Well, it looks like my car suffered its first/second failure that rendered it non-drivable.
After one case in Belgium where a tow truck was called as it did not start, but of course fired up when the tow truck was there (cause was a faulty lambda-sensor), now it really needed to be towed.
My girlfriend was driving when suddenly she lost power (max. speed was around 30), the car started shaking and the engine light started blinking. She says it was quite scary. The VW mobility guarantee works (yep, even for a 15 year old Polo) and VW Assistance sent a mechanic, who identified the culprit as the coil pack for the 4th cylinder, which apparently is a "normal" problem. As he did not have a coil pack, a tow truck was called in and a replacement car offered. Interesting was that they send you a link on which you can actually see the gps location of the mechanic and tow truck. The whole thing took about two hours between calling the assistance and seeing the tow truck drive off into the night. Not too bad, but at -2 and snowing, it was good that it was in the city and that her parents came to her so they could wait in a warm car.
Now the car is at the dealer (they tow to the closest one), where the part has been ordered; it should be there by the end of the week.
I've found on google that these symptoms are very typical for problems with the coil pack. The component costs about 50-60 euro (original part, but just a few euro difference with non-original), and they charge about the same amount for fitting it. Still worth it on the car, considering it is still dead on reliable otherwise and still drives well.
After one case in Belgium where a tow truck was called as it did not start, but of course fired up when the tow truck was there (cause was a faulty lambda-sensor), now it really needed to be towed.
My girlfriend was driving when suddenly she lost power (max. speed was around 30), the car started shaking and the engine light started blinking. She says it was quite scary. The VW mobility guarantee works (yep, even for a 15 year old Polo) and VW Assistance sent a mechanic, who identified the culprit as the coil pack for the 4th cylinder, which apparently is a "normal" problem. As he did not have a coil pack, a tow truck was called in and a replacement car offered. Interesting was that they send you a link on which you can actually see the gps location of the mechanic and tow truck. The whole thing took about two hours between calling the assistance and seeing the tow truck drive off into the night. Not too bad, but at -2 and snowing, it was good that it was in the city and that her parents came to her so they could wait in a warm car.
Now the car is at the dealer (they tow to the closest one), where the part has been ordered; it should be there by the end of the week.
I've found on google that these symptoms are very typical for problems with the coil pack. The component costs about 50-60 euro (original part, but just a few euro difference with non-original), and they charge about the same amount for fitting it. Still worth it on the car, considering it is still dead on reliable otherwise and still drives well.
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