Thinking of buying a mk4 1.3 cl only problem is the current owner says that occasionally it pops out of 5th gear whilst driving! is this a common problem? are there any solutions to it? or is best just to stay clear as other than that it is a tiday car!

cheers greg

i would steer clear of the 1.3 mk for as its a bit gutless! the polo in general after the mk3 seem to have slightly weak gearboxes! so its not uncommon for mk4s to pop out of gear esp with a few miles on the clock! you would be better off with the 1.4 8v or even the 16v if your budget will stretch to it!

It'll need a replacement gearbox - 5th is dead. Even then,it wont be fast. Clean as it may be,something is amiss if thats been allowed to happen. Most likely is the box has been run low on oil,which would mean an oil leak has been ignored. If so,you want to buy a car from someone who's looked after it a bit better. But there are many other signs that point to neglect,so if it does check out as a good one,it might just be unfortunate - and well worth saving.

Might just be a badly adjusted gearlinkage though.

mine used to pop out occasionally... then the whole gearbox went... the I got mine rebuilt... sweet as