Philippe Holland
Member
Hello, this is my first post as a new A2 owner. I have just bought a white 2002 1.4 petrol as a first car for my wife but have yet to collect the car for the following reason. When I went to see the car, the owner informed me that the engine warning light had just come on the day before. I drove the car and it drove fine with a perfect tick over. I agreed to buy the car under the provision that the problem was fixed. The history folder contained a recent bill for £2500 including a lot of engine work from a main dealer including a head gasket change. The car has covered only 3000 miles since the engine work. The car has been dealer maintained to date and has covered 100K miles.
The cam belt has just been changed by a local mechanic in view of the sale. (I would have thought that a head-off repair would have included a new belt at the same time?)
The previous owner took the car to the dealer who did the previous work for a diagnostic check. Apparently it was running roughly with a poor tick over on the way over. The dealer first said that it was a spark plug problem and later carried out a compression test stating that one cylinder was low and this caused the engine light to come on. He refuses to do any warranty work based on his previous recent repair because the cam belt was changed by someone else.
When the owner picked up the car, the light was off (reset?) and the car was running fine with no hesitation. The dealer wants to now charge to remove the head to check for a badly seated valve. The owner is a young lady and the dealer diagnostic seems odd....A worn valve cannot cure itself and the problem gives the impression of being minor and possibly electrical. The very conscientious owner insists that she will get the problem sorted out for me, but I do not want to see her getting ripped off. She will take the car to another main dealer for a second opinion before committing to any repairs. She was not given and fault codes and was treated poorly.
Does anyone have any ideas to the problem and is low compression a problem with these engines?
Thank you in advance for any suggestions.
Philippe
The cam belt has just been changed by a local mechanic in view of the sale. (I would have thought that a head-off repair would have included a new belt at the same time?)
The previous owner took the car to the dealer who did the previous work for a diagnostic check. Apparently it was running roughly with a poor tick over on the way over. The dealer first said that it was a spark plug problem and later carried out a compression test stating that one cylinder was low and this caused the engine light to come on. He refuses to do any warranty work based on his previous recent repair because the cam belt was changed by someone else.
When the owner picked up the car, the light was off (reset?) and the car was running fine with no hesitation. The dealer wants to now charge to remove the head to check for a badly seated valve. The owner is a young lady and the dealer diagnostic seems odd....A worn valve cannot cure itself and the problem gives the impression of being minor and possibly electrical. The very conscientious owner insists that she will get the problem sorted out for me, but I do not want to see her getting ripped off. She will take the car to another main dealer for a second opinion before committing to any repairs. She was not given and fault codes and was treated poorly.
Does anyone have any ideas to the problem and is low compression a problem with these engines?
Thank you in advance for any suggestions.
Philippe