1.2 Polo 55 55000 miles. - VW Polo engine mis fire cylinder 1...advice

[Chris2013]

Hi, for the last few weeks my car has been shaky when idle, if it idles too long the engine management light comes on, sometimes solid and sometimes flashing. generally a week later it goes out, if it has been flashing a simple engine off and on usually clears it up. obviously something is wrong so i took to the garage...things they did:
they found a mis fire on cylinder 1 so they swapped the coil pack over 1 to 3 and 3 to 1, a couple of weeks later 188 mis fires on cylinder 1 still. They now want to strip the head and send it off to be looked at. they also mentioned it would be worth changing the timing belt while the head is off etc which i have read it good advice.


1) should i ask for a compression test first? wouldnt it be silly to strip it all before doing one? they are pretty much VW specialists so i assumed they know what they are doing but as far as i know they didnt do a compression test.


2) is 188 mis fires a lot in 2-3 weeks? i drive it every day and it is fine over 1k revs, if i sit at a red light i just ease the gas and no more shaking. is the car at risk with these mis fires?


3) the car has only done 55000 miles but i heard it can be an expensive thing to fix (£1200 etc), do you think it is worth paying to fix it? if this has happened is it likely to again etc?

4) the car is fine at 1k revs with a little gas, is it possible to change the idle point of the revs? i heard on old engines you could basically twist a bolt that changed the idle point.

much appreciated
Chris

[towcestervag]

3 cylinder polos have a cam chain not belt
i would do a compression check before removing head
i would check the wiring for breakage they usually break the looms near the battery and this will cause a miss
also you could check the egr system has this can cause a missfire

[vc-10]

The 1.2 3-cyls are known to burn valves too. When they say replace the timing belt, I think they might mean replace the chain and the tensioner, as the design of the tensioner was changed at some point (not sure when, sometime around 2006 maybe?).

[shegan]

i had dodgy exhaust valves on my 2005 polo. paid £500 to get head work, for it to come back 4 months later.

webuyanycar gave me a good deal on getting shot of it.