Car started shaking badly, lots of error codes

[The Norwegian]

Hi all,

I've lived abroad for a while, got back last week, tried to see if my car's still running. Was doing fine for a while, but on a little drive today I experienced lack of power, lots of shaking and a flashing CEL in the dash.
Pulled the codes from the engine, here's what I've got:

17700 - Map Controlled Engine Cooling Thermostat (F265): Open Circuit
P1292 - 004 - No Signal/Communication
18017 - Crash Shut-Down Activated
P1609 - 001 - Upper Limit Exceeded
17927 - Camshaft Adjustment: Bank 1: Malfunction
P1519 - 008 - Implausible Signal - Intermittent
16684 - Random/Multiple Cylinder Misfire Detected
P0300 - 001 - Upper Limit Exceeded
16688 - Cylinder 4 Misfire Detected
P0304 - 001 - Upper Limit Exceeded

The top one I know I had from before, it's broken, but the rest!
Haven't gone monkeying about down in the engine on my own, timing belt is about 2 years old. Has previously been running very smooth.

It has had a problem with overheating, this car. Haven't figured that out yet, thinking it might be the pump. If the coolant temp has risen to 130*c I've always stopped it, but might it have somehow gotten damaged by that?

It sounded like a bag of spanners...

[The Norwegian]

Update:
I've pulled the coil packs. Coil pack of what I think is cyl 4 (the one near firewall) had a crack in the rubber boot inside it. So it might be loose on the plug.
Plug on this cyl was also very full of carbon. The others were too, except just a bit less. This car is an oil-guzzler, so I guess there's where the oil is going.
Will get a new coil and try to start it again soon.. just want to check everything first, don't want do damage to it by running it.

[The Norwegian]

I am sad to see the inactivity in here these days.

I solved the problem by pulling the fouled plugs and cleaning them. They are fouled due to high oil consumption, maybe valve stem seals sucking in oil from above. I don't know.
I also replaced one coil that had a big crack in the inner rubber boot.. was perhaps not necessary.

[Lozzy90]

I have had the issue of a misfire caused by perished rubber on HT leads on cars in the past so that could have caused the issue. Valve stem seal leaks can sometimes be identified when you first start the engine with a puff of blue smoke from the exhaust that clears after starting, or sometimes when you rev the engine after it's been idling for a moment. Only other things it could be is failed head gasket or worn piston rings. Any other symptoms or is it just using oil? How much/how often?

[The Norwegian]

Thanks for the reply. I don't have any blue smoke at all, it's more white, but I definitely think that it's smoking more than it should. The more throttle I give it, the more it smokes, looks like. I have an overheating issue in this car, but it's recently developed. The oil consumption has been an issue for years, so I'm thinking it's not linked to the HG.
There is no evidence of coolant in the oil that I can see, and while my coolant may look a little bit rusty, there's no odd foaming, change in consistency or anything like that. Probably won't know unless I get it tested.
Piston rings may very well be worn, I guess it's not easy to know.. head isn't gonna come off the way my wallet is looking like at the moment anyway.
It's quite steadily using 1l oil per 1000km. So that'l roughly be 1% oil mixture, kind of like a two stroke! While I can afford buying some oil cans on sale, I'm sure all that oil is ending up places where it's not supposed to, like my cat and gunking up my cylinders... sigh.

[Rob69]

I bought a polo several years ago that had stood outdoors in storage for a good few months, it drove fine initially but after a few hours running one of the coil packs failed, I had to get the AA to replace it as i was driving the car home on a 250 mile trip. another hour or so further on, a second coil pack failed. I replaced the remainders when i got home. Not sure if the car standing idle for so long had anything to do with the coil packs failing or it was just coincidence, maybe moisture getting into somewhere. could be same with your coil packs after standing for a good length of time.

[Lozzy90]

Typically white smoke is coolant being burned off not oil, has got any oil leaks that you can see or does it use any coolant?

[The Norwegian]

Typically white smoke is coolant being burned off not oil, has got any oil leaks that you can see or does it use any coolant?

That's what I've heard as well. Read some places that it can also be oil, but can't remember the circumstances. Anyway, never had to fill up the coolant.. and I can't see any visibile leaks. The underside is a bit oily sticky all the time, but it's been impossible for me to source it. It wouldn't account for much of it. No dripping etc.

[The Norwegian]

I've heard the same, that if one coil pack fails, the others will fail soon. Must be something with the strain on them...

[KevTrem]

Depending how long you have been away it could be the fuel going off, put some fresh fuel in and then see how it goes. Used to happen with my bike when left over the winter