Problems with my GTI

[s2kjames]

I picked my GTI up 7 weeks ago, and on the way back from the suppliers I suddenly lost power and coasted to the side of the road with the engine spluttering. After a couple of minutes it rectified itself and I finished the journey.

Then it did the same thing a few days later.

The car is an import so needed registering with VW UK before I could take it to a dealer to be checked over.

I registered it on Monday 24th July with VW Skipton, and booked it in to be checked over on Tuesday 1st August, which was the first day they could get me a courtesy car.

By this point my car was spluttering every single morning when starting from cold, I had a lack of power, had no turbo for the first 5 minutes of a journey and always had to pull over, switch off the engine and re-start which seemed to rectify the problem.

I dropped the car off on Monday evening so they would have it from a cold start the following morning and experience the problem for themselves. When I dropped the car off they asked what time I wanted to pick it up the following day.

"How do you know it will be ready for me to pick up" I asked.

"It just will" they said.

Weird - so I arranged to pick it up at 5pm on Tuesday.

By 2.30pm I hadn't had any news from the dealer as to what the problems were, as they told me they would phone me when they have discovered the problem. I phoned them myself at 3pm to be told they had just put the car on the computer (so it sat there for most of the day), and would get back to me when they found out what was wrong.

They phoned me back at 4.30pm to say they will need the car back for a minimum of 3 days, as the computer brought up a whole host of error messages, many of which they have never seen before and don't know what they mean (trained staff charged at £35 an hour for labour and they don't know what the error messages mean), so they have had to send them to VW UK and wait for a response.

The car is booked back in next Wednesday for the rest of the week.

They also asked if I would take in my V5 so they can register it with VW UK. "I did that last week" I said, "oh sorry" they said, I think we have lost your V5 so need to register it again.

Damn fools !

Don't you just love main dealers !

[robintegra]

Sounds a Nightmare James, Loosing the V5 would have topped it off for me,

[SamD]

Sounds like you got a Friday PM car Hope VW are able to sort it out and that your experience with the dealer and the car get better from here on in! Would be great if you could report back once they have told you what is wrong.

[s2kjames]

So my car is back with the dealers - they had it yesterday and still couldn't find the fault, they have had it today and now reckon its a problem with "like an old fashioned dump valve" that is preventing my turbo working intermittently and making my engine idle irregular.

Ever heard of such a thing anyone?

The dealers have never seen the problem before, and I can't help but feel that even now they are only guessing the cause and I could well pick it up and find it does exactly the same thing still.

Fortunately VW have one in stock apparently so it is arriving tomorrow to be fit in the morning so the car will be back with me back 12 tomorrow.