There's an old saying, "Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy Polos which are essentially the same thing"

Both the Nissan and now this 6n weren't supposed to be project cars, they were just supposed to last me as long as necessary to fix the previous car. Didn't work that way ofc - the Nissan was just pure bad luck, and this 6n was partially my fault for not doing my research properly... but anyway I have the car now so I might as well fix it

But shit always gets worse. The 6n was running perfectly fine up until today, when I ended up driving through a not-deep-but-quite-wide-and-made-a-bit-of-a-splash puddle (it was unavoidable) and the car immediately shut off. Oops. I figured water had gotten into something electrical, so gave it a couple minutes to dry out. Got it going and managed to get about a mile before it cut out again. Repeated process, same effect but at least now I was within city limits, at which point it practically gave up completely. Generally we can get it to idle with a bit of effort and the spark plugs are all OK, but as soon as we try and drive it it shuts off. I was worried about killing the starter from repeatedly turning the engine over, but it looks like the ignition coil went first as that started sparking. Also getting smoke from the throttle body when the air filter's off, just as the engine cuts off, which would suggest that the Redex didn't quite solve the fuel issue.

We left it parked up on the side for the night with a note in the windscreen (on a main road so not too concerned). The plan for tomorrow is replace ALL THE THINGS - new ignition coil, rotor arm, dizzy cap and ignition leads which should solve the problem of any water in the lectrics and hopefully get it moving again. After that I'll change the fuel filter as I'm guessing it's never been changed (also where is it?) which might help - the pump itself sounds like it's working OK (it makes a noise anyway) so I'm not looking at touching that just yet. I'll start with the above and see what happens.

Edited 10 November, 201510 yr by Vio

Sell your Porsche for a realistic price (it's sky high currently) and just get something sensible like a Passat.

Sell your Porsche for a realistic price (it's sky high currently) and just get something sensible like a Passat.

There are only 2 944-S's cheaper than mine on Autotrader, one's a barn find for £1200 and the other's an automatic for £5000. The next one up is £7900. I figured £5500 was reasonable

The Rover has lasted us for coming up to 10 years now, whereas I've burned through 2 Polos and a Nissan in 2 years. If at all possible, I'd like to not buy another car for a while... here's my plan:

1- See if the 6n can be sorted out on the cheap (pretty confident, I'd say it's not as bad as I make it sound)

2- Use it as a daily and do the odd fix up on it, whilst focusing on repairing the Nissan, which won't take much.

3- Once that's sorted, I'll go back to using Nissan as a daily as it's the best of the 3 (and it's JDM yo)

4- Sell on the 6n. I paid £395 for a piece of junk. If I can sell it on as a fully working car for the same, and to a good owner, I'll consider the endeavour a success.

5- Get Dora out of storage and make that my project car

I don't think I'd buy a Passat if it came down to having no other option but to buy car #4 though. I've always wanted a Beetle though. Was just reading up on them recently:

"There is no doubt that the Beetle bore a striking resemblance to earlier Tatra.^[1] Tatra launched a lawsuit, but this was stopped when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia."

Volkswagen, avoiding lawsuits like a boss since 1938

Edited 10 November, 201510 yr by Vio

So your plan is to spend time and money on the 6n and the Nissan at the same time, sell the 6n for a loss leaving you with a cat C Nissan which, taking into account the loss on the 6n, is probably going to owe you 3-4 times what it is worth. Then you'll start on 'Project Dora'?

Honestly just cut your losses and wash your hands of your two written off cars now. You'll be better off all things considered.

The 6n will be an easy fixer upper. Still plenty of them in scrap yards and being broken privately all over the country so you just need to spend time figuring out what it needs to be a sensible daily. On a P plate I'm guessing it is the 1043cc SPI so still nice and basic.

Obviously it is your life, money and cars etc. but I think you need to take a step back and think about what it is you want to achieve and what is the cheapest/easiest route to get there for you.

As much as I like Polos, if I want to put chrome and neons on a car and I have a choice between a P11 Primera and a 6n Polo... it ain't exactly a hard choice

Honestly I could easily have gotten at least 5 more years out of the Nissan had the crash not happened, and regardless of what my insurance thinks I could easily get it done for less than the cost of the car. It's somewhat reliable, has lots of space, very practical, is a great drive... it really is more worth saving than both my Polos. Plus there's the reg. It's T331 MEW. It says MEW. It's like a cat. You wouldn't give up on your cat

Edited 10 November, 201510 yr by Vio

If you like the drive of the primera so much, write that off and get another. There tonnes for 500 or less on autotrader in all the shapes with lowish miles etc and none are cat C. I doubt you could sell that when your finished repairing it when a non cat c can be bought for less than 300 quid lol.

The 6n is probably a decent car when the niggles are sorted out, I would have scrapped Dora and then keep that but i know your definitley not doing that. If anything I would just drive it and sell it once another primera came up...which wont be long. Then sell the 6n. daily primera. project Dora

Also regarding the porsche there are three manuals cheaper than those that look very good and thats not including the barn find one lol, You may need to adjust your miles from postcode in the settings to see them...I'm not saying yours is not worth the asking but could be worth a look to compare spec to spec

Honestly just cut your losses and wash your hands of your two written off cars now. You'll be better off all things considered.

The 6n will be an easy fixer upper. Still plenty of them in scrap yards and being broken privately all over the country so you just need to spend time figuring out what it needs to be a sensible daily. On a P plate I'm guessing it is the 1043cc SPI so still nice and basic.

Obviously it is your life, money and cars etc. but I think you need to take a step back and think about what it is you want to achieve and what is the cheapest/easiest route to get there for you.

100% This.

I was just like you when i was young, got attached to my first car trying as much to keep it road worthy (was a rot box). spent close to 1k in parts tools etc then 5 months down the line i just gave up, realizing in reality i cant do a propper job as all my efforts looked shit etc. and i should have listen to my friends from the beginning. honest truth scrap the nissan , scrap your first love too, noo offence vio but its time to move on. you have a nice lil 6n now to play with

If you like the drive of the primera so much, write that off and get another. There tonnes for 500 or less on autotrader in all the shapes with lowish miles etc and none are cat C. I doubt you could sell that when your finished repairing it when a non cat c can be bought for less than 300 quid lol.

I've looked there was a really nice P11 SI going for £300ish, and I called up my insurance to get a quote on it - and it was a casual £400 more on top of my current premium, just because the Si has alloys and a spoiler. My GX is again the poverty-spec of the lot... but at least that means cheap insurance (which I'm gonna need come renewal next year and they factor in both my accidents). They're also quite rare in white. And THE REG!!!

Regarding the Porsche, the vast majority of the ones listed on Autotrader are the 944 LUX, which only gets 163bhp. Mine is a 944S which is considerably rarer - AFAIK there are only about 5 up for sale atm. The difference is it had a 16v cylinder head and got 187bhp - they could do 0-60 in 6.5s, and for a 1987 naturally-aspirated car that weighs a ton and a half, I'd say that's pretty impressive not to mention that insurance will be a lot cheaper in comparison to a turbocharged S2 or something. Not suggesting that anyone who can spend £5500 on a classic Porsche will be concerned about insurance, just thought I'd mention it.

100% This.

I was just like you when i was young, got attached to my first car trying as much to keep it road worthy (was a rot box). spent close to 1k in parts tools etc then 5 months down the line i just gave up, realizing in reality i cant do a propper job as all my efforts looked shit etc. and i should have listen to my friends from the beginning. honest truth scrap the nissan , scrap your first love too, noo offence vio but its time to move on. you have a nice lil 6n now to play with

I'm well aware that this may very well be the case for me, but I'd regret not trying at all more than I would actually trying and not succeeding

Seems a genuine enough reason to keep it then if it is indeed a cheap fix and you like the drive. Plus there so cheap anyway I doubt you would make a great deal back cat C or not. I do however think you have too many on the go still haha and the 6n would be on my save list looking at the state of the other two now!

Ahh well I stand corrected on the porsche.I didn't notice the S, I searched a bit for information and it seems not much short of the s2 in performance like you said. Good luck with the sale! If it sells on a good price PLEASE spend Atleast close to a grand on a super clean polo this time [emoji38]

Despite the possibly terminal problems, I've decided to tidy up the smaller issues on the car. New loom & housings for the number plate lights came today, wired em up and took the opportunity to fit some LEDs.

Nice to see your car in the Asda Christmas advert :)

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 ^^

These adviseries are there to cover the testers back. Most suspension arms are rusty after a few years, as will most springs. A gater is only a fail if it's "not preventing the ingress of dirt" into the joint, if it's just showing cracks but hasn't split it's not a fail. Oil and water leaks ain't a fail either but testers will generally advise to cover their backs.

It's all done incase a vosa agent turns up after the test and tells them to pull that car back in for a spot check. If they see things like that that haven't been noticed they will want to know why, if they have been advised then it shows the tester was doing their job right, it's not a fail but they have covered their back by putting it down.

Gotta admit I about pissed my pants when I saw what you were asking for the porsche, looks rough for the price you were asking.

Quick ebay shows one that looks tidier for half the price you were asking (and this one is actually an S)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1986-Porsche-944-S-16-Valve-Very-Original-Car-MOT-On-The-Road-/172024506745?hash=item280d75a979:g:j7MAAOSwnipWYFgO

Edited 11 December, 201510 yr by Mclovin

Yeah we figured out it's not an S, £1800 takes it now

Changed the gearbox oil but it hasn't helped the main problem. So I figure the next best thing to do is drown out the noise with some new speakers.

Well not really, I just got a cheap pair of replacements as part of the little fixes, just to get rid of the rattly old factory ones so at least now I have 4 working speakers. Figured out as well why the drivers side wasn't working at all - because the wires had been cut for whatever reason

Also I think the passenger door was replaced at some point, because it's red underneath.

Edited 11 December, 201510 yr by Vio

The wires just break with the flexing each time the doors opened/closed, 90% of any door electrical problems will be down to broken wires in that rubber tube :)

Ah I see. They did seem quite short so I added in an inch to each of the wire that came with the speakers when connecting them back up, shouldn't happen again

I like the Vibe speakers. I used to think they were overpriced halfords items. But I bought a pair of Vibe Blackair tweeters and they were 1000 times better than the hertz ones they replaced for a fraction of the price!

Vibe is definitely best. I had a pair of Slick 6x9s in the parcel shelf of my Mk3, and despite what everyone says about 6x9s in a parcel shelf it was honestly the best sound quality I've heard in a car

The next time you buy a car ask one of the guys on here to view it with you. I like to think that I know my way around an old polo having bought 20 or so but I've bought two stinkers both times when I got Carried away and my heart ruled my head. I then started taking someone with me to talk some sense into to me, you know the story see an old polo, travel there and want to go home with something.

For he money you paid on the polo you could have purchased something better maintained and it's not like they are rare cars. If it was something like a g40 then it's different as there may only be one or two for sale in the country.

My cars tips are, never by an old polo trade for so many reasons, never by car in the dark, spend as long as you can with the car, looking around, only buy it if you are really sure about it. Check the history out ie when as last serviced etc, how many owners. I remember wanting a polo gt twenty years ago traveled for hours got there and the history was crap on it, wasted journey that I could have sorted out if I had asked more questions over the phone.

These days I go over the top, I send lots of emails to owners but normally after a few responses you get the feel for the owner etc and decide against it. I spent 18 months looking for a decent VW sharan and 6 months for a tidy 6n, ended up spending 575 on one that had 45k, one owner who had caught a bollard and given up driving, the wing was dented but the rest was spot on and it had been serviced at VW from new, came with 12 months ticket and a recent service. Last polo I bought I cleaned it at the viewing so I could get a good sense of the bodywork, seller though it was so strange but I don't care.

I had a friend from work who knows his way around cars come and look at it with me, the mayo on the oil cap was our only real concern when we saw it but apart from that there was nothing visually wrong with it. It's entirely my fault for not looking up the MOT history beforehand. Had I seen that first, I wouldn't even have made the drive out to look at it. Ah well, you live and learn.

Continued with the tidy-ups today which are now about 90% complete. Replaced the interior light (and got some LEDs on the way), both glove boxes & changed the locks so they work with my key, fixed 2 split door wires including the one apparently for my heated wing mirror (though it still doesn't seem to work on either side, I'm still not 100% sure I have them at all) and put in the new window mechanism - so now my drivers side window works. Maccies drive through here I come

To the previous owner who decided the best solution to a broken glovebox lock was to coat half the lid in glue... WHY DID YOU DO THAT

I think the final things to do are fix the fuel lid (I have a new one but can't figure out how to get the old one off) and get some new door lock pins - OEM or similar of course. After that it just needs a good clean - seats could use steam cleaning and I wanna try and get some of the oil off the front end from my DIY service. That's another lesson learned - invest in wing guards.

That weird grinding/knocking sound seems to change daily. 2 days ago it was constant and incredibly loud, now it's as quiet as when it first started and only picks up when I turn corners. I'm not sure if it's diff, a wheel bearing(s) or possibly the control arms. I'll have our garage get it up on the hoist this week for a proper diagnosis + repair estimate, and decide what to do from there.

My obsession with LEDs continues. It cost me £3.95 for a pair of SMDs for my interior light and boot light, and the difference it makes is honestly amazing for that sort of money.

Before and after pics with standard filament bulbs & the new LEDs for comparison:

Excuse the boot filled with crap, but you get the idea. Now I can actually see things. And of course there are more colours than white... but I'm keeping this car simple & sensible

ooo Its happening again!

It is decent actually, a lot brighter and doesnt look ricey LOL although I kind of like a dim yellow light...feels quite cosy

Might be thinking a certain Vio will get too attached to the 6n soon...

similar lights to mine that i got on ebay for £1.50. it does make difference to the standard lights, hope you get attached to this polo like you have to Dora. its got alot of potential like put valver bumpers alloys lows etc just no ricer mods

NeMo

I don't like the shape. If it was a saloon I might think differently of it, but in general I don't particularly like hatchbacks. The 2f gets away with it, but this 6n is far too flat at the back for my liking. I deliberately chose a car I wasn't particularly fond of, so that I could focus on getting my other cars sorted. I'd still ultimately like to get back in the Nissan and sell this one on to someone who's more appreciative of 6ns than I am.

But of course none of that stops me spending stupid amounts of money on it. Started last night with the wheels:

I literally tried everything on em - wire brush, wire wheel, flap wheel, detail sander, sanding by hand... and didn't get far. ChrisFix made it look way too easy. 4 hours of prep and I decided to give up and start painting. Layed on 4 coats of primer, 3 metallic silver & 3 clear coat rather heavily.

Also picked up a set of 6n centre caps for cheap. They had some corrosion on em (how the hell does plastic corrode??) but I wasn't going to do any more sanding for at least a week, so I just gave em a quick wash. Got a tin of "tyre paint" as well which I didn't know existed, made a difference tbh.

Before:

After:

That gap in the wheels is an absolute bitch to try and sand. Not exactly a professional paint job but ehh they're only steels anyway. Pretty pleased with the results nonetheless.

Rented out a steam cleaner to use this morning. Don't think I've posted any pics of my interior as yet. This one says it all really.

4 hours this morning was dedicated to removing 18 years worth of human slime out of my interior. Did a pretty good job tbh, had the drivers side done after the first hour, makes for a nice comparison:

With my interior stripped out I decided to steam the carpet as well. Vaccumed em first, and picked up so much hair in the process that I'm convinced the previous owner was a small furry animal. Steam cleaning didn't do as good a job on the carpet as it did with the seats, probably because I was still using upholstery cleaner and didn't want to pay £12 for a bottle of carpet cleaner. It did help though. Before & after:

Seats back in, SOOO much better. Still waiting for em to dry, but they scrub up all right.