rum4mo

My local VW Group Indie has now re-opened for business after Easter break, so car is booked in for 28th April.

If that has had been overtightened, it could only have happened at initial assembly in South Africa, and like the "popping off" high pressure fuel rail screws on the 1.2TSI and 1.4TSI engines, it should have happened to quite a few cars over a period in time. If I'm correct on how/why it corroded so much, I'm guessing that the threaded section and its captive nut will also be rusted up to bug--y and will not be willing just to unscrew, so yes, nut welding on as a minimum, lowering subframe maybe - and that might bring with it some other bolts not being exactly willing to come out with their heads still on, and that is my concern.

You would like to think so, but "out of warranty = out of our hands" seems to be plan.

As normal for me, bad timing, younger daughter and her hubby have come up from London for Easter so my car will need to get used, plus my local VW Group Indie is not answering his phone, so I'm guessing not open for a few days. At least local VW dealer parts department is open so I've taken the worst case situation and ordered in items, 3, 4, 6, 12 and 13. I'd think that it will be only the one on the other side, if it is similarly "boxed in" will also be rusting badly, but just in case the subframe needs lowering, I've prepared for that - I think! I've forgotten how similar the subframe on the 9N and the late 2009 Ibiza is to this 2015 Polo, in case it is a possibility on these models, to be frank, if that bolt had not turned up on the garage floor, I'd be still driving that car around, maybe, just maybe that bolt shank having been expanded due to heavy rusting, is what is stopping the subframe from moving or flexing, everything seems fine when driving that car.

Here is a pic!

As per the title, but not on a MK3 Fabia but a 2015 6C VW Polo 1.2TSI - which will be identical to a MK3 Fabia in the area of the support frame bolts. The bolt nearest the ARB mounting clamp on the near side failed, with I think is due to road spray including road salt getting in behind/above the collared bolt head and causing the bolt shank to corrode/waist until the bolt head popped off - and ended up on my garage floor! I can't say when this happened as the sheared face of the bolt remains and the bolt head are heavily rusted across - but the "upper" surface of the collared bolt, ie the face that was in contact with the support frame metalwork is about 80% shiny metal, well maybe less than 80% as the rust is obviously covering what was the over sized bolt hole in the support frame and slight rusting is evident from the outer edge of the collar on the bolt head, but then there is a clean area all the way round the collar - I'm including that point as it seems that this bolt head has ended up closing off any chance of accumulated water getting thrown up onto this bolt, draining back out again. (I had a similar type of thing happen with my old 1991 VX Cav GSI 4X4, but on it, it was the ARM link that failed or its fixing nut and part of the threaded end parted company with the rest of the ARB link - in that case, road spray was able to get in from under the rubbers and stay trapped in the oversized hole in maybe the track control arm instead of draining back out.) I'll be letting my trusted VW Group Indie take care of that as they might manage to weld a bolt/nut to the end of that bolt and get it out, if not the support frame will need to get dropped and the car given a 4 wheel realignment, very annoying. I've not known that to happen to the late 2009 SEAT Ibiza of my wife's old 2002 VW Polo over the time that we had them, 10 and 13 years respectively - but having said that, I would not have been any the wiser until I had looked under this 2015 VW Polo - the rusty bolt head on the garage floor was the clue today! Maybe "check your bolts"!

True, but, the current theory is that the steel mesh etc which is all there is in most modern cars, is only there to capture crap from "rogue" fuel, and that would start to cause a drop in fuel delivery due to a problem with the fuel delivered into the fuel tank. So, in the past, it was assumed that all fuel supplies were slightly dirty particle wise and so a replaceable fuel filter was provided, now in developed countries, it is assumed that fuels are clean.

By the way, it is normally not a huge problem if the trolley jack drops back down slowly while the wheel is off, just an inconvenience, you will restore things by pumping it back up when it is time to refit the wheel. I've made adaptors/spreaders for using a trolley jack with both our cars, from a suitable hard wood and shape it to suit and lined it with thickish hard rubber on the bearing surfaces and thinner rubber to line the slot for the folded seam, make sure that if you end up doing this that you find out what heights for the bearing surfaces work for your car as not all cars have the flat areas at the same height - ie the inner and outer ones, although some do! Also the same for the slot width at all 4 points and obviously aim to have the car resting on the flat surfaces with free space all around the folded metalwork. I made all my adaptors for above the trolley jack cup about 6>9 inches long to spread the load - so far that has worked for 9 years with my S4 which is quite heavy and 7 years with my wife's 2015 VW Polo, I've used the set I made for the 2011 S4 on my daughter's 2019 Leon Cupra which should be the same as your Octavia, or near enough. As I tend to get under all the cars that I seem to need to, I have gone a lot further and instead of what I claimed I had done, I bought a set of 4 Jackpoint jack stands in from USA on a group buy I found on the Porsche UK owners website - directed to there by Google! So I modified the top sections of the Jackpoint jack stands by fitting suitable hard wood adaptors to the top surfaces, by doing that I can just use these top sections and 2 trolley jacks if only swopping winter<>summer wheels, or with the jack stand bases/tables if getting both sides up and working under it - it does not sound like you could justify buying all that stuff as you are not planning on doing much work on your car, I was just shocked when I first looked under that car after buying it and thinking that getting it up in the air and safely supporting it looked a bit challenging s that was the first car that I had owned that seemed to be completely covered in plastic panels underneath. I am just outlining what I did to get that S4 up in the air, with the VW Polo which has more ground clearance, I made up a set of 4 suitable spacers to fix to the top of the adaptors I made for the S4, they need to be used with a lot more care due to the overall height being greater - but still very stable once the car is up in the air on both sides. I honestly don't know why no one in the DIYer UK market has not come up with a cheaper simple system for getting modern cars up in the air safely so that you can work safely under it! I also built a set of 4 very wide and long ramps out of large bits of wood, for the times that I don't need to remove the wheels, only using 2 of them when changing engine oil.

I've edited my posting above, a couple of BOAs is even better, one BIG and one small! I'm very surprised that VW Group has ended up leaving virtually no room to fit a cup wrench though - have you tried from below as well as above, as I'd reckon that all cars will be designed for periodic servicing when on a lift/hoist.

I like Boa Constrictor strap wrenches, I've had a couple for many many years, a BIG one and a smallish one - big one is probably still out on loan!! Edit:- just one comment on your thoughts on getting a replacement spin on/off filter that had a hex on the end - is that not just aftermarket copying, correctly, what VW Group etc defined as being the correct style of filter canister, in other words, if, as it seems, newer cars come with the "multi flats" at the end of the filter, then they are designed for use with a cup wrench and earlier cars come with the hex on the end, so you would normally only ever be able to buy even from aftermarket "like for like" and so no choice in changing "style/type", unless I'm wrong of course!

Sometimes the next "size" up is cheaper due to present usage/demand, that was the way it was when I bought a new battery for my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI - but remember if you choose to do that, check that the battery tray can handle the next size up, VW Polo at least, use a different battery tray for each of the battery sizes - though I think that you could possibly just cut the raised lip off at one end and let the battery slightly overhang or maybe just sit on top of where that raised lip was. Edit:- that 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI (16V) 110PS came from factory with a 027 size battery which is 59Ah and 242mm long, I am replacing that with a slightly cheaper 096 size battery which is 70Ah and is 278mm long and is an AGM - that was my choice at the time of organising getting hold of a replacement battery, probably overkill - as usual!

Casting my mind back many years, I sort took an interest in this type of switch as I was looking after a late 2009 SEAT Ibiza that had that type of "brake switch", and so preparing for if/when I needed to sort it out. I thought that at one point VW Group were selling a kit with both a new switch and a new sensor part - due it was suggested at the time that there might have been a slight misalignment issue, ie a slight design dimensional problem on some master cylinders - but remember that is just a "I think I remember reading" and not a fact based on experience. Other possible issues with this switch's switching seem to have based on chaffing of wires - but in every case that I've read, which were all on SEAT Ibizas, the people that posted either never came back with a full description of what wires were chaffed/damaged and where, which is annoying, when their garage solved their problem, or in other's case, just a opening post - then gone for ever! There used to be a "too long" bolt fitting into a body rail/stiffener that was said to cause some of these wiring issues, as yet I have never removed that bolt and cut it down to size to avoid that ever happening on my wife's 2015 VW Polo, or that late 2009 SEAT Ibiza or a 2002 VW Polo - okay only 2 of them had/have that hall effect switch on the MC, but I really should sort out that bolt as cables press against the tapered smooth end of that bolt, and that kind of annoys me! Sorry not an absolute "do this" solution, but maybe food for thought. You do indeed seem to be getting some horrible weather in that part of Oz.

I have a very gloomy view of working or resurrecting older cars, ie a hobby/project car, which is really a horrible situation to be in when you like working on cars! If that car was just a selected tin box, bought cheaply and needed to get to work etc, then making choices about its future can be easy if you can fund a replacement. My wife's previous cars were all household tools and required for her to function as a working mother, so when I finally totted up the price for me to get it back to being as reliable as it needed to be, as it needed 4 discs and pads, exhaust, another cam belt and some welding/painting and some other latent or current issues, at 13 years and 105K miles, I considered that having owned it from new, that it had served us well, though its early life was peppered with annoying "should not be happening" costly failures, so it was time to replace it - and we could afford to do that. Your car sounds like it was deliberately looked out for, so it can not be considered to be just a tin box for you - it would be handy if you could grab a horrible cheap tin box to keep you mobile and quietly refurbished this treasured car. I am retired so I could live with having a project/hobby car - but maybe with time that is what my 2011 Audi S4 is becoming, I'm just doing it in a different way, ie buying a pleasant newish car and keeping it for a very long time, I know that we will replace my wife's 2015 Polo before that S4 gets replaced, just over 11 years old and 27K miles, only used for "trips away" and circumstances over the past 2 years have sort of messed up that! I have a friend, also retired, he spent his entire working life buying and using well used SAABs, then ended up with a 1974(?) SAAB 96 as a treat/toy while still running quite old high mileage SAAB 9-5s one for his wife, a sedan and one for him an estate, well repeated reliability issues meant both of them ran out of life and were taken away by the local scrappy, to my amazement he then bought a 2 years old VW T-Roc, and then bought another project car, this time a SAAB 900 convertible, which needs serious welding and painting, but he never seems to have enough time to use or work on these classics, you can make life a bummer sometimes, I keep get pestered by ex work retired friends claiming that I need a project car in my life!

Yes, as I said that Aug built 2002 Polo did not have any covers low down, so it was just getting down and swopping switches. Now, I'd advise that you source a genuine latest version as this switch has been evolved a few times, in that Polo's life time with us, I think that the switch or its end changed colour to denote that a revised version was now fitted, then its design/shape changed and with that second change came a change in method to fit it, though this later one could be "reset" to its original setting/length which it was said the earlier ones might not have been able to do, so messing about after fitting the later version incorrectly is now possible - having replaced the original version with the first improved version, I did end up messing up fitting the second one, so I did need to reset it and refit it. As always, someone will have had an entirely different experience, but such is life! Edit:- there are or used to be many youtube videos on changing these switches, and even some threads in this forum.

My wife's previous car, was a 2002 VW Polo 1.4 SE 16V 75PS so that means having the low max power, useless soft torque curve and quite poor fuel economy Polo option - my error, her previous car was a 1.6Zetec engined Fiesta 90PS! As it was a 2003 MY SE, and I knew that the next refresh of UK was to include 15" Melbournes alloys, as I was doing the "save loads on personally importing", I spec'd it up with them and many other things that these robbers VW UK charge a fortune for. So, a few severe winters later I bought a set of 14" steels for winter use with winter tyres, it was only then that I realised just how crashy the suspension was in summer time with the 15" alloys on, her current car is a 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS and all the previous car's issues are in the past and also, while it has 16" alloys on in summer and 15" on in winter, the difference in "ride" is not really as noticeable as it was with the 2002 Polo. I quite like a "firm" ride from a car's suspension, my old 2000 Passat 4Motion replaced a 1991 VX Cav GSI 4X4, that old Cav GSI 4X4 suspension was firm by compliant enough, the Passat 4Motion felt a lot like you were sitting on top of it and not part of it or in it, now I have 2011 Audi S4 and it feels a lot like the old 1991 Cav GSI 4X4 - which is good, so I finally got back to where I was 20 years previously. VW dealerships claimed that all the Passat "V" models had sports suspension, but that was nonsense, none of them got fitted with the sports suspension option especially when supplied via VW UK. Of course I could have thrown away all the factory fitted suspension and replaced with aftermarket options or VW sourced options, but I could not consider dumping usable parts, so I just tolerated it!

I've replaced the brake pedal switch twice on a 2002 Polo, for some reason VW never got round to fitting the lower covers on the dash which meant nothing had to be removed to reach that switch.

Fair enough, so back to trickier things causing this, a set of plastic concentric bore adaptors would have been a quick cheap fix, at least that question has been asked - good luck!

The acid test would be to find out what the VW part number is on these rims, I wonder what the centre bore of the Golf Mk4 is, or if it is the same as a 9N Polo, if it is just a centre bore hole in the wheels that is too big, then fitting suitable nylon concentric bore adaptors to these wheels should sort things out.

Not as far as I know, maybe in theory they are listed as being offered, but that was as far as it went. Okay they were offered on the earlier Polo GTI ie 6N last of the true "VW" Polos before the change to the Fabia based Polos, in late 2001/early 2002. Edit:- you will notice that none of the alloys used at factory on 9N Polo are on that list, these seem to be pre "new Polo" wheel options, or even dealer fit post sale options.

One other thing, what did things look like when you removed a 16" VW Montreal from your car, did you spot an adaptor to change the fixing bolt spacing from 5 X 100 to 5 X 11?, I've forgotten the PCD of these Montreal either 112 or 115, and if so, was it a VW specific adaptor that had built into it a bore diameter change to help centre these wheels? Normally when you fit wheels that have a different centre bore, you can fit a "bore changer" into the centre bore of the new wheels and that will then fit snuggly to the car's hub centre bore, but if your car has already got an adaptor on that hub, there probably will now not be an centre bore projection, so that easy fix will not work for you.

I don't think Montreal in 16" were ever fitted to these cars at the factory, Melbourne in 15" were! So I'd think that you have found the possible root cause of this problem - I ordered up a new VW Polo from round about that age, never ever factory fitted Montreals in 16" - they are Golf/Vento wheels. Grab the 15" Melbournes ASAP and fix your car.

@hadleybuff, remember that these engines are turbo charged so it will take a lot more clogging up before you notice the power drop, in the modern VW Group world, the worst offender of GDI engines is the non turbo'd ones they tend to be fitted into higher performance cars which it seems leads to double trouble, first the drop off in max power gets noticed sooner, and that type of owner/driver just can not put up with that, most people with a 1.0TSI or a 1.2TSI will probably just put up with it a lot longer, maybe even never needing to get it cleaned up - or so I'm hoping!

Maybe a silly sounding question, but what wheels size and tyre size are currently fitted to that car, the VW Polo wheels that @Annoying Pentium pointed you to would have been what was fitted to that car when it left the factory ie (5X100) ALLOY WHEELS 195/55R15 (6Q0601025L), I reckon that as time went on some of these Polos ended up with earlier Golf wheels and so bigger tyres, or same age Golf wheels with adaptors and maybe even without bore centre bore size "correctors". So, could you please tell us, or at least me, what size of tyres are on all 4 wheels and which VW wheels are on it now.

Yes, I agree with all the above, though I thought that at least Skoda and maybe SEAT actually did code their batteries correctly in the factory - I do know from checking a few VWs that they don't seem to bother so everything goes out with "JCB" and "1111111111" - so as suggested above, that car's battery system does look a lot like it has already been recoded from "1111111111" to "1111111112" and maybe even the "fleece" changed to "EFB", so yes, I'd try changing that battery serial number back to "factory setting", ie "1111111111" and change the technology from "EFB" to "fleece" - just changing it to "fleece" might force the battery to be seen as a new one, but just to be sure, change the serial number to anything other than what it is presently - so why not change back to "1111111111" the actual value of the serial number or its changed value means nothing to the battery system, it is changing it that forces the battery system to restart the battery learning system. If you are worried about your Skoda dealer discovering that you have made battery setting changes, just do as I suggest, then a day later change the serial number back to "1111111112" as that will have it back to what the garage changed it to and still prompted the battery system to "restart" it's new battery learning.

One thing, but maybe not your initial fault, I've found that a CTEK smart and expensive charger, can quietly go into a "safety operating mode" - which is a lot better than it over charging - but it can leave you with an under charged battery, I've forgotten what the lowest quoted charging voltage is, very probably round 12.4-12.6V it will be on the booklet with the charger as well as on their website! This seems to happen when you believe the instructions that when you switch it off - the next time you use it, it will automatically operate in the same mode, well the indicators will confirm that, but if you connect a voltmeter across the charging leads, you might just find the charging voltage is fixed throughout the charging profile, to the safe minimum level - been there done that and considered that it was U/S, though after cycling it through the different modes, it started working okay again - just a warning, nothing else!