Model: 1997 Polo L

Engine: 1.0

Suspension: Factory

Brakes: Factory

Wheels and Tyres: Pretty sure the tyres are factory too

Exterior Styling: None

Interior Styling: None

ICE and Security: Some sort of aftermarket alarm that doesn't work

With my Nissan being written off, my first Polo rusting away in a garage, a Porsche with mood swings and a Rover that's in Scotland or something, I figured now was a great time to buy a 5th car. I needed something cheap that I could use as a runaround until I got the Nissan fixed, but seeing as my first experience with JDM wasn't all that great, I figured I should go back to my roots. I found a poverty-spec 6n for £400 that seemed to be in good condition (*seemed* is the keyword there), and had it bought by 11am this morning.

Naturally all was not as it seems, and I'll explain that shortly, but to sum up it needs a *lot* of work. I think my 2F would actually be cheaper to get roadworthy than this. But it starts and drives, and I'll do what I can [afford] and see if I can keep it alive a little longer. I don't have any plans to rice it or anything (but who can say no to some LEDs here and there), it'll probably be kept stock and tidied up like the Porsche. As it's a 1.0, I figure it might be a decent car to pass on to my younger sister, when she decides to actually make a start on getting a license as opposed to staying at home every day doing absolutely nothing productive

I'll get some better pics up when it's light, but for now:

nice base vio. same as mine when i bought it (1.0) . whats the plans?

nimal

Plans are not to crash it ..

The trade centre who advertised it really showed it up. And I mean *REALLY*. So much so that it's borderline false advertising. I rang them up beforehand and asked if there was anything I needed to know or be concerned about, and they said it was pretty much fine. I had a look and noticed a little bit of rust which had been partially treated, and a few other small things... but it wasn't until after I had paid for the car did they give me the MOT certificate. When I saw the advisories I wondered whether or not the tester was on drugs when he figured this car was passable. A front suspension arm is corroded, both coil springs are corroded, there are surface cracks on at least one tyre, an oil leak, a coolant leak with so much residue on the thermostat housing that I think it has actually fixed itself, and an "Offside outer front constant velocity joint gaiter deteriorated" << I don't even know what that means, but it sounds bad. And then there's the engine. We noticed that "mayonnaise" on the oil cap which can either mean head gasket or condensation, but I don't think it was either....

Despite idling fine, the car struggled to go faster than 5mph and repeatedly stalled at first, and I am honestly amazed I managed the 40-mile drive home. I checked the service history which had a fantastic 3 stamps, the last of which was in 2000. I immediately went to Halfrauds and bought new oil, engine flush, and an oil filter. At the last second I also picked up an air filter, as I had a suspicious feeling this car hadn't actually been serviced in about 15 years.

One look at the old air filter and I'd say my suspicions were confirmed.

So I decided to start with a basic and direly needed service. Flushed out the old oil - if you could call it oil (it took 2 of us to get the old filter & sump plug off as well), gave the throttle body a clean with some carb cleaner, and put in the new air & oil filters. It took 2 and a half hours in the dark, but the difference just that made was incredible - she sounds healthy and runs almost perfectly. I'd argue it's a better drive than the Nissan atm.

I'm not entirely sure what the plan is to be honest - I don't think that far ahead all I know is that I have a Polo in serious need of medical care, and I feel obliged to start with that and see where things go from there.

And yes, also not to crash it ^^

Edited 6 November, 201510 yr by Vio

https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/

failed on some rot earlier in the year ,worth checking that site before viewing a used car

Reason(s) for failure

Offside Front Subframe mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded (2.4.A.3)

Nearside Seat belt anchorage prescribed area is excessively corroded (5.2.6)

Offside Seat belt anchorage prescribed area is excessively corroded (5.2.6)

Don't worry too desperately just yet about those advisories mate, well apart from the tyre really, if its starting to crack, if you do a lot of miles or motorway driving i would get that sorted asap.

And for the "Offside Outer Front constant velocity joint gaiter deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt" It isn't bad lol!

Its just the cv joint rubber boot (end of the driveshaft behind the wheel) youve probably seen it on Dora when you were fitting the spinners, most garages will do that for about 70 quid I reckon.

Just check to make sure the welding has been done sort of well because even splodey weak welds can pass test.. I've even seen someone tack weld a plate on then run some mastic round it which looked like weld, painted it and it still passed test!!

Edited 6 November, 201510 yr by xumado

Sounds like the rot is the main worry with this one, cv boot will be a doddle to do and then some decent tyres.

That air filter is the worst I have ever seen lol but good that your in another polo

Would you not rather have spent a bit more for a more solid polo so it's more hassle free motoring or have the claims on insurance not coughed up yet?

They haven't coughed up as yet, but I'm only expecting to get in the £350ish range for the Nissan (market value, I assume), most of which I'd use to buy it back + repair it anyway. My personal injury claims are likely to take a bit longer. Still annoyed they didn't give me a hire car after writing it off ah well, I have the 6n now anyway so not a big deal.

I probably should have checked MOT history before buying it, but at the same time it didn't seem to be a "too good to be true" sort of thing. Reasonably priced, a little bit of rust here and there... I did not expect half the car to be in worse shape than Dora, given that it's got 30,000 miles less than her hopefully this one will last just long enough till I can get the Nissan sorted, at which point I'll know for sure whether it's worth keeping & fixing, selling on or just breaking for spares.

I'm inclined to keep it though. Only 2 previous owners, the last of which part exchanged it and said, and I quote, he'd "had enough of it". Well no shit - if you don't even do a basic service for a decade and a half, of course your car's gonna run like crap. I had it running fine within a couple hours, with the help of a mate and for about £60. People who don't take care of their vehicles annoy me, but I'm more amazed that this one survived after that kind of neglect. I kinda feel sorry for it, it deserves to be treated better

Oh Mr Vio, you and your attachment to cars amazes me. That £350 you are likely to get for the Nissan will go a long way to making this 6n a good daily. It will easily be able to buy you some suspension, wheels and a CV boot. Providing the welding has been done to a good standard I'd say you're better saving this than the Nissan.

Plus this 6n looks like a clean base on the outside anyway. It doesn't even have any dents in the lower rear bumper!

2 previous owners ...at least one of which couldnt be arsed with servicing and such like , dont get caught up in how many its how theyve treated it is the main thing

not to worry its only cheapie banger money, i guess if it does a year its done ok

might be worth doing another oil change fairly soon if its been left a long a time

Oh Mr Vio, you and your attachment to cars amazes me. That £350 you are likely to get for the Nissan will go a long way to making this 6n a good daily. It will easily be able to buy you some suspension, wheels and a CV boot. Providing the welding has been done to a good standard I'd say you're better saving this than the Nissan.

But I wanna save both And also Dora. And pretty much every car I get my hands on. I like cars

I probably will have to do another oil change first, as I had to put the new filter on before I flushed the engine. The plan was just to loosen it a bit beforehand just to make sure I could get it off, but it was on pretty tight and I ended up just annihilating it with my filter tool before giving up and using an adjustable spanner I dread to think what the axles are gonna be like, but will hopefully pick up a CV boot this week and get that sorted as well.

youll want to soak the nutson the suspension with penetraiting oil every day or two over the weekwhich will help

Haha welcome to the 6n club Vio, to be honest the fact it ran fine after an oil and filter change doesn't surprise me, these things are quite bomb proof engine wise, it's just everything else that lets it down, like the gearboxes and rust!

it actually looks very clean for a white 6n! definately screaming out for some LED's and spinners though mate!

Yeah another oil change would be good, Mine came out black after a couple weeks so I changed it a couple times when I bought it lol Also as Kwijibo said it doesnt even have dents in the lower valance! which is pretty hard to come by on these!

I would do away with the nissan and get this one going sweet as it sounds like not much will have it sorted out, you should be able to do the rust yourself if there is no welding required and touch ups dont cost a lot from a body shop, if you could get a decent match yourself then even cheaper. Some good brakes and suspension, wack your spinners and LED's on and atleast this will suit your style of modifying more than a mk2 would

Well that perfect running last night didn't last. Took the old engine oil to be disposed of today, as I was coming back I started to have the same problems as when I first got the car - very jerky at low RPMs and stalled several times. Odd thing was when I tried to start it again, it would turn over but wouldn't catch, and just when I'd stop it would catch for a fraction of a second and then stall immediately after. When I switched to ignition I could hear the fuel pump so switched on and off a couple times to pressurise the system, and eventually managed to get back home (though with some difficulty). The spark plugs are all ok (surprisingly) so I assume the problem is in regards to fuel. I had a quarter of a tank left at the time, so put some Redex in and filled it up, and we'll see if that has any effect.

It was at this time I learned that my fuel lid is held closed with blu tack.

Due to lack of light/intermittent rain preventing me from doing much, I got bored and decided to fit a new head unit. The offside door speaker isn't working (and the window winder has also been blanked out for some reason which means no more maccies drive thru at 1am for me ), so I'll have to add that to my to-do list. But at least now I have a radio with bluetooth and speakers that are slightly better than the factory speakers in Dora.

It was at this time I learned that the glove box is also held closed with blu tack.

Finished fitting the head unit, looked up to see 3 police cars in front of me and some guy getting searched. I am so confused

Sounds like what somebody else was talking about before with the rough idle and running and could be a lambda issue so worth checking it by unplugging it to see if it idles okay then which is what Kwijibo-Steve mentioned to somebody, If it runs okay after then thats the problem and you need a new lambda

Sounds like the previous owner may have been addicted to blu-tak, as recommended for car repairs by nobody ever

Hmm could be... usually it idles fine, although there is a slight bit of variation in RPM - it fluctuates a bit between 1000 and 1250. Sign of the same? I took it out for about half an hour, did some driving on the East Lancs at 60 and then some stop/start driving around town, and seemingly no problems. Either the Redex is working, or the car only has the problem during mornings

your car has morning sickness?

how much do you love polo's?

your car has morning sickness?

how much do you love polo's?

Lots

Against common sense I drove out to Liverpool and back tonight, did about 60 miles in total. I noticed that it takes an unusually long time to get up to 70 even with the pedal pressed to the floor - but once I hit 70 I have to let off the pedal almost completely else it'd just keep slowly accellerating. I have a suspicious feeling that the MAF sensor is to blame, as I had similar problems with my Nissan and given the state of the Polo's air filter, I wouldn't be surprised if it's caked in engine oil by now. Tomorrow I'll give that a clean out (I hear brake cleaner is the best thing for MAFs, anyone confirm/deny?) and also check the lambda sensor as suggested to see if that's contributing to anything.

Doesn't sound like it was worth the sale price, there could he terminal problems hiding

id go with carb cleaner for the tb

I tried brake cleaner on a Toyota Yaris MAF. Helped for about 1 day. Best solution was a replacement MAF.

Check there's no cracks in the tube to the brake servo. It's a real weakness.

There is no MAF on this engine it has a MAP/IAT sensor on the drivers end of the inlet manifold, they do suffer with oil deposits that make them slow to respond, so remove it ( 2 torx screws & don't drop the O ring! ) then give it a spray with the carb cleaner, don't use a brush on it as it's quite delicate!

You do insist on buying shit cars don't you, why haven't you learned to look around and wait for one that isn't shit and causing problems... £400 for that's isn't cheap.... You're going to spend more money on in than saving up for a decent one and there is plenty of them polo's around! However, best of luck and please don't let anyone hurt her!

Have to agree with Dean here. It's all very well 'loving cars' but without the tools, know how or money to keep them going or repair the crash damage you really are just throwing money away. I appreciate the want to learn, that's exactly why I stripped and did a nut and bolt rebuild on mine. But I had a daily as well (plus I'm 6 years into it and it's still not finished!) and only the one project car, not half a dozen! However, it's your time and money so I guess we shouldn't judge. But having been in a similar situation myself in years past, there really is no substitute for a reliable daily runner and a project car. By having so many motors when will you ever get round to working on any of them? Or driving them for that matter, they all seem to have been crashed or have their problems? There's a lot of advice and knowledge on this website, it's worth at least bearing some of our anecdotes in mind.

Also, you may have fucked your own engine by using that engine flush. You have potentially just dislodged years of sludge from the oil ways and sump that's now circulating around your engine. You only need one little piece to block any of them and it's potentially good night for that engine too. Fingers crossed you'll be lucky however.