VW 1.4 Petrol engines...?

[Sodemo]

Does anyone know anything about the older VAG 1.4 petrol engines from the late 90s and early 2000s?

I used to have a 1997 Golf 1.4 and for *some reason* it seemed to drink the fuel like it was going out of fashion, it also provided terrible performance, I think around 70bhp. I considered this a one-off and that there was some kind of issue with the car, however I have now just borrowed my fathers 2004 Polo which has the same 1.4 engine in it and it has the same story. Drinks the fuel and is totally gutless. I put £15 of petrol into the car this morning and it has all vanished in one afternoon. I have done about 60 miles and ive been driving it like a good boy, old man style, 60mph on motorway, no big accelerations, flooring the clutch way in advance of junctions, trying to carry as much speed through corners. Checked tyre pressures, they are all as high as they can go.

Does anyone have any knowledge or background info on these things?

Thanks!

[Tim Falce]

Flooring the clutch before you need to uses more fuel than letting it coast in a high gear. I would expect 40+ around town with something like that car. My wife's 1.2 Clio does 44mpg and is pretty gutless compared with her old 1.5 diesel that does 68mpg, the smaller engines may use more on a motorway due to gearing.

[wnut]

Sodemo it sounds like the Lambda sensor has died or is dirty and the engine is running rich.
Could also be the OBC, they can go mad all by themselves and require resetting, also the soldering on those VWs is just plain appalling and cracks causing all sorts of weird faults, lead free I believe.

[GORDON STREETER]

I'll be perfectly honest, my wife has a 1997 1.4 8v Polo that she has had for about 15 years. It's now done only 40k miles as she only goes a short distance to work and back everyday and doesn't use it at weekends.
It returns between 35-40 MPG and goes like the proverbial sh** off the shovel !
Believe me it's like most mechanics owned cars it gets load of servicing and attention !!!!!

Just had a thought, I had one in for a service and a timing belt some while back that was pretty gutless, it had been running one tooth out for years !

[wnut]

On that point Gordon, some of the timing belts manage to str....etch a hell of a long way, certainly more than one tooth.