rum4mo

As @jars said, in my experience of a 2002 Polo and a late 2009 Ibiza. Both TRW steering gear though.

I was lucky, as my one needed sorting out just before the start of restrictions for Covid, I acted quickly, have a passport so it all went smoothly, but an exwork friend who was 6 months younger and did not have a passport had a hard time getting his one sorted out. My paper one was a bit of a mess, it was only 22 years old as it got replaced when we bought another house, kept in a wallet at all times wrecked it and its sleeve! Reminding us about losing C1, makes me wonder if the husband of a friend of my wife is legal when he drives his big motorhome - I'll need to ask him!

Remember one thing, don't feel that you need to buy a VW Group extra key, VX and some others used the same ranges as VW Group, so matching a picture to what is selling on ebay worked for me twice. They are McGard parts, but others available on ebay have worked for me and I always use a torque wrench and wheels get swopped about Summer<>Winter each year. Once you have looked long enough on places like ebay you will be able to get to know the VX and other's number/letter equivalent to your VW Group one, sometimes the marking on the "top" end of the key is not too clear, not punched deep enough - but it should be there, unless it is an aftermarket replacement key, though for obvious reasons they too, in my limited experience come identified with a letter or number.

Oh well, maybe a plan for when I replace it on that 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI, my 2000 VW Passat 4Motion had them, I don't think that the 2002 VW Polo 1.4 16V had them, its exhaust was still okayish when we moved it on at 13 years and 105K miles, as was that 2000 VW Passat 4Motion - except for the centre joining pieces, they failed at maybe 10 years.

My wife's August 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI ended up with a torn wishbone bush by its second birthday, it got replaced FOC under warranty, I considered at the time that it would just be due to potholes as these bushes have been used in other models, ie Golf for quite some time, also across the VW Group marques in equivalent cars to Golf and Fabia. I've considered fitting the Golf R and Audi TT solid rubber version if/when it fails the next time, but now coming up for 6 years later, both sides still look okay. Edit:- exhaust centre joining sleeve clamps are also a regular failure after maybe 8 years - I've already bought a replacement original VW Group part very cheaply to be ready for that!

Maybe my wording was wrong, but I was meaning that that had not happened to me (yet), but I have read about it happening to others in this forum.

So far, I've been lucky in that I've only ever seen pictures of brake discs ending up like that in other threads in this forum! A production issue maybe.

I thought that the number in that position has only 3 uses or versions, 0 = not sided, 1 = LHD and 2 = RHD, so I wonder what 8 could mean, or has VW Group numbering moved on a lot since I first looked into it? Maybe there were a couple of other numbers to denote hatch or estate, thought I could be wrong there. In this case I would think that they all would have a "0" in that position of a part number that would be "not sided" or "not handed".

Maybe if your mechanic is close by, leave removing these calliper guide pins/bolts to him as it sort of might be that your car has no calliper carrier bracket and so the callipers bolt directly onto the "hub bracket" - and stripping the threads in them can be quite easy, so best avoided if you can.

Seeing as you have pointed out where the number/letter is on the bolt key, I'll add that you should find the same number/letter on the end of the bolt shank, I'll only saying that to complete the answer, though it kind of sounds like the OP don't have a bolt key so not much chance of seeing the number on the end of the bolt shank without using one of these specialist locking wheel nut/bolt remover bits, by which time you will either just fit a new basic bolt, or buy a new set of locking wheel bolts. Edit:- @bry617, when you think about it, these locking wheel bolts are meant to be security devices, so not a good idea to have their "unique" code showing while they are fitted to a car.

When buying some parts from ECP, I added a set of stainless steel shims to try to fit to my wife's August 2015 VW Polo rear brakes, we were lucky as at that point in manufacture, at least VW in South Africa, were still fitting TRW brakes, so as much earlier cars, in my case a 2002 VW Polo, had these stainless steel pieces fitted to the rear brakes, I'm willing to take a gamble in trying to fit them when I clean the brakes up this year. As said, nothing beats cleaning up brakes annually, I'm lazy so only start cleaning after 2 years, then again at 4 years, then every year after that. Anyone waiting until their brakes start dragging has missed a trick I'd think. Main dealer servicing normally does not include cleaning up the brakes, that task is an extra money item.

Knowing that would spoil the game! I always thought that the base spirit, which modern cars probably don't like, is the same across the refined spirit industry and is probably defined by BS or other standards, the additive packages - there does not seem to be any regulation or standards that I've noticed/read, it is all up to branding loyalty or something.

Actually maybe the short answer is that for small light cars, like Fabia, Polo, Ibiza, the rear disc brakes do not get enough passed their way and so normally end their service life due to corrosion on the discs and not by reaching their wear limit, it sounds like your wife's car was fitted with exceptional "good" discs at the factory, by chance, and then fitted with normal discs next time.

I thought that I read that VW Group were supplying and fitting cheaper service parts, in some cases, to cars over a certain age - like a "5+ years old" cheaper option as they had worked out that owners of older cars did not necessarily want genuine service parts used, well at least I'm meaning consumables like discs, pads and shoes. VX used to do that back in 1990s so I'd think many other marques were doing the same thing for the same reasons - mind you, in my case, I valued my beloved VX GSI 4X4 Cav and only bought bits from VX because I wanted genuine replacement parts, the steep fall in brake parts prices was what drove me to ask the question and I didn't like the answer I got, same for centre exhaust parts which only lasted a few years, naughty beggars not asking when I was ordering stuff from my dealer! Many VAG Indies will use "good as OEM" to save customers money, and this seems to apply to suspension parts and other consumables, where they have found that doing that just might not work, they will stick with genuine VAG parts to save their name and their customer base. I'm sure that I've spotted new products on shelves at my local VAG Indie and I trust them to have made a good choice, I've never ever, so far, bought and fitted VAG genuine brake discs and pads, and that covers VAG cars we as a family have owned from new and run for 10 > 13 years and 85K > 105K miles. I've tended to use Pagid discs where possible and one of the mainland Europe based TMD Friction for pads, ie Textar and Pagid, my wife's 2015 VW Polo I seem to remember has Jurid branded front pads, still the originals, so maybe I'll replace with same when the time comes. I've normally found that VW and SEAT front discs rust quite quickly as do VW rear discs, any of these cars that I've replaced the originals with Pagid tended to stay looking "good" for their entire (wear) life for the front, and most of their (wear) life on the rear. Now, if that equates to being better in braking performance when newish when compared with VW Group original fit, I can't say. My 2011 Audi S4, according to the original service records, as it was bought slightly used, got all its disc and pads replaced at around the 2 year mark due to slight vibration - and I've owned it from July 2013 and considerably under used it, and its front and rear discs are still in excellent condition - ie no surface irregularities, so it seems that at least the genuine VAG replacement parts were okay on that one. I can't say where I'll get new parts from for that car, but I'd think that Audi's pricing would scare me off!

Interesting, I'd just put that down to bushes in general hardening with age and coated with salt from the winter driving, I'd also considered that it seems all VW Group cars that use the same sort of front top rubber mounting, do, with time, seem to need that top mounting "lubricated"! I'll check the lower gearbox mounting at service time, seems like some people replace the 1.2TSI one for a TDI version to make it more durable, but maybe with increased noise/vibration, I've already got all the fixing bolts for that after ordering all possible bolts needed to re-align the carrier/subframe! AT the moment that noise is temperature and rain dependant so not a big issue, and will probably become less so as we move into Summer, I've got a couple of chipped and rusting areas on the ARB so they will get attended to this Summer, and maybe even check the ARB mounting bushes and drop links. Edit:- lower arm rear vertical mounting bushes still looking good though, only the centre joining sleeve of the exhaust to add to my list for this year, as it is getting badly corroded, or at least its clamps are - which is extremely normal for VW Group cars.

Yes, a good plan to fit new Oetiker bands - but only if you have the rack off the car! Trying to fit these new bands when the rack is on the car is a nasty way to waste an hour or so, as above, a suitable black cable tie is maybe the only solution, worked for me on the late 2009 Ibiza, I might just have succeeded refitting the old bands when I did that job on the 2002 Polo though, maybe I had more patience back then! I seem to remember that one side has a rubber sleeve over the end of the rack just to make life a bit harder.

Generally I agree, that engine fitted to the 6 speed man trans is very good fuel usage wise, my wife's August 2015 VW Polo is more used locally, but still achieves over 60MPG on 10>15 mile runs, in fact one "weakness" with a car that performs like that is, I find myself trying to improve its fuel usage, which annoys my wife, it also has destroyed my enjoyment of driving my own car - which is a bit annoying, I need to develop a different "driving brain" for driving my wife's car and my when I'm driving my car!

I've been told that these front bolts being wet is "normal" and sometimes, I suppose due to location, water sometimes runs out when these 2 front bolts are removed, and this has been like this over several generations of VAG cars, which sounds like someone missed a trick when designing that area. Though if very few of these bolts actually fail, then maybe I'm just unlucky - but annoyed! I'll aim to get some anti rust fluid down into that area, just how successful I end up being, remains to be seen! One way could be to buy another 4 new bolts, pump in plenty Waxoyl from below, fit the new bolt and torque + angle, then give the bolt head a long slow heat up to flow the Waxoyl back down around the bolt, repeat on the other side. Edit:- part of that plan would be to attempt to keep Waxoyl off the top end of the bolt thread as if that ended up on the section of the bolt that passes into the "nut" then that would mess up the end load on the bolt head.

Car has now been sorted out, ie all bolts replaced and returned to me and 4 wheel geometry checked and adjusted, the camber on the RHS was at its limit of -58' and the toe'ng was well out LHS +21' and RHS -23' - which would be what has caused a bit of uneven wear across the front directional winter tyres and making them a bit noisy, hopefully that and not a wheel bearing(s) issue, swopping over to summer times soon will prove/disprove that theory! The front bolt from the other side has quite a bit of surface rust but not rusted deeply into the bolt shank as the sheared had, this bolt was still wet when I collected the car 3 hours after it had been worked on and the rusting is quite far up that bolt, that car has not been out on wet roads since 14th April, so 2 weeks later there is still water in the cavity that is formed by that bolt's head and the subframe metalwork - that is not good! I'll need to see if I can get Waxoyl or some more creeping rust proofing into that area to try to preserve these new bolts. The 2 rear bolts look very clean so that area must be okay.

So your car is a 2013 car, ie 9 years old and it has "used" 2 batteries in that time, first one would have been an EFB and the last one was an AGM, I'd expect a lot longer than 9 years to have "used" 2 batteries - though maybe that AGM battery from Kwikfit was not "good" quality, I wonder if Kwikfit recoded that car for having an AGM battery, just curious about that last bit.

No, no, either I've written it wrongly/badly or you have read it wrongly, the 70Nm is correct for the 4 main subframe fixings, it is the additional angle that I was commenting on, I only mentioned the"40Nm" setting as its additional angle is the same as the Polo one, ie "+45 deg" - that was all. It would be good for everyone if both of us had found the same figure for the subframe bolts. I've found this in the past when comparing an Ibiza torques with a same age Polo, and questioned Haynes about it but they said that they were quoting the official VW workshop manual - at that time they had not published a repair manual for the same age Ibiza - and that question was for the torque for the nuts on the control arm swivels, which at that time, a few years ago, were a lot higher than the torque listed in your diagram above - but now the official VW workshop manual gives the same torque as your diagram above, which is 40Nm +45 deg. Maybe, just maybe, at that time a single figure was given instead of the now an initial torque figure and an additional 45 deg tightening. My interest in the torque for these 4 subframe fixings comes from "just happening" to find the head of one of these bolts on my garage floor - and no one other than the assembly line in South Africa will have touched these bolts from July 2015 build until now, but that is another story, bolts and re-alignment will take place later this week!

It could be one of the flap motors hunting due to contamination on the positional feedback potentiometer. Known in some cars as the grandfather clock effect!

I'm sure that any VW Group cars that I've owned or looked after, that had a hex on the end of the genuine VW Group filter, and also same on the manufacturer's own branded, ie without VW Group branding filter spin on can filters, had a torque value printed onto them, so I always applied a spot of clean oil on the seal, and torqued them up when fitting them. Only spin on filter cans that I've found tricky to remove were the ones fitted at original engine plant, without exception they were tricky to get off probably due to being fitted without any oil on their ring seal.

Just one observation, I have the official VW workshop manual for the equivalent Polo and when checking both 2010>2014 and 2015>2018, the torque for the subframe securing bolts are 70Nm +90deg which is a less than the above torque of 70Nm + 180deg - I wonder if that is an error, all the other torques with have "+90deg" are the same for the Polo of the same age, as are the "40Nm + 45deg" - strange. Edit:- both cars use the same 4 bolts for securing the subframe to the body, by the way.

Even a lot more so for cars that have traction batteries built into them, I'd think, which is not good at all!