Hey polo peoples. Hope you are all well. I'm currently rocking a pretty much stock 1984 1043cc breadvan. I'm just after some advice on replacing tired looking wires in the bay. Is most of the wire used in the bay pretty generic? I noticed some of the wires attached to my weber have electrical tape around them and the connectors look a bit shabby. They seem to be working okay at the moment but if they do need to be replaced, i'd like to know what to get. There are other wires that look similar condition light the headlight loom. I've seen uprating kits on ebay. Are these any good?

Thank you for any advice you can give peeps.

I wanted to know this because I wanted to extend some wires in my bay in my 6n. Is there a certain amp/gauge of wire I need to use for different wires or are they all the same?

The wire sizes are dictated by the current they are meant to carry, as with all manufacturers VW tend to use the thinnest they can get away with!!(cost!) That's why uprating the wires to the headlights is a good mod to do as it will allow a better current flow/less voltage drop to the bulbs, so giving you a brighter headlight.

There are plenty of good suppliers of cables I personally use either www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk or www.vehicleproducts.co.uk they list the thin wall cables in all the colour combinations and the current they can carry

Awesome. Thank you. I find the wiring diagram in the haynes pretty daunting. Is there an easier to understand way to find out what wire i need to get for different applications?

The Haynes diagrams for the early Polo's are not the best !! but it's just a case of looking at the wires (colours) on the car then finding the corresponding item on the diagram and see what value fuse is supplying it then you know what sort of current the wires should be using, with that info you can select a suitable gauge of cable & colour code from one of those companies I posted

Doesn't the uprated loom make the switch trigger a relay rather than just uprated cable? To stop v drop when travelling though the old and tired switch?

@nige8021: thanks dude. I'll keep plugging at the haynes until it makes sense.

@maxvw: i've no idea about switches in the uprated loom. Just says it's plug and play. If you fancy checkin it out to see, item number on ebay is-221234547501.

Thanks for stoppin by though.

a good uprate loom with relays is well worth doing - watch out though as I'm not really fond of most that i see , remember if it fails you lose the headlights , at least make an effort to keep the relays dry

i have made loads of headlight looms, and i recomend them to everyone. i had one on my 6n with higher wattage bulbs, and the output was AMAZING, and did not effect on coming traffic etc. i have switched to the projector lights off the 6n that i scrapped and those have d1s bixenon projectors in them (1 off) and they have nothing on the standard lights with the loom.

as above, alot of the ones on ebay etc are not that good. I'm not trying to sell anything, i can give you a list of things to get and how to make it yourself if your interested?

also, with regards to the bay wiring, i personally wouldnt go changing the complete wire unless there are alot of breaks in it. i would maybe replace a section at most. new connectors and some sheathing will do nicely to tidy it up.

that said, i cant remember what my mk2 bay looked like. do those wires go through the bulkhead? as thats the hardest part as you would no doubt end up taking the whole loom out to change a few. but if they stay in the bay then its pretty straight forward.