haha roll on a month with no bills would be nice :)

Man, time rolls on but I feel like I'm getting nowhere with this thing

It has manifested itself into a love hate relationship, some days I get in and everything about the car feels so good and right, but others I get in and it feels dreadful.

so much so that recntly I thought fuck to it, I'm gonna sell her and get something else, I wasnt sure what I wanted, but I was keen on getting a valver, the other half wanted a clio again...

So out came the sub, all the plastic trim back in the engine bay, and got her looking as good as she could by all accounts, made an ad and didnt bullshit, had a couple of bits of interest, but nothing really serious...

Its quite fitting then that halfway through selling it the water pump decided it didnt like life and started pissing coolant down the engine block. It was only on the car a month and half or so, so had to get that sorted to the tune of £100 which I shouldnt have really had to pay, but the garage and ECP fucked me around good time.. twats.

maybe I'm mad but for the price, it was a steal, since I bought the her, I have plowed money in, if something needed fixing, it was done ASAP, non-essential stuff gets a back foot till the moneys available, but she gets every penny I can spare, I paid 300 for her, with a fucked clutch, fucked starter, fucked exhaust, no central locking and no history. Don't hate it, I knew what I was buying, a cheap runabout, purely because 5 doors was needed and quick, I bought this the same night I sold my clio.

Its saving grace was the below average mileage and it was very clean inside.

compared side by side, apart from the rusty rear arches and the number plate, no-one on this planet would believe they are the same car.

sure the heatshield rattles coz the germans are fucking idiots, and one of the tappets is loud, but give it 10 minutes to warm up and it purrs, on a good day, the engine feels so good to drive.

Anyway.. She didnt sell, which I'm taking as a turn of fate because she's charming me again, and to be fair the markets fairly dry for valvers that are for sale in half decent spec and that arent a) being broken or b) ruined by scene kids.

I'd love to get more power out of this block, and I know that its possible with bike carbs and a cam, but for me, as a bit of a performcance purist, I know that 8 valve engines just aren't cut for performance, they physically cant keep the flow of air up against 16 valve engines especially in higher rev's, This engine has a 5500 RPM rev limit, thats almost diesel territory. I don't get there much because its pretty much a flatline power wise after 4500 for me.

Plus theres all the hassle of maintaining and perfecting the carbs, adjusting them every few months, and the inevitable replacement of parts that werent spec'd to cope with the increased demands... we all know the gearbox is shit on these, luckily I just about saved mine, but at the time I cant afford £400 for a recon box fitted nor will I trust a secondhand unit. My perogative may spite me, but by the time I can chuck out that kinda money, I definately wont be driving a Polo, and thats not to cause offence to the chaps that do run these cars with big power and stuff, but this car was only ever intended as a put me on, it just became a bit more than that I guess..

Power isn't everything though, while it is an annoyance for me, its not a problem easily solved, and anyone can fast in a straight line.

A big problem for me, especially as of late, is the handling of the car, I'm currently running on 175/65/13's up front, which I swapped from the back because the 175/60/13's were a bit tired with dodgy tracking.

Well these tyres are as hard as nails, and they have no grip to them, even when I work them so hard they are hot to touch (of course by this point they are too hot and are equally as useless). I'm absolutely cautious to drive with these plastic rings. Understeer, lockups and wet grip like driving on snow is terrifying. I would suggest putting these tyres on a learner car and asking a student to perform evasive manouveres with them.. they'd soon be shit scared of driving close to cars infront or taking corners at speed.

I dont like to name and shame, and I wont because it could purely be psycological and me trying to ask more than what they can do because I'm generally unhappy with performance, but I'm fairly confident that if I swapped back I'd be happy again (relatively speaking).

Braking is also a big thing, and as I said before these tyres are useless, so braking is an issue for me, I have to really be cautious because these tyres really do just give up, even with 6n brakes. You have to be so gentle and light you dont get a grab, so you are quite progressive trying to find the bite but just as it begins to bite, you lock the tyres, you have to prepare yourself to try and balance it on the bite just before the tyres give way.

I think thats the main problem with these tyres, theres plenty of contact patch, but the tread blocks aren't pliable at all, they are literally that hard, in contrast to the sidewall which is relatively high, so bumps and general road noise is quite good, but you would never be able to get the flex from the tyre when loaded, it would give way before then.

theres so many things I would love to perfect, go into great detail with and such and hopefully I will do, and I'll write these silly long nonsense rants about them. Unfortunately I have life to deal with and stuff like that so when I do get a few hours, I'm generally trying to relax!

Well the cars still going, recently removed the heatshield from around the cat because it had dropped and rattled like fuck. She's driving well, colder weather and these cheap budget tyres has resulted in very poor steering performance and braking is a worry more than usual, really hate these tyres haha.

As I plan ahead for my drive to France in febuary I'm giving the car a good full service, purchased some Pagid disks and pads today which will hopefully go on this weekend, I did have the option of getting some really cheap EBC discs and pads (marshal benefits, 50% discount on EBC products :P) but they wouldnt have got here by the weekend and I probably wouldnt use them to their fullest, maybe its something I could look to in the future, they are easy enough to change anyway. Has anyone used Pagid products? ECP push them quite hard.

I've got 3 of the 4 solis ready for primer and paint up to now, and looking to get some T1R's on them after chistmas, I probably wont run them until summer time anyway so theres no rush, I can imaginme they wouldnt be too good in the cold.

Thought about getting some valver rear lights on it, but I dont want it to end up a valver in everything but engine performance if you get me, especially when the time effort and cost to make it a full rep would outweigh getting a proper one haha

although I would quite like to get a front ARB off one and fit it to mine too.....lol

Bradfords auto club APMCC have recently started doing production car auto trials which is a £10 entry, I've marshalled the first two and its quite fun watching them taking their cars round, really tempted to have a go myself, but I know how weak the boxes are in these things and I dont want it to break before I get to France haha

Bring on the weekend!

There's something about these polos makes you keep them too long! Good work so far :)

haha sure is mate, Thanks!

well today was fun....not

got all my shit together, started working on the front brakes at 1pm

didnt finish till 5

fucking weather blowing an ice cold gale and hail and rain showers, used the 12mm 12 point socket trick which worked a treat to sort the caliper bolts, got the first side done in good time, started on the second side and the loacating screw on the disc had seized, spent a good hour trying to get it out, panicked when it wouldnt come out after heating it, drilling it, hitting it, attempting to snap it etc, car fell off the jack (my bad I was trying to save time by not using a stand) I did manage to drill it after finding a good bit hidden away.

had a fun time getting the second caliper on it didnt sit right initially and I wasn't in a good mood so took a hammer to it but that didnt work, but in the end everything was sorted, lots of frustration was had, mainly due to weather.

need to either bleed the brakes or renew the fluid because the bite is still non existant and I have to really stand on the pedal to get any stoppage, more so now the new bits are bedding in.

Got bored and decided to paint my Binnacle cover, like the GTi boys have it, only in white instead. It turned out pretty good, bit of a rush job if I'm honest so is a little rough around the edges haha

Full album of the process can be found here >>>>>> http://imgur.com/a/HWnSc#0

Nice project man! I'm on your way for 6n2 interior, I like the idea! Keep it up :)

Thanks mate, yeah I find it a lot better than the standard 6n interior :)

Just ordered a whole lot of service bits and whatnot to keep her happy :)

Parts arrived today,

Air filter, Cabin filter, Oil Filter, 4x Sparks, Dizzy cap, Dizzy Arm, Brake fluid and Bleeder Kit

Didnt order oil as the stuff in it is quite fresh, as I top it up frequently, and fuel filter was done not too long ago too.

All went in nice and easy as expected, cleaned the throttle body as best as I could to keep on top of that too, there was a small amount of oil round the number 2 spark when I took it out, but didnt look very serious.

She was a bit moody on start up, but thats probably due to the amount of carb cleaner and new igntion bits settling in, all in all a nice pleasant service

Going to bleed the brakes tommorow with a friend and hope that cures my spongey pedal, the vacuum hose is fine and no obvious problems with the hoses, so I'm putting it down to old fluid?

Still on-going with sorting the pedal feel out, mostly due to bad weather and lack of time but I will get it done,

Engine developed a bit of a fault on the ignition side, which was rectified by putting the old cap and arm back on, good job I'd kept them!

Managed to sort out my faulty boot light, after much deliberation and poking a multimeter about.

I initially thought it was a faulty/broken wire from the boot to the car as everywhere else I touched a multimeter had continuity and what not, ended up stripping the wires from there lovely black tape in the boot and making it a bit messy

I didnt want to really have to pull the wires through the boot to the car, I've done it once or twice before and its a shit job, even if you do it right.

I consulted ELSA and found out there was a 5pin connector somewhere in the car, so stripped all the trim back and found it up the side of the passenger seat. when I saw it I remembered that I had to reconnect the washer pipe there not too long ago because it had seperated and was spraying inside the car, I thought that maybe the contacts in it had corroded a little so I opened it up

quite corroded, so much so that the ground wire for the switch had snapped off completely and wasnt connecting at all so I decided on a quick easy fix

cut off a bit of wire from a broken appliance, opened the backs of the connector and wedged it in, for proof of concept

result!

I will go back at a later date and either cut in a proper connector for that ground or get a full replacement connector out of a scrapper and solder it in.

I love fixing little bits like this, for most people if the boot light didnt work they'd forget it, but it bugs me haha

overall I'm happy with the car at the moment, and really getting excited for the trip to france coming up!

and shes also well overdue a good scrub down

My car's filthy at the moment to Mixture of salt on the roads instantly making it dirty again and too much uni revision

Well we have had a bit of snow and ice around these parts, and gritters haven't been around until the roads have got icy, I had a slidey slidey bang bang moment :(

luckily I wasn't going fast and no body/suspension damage but I angled the wheel the wrong way at the kerb and ended up bending it

unfortunately the pictures dont really show how bent the wheel really was, but it was pusing in against the sidewall on the tyre, so just ripe for a blow out or puncture, not what I need when I'm going to France in two weeks.

I was pissed off at the time, but I told myself something was bound to go wrong before I took her down there, so accepted that and though about how I'd solve the problem.

Initially I was gonna rush the solitudes I have, get some tyres on and just drive them as they are, but it would only look a mess and cost me a lot more time and effort re-refurbing them, and money is tight right now to say the least, but that went out of the window when I saw how badly the wheel was this morning, I couldnt drive it for a week or so likle that at all.

I was gonna get a steelie from a breakers yard, but today is sunday so that went out the window, then I remembered I've got a mate who is doing a caddy trailer conversion, and had two spare white solitudes that were too small for it now that he had put a lowering plate on. He is quite local to me too so gave him a ring and went and bought them off him!

And that left me like this

they are quite decent, no kerbing or anything, infact they are a dman sight better than the ones I have in the back room haha and seeing as the ones I'm refurbing are also going to be white I get a taster of how they'll look on the car.

I think they will look brilliant after a clean and centres put in etc.

Only one problem now

I've still got two dirty steelies on the back

ROFL

oh well, understeer shouldnt be a problem :ninja:

Edited 18 January, 201511 yr by R10tz0r

My car's filthy at the moment to Mixture of salt on the roads instantly making it dirty again and too much uni revision

Count yourself lucky yours isn't white!

Bummer about the steelies, but the white alloys look decent with your pain colour! :P

Yeah I thought the contrast would look great when I orignally set about refurbing my own wheels.

and on that note, I can't stand driving around like this, I had half a can of white and half a can of lacquer in the back so did this

it looks a million times better painted!

just need to pick up some more paint and lacquer if possible and get another one finished at least.

They pictures probably make it look better than it is, but when viewed close up you can see some sanding marks and little bits where the filler wasnt perfect, but they will do the job!

I love white wheels!

Have fun cleaning them though! Brake dust is a nightmare.

Edited 23 January, 201511 yr by vdoubleu

haha tell me about it, I've had the fronts on a week and they are already black as shit

Gave her a rinse over and took a few pics with the wheels all on now, looking good, need to go lower at the front though :/

She's slowly becoming what I have in my head, and I'm happy with that!

those of you with a keen eye will notice the fronts are a "creamier" white than the backs, I will at some point have all 4 wheels on my car that are the same! for now though, need to concentrate on France and back

edit:

Bonus pic, top is a week after I bought it, bottom is now

Edited 25 January, 201511 yr by R10tz0r

My car is a workhorse and a tool

I had about 20mm on the right and was literally just touching on the left, If it werent for wing mirrors I reckon I couldve had it all the way in!

Well she got to DisneyLand and back, not trouble free, but thankfully nothing major, I wasnt prepared for the problem but luckily Kim's Dad brought a few tools (I would have if I could fit them in the car).

Some of you may have seen my post on the facebook group about the bearings/brakes but I'll go into a bit more detail here...

Driving down as the car warmed up and bedded in, I could hear a rumbling that was consistent, it didnt alter over different road surfaces, and became louder with load applied when turning.

I knew the bearings were getting a little long in the tooth, but didnt quite need replacing yet, but maybe the prolonged drive had actually pushed them over the edge, coming off the M25 we took the wrong exit and ended up on the M40 as opposed to the M20 and pulled up in the services, I had a quick feel around and the discs almost burnt my fingers when I touched them, calipers were quite a lot cooler although the pedal feel had gone soft and the wheels were cooler too, the discs were hotter in the centre than at the edge causing them too warp so braking became a juddery experience.

In my mind it was definately the bearings that were getting very hot, and I kicked myself. We arranged to keep the speed between 50-60MPH and nurse it to our destination, we had contingency and if worst came to worst plans were set months before hand to get the wife and kids there in the other cars, mine being the oldest and smallest car there.

So we soldiered on, car cruised along nicely but wouldnt pick up speed very quickly, I put this down to the fact I had a full tank, full boot and full seats, it was around 4am and we pulled into a Shell garage, I topped up and checked the discs, still absolutely cooking, but I also noticed a hell of a lot of brake dust, I put this to the back of my mind as I was absolutely knackered, we had set off at 5:30pm the day before and despite best efforts couldnt get any sleep, besides a soft pedal, the calipers were still quite a bit cooler and there was no smell from the brakes.

Fast forward a few days and a bit of thinking, conversation and testing and it seemed the calipers had got a little stuck, they could push in ok, but wouldnt release fully, slightly rubbing against the discs, causing them to get hot, cause warping and rub even worse on the high spots. The bearings, while worn and a little noisy after a good long run were OK.

We had a day trip to Paris planned so I hurriedly googled some auto stores, and found the top result was not too far off our route there, Alliance EST in Port de Vincennes, I thought it would just be some Halfords like setup and they would at least have some copper grease, on the way back me and the wife departed from the party to take the Metro and tram to Port de Vincennes, and as soon as we got off the tram we were facing a VW dealership, so we walked in, but this wasnt like a normal dealership you might see over here, it was basically the ground floor of some apartments, anyhow I walked in and couldnt actually see a garage or service bay of any sort, but I signalled and tried to speak French to explain what I needed, it ended up that they only sold brand new cars there, but their service department was a small walk away. He spoke in very poor english, got his left and right mixed up and waved his hands a bit, but bless him he tried and we eventually got a map drawn out showing us where to go.

Off we trundled and down the Snow came, it was actually quite romantic, lost in Paris without a clue, with the wife and snow falling.. but I was determined to find this service place so we didnt stop for a coffee and a kiss haha.

We found the place and then it dawned on me it was actually the place I was initially looking for and it turned out to be a VAG service place, hidden on a back street, under some apartments, so we went in, and if the last guy was hard work, this guy was impossible, I doubt he even knew England even existed, my french was higlhly limited, I can order a coffee, say hello, thankyou and ask if you speak english, this guy didnt know a *single* word of english.

But he did have ETKA so I grabbed a bit of paper off him, a pen and drew a rough diagram explaining the problem, he got the jist of the idea, but didnt understand the urgency of the problem, he asked for a chassis code so he could check if they had any grease in stock, which was fun because he didnt know English numbers and letters, and I didnt know French above 3!

I wrote it down and we eventaully found the part number on ETKA but it resulted he had "non" :(

I asked him if the service area behind me had any grease but he didnt understand, eventually he called down a receptionist who could speak english very well and we got the ball rolling, I told her the situation, she said they cant get any until Tuesday, but I was leaving Sunday, and she explained this to him, he said he'd be back in a minute.

5 Minutes later he returned with a tube of grease and gave it to me, said something to the receptionist and she explained that it was the next best thing they could find for the grease I needed, it turned out to be steering box grease, I asked how much it would be and she smiled and said "you can have it, its a gift".

I was quite elated by that, especially after the frustrations of trying to communicate it across that I just needed any grease at all haha

I said Thankyou a million times and left, the next day I jacked up the car in the hotel car park and greased everything up, got talking to a couple of guys while doing so, one french, one german, alsmot had an audience at one point haha.

It fixed the problem quite well, but I'm not sure if me hitting the kerb a few weeks back has bent/damaged something to cause it, but if so why would it be the same across both sides?

Anyway, on the way back, Kims dad's car popped a spring, it was literally sitting a fingers width away from the tyre, we proceeded slowly... again... but it didnt get any worse so we continued, checking often. Coming up to Peterbrough and another almight bang and he pulls over, only this time there is a bit of smoke and a smell of burning rubber, turns out the other spring had gone too, 300 miles of each other and this was a 56 plate, well looked after car, I took lead and he had to get recovered home.

The only trouble free car ended up being an 05 plate clio that ate coilpacks for fun, the foglights came on when you brake and the dash dims, and it eats oil until its warm!

Would I do it again? yes

Disneyland was amazing, the Journey was straight forward and despite the brake problem, I still managed 400 miles to a tank with a full car!

Sounds like an adventure! Well done for making it there and back *relatively* safely!

Haha thanks mate, it definately was!

Surprised the French were that helpful! When we were driving to Spain our cousin's car broke down in France. We got towed to the ford garage and every one ignored us. They then closed for their 2 hour lunch break and when they opened the got a man to come and towed the car away and sent us to go get a hire car and we went to Spain. Then on the way back we went to the ford dealership and they said 'no car here'. After ringing around we found out where the car was. When we got there the woman at reception shouted 'OUT! OUT! OUT!' then closed the shutters. After two hours of waiting (another lunch break) they opened up and handed us the car back within 5 minutes...

HAHA crikey thats a bit rough, I know the french can be a bit rude and ignorant towards us Brits, but thats taking the biscuit old chap!