Golf 1.4 16v AWH

[Nemo86]

Recently sold my motorbike for a car (Family :P) went for a golf, insurance decided that i must buy a 1.4. being myself i looked for reviews and all said well (Should of researched problems) bought one with a dent on wing couldnt find any visable damage but had a knock coming inside when over bumps.

Plan of action!

Changed Tie rods & Track rod ends
Changed Wishbones as discovered a broken bolt through the horizontal front

Drove down the motorway to discover smoke coming out of the exhaust, got it home as it stopped. Located the problem after many hours as being valve guides But found alot of oil in the throttle body, airbox and on the back of the engine down could not locate where it was from as when cleaned up no visable leaks. MOT time due as i need this car for work, Put some 20/50 in hoping for the best and can fix the problem later.
FAIL emmissions (Damn) :P

I have searched high and low for people who have taken apart the AHW engine but to no avail just some who have changed seals from top and didnt work, Down to VW saying dont because the engine might warp so they replaced engine. Now is it just me or dont you think its always worth ago before it gets binned.

So i am having ago as in these times i cant just afford to replace engine or car

Took off the rocker cover to find 2 rockers not even on there lifters, One had even worn a groove into the casing. The tops of the lifters had rust on so theres no way they have been working properly
People say the 1.4 develops a knocking noise but i think in my case that was a rocker bouncing about

Removed cylinder head using torque sequence in reverse. If you follow that i dont see how you can go wrong
Found at least 2mm thickness of carbon deposit coving the valves and pistons now im no expert but think that could be something to do with my problem
£6.48 pack of 3 different shaped wirebrushes for drill (Screwfix) Best money spent
Ploughs the carbon off leaving a smooth finish no scratches, My piston rings are fine no wear and tear on the bores no oil deposits
I have now cleaned all my parts up throttle body, airbox, cylinder head, piston heads, valves, Camshafts, ect. I am now awaiting parts to arrive to finish the job off

Valve Spring Compressor £25
Gasket Set (including valve seals) £33
High Temp Gasket Sealent £10
10/40 Castrol Oil £28.99
Oil Filter £5.99
Tie rods x2 £20
Track rod end x2 £10
Wishbones with Balljoints x2 £40
Drive Belt £10 (Old one cracked silly not to change)

Now i have all the patience in the world and will make sure it is all done properly but i am looking for any tips you might have or anyone on here that has taken the AWH engine apart all will be most appriciated.

I will report back with how it has gone hopefully all parts will be here tommorrow, Mark

[Nemo86]

Yesterday Spent the day waiting for a valve spring compressor to turn up at the store, ends up courier's van broke down. after many searching managed to get hold of one from halfords not the one i wanted, but this huge bugger, but it did the job.
Valve seals changed valve seats carboned up but after cleaning off still in good condition. the built in guides are ok aswell, just the seals on the exhaust side buggered, the valves was caked head to toe in oil and you could see on the stem where it had been breaking through the seal. So all clean now and all new seals have been done. put the cylinder head back on just nipped it as i realised my mate next door had the torque wrench with spline fittings so job is on hold til he gets home. hopefully sometime today then finish it off and see if the problem of oil burning is sorted

Report later on tonight, Mark

[Nemo86]

Engine now completed, some parts a ball ache like the fact you have to take the crackshaft drive wheel off to get to the timing tensioner. in my case it wouldnt come off so ended up tilting rocker cover to get the belt on. assembled rest of the engine no problems what so ever. put some fresh 10/40 oil in with new filter. turned over engine 1st time sounded a hell of alot better. after it settled i noticed the engine rocking and shaking the car thought i must of been a tooth out, checked and it was ,all sorted now ticks over very nicely and although there was smoke coming out it has stopped now prob due to old oil down the exhaust. got a few more jobs to do for an mot. so all in all a sucess so far

[f2raf]

I bought the same car 99 plat with 106k. Failed MOT due to high emissions but my mechanic passed it. However was smoky & hesitant & idling. It broke down, RAC said too expensive to recover 200 miles home, so they fixed it at thier local garage, replaced the thermostat & a hose. That stopped the constant smoking problem, today I thought I'd change the sparkies, OMG, they were in awful condition, never been changed i think. Anyway changed all 4 and the idling situation is now fixed. However I do have a problem with hesitation jerky feeling on deaccelleration. its a bit jerky, took it to mechanic, he didnt feel it, i sat with him driving and it was gone, typical. However he suggested it's likely to be a faulty throttle body. Now I cleaned the throttle body out few weeks ago and today there was some muck in it and there was oil in the air filter chamber and on my new air filter. So oil is being chucked in the air filter chamber from somewhere, i think this is normal, comes from the hose/breather pipe attached to the airfilter box.

My VCDS arrived today I scanned and no relevant codes. So should I change the throttle body?

[Nemo86]

Could be a few things matey. did you take your throttle body out to clean? did you clean the breather bit underneith? (Little square plate with a pipe and your egr valve attaches to it with 2 allen key bolts) theres a little hole in that that gets gunked up and blocked if oil has been passing through. is your rev needle is fluctuating when you hold the revs on say 2000 rpm hold it steady and see if it moves? then throttle body is the answer if its all cleaned (Spotless) then could be buggered or could need reprogramming with VAG. If your revs are ok let it idle when warmed up see if ur juddering (Feel it shaking you in the drivers seat) Can also hear it on the exhaust and see the engine move. If its that then your a tooth out on your timing and you need to check your allignments. As for the oil in your airbox well thats a tricky one im still waiting to see if mine has worked on that as i thought it was prob down to my exhaust valve seals as oil was passing down into my combustion chamber and being fired up the inlet valves and eventually being chucked up to the throttle body. so couldnt give an answer to that question yet tell you in a few days

[Nemo86]

forgot to say with the oil as the breather pipe is on the left side opposite from the throttlebody. where is the oil located on that side or the throttlebody side that should give you a good indication of where the oil is coming from my filter was spotless but where the throttle body was it was caked in oil

[f2raf]

thank you i'll check the above out. The oil is definitely on the right hand side

[Turbokiisseli]

Sounds to me that most of the problems with these 16V petrol engines are related to poor maintenance.

These cars are usually driven in the city for short distances, so the longlife program just doesn't work. It leads to carbon and oil sludge build-up, like the OP's car here. Seems alot of people also just complete neglect servicing these cars, being the daily for most people who buy them.

I got a -99 1.4 AHW Golf myself for a second car a while back, and after a complete service, including the gearbox oil, brake fluid, PS fluid, etc. the car works very well. I still want to do an engine flush with Forte or STP though.

[f2raf]

Sounds to me that most of the problems with these 16V petrol engines are related to poor maintenance.

These cars are usually driven in the city for short distances, so the longlife program just doesn't work. It leads to carbon and oil sludge build-up, like the OP's car here. Seems alot of people also just complete neglect servicing these cars, being the daily for most people who buy them.

I got a -99 1.4 AHW Golf myself for a second car a while back, and after a complete service, including the gearbox oil, brake fluid, PS fluid, etc. the car works very well. I still want to do an engine flush with Forte or STP though.

You are probably right, the spark plugs on mine were near corroded when i replaced them and it immediately got rid of the poor idling & smoking problem. I also have an injector rail which i thought about changing but as they say if it aint broke dont fix it, as i did buy a used one of ebay & it might have problems with it, besides the vcds isnt bringing anything up about the injectors. I will have a go at dismantling the throttle body and cleaning it. One thing to note though is my friend cleaned the throtle body for me, i pressed the accellarator & he cleaned the oil out. However when i had another look last weekend and there was grime in there, i asked a mate to hold down the accellarator but this time the butterfly coin did not flip, i had to force it down with a screwdriver. Now this definitely did flip when my friend was cleaning it and i held down the accellarator the previous week. Is this normal behaviour or faulty throttle body?

[Nemo86]

Def poor maintained cars, forgetting oil changes are the worst ones. Gets all sludgey and has to go somewhere so ends up sticking to important moving parts. We could go on all day about people being numptys but anyways, Throttle body take it off its only 4 bolts. cleaning from the top is a quick fix but like i said before you have 2 breather pipes under the throttle body that could be completely blocked on a ally square plate get some carb cleaner and clean both throttle body and the square plate check your egr valve pipe (which connects to it) is not blocked while your at it. VW Golf 1.4 1999 has a motorized accelerator so pressing the accelerator while the engine is off will only open partial the butterfly. if you look where the cable connects to the throttlebody you can manually turn the springloaded valve by hand thats the way to open it when engine is off. but besides that give it a proper clean and see how you go (Also the square plate just pulls off once you have disconnected the 2 pipes it just sits on a rubber bung and the throttlebody bolts through it)