New Car: Polo 1.0 Glacial (Acceleration, Definately Not Mint...)

[comfysofa]

Hi All,

 

Got myself a new shed at the weekend: the untamed beast that is the Polo 1.0L. New from Minories in Durham in 1996, and owned by the same family for most of it's life, just thought i'd share and ask if anyone is within a 30 mile radius of Northamptonshire that could flush out the cooling system and top it up with fresh stuff for beer tokens? i've tried doing it once before, years ago, but was not a success....

 

Anyway here is said tarmac tearer in Pogweasel... i've already started ripping the SK8r stickers off...godawful things, the plan is to make this look one presentable car again, cut the paint back, give it one hell of a clean and the finishing touch of some pressed alloy plates in the proper period (not Charles Wright) font.

 

God it's slow though, i think first gear is called that in this car to get you the first three metres away from a junction...

[HH-R]

Sister HH-R had one of these about 12 years ago. It seemed quite nippy though I never drove it. Broke down a lot... Interior felt nice and solid, was bog spec(hubcaps instead of full trims even) but had electric mirrors!

[UltraWomble]

Dont bother to polish the oxidised paint - just lob a can of Nitromors at it and leave it out in the rain, then eBay it and clean up.

[320touring]

I have a 1.9d 64bhp.

 

Same power, more understeer.

 

Bravery and momentum are your friends!

[comfysofa]

Sister HH-R had one of these about 12 years ago. It seemed quite nippy though I never drove it. Broke down a lot... Interior felt nice and solid, was bog spec(hubcaps instead of full trims even) but had electric mirrors!

Snap!

[320touring]

For reference it wont have a fuel light;)

 

Half way into the red is as brave as i have been

[comfysofa]

Been driving along in it for the last couple of days, you end up knowing one of life's great mysteries, that of "how come there are so many 1.4 Polos for sale on ebay when you look for one?" and once the throttle is firmly planted into the pleblon carpet at a green light in the 1.0, you know exactly why, like an ancient wisdom gained...

 

I have started cutting the paint back, has come up fairly well, would have been better if i could have afforded Farecla G3 but...i couldn't. Clutch is mightily heavy on this which could be clutch or cable, both cheap to buy (but probably shit a brick price to fit, although there is a fair amount of access to the cable...

 

So i don't know. I work in roundabout city: Milton Keynes, the home of the financed up Audi Krautbastard driven everywhere at maximum, and with a heavy clutch and performance the speed of a daisy growing in a wet spring, i'm not sure if this will be a keeper, i know once polished up and cleaned out i could make a few quid out of it, especially with it having 12 months ticket on it, but if it's cheap to fix, that's got to be a bonus as well?

[comfysofa]

For reference it wont have a fuel light;)

 

Half way into the red is as brave as i have been

Ah, thanks for that it does seem to have a tiny tank...

[spike60]

Fuel tank should be 45L, my 1997 1.9D had a fuel light, perhaps new fangled extra that year. Mine would do about 380ish miles local running before the light came on.

[320touring]

Fuel tank should be 45L, my 1997 1.9D had a fuel light, perhaps new fangled extra that year. Mine would do about 380ish miles local running before the light came on.

they got a fuel light when the dash was updated:)

[theshadow]

had a four door while ago,same faded color,had hole in the rear floor,which i fibreglassed over,,looked ok.

[anonymous user]

I had one of these new, as a work lease car, it was great for the first year and got progressively more unreliable for the following two. The main faults with it were failure to start at all, or, it would start and tick over but cut out as soon as you tried to rev it.  I was on first name terms with the RAC man by the end of it. The VW main dealer never got to the bottom of it, but did keep me supplied with fuses to replace the one that used to blow every few weeks that affected the running.

 

I didn't find mine too slow, in fact on one downhill stretch of my private M4 it would get the rev-limiter cutting in, in fifth gear.

 

The lease company took it back six months early and punted it straight to auction. Unfortunately by then the lease terms and tax position had worsened, so I didn't get another car supplied by work and instead had to make do with my Rover P6 until I swapped it for a Porsche 928.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Mrs.F bought one of those 6N1 Polos earlier this year, though hers is the big-block 1400cc. I used to take the piss out of them, but I was wrong. They're easy to drive, frugal on fuel, easy to work on and parts are remarkably cheap.

[comfysofa]

Been driving this now for three days, and it's REALLY growing on me...found my comfy position in the car and just love handling that skinny dimpled steering wheel and slick gearbox, shame the clutch ruins things by being so bloody heavy but as i say the parts are cheap, i don't have a lot of money but think it's worth a gamble with a new clutch.

[spike60]

It should be worth doing the clutch, as well as being shit to drive the heavy clutch might break the pedal. I have a 2000 tdi and this had just had a pedal fitted when I bought it and it soon became obvious why. I fitted a clutch and it went from stupid heavy to comedy light, I figured it was going break the pedal again if I didn't do something. Heavy clutches and broken pedals go together with VAG of certain ages, my nephews TT Quattro did it too. Pedal for mine was £71, clutch £80!

Clutch is pretty easy to do.

[JohnK]

Clutch cables are a common issue on these. I had a Seat Cordoba (Polo Saloon) and the clutch was stiff and notchy. New cable sorted it right out.

[HH-R]

I had one of these new, as a work lease car, it was great for the first year and got progressively more unreliable for the following two. The main faults with it were failure to start at all, or, it would start and tick over but cut out as soon as you tried to rev it.  I was on first name terms with the RAC man by the end of it. The VW main dealer never got to the bottom of it, but did keep me supplied with fuses to replace the one that used to blow every few weeks that affected the running.

 

I didn't find mine too slow, in fact on one downhill stretch of my private M4 it would get the rev-limiter cutting in, in fifth gear.

 

The lease company took it back six months early and punted it straight to auction. Unfortunately by then the lease terms and tax position had worsened, so I didn't get another car supplied by work and instead had to make do with my Rover P6 until I swapped it for a Porsche 928.

My sister's was the same, wouldn't start, and would sometimes choose to lose 90% of its 40 odd horses when pulling out of junctions! Changed the throttle body and that but it was never right so just cut her losses in the end and bought something else.

[Taff]

Mrs.F bought one of those 6N1 Polos earlier this year, though hers is the big-block 1400cc. I used to take the piss out of them, but I was wrong. They're easy to drive, frugal on fuel, easy to work on and parts are remarkably cheap.

 

I had the big-block variant as well, terrifingly reliable and sipped the petrol like it was a fine wine. I think in two years and 30,000 miles I only ever had to replace the tyres. The rear brake compensator bracket rotted out on mine and I had to replace it for the MoT (it sits inline for the spray off the rear left wheel. Oh yeah, I had one other fault on mine;-

 

Clutch cables are a common issue on these. I had a Seat Cordoba (Polo Saloon) and the clutch was stiff and notchy. New cable sorted it right out.

 

Clutch was heavy, I got away with taking the cable off, lubing it up (ooer) and refitting it.

 

To my eternal shame, I ratted mine and flogged it for scene tax money to a student who thought it was "dench". I have no idea what dench means, other than I made £75 on the deal after two years trouble free motoring

[Cavcraft]

I ratted mine and flogged it for scene tax money to a student who thought it was "dench". I have no idea what dench means,

 

Dench as in Judy Dench, he was probably hoping the sky would fall on it.

[Taff]

Dench as in Judy Dench, he was probably hoping the sky would fall on it.

 

Hey, £75 sheets is big money around here, fella. That kind of filthy lucre buys 1/3 of an MGF.

[comfysofa]

Thanks for the clutch/cable info guys...i didn't know a cable would make that much difference although i have tried oiling it by spraying WD40 up the gaiter where it attaches to the gearbox...it's still stiff but better than what it was but the clutch dosent seem to slip so maybe that IS the problem...will order one this Friday.

 

Irony of Ironies though, i bought this because i needed new wheels PDQ, but bid on a 1995 Rover 218D a fortnight ago on ebay but didnt win, got the classic "idiot bidder never showed up, do you want it still?" email today...

[2MB]

If you're going to put money into a new clutch, I'd strongly recommend changing the gearbox oil. These shift nicely but the box is a weak point, especially if it leaks at all. For this reason there's one on the drive and one as a garden ornament at my house

[comfysofa]

Crunch time i guess, this weekend to see whether to keep or whether to polish up and push on...luckily i sold my old car, a Mazda Demio (well i have £50 deposit at least...) for £300 to a local who was so unbothered about the general condition of it he turned up at 8.50pm last night (despite several pleas on the phone from me to look at it when light) oh, and used his phone as an inspection torch, nice hopefully he will turn up with the other £250 tomorrow night as planned.

 

Got a quote for the clutch cable to be changed: £85, quoted as that as it may just take over an hour to fit.

 

That's a lot of money for me as i'm stuck in a piss poor, poor paid temp job and there's food and bills and stuff to get, so thinking of either doing the cable with my brother (lots of scope for argument there) or giving it the clean of it's life at the weekend and making merry with a quick sale and a few extra quid on top once the V5 is through.

 

i DO love this car, honestly i do, and Polo MK3 was on my bucket list of cars to have, but sell or stay is something i've got to think about this weekend.

 

Another problem: someone has kindly hacked the radio wiring despite those little loom adaptor things for modern ICE being a few quid, hell, i'm poor and even i wouldn't say no to buying one, so i'm trying to find a Polo that is being broken so i can solder this part of the loom back in and have proper sounds again (i know most of you would say go round it all with a multimeter but i'm not that great with electrickery so reasons...) but it's proving to be a bit of a challenge, messaged several people on ebay who either don't know what i mean, or want me to buy the whole loom, and went to the local breakers. Where i am, we are not exactly over-endowed with purveryors of scrap motors, and ended up at one where i was just treated as if i was transparent, i mean i know in the scrap game customer service is not a number one priority, but he could barely be arsed to look away from his phone at me, anyway, they didn't have one