Advice on main dealer/stealer and car running

[bergenhaus]

Hi

New here. Pic of car on new members section.

I've just had a nightmare taking my car to the garage. Wondering if I need to take it to a tuner.  Erm, this might turn out to be a long read but thought better put up the full story.  For tl;dr see summary at the bottom

It's an 05 plate DSG GTI which had 110000ish on the clock which I bought privately for £5600 at the end of June.  I thought that was pretty good, especially since I bought it in Scotland where prices seem to be higher.  It had an amber warning light on the dash for engine/exhaust and the previous owner said it was a cheap fix exhaust valve.  Seemed to be running fine. Pretty clean and standard.

Noticed on longer runs it could hang on to the gear a bit to long and power could seem pretty dead.  Spoke to a guy who seemed to know about these things in a dealer down South (I'm in Aberdeen) and said it sounded like needed a DSG oil change.

Anyway, MOT was due at the end of August so decided to get it in.  I didn't necessarily want to go to a main dealer but couldn't find anywhere else recommended so went to John Clark Specialist Cars.  By then I knew it needed MOT, service, timing belt, water pump, DSG oil change probably new front pads so was expecting a big bill.  It passed MOT fine and the did the other stuff but on diagnostics they found a fuel pump problem caused by a worn camshaft....lots of money. They fixed that within a couple of days but I soon heard back from them that they needed to go back into the engine.  They'd mucked up installing the new camshaft, buggered the timing and caused a fair bit of damage which of course they would repair without extra charge.  By the time they'd sorted this (or so they tell me) the car had been in the garage for 19 days!  On the last day they told me it was running fine but there was an error coming up with the fuel injection.  They said it would normally be fixed by re-doing the ECU software but didn't want to risk it because the car was modified....this was a shock to me!  I'm taking this as a bonus though.  Apparently got K04 turbo, bigger intercooler (they think from an S3 but they couldn't tell me the part number), bigger fuel injectors and stainless steel exhaust.

So I went and picked it up after paying my massive bill.  Drove about half a mile, there was a pop and a whoosh and I took it straight back.  They hadn't clipped a turbo hose back on properly!  They fixed it, I drove home (noticed they'd got the tyre pressures all wrong) but it was idling badly and hadn't been doing that pre-garage.  Sometimes alternating fairly quickly between about 750- 1300 rpm, sometimes staying around 750 or less and feeling almost like a stall, sometimes sticking up at 1300ish and sounds like it's way too high.  I took it back next day and they checked it but said fuel injection problem in ECU so not really their thing.  I took the car back home and next morning it stalled twice when I started it but after that drove OK but same idling thing mostly in park and neutral.  Occasionally still very flat on power but maybe better than before.

So summary is: not happy with garage mucking about and keeping it so long and them ballsing things up when I took it back, car idling crap (wasn't before garaged) and sometimes bugger all power.  Do I need a re-map (or just map if the previous owner didn't bother)?

I typed a lot. I'm sorry.  Advice appreciated.

Mike

[stealthwolf]

I would take it to someone experienced in VAG eg PDT, AKS, JKM etc and get it properly looked at.

[stealthwolf]

Also don't forget that undeclared mods will invalidate your insurance.

[bergenhaus]

I would take it to someone experienced in VAG eg PDT, AKS, JKM etc and get it properly looked at.

Are they tuning places you're suggesting?  Ideally I don't want to be travelling far and of course not spending much money.  I've heard Wallace Performance mentioned in Aberdeen for mapping but don't know much about it.

Yep, I need to get on to the insurance.

[Gazza747]

As mentioned you need to go to a VAG specialist, see what map/mods you have so that you can get the car insured properly. They should also be able to diagnose the problem and give you a quote to get anything sorted that needs doing. You may need to travel to find one but I think you need to get your car sorted in one go at the best place you can find.

[bergenhaus]

Thanks for the replies guys.

When your talking VAG specialist are you not meaning a garage? Because John Clark where I took it are the VW main dealers in Aberdeen. I'm guessing you mean more tuning/performance. Anywhere recommended in Scotland at least?

[stealthwolf]

Some of the independent specialists are more knowledgeable than VW dealers.

Not all tuners are VAG specialists. Not all VAG specialists are tuners. You want one that does both.

[AlexR]

Wallace Performance in Aberdeen is honestly your best bet (locally). Take it to them and ask to speak to one of the techs and just explain the whole situation (the more details the better) and they will advise whether they can chuck it on the rollers and sort the map out. Give them a call as they usually have a bit of a waiting list!

[bergenhaus]

Wallace Performance in Aberdeen is honestly your best bet (locally). Take it to them and ask to speak to one of the techs and just explain the whole situation (the more details the better) and they will advise whether they can chuck it on the rollers and sort the map out. Give them a call as they usually have a bit of a waiting list!

Cheers. They sound worth a shout at least. Hopefully if they seem up for it they can see the car before it blows up or something! 

[bergenhaus]

A question though - although the performance problems seem about the same any ideas why it's running so much rougher after getting new camshaft, timing belt, water pump, fuel pump, whatever else gubbins the garage replaced when messing around with it? Could they have broken it a bit or is having fresh, working parts showing up previous faults?

[Eddie-NL]

you should take it back, its not right regardless of what they say.

[alackofspeed]

A question though - although the performance problems seem about the same any ideas why it's running so much rougher after getting new camshaft, timing belt, water pump, fuel pump, whatever else gubbins the garage replaced when messing around with it? Could they have broken it a bit or is having fresh, working parts showing up previous faults?

Your cam belt on your car might be fine, but there have been numerous stories on here of mechanics incorrectly setting the cam timing. In most of the cases I can recall, the badly timed cambelts have been fitted by VW dealers.

[AlexR]

Yeah you should try and get a bit more out of VW, but if they are not budging take it to someone that can sit it on a rolling road (i.e = Wallace Performance) and set it up properly or at least identify the problem if it is not the map!

Im no expert by any means, but if i was in your situation, thats probably what id do..

[Gazza747]

If the work done by VW is at fault then they will have to fix it. I would suggest going to a specialist, then they can diagnose the issues and then if necessary you can take it back to VW to fix anything that was their fault free of charge.

[Baz300]

My car was booked into specialist cars for a service next week but after reading this I have called and cancelled and told them exactly why they are not getting to touch my car.

For the labour rate they charge the job should be done right first time

I had my timing belt changed at CMB autos in pitmedden and had no issues at all