Help, car broke down and vw not helping

[jhunter_83]

Last Saturday night, 21st September my car broke down on my way home.

It's a 60 plate gti with 22000 miles on the clock. It ran out of warranty on 30th September.

Basically I was driving home from my girlfriends, joining a dual carriage way from a roundabout started to accelerate and the engine light started to flash. I took my foot off the accelerator and placed it back on again and the car started to violently shake. Pulled off the dual carriage way and smoke was pluming out the exhaust. The car cut out and struggled to run.

I called the aa and they came out and it came up with fault p0303. He got it started but just kept cutting out once he took his foot off the accelerator pedal.

I was towed to vw, I spoke to them when they opened on Monday and they would look at it as soon as possible. I couldn't have a courtesy car from them.

I rang up on the Thursday to them telling me that the aa had wiped the code and the car was running perfectly. They wanted to give me the car back but I refused as it couldn't have fixed itself.

They eventually said that if the car faults again, to take it in. They went to bring my car to the front of the dealership and they came back dying that smoke was coming out the exhaust again. They finally gave me a courtesy car.

Today I have rang the dealership again and they now say they can't find a fault with it again and want to give me my car back.

What are my options? It can't have fixed itself surely

[Booth11]

I wouldn't be satified with that response either.  Have they said what the fault on that code is and investigated it. 

Being cynical, the longer it's out of warranty, the less chance of sny goodwill on vw's part if it goes wrong later and they know that!

[Rhyso]

Fault was registered BEFORE the warranty ran out; VW have to fix it 

[jhunter_83]

I wouldn't be satified with that response either.  Have they said what the fault on that code is and investigated it. 

Being cynical, the longer it's out of warranty, the less chance of sny goodwill on vw's part if it goes wrong later and they know that!

The fault was P0303 which is cylinder 3 misfire. The aa cleared the codes that were held. Apparently there would have been another code linked to that.

I spoke to the service manager tonight who told me if it goes again theyll cover it under warranty. Only time will tell I suppose.

[RedHP]

Fault was registered BEFORE the warranty ran out; VW have to fix it 

^+1..........car broke down and reported/delivered to VW within warranty period


Red

[Booth11]

Fault was registered BEFORE the warranty ran out; VW have to fix it 

So it was! 

Well, hope they get it sorted soon 

[jhunter_83]

well it has to fault again before they do anything, it can't have just fixed itself

[mike.]

According to the Ross Tech Wiki this is the fault, I had a similar issue and it was a coil pack failure although the car would still run at low RPM.


16687/P0303/000771 - Cylinder 3 Misfire Detected

Possible Causes
Ignition system
Fuel injectors
Fuel pressure
Running out of fuel
EVAP canister purge valve
Evaporative emission system
Low compression
Base engine problems
Control Module damaged

Special Notes
This feature search for engine misfire in a specific cylinder. Most of the time the cause for a misfire is a lack of combustion in a cylinder due to absence of spark, poor fuel metering, or poor compression.

[Snoopy]

I was thinking coil pack by the symptoms before reading others posts.

[jhunter_83]

Well I've got it back, seems to be driving ok at the minute. I'll see how it runs.

I've just lost confidence in it now.....