Polo G40 - when black became grey

[4wheeledstool]

Well done, shame you had to piss about with the legal shenanigans, its also nice to see that this hasn't been given the pineapple treatment, and still looks fairly stock.

 

Cheers! Not digging on the whole pineapple thing - not even pineapple chunks!

[4wheeledstool]

Due to the piss poor design of the rear exhaust hanger, something beefier was required. A heavy stainless exhaust made the problem of bent hooks even worse. A thicker bracket and hooks were fabbed up and bolted into position, so hopefully it'll stay where its supposed to now!

 

[4wheeledstool]

Floppy gearstick also cured recently - shift box removed from car and dismantled -

 

 

Repair kit for the bottom of the gearstick -

 

 

Bush for shift rod through shift box -

 

 

Proper infuriating puzzle to reassemble, but now shifts like it should!

[Pillock]

Aaah, my G40 had the same issue with the exhaust hanger. I had a twin 3" stainless backbox (hooked to a full stainless catback & VAG Motorsport decat) and it was heavy enough to bend those poxy little hooks down, which makes the rubbers slip off.

 

I got quite good at slipping off a sock, tying a knot in it, slipping it between the two tailpipes so the knot wouldn't pull through, and using that to hold the hot back box up to hook the rubbers back on. This was happening a couple of times a week.

 

I eventually got a load of longer, wider, different sized rubbers to make something that crossed over, so the left hook was on the right hook on the back box and vice versa. Stopped it slipping off. I've seen others with bolt hooks through the boot floor.

[nacho man]

 

Many many many moons ago I bought this lovely little 1043cc fox for my brother to learn in for 200 quid, he then pineappled it before fruit became fashionable. A good ten years ago.

 

Anyhow this was no g40 but in the end we fitted a suspension kit and I am pretty sure it was a knock up of bits that included some vectra bits in the box.

 

Also as it was silly low so the exhaust fell off every other week, I took it to pick out cat up from the cattery and a slight road undulation took the exhaust off I ripped some speaker wire out and tied it up around the boot. Job jobbed.

[4wheeledstool]

I consider myself most fortunate that I've not had an exhaust part company with a car yet. It does seem to be the bane of many Polo owners lives though - many "Vorsprung durch pikey technik" bodges have been described on Polo based forums!

I particularly like the "sock trick", nice!

[4wheeledstool]

The perfect day - glorious weather, with nothing else to do other than exercising my chod.

 

 

Hopefully 2015 hasn't just peaked!

[4wheeledstool]

This got its first clean of the year today - not been done since October.

 

 

 

It was prompted by a combination of a sunny day, and a cock and balls appearing in the dirt on the rear window. Retribution will be sought!

[4wheeledstool]

Oil changed, quick inspection, and good to go for the Summer!

 

 

[Bear]

That is absolutely lovely. Can't beat some PROPER mods with actual reasoning and improvements behind them. None of this negative camber, stretched tyre shit. Bet that is amazing to drive!

[derskine]

Regarding Polo exhausts, mine fell off my GT after getting caught on a rail, it then flipped round and burst the drivers rear tyre.

[4wheeledstool]

That is absolutely lovely. Can't beat some PROPER mods with actual reasoning and improvements behind them. None of this negative camber, stretched tyre shit. Bet that is amazing to drive!

Thank you kindly! It's vastly improved over a standard chassis/suspension set up, but is still greatly outshone handlingwise by more modern stuff. The car is probably more competent than I am!

[4wheeledstool]

Regarding Polo exhausts, mine fell off my GT after getting caught on a rail, it then flipped round and burst the drivers rear tyre.

Thats pretty unlucky! I would have thought that it would just drag along the road in a shower of sparks.

[derskine]

It ripped off at the centre section, then got caught and forced round. Tyre was bald anyway but was a bit shit.

I've recently bought a pair of ARB blocks for mine, yet to fit but hopefully make a difference, it's understeer central at the moment.

[4wheeledstool]

I've no idea what the ARB blocks alone will behave like, but plenty of people swear by them on a lowered car.

[4wheeledstool]

It would appear that I've been driving this around with the king lead hanging off the coil! This is the state of the lead -

 

 

The terminal on the coil is similarly frazzed, somehow it still ran perfectly though?

I only noticed the disconnected lead when checking the oil!

 

New coil off eBay, and a spare king lead fitted, and its all in order again.

 

[4wheeledstool]

Thanks for the repair came in the form of a puddle of gearbox oil on the garage floor. What was left in there was drained, then the bolloxed selector shaft seal was replaced - it was all going well until the time came to refill the gearbox. The fill/level plug would not come out! I must have overtightened it in the past, as it was FT and ended up rounded. As there was no oil in the box, I couldn't drive it to my unit and get it on a ramp, so desperation set in. The only other means of getting oil in there is through the speedo drive hole, so the speedo drive came out leaving me with a tiny hole to fill it through. A piece of plastic fuel pipe and a little funnel were used for delivery - 3 litres needed to go in, and each litre took 40 minutes to unload through the skinny pipe. Arse cake! It's done now anyway, check out the comedy rig cobbled together to avoid holding the bastard funnel while the oil trickled in!

 

 

Normal service now resumed.

[Matt]

It would appear that I've been driving this around with the king lead hanging off the coil! This is the state of the lead -

 

 

The terminal on the coil is similarly frazzed, somehow it still ran perfectly though?

 

I've had this too; plug from the lead broke off and got stuck in the cap, nothing to be seen inside the lead and the car ran faultlessly.

 

[derskine]

Might be able to use a chisel and hammer to wind that plug out.

[4wheeledstool]

Remember to get that rounded filler plug out soonish at your leisure. Or you can guarantee that'll come back to bite you on the arse ....

 

It's guaranteed!

 

Might be able to use a chisel and hammer to wind that plug out.

If I can't get a better angle on it from underneath, that'll be the only option! Probably leave it until the engine comes out for tarting up at some point.

[derskine]

Or alternatively if they are steel (seem to remember the bellhousing is alloy) you'd be able to weld something to it.

[4wheeledstool]

Or alternatively if they are steel (seem to remember the bellhousing is alloy) you'd be able to weld something to it.

Plug is steel and bell housing is alloy - good call - I could weld a bolt to it and swing on that!

[steve_earwig]

When I drained the oil out the 'box on my HDi I found Pug had stopped fitting a filler/level plug. Queue lots of panicking as I suddenly had no transport and wasn't at home. What Pug did was make the breather massive with a removable lid. The alternative is to remove the reversing light switch which leaves a ~10mm hole on the top of the 'box (no idea if it's on the 'box on a VW).

 

I notice on the RAV forums the recommendation now is to make sure you can get the filler/level plug out of the gearbox/transfer/final drive before you drain the oil out of them, not sure if that's yet another "feature" but it's possibly a wise precaution on any car.

[4wheeledstool]

When I drained the oil out the 'box on my HDi I found Pug had stopped fitting a filler/level plug. Queue lots of panicking as I suddenly had no transport and wasn't at home. What Pug did was make the breather massive with a removable lid. The alternative is to remove the reversing light switch which leaves a ~10mm hole on the top of the 'box (no idea if it's on the 'box on a VW).

 

I notice on the RAV forums the recommendation now is to make sure you can get the filler/level plug out of the gearbox/transfer/final drive before you drain the oil out of them, not sure if that's yet another "feature" but it's possibly a wise precaution on any car.

Fair doos!

 

Dug this out again today, thankfully a dry garage floor suggests that it's still oil tight!

 

 

Still not sorted the fill/level plug yet though!

[4wheeledstool]

This has been seeing more action recently - a lot more than in the Summer anyway. (Thanks to a certain Vauxhall) Total lack of salt on the roads is helping too!

 

 

Seen here being dwarfed by a Golf at Halfrauds the other day.

[4wheeledstool]

Finally sorted out the knackered oil level plug today after a ride out. It just wanted biffing with a hammer and chisel. After fitting a spare one, it probably won't need to come out for a while now, but at least it's done.

 

 

[4wheeledstool]

This has been dormant for a while Noticed the odometer had a lot of 1s on it when I got it out for a drive this morning!

 

[spartacus]

Nice work. A proper 'old school' hot hatch. That front subframe looks a good mod. I can remember driving bread vans and almost being able to feel the geometry changing at the front as you threw it in to a corner. These must be pretty rare now?

[4wheeledstool]

Nice work. A proper 'old school' hot hatch. That front subframe looks a good mod. I can remember driving bread vans and almost being able to feel the geometry changing at the front as you threw it in to a corner. These must be pretty rare now?

Cheers! According to HML there's still a couple of hundred left, half of which are SORNed.

[spartacus]

Non on the 'bay though!