Tomjones1995

Looks awesome!

Gosh, that must of taken ages, looks like a good job. I wish I had the DIY knowledge to do welding myself and the equipment. It's hard to find welder's around that will do extensive work like that these days.

Here my second polo 9n in better condition than the welded one with the loose undertray. Would you say that the inner sill would probably of perished from the inside out so to speak? Is it worth me wire brushing that off or would that be a waste of time? I'm only looking to keep one of these polo's and I'm trying to decide which one is in the better condition

Would you say in that case the fabia MK1 is more rust resistant than the polo 9n? I've seen other polo's for sale that have had MOT advisories stating sill corrosion of varying degrees but I've yet to look into the fabia vrs. I love the platform of the MK1 fabia/ polo 9n/ Ibiza age with the diesel hot hatch sort of thing. VAG seem to of shifted away from that in favour of the turbo petrol hot hatch which doesn't prove economical enough for me. But if they're all destined to corrode with no way of preserving then underneath then we're all being forced to move on through age I guess

Yes and I have two polo 9n's, both with rusting sills. One was welded last year only to already be returning 7 months later. Is it worth undersealing or is it a waste of time? as you say, it's rather common across the VAG group

Hello again everybody, I've been thinking in regards to underbody rust. Is it worth looking for a company or garage to underseal a car nowadays or is it just false economy? The way it seems to me is it that once a car reaches about 10 years old. No matter how thorough the mechanical maintenance has been, the rust will eventually ruin the car anyway. Thanks, Tom

Sorry for not being clear. I'm not referring to the engine undertray but the one for the fuel lines and such I would imagine yes. It's near the sills and the welder has patched further underneath the car and hasn't made any screw holes for the undertray to secure to if that makes sense. Thanks, Tom

Hello everybody, hope you're all well. I've had the car on some ramps in a garage and I took the opportunity while the car was in the air to check the underneath to find that the new sill welded patch was put in place where the undertray screws onto. So, basically there's nowhere for the undertray to screw onto underneath and the patch is thick with road grime so I'm concerned it's going to rust all over again due to the undertray not covering it for all this time. So do I just clean the dirt off the patch and drill a hole through it for the original screw or use some sort of ultra strength grab adhesive to stick the undertray to the patch save drilling a hole through it? The chap didn't tell me about it and it's been like this for months. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Tom

Yeah they are, no arguments from me haha. Hopefully I can sort all this nonsense out soon. I've got a lot of bodywork corrosion to sort after as well. I need 2x new front wings and a driver door and a few stone chips that need seeing to on the bonnet. I've made myself a promise that this be the last time that I'm sentimental with a car 😄 I've also got an Octy as a runaround now as well at the moment which makes repairs on the Polo easier to sort because I don't need a garage with a courtesy car and I don't need it back ASAP either which expands my options on garages

Yes! Thanks for asking. I wasn't sure if you guys would remember. All in all the car has set me back close to £2k which is why this clutch & DMF rubbish is rubbing more salt into my wounds.

The was a young chap who was working on my car so that's also a likely possibility The young lad actually said he'd driven the car round the yard and it drove 'nice' Thanks for the help everyone 👍

I've driven the car this morning and it's definitely a higher biting point than the old clutch and it tends to snatch it into gear as I pull my foot up and not ease it in as it used to with the old clutch. The new DMF is also vibrating a little bit with a noticeable intermittent judder around 2000 rpm. I'l try and get it re-bled as you suggested and I'l take it from there. Thanks again, Tom Still using the Polo, thanks 👍

Thanks for the reply. I am definitely struggling to get a smooth gear change out of it. I can get a smooth bite but I have to really search for the biting point now where as it was second nature before. The new DMF has a little vibration through it as well so I don't know if maybe something in the transmission has been misaligned somehow? Thanks again, Tom

Hello again everyone. I hope your all well, I've a strange conundrum that's happening with my new clutch and DMF. To take the car out of any gear, I need to push the pedal to the floor to do so which Im sure is normal and correct. But when I select a new gear, the bite point in higher than on my old clutch and I'm struggling to get to change smoothly, as far as I can tell it's not slipping but it's got a strangely high biting point. This is my first new clutch but I thought the bite would be lower than before not higher? Can anybody shed any light on as to what is happening please? Kind regards, Tom

Just an update on this thread. I've been to the garage this afternoon and they reckon that they can patch it on the ends of the sill for £200-£300 and the inner sill is unaffected and the centre of the outer sill is still sound. He reckoned that to replace the whole sill would therefore be excessive and unnecessary. Just need to decide what to do now I guess. Thanks to everyone for the help and advice 👍

I understand what you mean, that's a good point. Yeah VW indy knew of a welder but I lived too far away and they didn't have a courtesy car which I wouldn't of really expected anyway and it would of been much easier for me to have the VW indy weld the car and then I continued to use their courtesy car until the work had finished. So seam welding a full sill onto the car would effectively weaken the car?

I know Lee, I was so shocked as well when the garage phoned and said 'Hi Tom, We've had a look and there's not too much wrong with the car just that it's failed the MOT on the sills, the screwdriver just went straight through so they need welding but we can't weld that for you". And because I live in the country and took the car to my nearest VW indy for the MOT which was 30 miles away from home I had to quickly source a cheap run around so I could decide what to do with this car. Such a shock it was. As I said in a proven post, the garages don't give me any warnings of potential future headaches, you have to be mechanically minded and knowledgeable where cars are concerned yourself to tell them what you want It seems, otherwise people end up in messes like this 😞

I'l ask him to have a real thorough look over it and let me know the extent of the damage. The sills need doing on both sides but I'm unsure if the inner sills need doing. I'd been maintaining the car to a reasonably high standard as my budget could afford and was completely unaware as to the extent of the rot on the sills, as you can see on the picture I uploaded, the black paint would of covered all the rot and hidden it from plain sight. I also didn't have any advisories on previous MOT's either to give me a chance to sort it before now, it was such a shock to hear when the MOT place told me underneath the black sill paint was completely rotted sill and they couldn't weld it for me. I've noticed the garages I go to just do the bare minimum that the car needs to be roadworthy and don't give me any real advice or 'heads up' about future problems such as perhaps suggesting an underseal before it got rusty in the first place. I'l weigh up my options and not let my heart rule my head on this, this time. Thanks for the advice 👍

It's interesting to hear how much more simple it was back in the 70's and 80's and even I suppose in the 90's with maintain a car. My Dad used to work on his own cars before I was born and he used to say to me that when cars started getting more technological and electronic was when he gave up on it and just took it too a garage. Things don't always change for the better. Hourly rates for garages are eye watering these days too. Thanks for sharing 👍

Thanks for messaging. I agree with getting the sills fully replaced, I wouldn't of bothered patching them anyway. I have it booked in to a local garage who reckons he can weld in two new sills for circa £400. I'l just see what he says when he sees the damage in person. Thanks again for the advice. I see, I'm hoping it's not just the tip of the iceberg because when I used to go to a garage for MOT's a couple of years back, they used to spray the underneath of the car with some kind of rust inhibitor of something, probably just old oil because I don't think it was the proper underseal. But I'm hoping that may of stopped the rust from spreading out further than the sills. As I said to VanhireBoys, I have it booked in to a local garage for him to inspect the damage and give me a more accurate quote, he said on the phone roughly £400 so I'll take see what he says it from there. I did message a body shop nearby but they didn't reply so I wonder if it's because they don't want to touch this kind of job due to the iceberg theory. Thanks for your advice, Tom

Thanks for the reply, it's not so much the money, it's more the structural side the car, I've heard they are weaker after they need welding and they may also need welding over and over again due to recurrent rusting?

Hello everybody, I know this isn't exactly the right section of the site to post this question but I trust your judgements. My car went in for an MOT recently and to my surprise they said the sills had rotted through and needed welding, I had no car and they couldn't weld so I've got a cheap run around for now and the car is SORN. My Question is, what do you guys think I should do or rather what you would do with a car that needs welding? Keep or scrap? Aside from that the car is in pretty decent condition really. Thanks for your time, Tom

Yeah I see what you both mean. I was a little concerned about the welded sills but thought perhaps if it was welded that it wouldn't of been an issue but I can see where your both coming from. Thanks Guys

So you wouldn't say it's dangerous and to steer clear? You reckon it's just overpriced? Thanks, Tom

Hello again everybody, I contacted the above garage for a quote on the work that they said my car needed and they quoted over a grand to do it and that's without the rust and the inevitable clutch and DMF. So I've decided to see if there's another car out there and came across this https://www.gumtree.com/p/volkswagen/vw-polo-9n-gt-pd130-tdi-vrs-/1430556537 The sills have apparently been welded at some point and it had also been off the road for a while. I'm wondering what your thoughts are regarding purchasing a car that's needed to be welded for its structural integrity to be restored and whether it's too dangerous. Any thoughts would greatly be appreciated Many thanks, Tom