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My new Lupo is broken 😔


loopydebs
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4 hours ago, Sausage said:

So you are happy to throw hundreds at a problem that probably doesnt exist to save face with your usual mechanic and keep him sweet? All that will prove to him is how easy you are at being manipulated into parting with money.

To me it’s the same as trusting a dentist, you wouldn’t say to them, don’t worry about that filling, I don’t need it/I’ll do it myself.. this is the boat I’m in.

 

3 hours ago, Sausage said:

Personally, I would have been taking this back to the seller asap if it happened very soon after purchase and come to an agreement or returned the car if I thought it had a problem needing £100s spent on it that hadnt been disclosed. He was probably trade anyway.

He’s not trade, I would love to take it back, but at the same time, I’ve wanted another TDI for years, this is my 4th Lupo, it’s otherwise immaculate. I’ve made my bed, I’ve got to lie in it. 

Edited by loopydebs
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2 hours ago, loopydebs said:

It works but it has an intermittent fault.

How intermittent? It's done it once....? or repeatedly?

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19 hours ago, Skezza said:

How intermittent? It's done it once....? or repeatedly?

It’s done it once. But that’s enough, as said before it’s not something I can run the risk of happening during my commute and it’s going to be my daily driver. 

Found a tuning place that can pair a new ECU to her for £250 and tune it at the same time, waiting on my mechanics thoughts now. Thanks to @mk2 for this suggestion 👍

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1 hour ago, loopydebs said:

It’s done it once. But that’s enough, as said before it’s not something I can run the risk of happening during my commute and it’s going to be my daily driver. 

Found a tuning place that can pair a new ECU to her for £250 and tune it at the same time, waiting on my mechanics thoughts now. Thanks to @mk2 for this suggestion 👍

Isn't that what breakdown is for though? Most of us commute to work and there's always risks. You can't predict the unexpected....? Looking back since I started, I'd say I've been unluckier than most when it comes to my daily commute but it's possibly because I drive such a long distance (not as far now mind). Your ECU might not cut out but you might get a flat tyre instead? Or you might damage a fuel line or the vacuum hose for the brakes might come loose? Or you might have a massive coolant leak? You can never guarantee 100% reliability in any car. All you can do is mitigate your problems.... I understand that your methodology here is indeed to do just that, but you are 100% throwing out the baby with the bathwater. The ECU's in these cars are surprisingly bulletproof and I can tell you that from experience. Wires and looms on the other hand can fail..... but once they're repaired, they're repaired and in the case of something like a daily workhorse Lupo, it's probably going to be for the lifetime of the car.

I can see you've already made your mind up and that's fine, but ultimately, you could have driven for 12 months, not seen this issue again, realised it was cured and saved yourself some decent money, inconvenience and stress..... or..... it could have happened again in 3 weeks time, at which point you politely explain to your employer that you've had a minor vehicle fault which you are now in the process of getting rectified to ensure it doesn't affect your punctuality/attendance going forward and sincerely apologise for any inconvenience it has caused. If they are unhappy with that response, then I would be looking at a new employer tbh. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Update!

Dropped Lupo off at a diesel tuning garage on Thursday for a new ECU + pairing to the car.

My garage got a quote from VW for a new ECU, £1060 + VAT 😂 

The tuning place will source and pair a second hand ECU and tune it for £250 plus parts. 

I drove it 30 miles there, she was great to drive but took me ages to relax as was nervous she’d go into limp home mode!

Thank you all for your help on this, I’ll keep you posted!

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On 4/19/2019 at 1:02 PM, Sausage said:

Why throw money at a problem that hasnt been confirmed yet? Get a 2nd opinion.

You can buy TDi ecus for £15 that would need a bit of effort to make work or get a remapped ecu with immo off on ebay for about £75. Even then it is doubtful you need one.

I have a spare one if its wanted

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You are still throwing money at a problem that hasnt been confirmed. Your replacement ecu will "fix" the problem and you will think your mechanic is the greatest to walk the earth, but as you wont just drive it as it is now to find out if the problem is fixed or not you will never know if the £££s you have chosen to spend have been a waste or not.

Most limp modes can be reset by turning the ignition off and back on again, so unless it is happening very often it isnt the end of the world.

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@Sausage I understand where you’re coming from but I have always been upfront about the fact that this is the route I’m taking.

@Skezza If you have nothing helpful to say don’t respond please.

@weslangdon it’s great of you to offer thank you! I will call the tuner place tomorrow and see where he’s at with it and come back to you x

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4 minutes ago, loopydebs said:

@Sausage I understand where you’re coming from but I have always been upfront about the fact that this is the route I’m taking.

@Skezza If you have nothing helpful to say don’t respond please.

@weslangdon it’s great of you to offer thank you! I will call the tuner place tomorrow and see where he’s at with it and come back to you x

Are you taking the mickey? Please refer to my previous post where I gave probably the most cogent advice you could have reasonably expected and you have decided to completely ignore it.

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Sorry if I've completely missed the point here. But has the sensor itself been tested?

It's one of the easiest things to change, and I too find it hard to believe that water has gotten into the ECU and the only contact to be affected out of the many, many contacts inside is just the throttle pot one....

Edited by cj1
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If this was a recurring problem not fixed by a bit of wiring then we would all understand your chosen path (although there are cheaper options already outlined for you in this thread that you seem keen to avoid for some reason).

Chances are it is already fixed but you wont drive the damn thing to find out. 🙄

 

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Apparently it's the ECU contacts, not the Ecu itself... water inside plug. Corrosion as i understand it. So easiest is to swap the ecu i guess. The pins in the connector are gold plated (wont corrode) on the loom side, so "should" be ok. Pins on the ecu are just tin plated i think (and will corrode).

It is a very unusual problem TBH. I have never seen a stock unmolested ecu fail inside the electronics. Never seen a connector fail either. Meant to be ultra reliable, as there's no backup to an Ecu. (BMW electric power steering systems- take note- which fail when blasting down the motorway, then you crash and die! =Recall)

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@mk2 you are correct, 3 of the pins on the ECU are corroded, I have seen this with my own eyes so am happy to replace it. 

@cj1 the throttle sensor has not been checked, my garage said this is a pain to replace and they are confident the cause is the water damage to the ECU. Who knows what else may be affected, I don’t want the stress or the worry of finding out! 

 

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43 minutes ago, loopydebs said:

@mk2 you are correct, 3 of the pins on the ECU are corroded, I have seen this with my own eyes so am happy to replace it. 

@cj1 the throttle sensor has not been checked, my garage said this is a pain to replace and they are confident the cause is the water damage to the ECU. Who knows what else may be affected, I don’t want the stress or the worry of finding out! 

 

So you clean them up, you re-seal the ECU and you enjoy the car for the rest of its life. I promise you, I'm not taking the mickey. I just think it's necessary to put this information in the public domain, otherwise others might take the drastic route you've taken. You've taken the last route.... first, which is utterly barmy. People get scared of things they don't really understand.... and I don't mean that in a nasty way either, it's just a fact. I am the same.... trust me, but it's all about debunking myths that have been propagated through word of mouth and also the Internet. I remember the old myths about supermarket fuel (do they still exist?) and certified vs approved engine oil etc (A myth that is still routinely talked about as if it is gospel).

There's a phrase my good friend @mattarosa once said to me..... "man made it, man can make it again". Three pins on your ECU are corroded, so you clean them up, you check check for consistency if you're a bit sensitive to panic (anyone with half an ounce of engineering sense knows the score), you re-seal the ECU (are they contact sealed or rubber? never had one apart) and you assume that ghosts and gremlins don't exist. If any of the components look noticeably damaged or affected, you can also replace them. I've done this on everything from motherboards to tiny iPod's with those utterly disgusting SMD components. There is only physics when it comes to stuff like this, feels don't really exist in the world of  science and like @Sausage said, you'll be praising a mechanic without any proof that his work has even been beneficial your car..... beyond it's current condition. Let's hope the new ECU doesn't leak either eh? Clearly if one has leaked, they could all be impervious to it (the first time I've ever come across it mind).

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Hold on @Skezza... if your car is a minter, you'd probably want to keep it perfect. It's like the driver's seat belt retractor, gear stick gaitor or the fuel cap rubber string thing. Not serious if you do an after market alteration to achieve the same result, but so so annoying if everything else on the car is like new. On one of my mk2s, I had to source a small interior part from Australia, only because the plastic had discoloured slightly! Yup. Completely obsessed! 😳

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44 minutes ago, mk2 said:

Hold on @Skezza... if your car is a minter, you'd probably want to keep it perfect. It's like the driver's seat belt retractor, gear stick gaitor or the fuel cap rubber string thing. Not serious if you do an after market alteration to achieve the same result, but so so annoying if everything else on the car is like new. On one of my mk2s, I had to source a small interior part from Australia, only because the plastic had discoloured slightly! Yup. Completely obsessed! 😳

So wait, replacing the original ECU with a replacement from another vehicle keeps it perfectly original? Not sure I compute on that one.....

Since when was cleaning contacts on the original ECU an aftermarket alteration? Since when was replacing a capacitor off the circuit board, with the same capacitor an aftermarket alteration? Volkswagen don't make components....

You'll have to explain this to me mate. I clearly don't get it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update on the Lupo! 

The first garage I took it to seemed off, after initially quoting £50 for an ECU all of a sudden became £200+ VAT and pressuring me to make a decision to get it done quickly so I pulled it out quick! 

On collection I had a check engine light on, I was like 🤦🏼‍♀️

Found a place closer to me after calling a VW specialist repair company who mentioned them as a local tuning company, I was all over it!

Took it in on Thursday at 2pm, 4pm he calls, the ECU is fine, no corrosion but it was not attached to the car and the egr solenoid was broken. 

I am £313 lighter but I feel I dodged a bullet at the first place I took it to, and I am delighted my ECU is ok! 

I have a question for you wonderful Lupo people: could the first guy have broken my egr solenoid valve? I haven’t got much of an idea about these things and don’t want to be judging him too harshly.

Now all she needs is new tyres, a full service, new rear shocks...

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Isn’t a garage and a mechanic pretty much the same thing? Or does your mechanic just go work for each of the garages you take your car to?

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On 6/9/2019 at 7:31 PM, Pete said:

Isn’t a garage and a mechanic pretty much the same thing? Or does your mechanic just go work for each of the garages you take your car to?

I’m not quite sure what you’re asking...

Of course the mechanic I use (referred to as my mechanic as been using him for 15 years) doesn’t do that!

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