Mint with hole rescue

[Marm Toastsmith]

Finally got round to putting the interior back together. Can't believe it took me a month. It's quite nice inside now.

 

[Marm Toastsmith]

Any thoughts re the (minor) gearbox issue with this?

Basically it's sluggish to change up to second when cold. Fine when warm and only takes a few minutes to warm up sufficiently.

Fluid change was done recently - hasn't changed things appreciably.

Wouldn't be an issue, but the car's mainly used for local trips.

[GregZX]

1 hour ago, Marm Toastsmith said:

Any thoughts re the (minor) gearbox issue with this?

Basically it's sluggish to change up to second when cold. Fine when warm and only takes a few minutes to warm up sufficiently.

Fluid change was done recently - hasn't changed things appreciably.

Wouldn't be an issue, but the car's mainly used for local trips.

Does the autobox have a filter and if so did it get changed? Later VAG DSG boxes have one.

[Marm Toastsmith]

Long time no update... Since the last time I wrote about it, the Polo has had

• a new cam belt and water pump
• a new rear exhaust section (for the MOT)
• 4 new tyres (Sumitomo BC100)

It's been Mrs Toastsmith's runabout, she's enjoyed using it despite only covering 1500 miles in her 1st year, it is a likeable little thing.

The gearbox continues to slip very slightly before changing into second, but only once a day, the first time it is used. Once it's even slightly warm it's perfect. Garage confirmed there's no filter, they think it may be something we have to live with, I'm hoping it will get better with continued use and the new ATF (we think maybe it is improving slightly).

The interior has remained dry (phew) although I did notice a little bit of water in the boot earlier today. By old VW standards it's pretty dry, I'm happy.

Winter has thrown up another issue, the heater is poor. Garage have diagnosed blocked heater matrix. The part is cheap but I think it's a dash out job. We'll see.

Have a random fleet pic from earlier today.

 

[bunglebus]

Worth a back flush first before ripping the dash out?

[Andyrew]

Ive had good results with disconnecting the water pipes engine bay side, back and forth flushing with water. 

I then pour in neat all purpose cleaner, like G101 etc etc, the stronger the better ( something like the cheap elbow grease you can buy is probably a good option too) and leave it to soak. I then flush again and repeat untill im happy. 

Worked on 2 corsas that had clogged up, and an astra with mostly oil in its system. 

[RoverFolkUs]

Dishwasher tablets or bio washing power are also excellent for flushing cooling systems. (in this case, backflush it as suggested above)

[Marm Toastsmith]

6 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Worth a back flush first before ripping the dash out?

This occurred to me this morning, in fact I’m surprised the garage didn’t suggest it, generally they are very sensible, maybe I just didn’t ask the right questions.

 Took it for a run out today, at one point (sat in traffic) the heating got passably warm and I thought it had fixed itself. Back out on the open road it quickly dropped to just barely lukewarm.

 Anyway, have a couple of pics.

[RoverFolkUs]

What's the temp gauge doing?

[Andyrew]

The hot to coolness, Does the water temp gauge reflect this up? 

That Sounds a bit like a stuck stat to me.

[3VOM]

Just now, Andyrew said:

The hot to coolness, Does the water temp gauge reflect this up? 

That Sounds a bit like a stuck stat to me.

IIRC Temp gauge on VW around that age are "slugged" to stay in the middle, so might not be much help.

[RoverFolkUs]

If temp guage is telling you lies then feel the hoses as they won't lie to you! 

Start it from cold and observe the top rad hose, it should feel cold while the hoses further up the system (heaters) are getting hot. Then all of a sudden you should feel the hose go hot when the stat opens. 

If the stat is stuck open then they're all going to warm up at an equal rate, very slowly. So the heater hoses, top hose and bottom hose will all feel lukewarm and then gradually get hotter

More importantly feel the heater hoses, if the heaters are cold while one of the hoses is boiling hot while the other is stone cold then maybe it's blocked.

If none of the heater hoses are hot then it's more likely that the system just isn't hot enough due to a problem elsewhere

[Marm Toastsmith]

Thanks all, temp guage does exactly what you'd expect in a car with properly functioning cooling system. Car warms up reasonably quickly and stays warm on a fast run in cold weather, and heater only really varies between tepid and lukewarm so blocked matrix makes sense, also I trust the garage, they are good guys.

I will have a bit of a poke around and double check things - I need to look into the loose door mirror on the passenger side so I might as well let it idle and see what's what with the cooling/heating.

[3VOM]

55 minutes ago, Marm Toastsmith said:

I will have a bit of a poke around and double check things - I need to look into the loose door mirror on the passenger side so I might as well let it idle and see what's what with the cooling/heating.

Again IIRC two or three bolts under the "sail" trim panel.

[bigfella2]

Years ago I had similar with a 1.6 MK2 golf, never overheated but really poor heater.

I ended up removing every rubber hose and flushing the entire system through, there was an unbelievable amount of rusty crud that came out of the matrix and the rubber hoses. Built it back up and it was unbelievably hot after that, transformed it. Can't believe I put up with it so long.

[Marm Toastsmith]

On 12/24/2022 at 6:12 PM, 3VOM said:

Again IIRC two or three bolts under the "sail" trim panel.

Spot on... although accessing the lower screw actually requires removal of the door card. Brilliant* design. I have tightened the top one properly and screwed the lower one home with my fingers and some needle nosed pliers.

Of course because it's a VW of this era, the plastic trim, having been removed and now replaced, feels slightly loose, and pieces of crumbling foam have gone everywhere. The way the interior is constructed is probably equally what made these feel "premium" in the first place and what makes them shite now. It's a good little car over all, but it's not nearly as well put together as their image at the time would have suggested.

[Marm Toastsmith]

Right apologies for no updates. Mrs Toastsmith decided the gearbox was getting worse in this and bought a Volvo to replace it. It's going off for a new, gentler life on the Isle of Wight, with an older gentleman who'll appreciate a quality cassette player with a big twisty volume knob and not too many buttons.

 

[Marm Toastsmith]

Polo has gone to Grandad/Dad. I delivered it to Southampton yesterday, which is probably the longest journey it's done in a good few years, and it drove very nicely without issue. Blaupunkt worked really well too - I have supplied the car with a box of suitable tapes. Dad took it over on the ferry. He loves it already, he says they're "going to be friends". I think it's ended up in the right place.