Tomjones1995

No, a much better garage this time haha 😅 I haven't been back to that garage after they messed up my brakes sometime last year. They hadn't bled them correctly twice.

I thought I'd just offer up an update to all this... It's been in to the garage today for an inspection and they've come up with a CV boot that's spilt and allowed dirt and debris in and the joint is clicking slightly on full lock on nearside and two front shocks need replacing. They also advised me to hang on to the car as there's not a great deal wrong with it so that will be my final decision at least for the time being. Thanks again everybody 😁

No there's no known peculiarities known with my model of car and year of car. I've also been to a tyre place to check the geometry and there are things out of whack but I'm told, it's nothing that would cause the symptoms I have. I've just popped up there this afternoon to have the worst offending alloys put on the back with the current front tyres and the best alloys (slightly buckled) on the front with the old rear tyres to see if that improves the issue and it hasn't. I used to have different brand tyre on the back to the front with varying pressures with no issues. I've tried the spare and that's also buckled 😞 and I don't have anybody to ask if I can swap with their wheels to see if that improves the issue either. So my options are either a garage to look at it AGAIN or to just PX it and have done with it! Thanks to you all for your help and advice, very much appreciated

No, no unevenly worn front tyres as yet. I guess not that then. Thanks for the advice

Just an update: I've driven the car to town today which is 16 miles of A road and I threw it round bends to see if it grumbles or wobbles, makes any noise at all to indicate it may be a bearing and it didn't. What I do know is is that the rumble starts at 5mph and wobbles at 70mph pretty bad too which leads me to believe it may be tyre, buckled alloy or maybe ball joint related? It also wobbles more when I turn the wheel slightly while going round a slight corner that's not so sharp. Am I on the right track with that so far? If I can't fix this issue fairly cheaply then I'll offload the car for the best car I can find.

I've heard of people doing it but I wasn't sure if it was common but I suppose it depends how you look at it. Car dealers whether they're privately owned or they're main dealers, they're all (more often than not) richer than most people so, you could think they'll just stick it in an auction or list it as Sold as Seen afterwards. If you look at it that way, when a garage lists cars as PX to clear, they're not offering warranty or anything so they themselves are no better. It must be like a thing with PX, they must expect cars coming in at the end of their lives

Thanks for the heads up but I was referring to myself part exchanging my car with faults I'm aware of. I've heard of people just taking cars for PX and saying nothing about the current faults there car has out of fear that the dealer won't take it as PX. Surely that's not the done thing? Do people do this sort of thing?

You make a valid point about the condition of a car been driven on the motorway Vs one round town. I've been advised in the past about that and it's a good one. The higher mileage could drive the market value of the car down but the condition could be sound as a car with much lower mileage indicating a potential bargain. With part exchanging a car, do people list the faults their car has or is it a sold as seen type of deal. Because it doesn't seem morally correct to me to keep quiet in order to get a better deal?

I had also explored that option of a cheap run around so that I could perhaps slowly restore the Polo in stages but even they are £1,000 plus around these parts. So stupidly expensive to pay through your nose for an old aging workhorse. I would expect to pay around £400 for just a cheap run around which would most certainly be a viable option for me if I could find one near by, if not just to buy me more time to assess my options.

My car is currently completely stock except for the cupra bushes on the front wishbone rear which has improved the handling. That made it feel a little more crashy than it once did but I can tolerate a certain amount of crashyness in order to improve the handling on corners a little. I'll have a look on YouTube in that case and see what I can find, thanks for the help I didn't think you were trying to persuade me one way or the other. I appreciate everybody's advice and it's always good to look at a problem from different angles. I had looked at a Honda Civic but I was under the impression they don't make very good diesel engines and that high revving petrol Vtec engines was more their forte which would cost me a lot to run in tax and fuel. You could also say that if it doesn't cost you in repairs, you could save there as opposed to spending wods of cash on repairing and economical diesel, it does balance out. But my Main concern I have with changing the car is that I can only afford high mileage examples which unless they're scrupulously maintained, will have issues of their own.

So, all I have to do is stick my head under the shelf under the steering wheel, roughly where the OBD port is and unplug the old switch and plug the new one in? Is it that simple on a Polo 9N? Because if it is, then that's a DIY job for me

It's knowing whether to spend on what I have or buy another car with a small budget. The issue I have is, as others have mentioned, these cars could be poorly maintained, high mileage examples. Sure they may be a few diamonds in the rough, but finding them in like finding a needle in a haystack and with my current car in the state it's in, time is in short supply for me.

Yeah £4k without servicing, MOT etc. Looking closer to £7k then! I find that the lower profile suits my somewhat spirited driving style, but that doesn't mean to say I wouldn't consider a different tyre size to limit the harshness of the potholes and rough roads I have here in Mid Wales. I used to have an 02 Polo S 1.2 before the GT and that had I believe 14" steel wheels with the trims and it seemed more floaty in comparison to this wheel and tyre combo.

Thanks for the suggestion at least, I appreciate you taking the time to help I'll be sure to post any developments. I plan to rotate the wheels once more front to back tomorrow so see if it's the tyres that are noisy and wobbling (would be unusual I know) but at least to rule that out if nothing else. Thanks again

Oh god, I wasn't aware the dash had to be removed. That's a non-starter for me but I'll definitely mention it to the garage and il leave it to them. Thanks for the help as always 🙂

Sorry but I'm pretty confident these were fitted from factory. These Polo GT TDI are pretty rare so I've been monitoring them to see when they come up for sale on eBay, Facebook, etc etc to see what mileage they have and what condition they've been kept in, and they all have 16" Montreal alloys, every single one and I must have seen about 50 now. Their also isn't any adapter's either. I've also had the car for 7 years now and only in the last 2 has it been like this so the alloy size isn't the issue in my opinion otherwise it would of been like this for the whole 7 years of my ownership. I am however in agreement that they sold the Polo sport with the 15" Melbourne alloys as you describe but the GT model had Montreal. Thanks for the help, Tom

Hi, 205/45/16 and VW Montreal 16" alloys. They came like that from the factory. Thanks I would consider 14" to be sensible on a car this size in my opinion. I was under the impression at the time back in 2005 that 16" would of been the more sporty size and that over the last 17 years, alloys gave been getting progressively larger, much the same way that smartphones are. I'm not sure but that's my assumption

It's a difficult decision and what I've decided i'l do is purchase some new/ decent second hand alloys and see if that fixes the wobbling, rumbling and if it doesn't see if it's a wheel bearing. Failing that, then I'll cut my losses and part exchange it Thanks to you all for the advice, you've been more than helpful

Yes, 'Better the devil you know' as they say!

I wasn't sure if all the 5x100 alloys would be compatible, stupid I know. I'll type that in on eBay and Facebook and see what pops up. Question about the brake light switch, is that a simple DIY job? I may do it myself if it is. Also the SMF won't dampen vibrations the same as a DMF though will it? That's not a bad idea actually! I'll have a look Thanks for the suggestions, this really helps with making the decision to repair or sell it. So far I'm being persuaded into keeping! Many thanks, Tom

I've seen an add for some which are £300 which match my current alloys. I'd prefer those really but thanks for looking . That's a good shout, I'l be sure to mention that to the mechanic when it goes in and see what they say Thanks to you both, Tom

I've had a look at other cars but with the amount I've spent on this already, I worry with a relatively small budget of 3k buying a VAG car again with similar speed, economy and car tax cost would leave me with a high mileage 13 year old car such as a Golf GT TDI for example or the Skoda Octavia Vrs TDI 170. My budget is just to small to stretch further. I've seen the wheels wobble sideways on a wheel balancer and I get the sensation that the wheel is wobbling on the road. Briefly the outstanding problems I'm aware of is... 1. Clutch and DMF which has been quoted this morning as £1,000 2. Bodywork rusting in parts which would be pointless spending mechanically to have a rusty car in the end. Unsure of price, going to a body shop to get a quote later today or tomorrow 3. EML light on for a glow plug which I'm not sure is a glow plug because they're only 3 yrs old and aren't that prone to failure that frequent I thought. 4. Then potentially 2 brake discs on back due to being scored 5. 4 new/second hand alloys £300-400 Which equates by my very rough calculations £2-2.5k in bringing it back up to standard. I've already spent circa £4k without MOT and servicing on it as it is with little to show for it Hopefully that's brief enough, Many thanks, Tom

I get the tyre pressures from the sticker behind the fuel filler cap not from online and yes I'm using U.K terms for nearside/offside etc. Sorry for the confusion. As I say this has been going on for a while with little standing out as the obvious cause so far. It's been into 2 maybe 3 different garages all are saying it's fine which it most certainly isn't. If you say that the cause could be a multitude of things then perhaps I shouldn't continue pursuing the cause and just 'get rid' of the car altogether? I'm torn between part exchanging it or just spending on what it needs, because it has other issues aside from the before mentioned issue Thanks for the advice, Tom

Yeah perhaps, as I say it doesn't have any play in it when stationary and there's no audible grinding, rubbing noise to indicate any friction when you spin the wheel either. So It would be a guess in changing it but that would be a cheap enough place to start I suppose and then the alloys

Brakes are okay Pedal is firm and there's no spongyness to it Polo GT TDI same as Fabia Vrs mk1 1k a month mileage 205/45/16 tyres on 16" VW Montreal alloys If I turn really hard into a left hand bend which would obviously load up the offside side of the car then yes it can occasionally wobble more at those times but don't every time Thanks again, Tom