SWMBO has finally made her mind up on the new tin top (Spent last Saturday on test driving the 'short list' )

Its to be a Petrol VW Golf , She only does 4500 miles a a year, so we can't really justify a Diesel version


Been reading up on the Mk 5 Golf that uses the 1.6 FSI engine and have read reports on Valve/Cylinderhead issues caused by Excessively Lean mixtures

Anybody had one of these or have any knowledge of them ?

We might be looking at a Mk 4 version instead..


Thanks in advance

Cheers
Perksy

my mate had a 54 plate in black. he absolutely thrashed it everywhere, regular trips to london and back at 100mph plus ( he was a london lad who moved up north to get married) he was basically a lunatic on the road but the car was faultless in his onership! and he really did push it.

I've been running a 1.4 TC Golf for the last 8 years ('99 mk4), we get 45mpg locally without even trying, 50 on a run, nothing has gone wrong except a duff plug (suddenly running on 3 cylinders), a clogged throttle body (a can of carb cleaner fixed), an exhaust. The only other expenditure is standard servicing and a cam belt.

Mk4 1.6 isn't very economical at all, in fact the turbo 1.8 does better when driven sensibly. The mk4 1.6 also has an issue with the gearbox and failures are common. Often find boy racers have the 1.6's too so they have a rough life!

Dad had a MK5 1.6Fsi and it was a great car. Good economy, fast enough. Was a 6 speed though and took a bit of stirring up and frequent gear changes. Didn't ever seem to be in the right gear? Having said that it's not a model built for performance!

The Mk4 1.6 dates back to the mk1 Golf, and is more than a little primitive, unless you are really dexterous, you need to remove the inlet manifold to change the plugs!

My daughter has a Mk5 1.6FSI and it has not given her any bother* worth talking about. It is a great going car and she really likes it. She was doing 2000 every month at one stage but she only does about 6000 a year now.

* the only trouble she had was when she had stopped doing the high mileage, a few of the ignition coils went faulty. Apparently this only happens if you do not use the car for long periods. She now knows to give the car a run out at least once a week. She has not had any problems since.

HTH

Tom

Thanks for the input


Done a bit more digging on this subject and the VW Fsi (Mk 5 Petrol Golf) engine has a couple of issues

There's a VW service bulletin been issued due to Timing chain tensioner problems
Owners report a rattle at start-up, gradually getting worse (Some have even failed, causing engine damage)
VW Book time for replacing the tensioner is 6 hours

Also the engine doesn't run to full efficiency on low grade unleaded and runs alot better on super unleaded or similar
(ie Some owners have reported rough running on standard supermarket unleaded)



Think We'll errr on the side of caution and look for a Nice late Mk4