This one isn't mine - it belongs to my wife, but it's her daily and I'm the one that does all the spannering

So, here she is, a Mk5 (6n2) 2001 Polo GTI 3dr in black:

That was how she was at the dealer we bought her from. Totally standard, with a decent service history, she's done 103k miles and from what I can tell doesn't have any exciting options other than a 6 disc CD changer in the boot.

First job was to get her home, a quick service of fluids and filters followed. Er, well I say quick, but seriously - what's this oil filter positioning about? Crikey. Many tiny little manifold burns all over my forearms.

Ow! I thought the Mk2.5 MX-5 had a bad placed oil filter... no, wait, on second thoughts, it really does.

Check out that pollen filter. Nice. Oddly, the slightly musty smell disappeared once the new one was in. Funny, that.

With that, it was a tank of V-Power uber-silly-whatever-it's-called-these-days and an Italian tune-up, Cornish lane style, before a trip to the local (and very good) Xpress Garage in Falmouth (plug) for an MOT.

This, she duly passed with one advisory. Cue celebratory, er, Sainsburys trip with two of our dailies out together, aww.


So, that advisory - something about corrosion of components on the underside. I managed to get under the car when she was on the MOT ramp and snapped some pics - the components are pretty grimy and corroded in places, but the floor pans, sills, etc were all sound. The underseal was also in good condition.

This will be redressed as and when - whilst we love her to bits and are enjoying our first Polo, she's a daily drive after all and I'm definitely against show queens - so when something breaks, it'll be fixed, and the part/surrounding areas will be dealt with.

Anyway, whilst I was there I found the fuel filter I spent a while scratching my head over. Really, VW, right in the middle of the rear beam? RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE?? Sigh.


And so, that's there we are for now :)

Edited 23 November, 201411 yr by bluefox

Nice tidy looking base you got there!

Upon one of my (many) trips to local VW parts specialist and all round nice folks Veedubmachine (plug and eBay plug) I made the fateful mistake of asking them what sort of coil overs they could get for the little Polo. Turns out, er, a lot, and they carried most of them in stock.

Sweet. So out came my flexible friend, and this happened:

Really good price actually. They're "NJT eXtreem" brand and seem to be pretty well made. Fully powder coated, good quality threads and springs, and they're top adjustable for what I assume is shock rebound. There's a group buy of these going on over on the Mk1 Golf Owners Club so I'd say they're probably half decent. According to Veedubmachine they're "mid-range". The box came with Austrian TÜV certification and a guarantee card (in German) inside so that was fairly impressive. Obviously the jury's out on the ride at the moment...

Anyway, quick pic of the standard ride hight for posterity:

...and I decided to start with the rears. The Haynes manual waxed lyrical in VERY SHOUTY LETTERS about how the front pinch bolts would need replacing, something which I wasn't massively convinced about - so I thought I'd start on the back to give me enough time to chew that over. Don't get me wrong, I usually change stretch/pinch bolts in high-stress situations de rigueur - but that's not before I've either heard from experienced professionals or done my own research.

Anyway, the rears were dispatched pretty quickly and that of course meant a gratuitous look-how-low-they-are before/after shot that I couldn't resist:

For now, I'd guesstimated the ride height and had the spring platforms about 25mm up from the base of the thread. Should be a healthy lowering but by having it here and leaving the helper springs in I figured it wouldn't be too scene a drop. In any case, once I'd faffed around with these I picked up the old struts to put in my scrap metal pile (anyone want them?) I noticed this:


...nice. (Still want them? ) This might have been a bit of a whim purchase, and I'd figured the stock shocks were on the way out at 103k, but I didn't really expect that. Had a bit of a session up un the turrets with a wire brush and re-undersealed any sections that would be covered by the struts in situ. The rest of the wheel arches could wait until I'd got a bit more time. Besides, the mud was literally an inch an a half thick in places so I needed my jet washer more than a wire brush.

Turning my attention back to the new suspension, I liberally applied Copaslip to the threads, to make sure I could adjust the ride height at a later date:

I then promptly chucked the assumed knackered struts outside the garage, packed up and went inside for some dinner and the X Factor.

The following morning, unlocking the garage to start work on the front end, I decided that the Polo wasn't the only thing that needed modifying:

...by managing to stumble over said knackered struts (well, actually, I probably fell over my own feet but at least this story makes me sound a little less stupid) and completely snapping my kneecap in half. Brilliant. Plaster for six weeks and a possibility of an operation. Nailed it :rolleyes:

Anyway, while all this was going on I'd bought the wife a private plate to match mine (currently sat on mother's Supervan A2 as my car is older than the plate, bloody DVLA rules) so I made myself useful fitting the freshly ordered German-style plates from Craigsplates (plug - second set I've ordered from here, quality is really good).


One of my mates - in fact, one of the few I've got down here in the Duchy that's actually interested in working on as well as talking about cars - stepped unto the breach to help sort out the ridiculous stance I'd inadvertently given the Polo:

Top apprentice. Anyway, the fronts were whipped off, guesstimated and greased with the help of my broken leg (that's it in plaster, just to prove I'm not lying, by the way):

New top mounts were fitted, again from Veedubmachine, along with replacement pinch bolts (I relented) and replacement lower rear strut mounting bolts as the others were badly rounded and corroded from a pervious life. The only other thing I need to do was to order a new M12x1.25mm Nyloc for the rear struts as the OE bolts are M10 (I'd also drilled the washers and bush mounts out to 13mm, but didn't take any pics of this) - these were fitted, torqued up and the covers refitted over the top.


So that was it really, everything else was pretty uneventful. The wife had decided she wanted the G60 steels that currently resided on my Mk2, so as we'd sorted the rear suspension we thought we'd do ahead and check the 195/50/15 Michelin Pilot Sport 3's I had fitted on my car would fit the Polo:




Next job: setting the front ride height and replacing the bolts, along with refitting the door card/replacing the door handle (more on this next time )

Edited 23 November, 201411 yr by bluefox

OUCH that knee cap accident! I banged my knee on the corner of the banister yesterday and felt like crying, couldn't imagine snapping my knee cap in half!

Car looks very clean and those coilovers look very very nice, shame they will be out of sight on the car.

Nice tidy looking base you got there!

Thanks man! Yeah, think we've done quite well. She's got her problems, obviously, but she's been welcomed to the fleet with a baptism of coil overs, lol.

OUCH that knee cap accident! I banged my knee on the corner of the banister yesterday and felt like crying, couldn't imagine snapping my knee cap in half!

Car looks very clean and those coilovers look very very nice, shame they will be out of sight on the car.

Ha, yeah, it's a bit like that. When it happened it didn't feel too bad to be honest - because I've broken that leg/knee before (featured tibial plateau) I was worried I'd really done it this time, but it wasn't that bad. The week or so afterwards however was pretty agonising :(

Thanks for the comments, as above it looks like we've done OK. You're right about the coils too, I've only just realised how well the colours work when I put this thread together. I'm sure the Cornish roads will make sure they're mucky soon anyway, so never mind

The whole leg thing kind of got in the way a little, but we managed to finish fitting the coilovers to the Polo and she's back on the road.

To be honest, all went pretty well, apart from it being a little tight in my little garage. Good job my "apprentice" was a skinny/young/etc enough to be able to get in there with barely a creak. Lucky bastard!


Anyway, that left me with this. Sorry about the pic, didn't really think of taking a proper one. Wouldn't think I've got a BA in photography, eh?

So the Polo was left sat on the coilovers wearing the G60 steels from my Golf. Problem was, the arch clearance was questionable at best with the bigger tyres and despite adjusting the ride height I was worried about catching the front bumper.

Quick bit of research on here and a trip to Xpress later, I sorted out a full set of 195/45/15 Good Year Eagle F1 GSD3's. Best tires ever! Can't believe I found a set - they stopped making the GSD3's a few years back, to replaced by the F1 Asymmetric's... and having used a set on my R32, I just don't think they're a patch on the GSD3's.

Anyway, a full alignment later and all's well on the new wheels and tyres. Camber's a heady -3 degrees on the front, but it's about that on our Audi - inside edge scrubs, but by the time it's past the tread on the inside edge the rest of the tyre is on 2.5/3mm anyway so it's time for a change. I'm happy with that.

So here's how she looks now, sorry for the pics, the wife took these in her work car park quickly so I could update the log:

Whilst all this was going on, the internal drivers door handle decided to stop working. Whipping the card off showed that the handle had broken previously - is this a common problem? - and it had been cable tied. The reason for failure was because the botched cable tie fix snapped. New handle from Veedubmachine and a little bit of help and it was all sorted.


New handle:


Sealed back up:


That's it, for now :)