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Polo G40 oddball


4wheeledstool

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  • 3 months later...

It's been far too warm in my unit to be arsed doing any work on my chod - it was 40 degrees in there today. The cladding soaks up the sun's heat and radiates it inside. All that's happened to this since the last post has been some mileage and a good wash and buff up this afternoon.

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Profuse perspiration accompanied the buffing session - the term "sweating like a glass blower's arse" sprang to mind. :(

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Mine did, I loved it to bits and spent lots on it but I also thrashed the living shit out of it at every opportunity. It used to beg me to.
You know when the supercharger lets go and dumps metal filings in the inlet? That's not a happy noise.

 

I had all good intentions. I used to drive it gently and be careful. Then I'd be at the lights and something like a bloody 320d would pull up alongside me and start creeping forwards and the RED MIST WOULD DESCEND.

 

I'd debadged mine so it was a clear case of "I'll just nip in front of this old Polo and holy shit what just happened"

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  • 4 months later...

 

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Little bit of work required after today's ride out - the in-tank lift pump appears to have stopped pumping. It still drives ok, but the fuel pressure drops when ragging it. I have one on the shelf, just need to find an hour or so to fling it in at some point. :)

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  • 9 months later...
  • 8 months later...

This shat its ECU at the back end of last year. It was behaving a bit strangely - if you gave it a little throttle when out of gear, the rpms were fluctuating by about 1000rpm. It drove OK to start with (other than the fluctuations) then started misbehaving differently. Sometimes the engine would die as soon as the throttle was touched (it always idled perfectly throughout the shenanigans) Sometimes when driving it would behave as if the ignition was flicked off then on again. 

I removed the engine loom for testing and, found no issues. I removed the temp sensor, lambda probe, CO pot/air temp sensor, hall sensor, coil etc. and everything tested up perfectly. Only thing left to check was the ECU. 

A kind chap off of the G40 forum loaned me his spare ECU, and once it was installed, the car ran perfectly. Now I knew what was required, I just had to find one! I kept hold of the loaned unit for a few months so that I could carry on using the car while I tried to find one for sale. Typically, there were none for sale when I needed one, and by April, the bloke wanted his ECU back. 

I eventually found one on ebay.de, but when it arrived and was fitted, it was found to be differently defective to the original one. Fortunately I was able to return it and get a refund, so the search continued. 

Last week I got in touch with a bloke in the UK who was selling one earlier this year for too much money. As it had not sold, he thankfully halved his price, thus making it viable. (I could get my ECU reconditioned for £250+VAT which wasn't much different from his original asking price) It arrived this week, and I tried it out this evening - Success! 

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I might just get the original one repaired anyway - electrical stuff for ageing obscure vehicles probably won't get any easier to find as time marches on.  :(

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12 hours ago, 4wheeledstool said:

This shat its ECU at the back end of last year. It was behaving a bit strangely - if you gave it a little throttle when out of gear, the rpms were fluctuating by about 1000rpm. It drove OK to start with (other than the fluctuations) then started misbehaving differently. Sometimes the engine would die as soon as the throttle was touched (it always idled perfectly throughout the shenanigans) Sometimes when driving it would behave as if the ignition was flicked off then on again. 

I removed the engine loom for testing and, found no issues. I removed the temp sensor, lambda probe, CO pot/air temp sensor, hall sensor, coil etc. and everything tested up perfectly. Only thing left to check was the ECU. 

A kind chap off of the G40 forum loaned me his spare ECU, and once it was installed, the car ran perfectly. Now I knew what was required, I just had to find one! I kept hold of the loaned unit for a few months so that I could carry on using the car while I tried to find one for sale. Typically, there were none for sale when I needed one, and by April, the bloke wanted his ECU back. 

I eventually found one on ebay.de, but when it arrived and was fitted, it was found to be differently defective to the original one. Fortunately I was able to return it and get a refund, so the search continued. 

Last week I got in touch with a bloke in the UK who was selling one earlier this year for too much money. As it had not sold, he thankfully halved his price, thus making it viable. (I could get my ECU reconditioned for £250+VAT which wasn't much different from his original asking price) It arrived this week, and I tried it out this evening - Success! 

IMG_20200612_192030.thumb.jpg.2124244dce1e04288aebe49a7a1a49c3.jpg

I might just get the original one repaired anyway - electrical stuff for ageing obscure vehicles probably won't get any easier to find as time marches on.  :(

What bits inside your ECU have failed? Or is it just solder joints on the PCB going dry through age?

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  • 1 year later...
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  • 9 months later...

The only component to give up so far this year was a front wheel bearing. It took me most of the day to fix it due to arthritis related restricted mobility, but got it done with enough time left for a decent ride out in it.

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Still scrubs up well.  :)

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  • 1 month later...

I try to give all my heaps a coat of wax once a year. This one was the last to get its annual paint love session this year, and for a change, didn't get rained on straight afterwards. 

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Colour looks very different in the sun

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compared to the doom blue look you get in lower light conditions. 

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Tyres are 9 years old now, hopefully I can still get decent tyres in this size.

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  • 1 year later...
On 26/09/2022 at 21:22, Dick Longbridge said:

I've not seen a G40 in the wild for a long time now. Quite adventurous for VAG at the time really. How do you do your annual car wax protection - drive on ramps? 

Annual wax is just paintwork, cavity wax is applied every three years or so. Never waxed the underside - it still has its factory PU sealant on there.👍

Attended to a few jobs on this while it's immobilised by saltiness. First up was the load compensator valve - it seized up some time this year, highlighted by less than normal brake effort at the last MOT.  Car goes up.

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Easy enough job, made easier by one of those pressure bleeders that utilises an inflated tyre as a source of air pressure.

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Job done. Next was the in tank fuel pump, after the in-line pump became noisy, this was suspected as the cause. Another easy job, access is through a removable panel under the back seat, now fuel delivery is quiet again. 🙂

Whilst having a good look around while it was up in the air, I noticed that the (original) radiator had started to fail, leaving pinkness as a witness. Unable to buy a genuine one now, I settled on a Nissens one - I've been using one on the grey car for years. Car goes up again.

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Radiator, intercooler and charger outlet all came off.

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Removed bits cleaned up before going back on.

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The job was then let down by Royal Mail's "24hr" service, which after 72 hours still hasn't materialised.  ☹️

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Post man came today.

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Stuff went back together.

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New radiator and clean intercooler brighten up front end view.

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Some pre 2001 font number plates should arrive tomorrow. I've been meaning to address the inappropriate plates ever since the car went back on the road nearly ten years ago. 😀

 

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