Are GDI's crap? HELP!!!

[morphinemitt]

Is it my imagination or does everything I read on the GDI engine point to it being troublesome? I'm looking at an 03 v40 at the moment 107k and it has the aforementioned GDI lump in it. Does this mean I'm forever going to be putting my hand in my pocket or not?
I've read the previous posts about running it on super unleaded etc, but that just makes it less fuel efficient in my book. Please help, the car has everything else I need on it, and I'm super interested in it other than the GDI thing!

[the great one]

i dont rate them they need decokeing every 60k or so. there erratic esp at idle and costly when they go wrong. there also a struggle to get through mot emissions

[classicswede]

Also you cant gas them as the pertol injectors will melt.

[DEANO]

Dont worry my gdi engine has coverd 97,000 miles and been brilliant no problems at all and went through the mot today without a fault, but changing the oil as often as possable using good oil and using fuel injector cleaners to help with the coking problem. This engine was not designed to be used on british fuel and this is causing the problem

Deano

[SpeedyReedy]

My Gdi 90000 miles no problems, Serviced at dealer at the required intervals no problems, only things that have been replaced are consumables, discs, pads and plugs etc, Never failed an MOT. Never been Decoked.
Does need to have a good run frequently though I think the problems occur due to being economicaly driven (They need a good thrashing (Italian tune up))
I wouldn't hesitate to replace mine with another Gdi

[morphinemitt]

Thanks all, a mixed bag of replies there then.
I did however speak to the service manager at my local main dealer and he basically told me about the de-coke/mot emissions problem and the poor idling etc. (he actually advised me to steer clear of GDI's)
Bit of a tip here too: if the car is a volvo engine it has a different box to the GDI, and a surefire way to tell is by the location of reverse, ie with a volvo it's left and lift, whereas a GDi is right and push. Hope this helps future buyers/owners.
Thanks again all.

[DavidMarron]

I've got a 1.8 GDI bought 10 months ago and am trying to get Network Q to pay for a decoke as it's never been right and is getting worse.

I'm sitting waiting for a return call from the main volvo dealer who inspected the car for me in an attempt to get Network q to cough up. It had about 43 k on it when i bought it (Y reg) and it's now 47-8k.

Volvo quoted between £1.8 & 2k for the decoke. (£98/hour)

my reverse is right and back

[johnswlondon]

thanks for the warning david,have you thought of just selling it to avoid all the hastle or would you lose a lot of pesetas on the deal

[DavidMarron]

I paid £6k for the car and am trying to figure out how much to pay if I end up footing the total bill.

The volvo guy has said that he'll try to get some money off Volvo but that I shouldn't count on it. I have a horrible feeling that Network Q will weasel out of paying and I will try to get the selling garage to make a payment.

It all depends on what % of £2k I have to pay. Maybe just go to an independent. I went to the volvo place to get an authoritive diagnosis.

[jamie28]

we paid £3500 for a 2002 v40 se gdi ,100k with fvsh at an auction last week , it had been stood since march ( we contacted the last owner who told us when he handed it back to the lease company and it had done less then 10 miles since, he also said he had no major problems and its never been decoked) , after a new battery and diven for a couple of hundred miles it sailed through the mot today with excellent emissions ( the mot testers words not mine ) .

performance is ok for a 1.8 it idles smoothly , fuel consumption upto 50 mpg at 70mph and about 30 around town with the odd thrash thrown in compared to my t5 is excellent.
you can just about hear the tappets which is common , however there is an annoying rattle from an exhaust heat shield i wil have to sort.

so far im happy but time will tell and i have never driven a v40 with the volvo 1.8 engine

i am a little confused as to how a lean burn engine is prone to cokeing up,i would of thought if you use the car hard now and then and use fuel with a cleaning aditive you should be ok

also my local volvo dealer did not have an oil filter and sump plug washer in stock and when you look at the euro car parts and german and sweedish websites a lot of their spares are not available for the gdi. are gdi spares harder to get or am i paranoid????