Crystal ball gazing type question, but just had to have an injector replaced on our 1.6 TDI polo (2010). Been thinking of replacing for a petrol as the car mainly does short trips now and I’m slightly concerned about possible impending DPF failure (it’s on 92k and I read DPFs have a life of about 100k). Our neighbour has also offered us first refusal on his petrol Focus which is a year older but fewer miles. We don’t have funds at present to buy or lease a new car.

My gut feeling is that in ~6 months time I’ll be having another conversation with the garage about another £500 injector replacement, since they’ll all be the same age (we bought the Polo as an ex-demonstrator and haven’t replaced any before now) and I expect them to degrade at the same rate. My question is, is that a fair assumption?

Cheers

It doesn’t necessarily mean more failures will happen, some parts fail early.  Does the car get any long runs ? – I’d be making sure it gets a good Italian Tune Up down the motorway a couple of times a month if it’s just doing short journey’s so the DPF can regen.

It’s not an ‘old’ car.

Get a quote for a recon injector  from a diesel injector specialist.

Look up the price on pfjones.

500 quid for an injector seems like your having your pants pulled down.

I paid about 160 quid for a recon injector from my local Bosch specialist on exchange last year on the big bus. I only replaced one. And have had no further issues.

Injectors do degrade as similar rates but there are many factors that can accelerate the failure of one quicker than the rest. In my case the pintle ball had erroded due to a bunch of shit on the seat the ball looked like a golfball. So it was bypassing all the time, causing unburnt fuel smoke all the time. I had all the other open and cleaned them -the rest were mint.

Cheers folks, appreciate the comments.

Car does get one long run or two a month.

£500 was the total for the garage bill, the injector itself was OEM at approx £300. VW original was considerably more.

I’ll bear in mind recon injectors if it happens again!

Cheers.

The reason the injectors fail on 2009 to late 2013 VW cars using the 1.6TDI engine is due to a breakdown in the injector electrical insulation, these injectors can not be refurbished.  It’s a well known issue with the 1.6tdi engine that a number of the injectors are prone to failure.

Having one injector fail is not an indication that others will fail, however removal of a single injector can upset the sealing ring on the paired injector so it’s advisable to replace the sealing rings as a pair.

ha , i forgot vw are prone to terrible *bespoke* apple esque unrepairable ideas that are prone to leaving large £ shaped holes in folks wallets.

£300 for an injector is nuts – our Honda outboard engine is a V6 producing 225hp and a complete OEM injector is about £60!

We have a 1.6 diesel Golf and I’m expecting an injector failure fairly soon seeing as my BIL has the same car/same year and an injector failed a few weeks ago.

Makes me feel happier about the £1000 to renew the warranty on my Porsche!

Good thread here on caddy2k forum regarding 1.6tdi injector failure.

I wouldn’t be that concerned about DPF failure on your polo, my 3.5 yr old 1.6tdi Caddy is at 125k and runs three different remaps switchable dependant on the journey, (ultra fuel economy remap – 70mpg+, standard tune – 60mpg, and a STW making progress remap – 50mpg, my DPF is in perfect condition, I only use Shell v-Power diesel and change the oil + filter (millers oil) every 8000 miles.

The other concern is if it’s possibly something upstream that’s caused the issue- failing fuel pump or similar. But in this case I’d kind of assume not tbh.

Injectors tend to have a fairly similar life, all in all so you’ll often find that when one dies the others are reaching end of life but it’s up to you whether to jump on that or wait (I did mine one at a time over the course of about 20000 miles but it was fairly irritating at times, I traded cheapness for less convenience basically)

Apart from model specifics, it does seem to be a thing that generates a lot of owner terror and unneccesary wallet opening tbf so I’d always approach online advice with caution

Timely thread, had 1 done on my diesel crv, 205k miles, last week and car still not starting well and had an injection fault light this week, so getting twitch to move it on.

At £240 per injector going be costly on an 11 year old car so think might sell it on, have offer of a good accord estate with 20k less miles on it.

Keep switching between stick with it and cross fingers no other issues and punt it on get accord. Damn it

When one went on my last car I asked the garage to change them all but they advised against it. They said they are like light bulbs and some go on for ages whilst others won’t, so change them as they start playing up.

I had a 2008 Golf GT Sport TDI 170 – an injector failed, the injector rail went open loop & I had to be towed in. VW dealer charged me 750 quid.

Next service three where replaced free of charge. I said I thought it was a four cyclinder car & they said it was but I’d already had one done. After some words I got a refund.

The issue was a recall due to an injector manufacturing fault.

Might be worth checking!!

No recall for 1.6tdi injector, vosa says it’s not a dangerous failure

Right, think I’ll hold on to it until the car starts being very lumpy at idle again, if/when that happens. Thinking back, it was getting noticeably lumpy,  but I put it down to needing a filter change or two or just getting on a bit – I know not much about cars, but I know not to ignore warning signs now!

I had read there was a ‘safety campaign’ i.e. not a recall as such, on 2.0 deisels by VW, but this obvs didn’t include my 1.6.

Thanks for the further comments.

Find your local bosch specialist and get all the injectors tested and any faulty ones refurbished. Think it cost about £300 to have all 4 injectors on our TD4 freelander (BMW 2.0 engine) checked and refurbed then a bit of labour on top for a mechanic to get them out and replace them. I didnt fancy taking them out myself as they often coke up on the inside so can be a bastard to get out.

You can’t refurbish the injectors on 1.6tdi engines as it’s a breakdown of insulation which causes the failures

ahh, bugger. Another reason to avoid VW then…