Last night's drive was the last straw - this has gone beyond mere annoyance and veered into dangerously distracting territory.

 

The nearside hinge pin on my bonnet (https://volkswagen.7zap.com/en/rdw/polo+derby+vento-ind/po/1993-120/8/823-64000/#5) has become loose and rattles like mad, making a right din in the cabin. Its definitely this and not the dash/cabin fittings - you can reproduce the noise pushing that corner of the bonnet down. Irritatingly the bonnet puts it under tension when open so you can't actually feel the movement with your hand or get to it from the scuttle area - its only when the bonnet is closed (and thus inaccessible) that the tension drops and it rattles around.

 

I found the odd thread that found this issue but as usual all of them are yonks old and have no resolution posted. Anyone have an idea how I could tackle this?

 

The bluff end of the pin is, i assume, simply captive by the bodywork behind the wing. If i could get to the other end of it i could conceivably detach the retainer at the scuttle end and install a fabric washer or something to take up the slack or wrap it in PTFE tape or something to quieten it down. Problem as usual is access - maybe a case of just removing the arch liner to get up inside the wing cavity?

 

 

have you had a good look up under the scuttle with a torch /mirror ?

 

ive had the wings off mine and swear ive not seen any access from there ....

I have yeah - the pin comes through the side of the scuttle, through the bonnet hinge arm and terminates with a little sprung clip.

 

Was having trouble seeing it in action so I left my phone recording while I shut the bonnet:

https://youtu.be/kvPQ2x1RsQ8

You can see the arm moves on the pin so perhaps the pin isn't quite a tight fit with the hole in the arm anymore. Hard to tell without taking the clip off but I suspect I'd need to take the arm off the bonnet first to make things easier. Would be good to know if I can get to the other side of the pin though - pretty sure it isn't welded to the body or anything.

 

I'm almost certain this is where the vibration is drumming from - you can see that corner of the bonnet visibly vibrate on idle.

 

Edited 23 October, 20196 yr by zob
More info

video is private

3 hours ago, steveo3002 said:

video is private

Oops - sorry! Public now.

yeah cant help you there ...cant say ive noticed access from under the wing , worst case its not a huge job to whip the wing off

Aye true, I'll add it to the 'things to do in a heated garage eventually' list. Found an old thread (https://www.clubpolo.co.uk/topic/291960-epic-rattling/) that mentioned wrapping the hinge and pin in tape - probably will do as a stopgap.

 

Just watching the video again I wonder if the worn pin isn't letting the hinge bracket vibrate against the body at all - I'll see if wrapping the elbow won't help as well. Got a bunch of looming tape kicking about.