Golf trouble

[CJ]

I know very little about VW engines, a mate with a '99 1.4 Golf called me up last night looking for advise so I thought I'd ask you guys!

Now I haven't driven the car but he complains of a metallic/grinding noise coming from the engine when driving the car, its more prominent when going uphill. He's been to 2 mechanics (and both say different things - surprise, surprise). The most logical suggestion was that the engine has suffered oil starvation and the camshaft has been damanged as a result. Anyone reckon theres any truth in this? Is the 1.4 prone to such issues?I would have considered VW engines to be pretty bullet proof.

Said mate has lost all faith in VW main dealers due to bad service from a number of garages in the past so he's reluctant to go down that route.

CJ

[kevinod]

I'm slow to hazard a guess without actually hearing the noise... but when the noise is worse when under load might look at the drive shafts maybe...

I've heard a lot of bad things about early 00s Golfs, in particular the 1.4 engine (my brother was warned off them by a VW dealer! ). My brother has a 01 TDi Golf, and things have happened the car that shouldn't have come about for another 10 years.

There was enough to put me off recommending the car to anyone anyway.

[Dave]

Rathgar motors are Merc and VW specialists, they looked after a guy's I worked with Golf, he actually put too much oil in and it knackered the engine, the VW's Golfs of this era aren't as bullet proof as you would imagine!

Oh yeah, number is 0862352956, Joe Murphy is his name.

[Muad_dib77]

Steering rack went in my girlfriends 04 golf.. I was shocked - evne more so when they refused to replace it under warrenty caus eshe hadn't serviced the car at a vw dealer..

definately not bulletproof cars anymore..

with regards to the noise it cound be anything from a bearing to something more serious..If it does tun out to be a rebuilt job there should be plenty of knackered golfs with ok engines sitting about in scappers yards..

There's a merc/vw dealership just off the n3 near castleknock - I forget the name but they have a rather large workshop area and they handle all the vw warrenty work in the area - so they'd have some idea of what's what.. I'd think...

[CJ]

All useful info guys, many thanks

CJ