Mk5 VW Golf Problems, Advice please!

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

KillerHERTZ

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
May 21, 2003
Messages
19,222
Location
Cambs
Car
SL63 AMG
3 Months ago my Girlfriend purchased a 55 Reg 1.6 FSE Golf from a 2nd hand car dealer with 55k on the clock.

When we took the car for a test drive, the engine management light was on and we were told that this problem would be resolved before we picked the car up, we had no reason to doubt this. -

When we collected the car, the light was off and we were told that the cause was the Catalytic converter which had been changed, we werent given any recepts for the part as they claimed any problems let them know. after a month or so the light re-appeared and we took (still under warranty) it to her local VW dealer as she lives 40 miles from where she got the car.
VW diagnosed orignally that the airpipe was damaged and was causing the problem - it looked like it had been super-glued into the car!. Once the new airbox/unit was fitted the light was still there. it took them over a week to find all the problems, and it turned out that all the engine seals needed replacing, aswell as a new manifold and viauors other parts
In all, VW charged the 2nd hand car company just under 1k for the labour and parts, which after many calls and battling they reluctantly agreed to pay for.

Fast forward another 2 months and the light is back on, VW have diagnosed the main Catalytic convertor causing the problem and have said that it needs replacing and is 3rd party, not OEM!
The 2nd hand car company have picked it up and they are claiming that its the secondary cat which is causing the problem and is OEM, the have used 'cat cleaner' which they claim has corrected the problem and the light has gone. They have increased the warranty by a month to cover all the problems.

They are going to return the car back to my Girlfriend tomorrow morning, now we have reached the point where we want to return the car as we have no faith in it. she has mentioned this but as they claim to have fixed the problem then we dont really have any reason to, or do we?

Also, the previous owner had the car for only 3 months (the garages warranty period) so it appears they had exactly the same problems.

Anyone know what our position is with trading standards, and also has anyone heard of Cat Cleaner!?!

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Cataclean will burn the contaminants off the 'verter, but the effect is likely to be only temporary.
The VW 1.6 FSE is known to be problematic and as such was dropped from the VAG range, even though the designation lived on.
 
Never heard of a cat cleaner and what light exactely come on? Did it look like this?

enginelight12.jpg


If so 9 times out of 10 when this light comes on it is problems with the emission system in the car and is normally a lambda sensor of sorts. It is not normally something like a CAT and VAG COM like most diagnostic systems is very specific on what is wrong. Did you get a print out saying what the issue was from VAG COM or similar.....?
 
Last edited:
To be fair, the garage have been fair with you.

For them to spend 1K will have been a hell of a hit for them, and lets face it, its very unlikely that in reality every single seal on the engine was leaking! It most likely would have just been that glued pipe but the dealer not wanting any come back have replaced everything in sight.

There is nothing wrong with using a non OEM cat. Even the non oem parts come with EU certificates of conformity and we have never had issues with them... apart from sometimes having to modify them to fit 100%

The secondary cats dont really do a whole lot in my experience, so I would have the issue re diagnosed elsewhere and then give them the option of repairing themselves or payment.

Like has been said, exhaust emission issues are common on the VW range. I am having similar issues with my sisters polo and am about to give up on it... It doesnt run any different so she will just have to live with the lovely orange lamp...

If you go through trading standards, the process will be drawn out and they will give the dealer ample opportunity to correct it. Im afraid you cant just take the car back because you have lost confidence, cars are just nuts, bolts and computers, their view is that it needs correcting and the issue will just come down to who pays for it.

No dealer will give a refund 3 months on and after spending a small fortune on it.

Good Luck.
 
Is the 1.6 FSE the same as the 1.6 FSI engine?

For what it's worth, I know that the coil packs are a weak point on the 1.6FSI. Possibly worth investigation for your problem.
 
To be fair, the garage have been fair with you.

For them to spend 1K will have been a hell of a hit for them, and lets face it, its very unlikely that in reality every single seal on the engine was leaking! It most likely would have just been that glued pipe but the dealer not wanting any come back have replaced everything in sight.

There is nothing wrong with using a non OEM cat. Even the non oem parts come with EU certificates of conformity and we have never had issues with them... apart from sometimes having to modify them to fit 100%

The secondary cats dont really do a whole lot in my experience, so I would have the issue re diagnosed elsewhere and then give them the option of repairing themselves or payment.

Like has been said, exhaust emission issues are common on the VW range. I am having similar issues with my sisters polo and am about to give up on it... It doesnt run any different so she will just have to live with the lovely orange lamp...

If you go through trading standards, the process will be drawn out and they will give the dealer ample opportunity to correct it. Im afraid you cant just take the car back because you have lost confidence, cars are just nuts, bolts and computers, their view is that it needs correcting and the issue will just come down to who pays for it.

No dealer will give a refund 3 months on and after spending a small fortune on it.

Good Luck.

Thanks for the reply.

Our issue is that they have handled and sold a car with a problem. The previous owner clearly had the same problem (owned it and returned it within 3 months back to the garage).

It surely doesnt matter if they have spent £1k repairing the car, they sold a faulty car. why should the new owner (us) have to take it to an offical dealer to get it repaired when they wouldnt? no offer to fix it, nor any offer of a courtsey car was offered during this time and my GF had to rely on public transport out of her own pocket when she had bought a car.

VW did replace the glued pipe at 1st and it made no difference, so the other investigations started.

At the end of the day, they have sold her a faulty car which is still fautly

I have just heard from my GF to say that the car has been returned with no light on the dash (at the moment) and the car is dirty + smells of cig smoke.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reply.

Our issue is that they have handled and sold a car with a problem. The previous owner clearly had the same problem (owned it and returned it within 3 months back to the garage).

Do you know that for sure? That may well make a difference, if you can prove that they knew there were issues with the car. Can you try getting in touch with the previous owner? I assume their details are on the V5 and may well be local.

KillerHERTZ said:
It surely doesnt matter if they have spent £1k repairing the car, they sold a faulty car. why should the new owner (us) have to take it to an offical dealer to get it repaired when they wouldnt? no offer to fix it, nor any offer of a courtsey car was offered during this time and my GF had to rely on public transport out of her own pocket when she had bought a car.

VW did replace the glued pipe at 1st and it made no difference, so the other investigations started.

I have just heard from my GF to say that the car has been returned with no light on the dash (at the moment) and the car is dirty + smells of cig smoke.

The fact that they've spent £1k (albeit potentially reluctantly) proves that they're trying to make an effort to resolve this. Hope you get this concluded.

The car coming back dirty and smelling of smoke isn't good - has it been back to the original trader or another garage?
 
A lack of courtesy on their part but in the eyes of the law they have done their bit to date...

I know its not what you want to hear but I would keep it friendly with the dealer if you can, getting trading standards involved will simply put up a load of red tape to work through.

Also its worth remembering that intermittent faults can be an absolute pig to diagnose as you can change all the sensors, pipes, exhausts in the world, if the fault doesnt return with a test drive then there isnt a lot anyone can do.
 
The writing was on the wall when you test drove it by the sounds of it, what with the light being on....

I think that the fact they have spent a grand so far trying to resolve this shows that they seem more than willing to try and help you.
 
The writing was on the wall when you test drove it by the sounds of it, what with the light being on....

Epic fail, I'm afraid. There's a whole bunch of cars, which, once they start playing up, seem to be virtually impossible to fix.
 
The writing was on the wall when you test drove it by the sounds of it, what with the light being on....

I think that the fact they have spent a grand so far trying to resolve this shows that they seem more than willing to try and help you.

My wife had a mkIV and mkV Golf - both had no end of faults all around engine management lights and electrical problems. Sounds like the dealer has been pretty fair. I would sell it on the moment they fix it.

S
 
My wife had a mkIV and mkV Golf - both had no end of faults all around engine management lights and electrical problems. Sounds like the dealer has been pretty fair. I would sell it on the moment they fix it.

S

Just got rid of a Mark V Golf myself.

The supposed quality of the VAG is laughable from about 2003 onwards...
 
Do you know that for sure? That may well make a difference, if you can prove that they knew there were issues with the car. Can you try getting in touch with the previous owner? I assume their details are on the V5 and may well be local.

The fact that they've spent £1k (albeit potentially reluctantly) proves that they're trying to make an effort to resolve this. Hope you get this concluded.

The car coming back dirty and smelling of smoke isn't good - has it been back to the original trader or another garage?

The previous owner had the car for 3 months (as per V5 document) and during the test drive we were told she bought it from them.

The dealer took the car back over the weekend as they didnt belive VWs readouts and wanted to confirm for themselves. We were told that one of the staff was taking the car home/returning it and we agreed to it.

The car is covered in mud and stinks of cigs

A lack of courtesy on their part but in the eyes of the law they have done their bit to date...

I know its not what you want to hear but I would keep it friendly with the dealer if you can, getting trading standards involved will simply put up a load of red tape to work through.

Also its worth remembering that intermittent faults can be an absolute pig to diagnose as you can change all the sensors, pipes, exhausts in the world, if the fault doesnt return with a test drive then there isnt a lot anyone can do.

All work that was done was the result of weeks of battling with them and total grief getting in contact (all messages, calls left unanswered - told the MD will call us back within the hour, only to discover that he has gone to lunch for example)
Our 'beef' is that, from the evidence it appears that they knew about the problems before, have done some botch jobs to get it through and have sold us a faulty product.

All she wants is a working car after spending nearly 7k!

The writing was on the wall when you test drove it by the sounds of it, what with the light being on....

Yep, I guess we shouldnt have taken them for their word when they claimed EVERYTHING would be fixed.

My wife had a mkIV and mkV Golf - both had no end of faults all around engine management lights and electrical problems. Sounds like the dealer has been pretty fair. I would sell it on the moment they fix it.

S

Thats what we are going to have to do by the looks of it.


Also, another thing to add. We were told it would have a full service before we collected it, yet VW pointed out to us that it was at the oil was at the virtual limit when they were diagnosing it!


Thanks for your replies, our battle for a car that works continues... All we want is a fault free car.
 
Last edited:
Good luck and I hope you get a satisfactory result. :thumb:
 
Epic fail, I'm afraid. There's a whole bunch of cars, which, once they start playing up, seem to be virtually impossible to fix.

In my gullible younger years, I bought an Astra GTE 16v with the engine light on.

Guy told me it was just because he'd changed the stereo as the light came on after that.

Whilst this was probably a coincidence, it turned out to be a faulty lambda sensor which I replaced - job done and no bother again.

On the reliability stakes - I've known / know of two MK5 Golfs, where one had an issue with a something faulty to do with the clutch which cost £400 to fix, and another which had endless faults and rattles.

EDIT: I'm not saying you are wrong Rory - I agree with you but not all cars with the "I'm a duffer" light on are consigned to the fooked bin.
 
Last edited:
You will never be able to take the car back, he's sold you a faulty car (which your girlfriend knew about before she bought it) and they've been very fourth-coming in fixing the problems as they arose.
 
You will never be able to take the car back, he's sold you a faulty car (which your girlfriend knew about before she bought it) and they've been very fourth-coming in fixing the problems as they arose.

They havent been fourth coming at all about fixing the problems, they have done everything to avoid fixing them, as ive said in my previous posts!
 
A dealer that spends a grand (regardless of the attitude they might have taken, of course they would have to push back initially) on a car is fourthcoming in my eyes. I'd get the problem completely fixed by them and sell it on privately
 
The previous owner had the car for 3 months (as per V5 document) and during the test drive we were told she bought it from them.

If it did come back due to being faulty then you'd have thought the dealer would have sent the car off to auction - risking retailing it seems bonkers.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom