaft bearing metal slipping into the pump and wreaking havoc

• pickup tube in tact, non-obstructed

• thrust bearings ok (although I haven't checked thickness with a gauge)

So here's the thing. This engine has only 45k km on it. I shopped for a new engine, but they're all 150k + km on them and the only ones I'd consider are around €900/1k (I'm in Belgium) because at least they have warranties.

What I'd like to do is at least TRY and do a simple bearing replacement, engine in (I REALLY don't want to take the engine out if I'm not doing a complete overhaul, which I'm not). The only advantage to taking the engine out would be it would be a lot easier to get any/all debris out of the oil channels.

So here's my question: I know that everyone says you shouldn't even think about using scored crankshafts or conrod journals, I know this. But is it possible that it could work? I mean when I was younger, my dad and I would play with bearing thickness on muscle cars to tweak performance, so I know that a little more or less 'can' work. I'm just wondering if I could maybe LIGHTLY sand the crankshaft so it's somewhat smooth and have the oil pressure take care of maintaining good cushion. Thoughts?

Secondary question: could I hook up either my air compressor or pump engine flush to the oil send hole in the crankcase to circulate oil to the little holes that could be obstructed that are underneath the crankshaft?

Thanks for any input!

Edited 3 February Feb 3 by Tbone07734

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Low oil is low pressure.

Depends where any oil carrying metal bits went

before oil pump impeller collapsed from not being cooled by oil.

I suspect there'll be some damage at almost every bearing surface, cam lobes and the cylinder bores.

Where did the oil go?

Past the piston rings?

A leak elsewhere?

Have you considered similar engine blocks?

BCA or CGGA as a donor or transplant.

Or similar engine

BKY, AHW ?

I was going to suggest take the ferry from Zeebrugge to Harwich and fetch an engine from Stevens VW dismantlers near Chelmsford...

but the ferry would have to be Hook of Holland Stena to Harwich nowadays €€€ and sadly that breakers closed for ever in December 2025.😭

Do a dry and wet compression test if you can get it turn smoothly with an oil pump fitted. I think 90psi=6bar dry minimum and 150psi=10.3bar good wet. And less than 5% difference best to worst.

Thanks @dvderlm . Oil distribution looks ok (prior to last starvation event of course) in camshaft housing. My plan is to refinish all journals on camshaft by hand (damage is manageable with sandpaper wrap and polish while in-engine), run seafoam through all oil passages using an external pump, blow air through all oil channels, clean out oil ports on camshaft and seats, replace bearings, replace oil pump, fill with oil & new filter, test oil pressure. if ok, run for several minutes, remove sump, check for any residual metal shavings, remove cylinder 1 conrod cap, check for any immediate wear, then if ok run for a week or so, then recheck.

At this point, I can only assume the engine had oil starvation before we got it and I created this event myself by not replacing the bearings when I had it open previously to change oil pump.

Have used Seafoam in crusty carbs, good stuff. You really need an engine sized ultrasonic bath and a strong electro magnet - the block is cast iron.

I agree pumping oily liquid through the passages will be more effective than an air compressor line.

The crank is only hardened not nitrided (except 1.4 TFSI) so you may get away with sanding.

Paying someone to grind crank journals to undersize and fitting oversize bearings is also possible

Edited 6 February Feb 6 by dvderlm

I wish I had that kind of money for that big an ultrasonic bath. Mine is only good for parts. I figured air would just clean out seafoam, not so much for actual cleaning. Over where I am (Belgium) machining would cost half of a new engine though. Admittedly, there's also a perverse DIY voice in my head that wants to see if I can get away with this sustainably lol.

Good luck. It might do another 450km or another 45000km.

EAN: 611500426391 are +0.25mm oversize bearings for Ea111 I reckon but you cant hand grind a crank, as far as I know.

ooh yeah even if you could (I imagine it's possible technically, but I can't imagine the juice being worth the squeeze) and it would be virtually impossible I imagine to maintain roundness on conrod journals and also center on crankshaft on top of that. That would take HOURS to even attempt!

UPDATE: I spent an evening sanding the crankshaft and conrod journals, getting them to a state where they weren't smooth to the touch but they were operationally smooth. Plastigauge read that they were still within clearance spec, and an old-timer on a youtube video said not to worry too much about indents running around the bearings, as oil would simply fill those little gaps (not ideal, but not a show-stopper).

So I reassembled everything, and the car has been running smoothly for a week now. This weekend, I'm going to drop the sump and verify the state of the oil, conrod/crankshaft play, and the status of the bearings.

Looks like what VAG said was impossible, not giving any information in the service manual for bearing replacement saying that as soon as you even undo the crankshaft bolts the engine block has to be replaced, is in fact doable—at least in the short term, as I now need to monitor for longevity—but so far so good!

Fuzz Townsend has a trick for verifying oil pressure leakdown; you turn it over when it's cold long enough to make full oil pressure, then release the key back to pos.2 and time how long it takes for the oil pressure light to come back on. 10secs is a good time, instantly is a bad time. Drop the king lead off to stop it firing up.

On 24/02/2026 at 09:34, Tbone07734 said:

UPDATE: I spent an evening sanding the crankshaft and conrod journals, getting .
..
Looks like what VAG said was impossible, not giving any information in the service manual for bearing replacement saying that as soon as you even undo the crankshaft bolts the engine block has to be replaced, is in fact doable—at least in the short term, as I now need to monitor for longevity—but so far so good!

BUD is not AUA or BBZ. Maybe VW changed design or manufacturing process. Or maybe it was never true.

https://www.clubpolo.co.uk/topic/357739-16v-14-alloy-block-engines-is-it-an-urban-myth-that-you-can-not-be-rebuilt/#findComment-2729353