YS53

Hi OMS Where did you fly power and glidders ? I finally completed my Gold Badge this winter with a Gold Height claim off the winch at my home club (in scotland) - only 50 years since I first went solo LOL I am also ex PPL but gliders are more fun. cheers baz

Hi all Sorry not been around since may - but we have had a strange year LOL for a variety of reasons and am just catching up on internet stuff. I had to change cars because of a creaky L knee,we now have 2 Autos in the family - a Suzuki G Vitara 1600 3dr for fun and a Kia Sortage 2.0 crdi for daily and towing if reqd. I returned to gliding exactly a year ago and fly whenever our weather allows (been a cr@p summer up here ),hence the possible need for a tow car. Anyway thanks for all the help on here - it is a friendly forum - I may pop in from time to time to have a look round. cheers and rgds baz

It would be nice to get the intake air a little colder though I think - maybe circa 20 deg c would be good? I doubt that would be cold enough to give any atomisation problems - but we would soon see LOL

Hey Don't thank me - thank my Torque app (great little toy) I think slightly cooler air for the intake certainly aint a bad thing for the warmish months anyway,I was surprised how quickly the inlet temp came up even at 9 deg ambient.

Funny you should say that I was also thinking maybe of an external blank for the Hot Air Inlet underneath the Engine Cover assy.

That would be useful

It would indeed sir

I agree @Wino it does depend where the intake temp sensor is. My engine bay is exactly like your pic . I was going to have a look at where the temp sensor is mounted this afternoon.

Tried out my new 'Torque' app/OBD dongle thingy today and we went for a short (14 mile) drive to get some real time engine parameters - Engine Intake Temp started off at +9 deg c (agreeing with ambient) but was up to + 35 deg c at the halfway point - by the time we got back into town it was reading +42 deg c - so even with the Intake Flap closed - the engine is still getting hot air LOL.

Ditto - our Polo 9n does this sometimes at random - works ok 98% of the time and then all of a sudden the wrong window moves LOL,usually sorts itself out fairly quickly so far. Until it happened to me I used to take the pi55 out of my better half for using the wrong switch

@Wino Just to finish off on this earlier conversation I did the oil and filter yesterday for the spring service,I put the old/drained oil in an empty graduated oil can and the drained amount was 3.2 Ltr,so as expected the hot engine and wait 5 mins before checking oil level technique obviously works fine,on this particular engine if I checked the oil with a cold engine then the oil level would be down a bit. I had a look inside the new Mann filter and it has a 'proper' coil spring valve - so (shouldn't) drain back - so still a puzzle LOL - it is the only engine I have ever noticed much difference between hot/cold oil levels.

The trouble with any 'service history' is that it is only as good as the guy with the stamp. A possible temptation for a garage presented with an ultra low 'inter service' mileage car is for them to do a visual safety check/valet car/top up fluids and stamp up any minor service requirements,especially if the same garage is used for all services. I would definitely say to get an oil and filter change done by somebody trustworthy/local vw specialist (or diy it) - as with an ultra low mileage car 500 miles might equate to the car sitting for months with the oil absorbing moisture etc and internal parts potentially lightly corroding.

I will do that but tbh I have never bothered too much with the polo mpg,I do know the 'safe' range on a tankful so I can roughly compare with that rgds baz

All went OK yesterday- the overnight forecast was +6c but as usual it was colder than forecast (the local weather station where they get the readings from is Strathallan Airfield - 6 miles away) and we set off for the Gliding Club at 0730 with the ambient temperature 0 deg c.On the 35 mile drive the ambient was varying from -1.0c to +4.0c - the engine never missed a beat - the Humidity was approx 90%. So - OK so far.

OK - the intake Flap thermo thingy is sorted LOL - I bunged a woodscrew into it as you suggested - so it is now locked into cold air. Many Thanks - baz

Many thanks for the info Pete - I will have a look at it later

A couple of niceish days up here means I have started to do MOT prep work and a little light maintenance on our 02 Polo 1.4 16v. I had a good look round the engine bay at vacuum hoses and visually they all look ok and in good condition. The Breather Hose from the Oil Separator to the Air Box has perished and has quite a few splits in it,I am pi55ed off about that because I replaced it when I changed the Oil Separator in dec 17 (only done 10,000 miles) - I have ordered one from ebay but thus far have failed to find a new Hose made by a reputable manufacturer - the last one was made by VAICO (V10-2937) but obviously made out of really cheap/crap material LOL. Any recommendations for a reasonable quality breather hose would be much appreciated.

Thanks Pete - did you find a safe way of testing the pesky little blighter ?

@Wino - Hi Pete - I could not find your thread on the Air Intake thermo fix,our 1.4 has a suspect flap thermostat and would like to fix it if poss,the volvo part sounds interesting. rgds baz

Have you carried out a good quality oil and filter change ? might be worth a go if not ? Our engine gets noisier when approaching oil change mileage,oil grade (viscosity) might affect any mechanical noise. I usually use a Mann Filter and Triple QX 5w40 from ECP,I standardised on a Mann filter thus far because different manufacturers sometimes have different 'Hex' sizes on the filter body. I had not realised the noise had changed to permanent!

Zebedee - you would perhaps have been impressed by the racket our AUB was making at 0730 this morning whilst it was idling outside @ - 2c whilst warming up/defrosting,by the time we got to the Gliding Club 35 miles away - sweet as a nut

Not sure if the same sort of noise but our 02 Polo engine started to get noisy at the cambelt end,a funny noise and difficult to describe but which I associated with rotating components.I took the polo into a local VW specialist and asked him to change the cambelt/water pump/tensioner etc (£450 - all genuine parts),I looked at the removed parts with the guy and neither of us could positively identify the culprit LOL - but luckily it cured the noise,the cambelt was within a couple of months of a calender replacement anyway (5 years) so I did not mind spending the money. The noise had started in the evening before we were due to fly out of Gatport Airwick on holiday but I certainly did not want to risk a 470 mile 8 hr thrash down the motorways so we had to do a last minute change to our Fabia 1.9tdi,we usually take the polo to airports etc cos it is not worth much

Thanks Fabdav - I suspect the exhaust leak is further back but I am trying to ignore the minor problems until (hopefully) the weather warms up. The last couple of times that the EML has lit has been right at the end of a journey (at least 30 miles) and whilst parking the polo,I am not sure if the cold ambient temps are making the problem worse ( minus 8c overnight LOL - I know it is colder where you live probably !). The car (thus far) has been starting/running ok so happy to live with it through the next month unless it deteriorates. rgds YS

Perhaps - as long as it is safe to use it on fairly modern engines,I have not used any for years but then most cars do enough 'Hot' runs to avoid the carbon problem.

On our car the oil separator is mounted on the rear of the engine block - I do not know if that is the same on your engine. I just bought a replacement online from Autodoc ( I replaced the hose as well due to age) but there are probably lots available online. I managed to change it from the top by leaning over the engine with a good torch and a couple of mirrors (engine cover removed) and was extremely careful to line everything up before tightening down the bolts. Re the carbon - the belief at the time was that the carbon would get very hot (Glow ?) and thereby cause pre ignition of the fuel/air mixture (hence pinking and sometimes 'running on'),i would imagine running on is rare these days with a fuel shut off solenoid fitted to engines.