Hi everyone, just wanted to introduce myself. I recently bought a mk2 1990 1litre breadvan. I'm really pleased with it - especially the economy (until the polo I have been driving a t25!). It has a few issues: the brakes were really spongy when I bought so bled them and although improved they are really poor at slowing me down! Don't know if it could be the master cylinder? I can't see any brake fluid anywhere... Then there's the starting issue. When its cold it fires and immediately cuts out unless I'm particularly skillful with the accelerator! after a couple of minutes all is fine but it is very annoying. I'm wondering if it could be the auto choke? Also there is water getting into the boot and the rear and driver side footwells. Then theres the dodgy feeling of instability when turning left or right at nearly a full lock on the steering wheel. Maybe cv joints or tie rod ends? A couple of other niggly bits but nothing too major. If anyone has any thoughts on these, I'd love to hear them, otherwise I expect I'll be posting in the appropriate places after a bit more investigation! Anyway, really pleased with my little car and with a bit of love I hope to make it really comfortable to drive and a bit of a hobby!

Cheers,

Nick

First of all welcome to the forum, get some pictures of up your little Polo.

The brakes on these as standard arent great, have you checked the brake hoses? They may be the cause of the spongey feel in the pedal.

Have you checked the condition of the battery tray? These are bad for rotting away and letting water into the drivers footwell.

yeah brakes are non servo so pretty poor feeling compared to modern cars , having said that a1 condition brakes should still slow you down okay

the parts arent expensive at all , id look into a strip down front and rear and repalce anything thats not new looking , then make sure the drum ajusters are working, sometimes its best to whip out a wheel bolt and poke something in to ajust the wedge a bit more so it binds with the handbrake up one click

the bogus steering maybe the arb bushes , alot of us upgrade to nylon ones that offer a fair improvement , lower arms arent big money either so replace anything thats a bit tired

these are the uprated arb blocks they're harder and have a collar to stop the arb moving side to side which can happen with the standard parts

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Polo-86c-PU-Stabilager-Klemmring-G40-Derby-Turbo-Stabi-/281217064221?pt=Teile_ohne_Strassenzulassung&hash=item4179d7dd1d

wow, thanks for such quick replies! I'll get looking into those suggestions asap!

Oh yeah and I'll get some picks up soon!