09/58 1.4 80ps, 140k, petrol Polo knock sensor?

[T i m]

Hi,

Mate, driving home last night, 60 mph, all of a sudden he loses engine
power, no response from the throttle.

Manages to coast to a safe place to pull over and the engine is still
ticking over ok and still not responding to the throttle.

He turned it off and tried to re-start and whilst it turned over,
wouldn't fire up. Got it towed to his mates garage (not sure if he
'knows' VW's) who has put some sort of OBD reader on it and it's
showing a faulty knock sensor?

What are the chances that is the fault and if so, any idea how easy it
might be to change please? eg, Is there failure mode for a knock
sensor that is likely to affect the engine like this? If he could
disconnect it, would / should that allow the engine to run?

It looks like it's up the back of the block and access might be
difficult? ;-(

He's going to try to put a better code reader on it himself in the
morning to see if it's showing anything else of if they re-appear when
cleared etc, but in the meantime, I said I'd run it past the good folk
here for him to see if anyone has experience of such?

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

On Wed, 08 Jul 2020 18:47:03 +0100, T i m <***@spaced.me.uk> wrote:

<snip>

Post by T i m
He's going to try to put a better code reader on it himself in the
morning to see if it's showing anything else of if they re-appear when
cleared etc, but in the meantime, I said I'd run it past the good folk
here for him to see if anyone has experience of such?

Update:

Error codes cleared and none come back when he tries to start it (and
it still won't start).

The only thing I can offer him remotely is to go back to basics ... is
there a spark, if there is, does it try to start with some Easy start,
if it does then at least we know it's a fuelling issue?

Cheers, T i m

[Fredxx]

Post by T i m
<snip>

Post by T i m
He's going to try to put a better code reader on it himself in the
morning to see if it's showing anything else of if they re-appear when
cleared etc, but in the meantime, I said I'd run it past the good folk
here for him to see if anyone has experience of such?

Error codes cleared and none come back when he tries to start it (and
it still won't start).

What were the codes?

Post by T i m
The only thing I can offer him remotely is to go back to basics ... is
there a spark, if there is, does it try to start with some Easy start,
if it does then at least we know it's a fuelling issue?
Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Post by Fredxx

Post by T i m
<snip>

Post by T i m
He's going to try to put a better code reader on it himself in the
morning to see if it's showing anything else of if they re-appear when
cleared etc, but in the meantime, I said I'd run it past the good folk
here for him to see if anyone has experience of such?

Error codes cleared and none come back when he tries to start it (and
it still won't start).

What were the codes?

I've just asked him on Whatsapp and he doesn't know as they were
cleared before he got back to it this morning. He just got the
translation (eg, 'Knock sensor').

He wondered if he could do more with his clone VW tool than the garage
could with their generic one but in this case, no.

The problem is he's not near his car and doesn't have a car ... ;-(

Assuming it's not immobilised (that's why our Meriva wasn't starting
(intermittently)) he should get fuel to the injectors (even if the
injectors aren't firing) and sparks at the plugs so some Easy Start in
the inlet manifold whilst spinning it over should show something
shouldn't it?

If it tried to fire up that proves plugs, crank / cam position sensor,
compression so cam-belt, ECU (for those bits anyway) and if the
throttle responds at all, the throttle body / position sensor etc?

The outcome of that linked with the scenario of his going from 60 to
tickover pretty quickly and with no other issues / indication (no
hesitation / misfires / noise changes etc)? That it continued to
tickover till he turned it off but wouldn't start to tickover again?
(that also suggests the cam belt is ok etc)?

Cheers, T i m