rum4mo

My older daughter bought a 2009 SEAT Ibiza 1.4 16V 84PS SC, and it gave her no trouble, she went abroad on an exchange job thing and I kept that car and used it now and again, it rewarded me by starting to drain the battery, using only the internet as a resource, I discovered that one reason for that on that age of any VW Group marque car of that size and engine, was wrong programming of the BCM by the supplier! As too much time had run before this became an issue, the relevant TPS on this had rolled out of the visibility and/or knowledge of dealership workshops, result was when handed into a local SEAT dealership, a faulty "clockspring" was found and replaced, though VCDS had no found any fault codes logged, that did nothing to fix the battery draining, then that SEAT dealership was closed by the chain that owned it so that the land could be sold of housing! They gave me a reference which would allow SEAT to support me via another SEAT dealership's workshop! I had initially mentioned this "known issue" and that a TPS existed covering the recovery action, but that info had fallen on deaf ears. Maybe a year later, just before that daughter returned holiday for a month at Christmas over her "Summer" break, I approached another SEAT dealership, Arnold Clark in fact, the service reception guy knew exactly what I was talking about - luckily for me, as they had had to sort out a same age and engine VW Polo that they had in, so that made getting the correct info from SEAT mothership a lot easier, and that sorted out that problem. Now, I'd think that every "same" BCM programmed over a known period in time would have the same problem - and what did VW Group do about it - well after first discovering it and issuing a TPS, buggar all, just left all the affected cars to let down their owners and end up coming back one at a time into their dealerships, the "flash patch" update is free, but carrying out an exhaustive diagnosis was not free neither was the time spent finding and requesting the "flash patch" and then applying it. No doubt this way of doing things gets covered by "wear and tear" and so customer coughs up for manufacturer's supplier's mistake. This is VW Group's get out of jail free card which gets used quite a lot.

I put the "wheel bearing" issue, well on the 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI, down to the factory fitted bearing was "Made in France" SNR! Probably a very good (cheap) part, if it's in one VW Group marque it is probably in all that use that hub assembly, or even complete suspension strut.

I had a front wheel bearing becoming noisy in a 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI at around the 7 or 8 year point in its life and roughly 35,000 miles. Initially I thought it was just a combination of having oldish winter tyres on and the road surface in a certain region of Scotland - as that one area was the only time I could hear this noise. Then it was happening in more/most local roads, finally it was still making noises after I changed back to Summer wheels and tyres, so for me, it was game over - 2 F A G wheel bearing kits ordered followed by buying a cheap GEN2 bearing removal/fitting kit for the correct size of bearing that was fitted to that car. Changing both sides wheel bearing assemblies sorted that noise out, I assumed that it was "just" water ingress into the bearing on one side that was to blame. I had a similar issue on my old 2000 VW Passat 4Motion at maybe the 8 years 55,000 miles point - I prepared for the worse possible issue, ie front diff or gearbox - so was almost quite happy when my local VW dealership diagnosed it to be front wheel bearings, and I got them to replace both sides bearings. It seems that in many cases, VW Group cars do require new wheel bearings sooner than you might be expecting from your past experience of running older cars from other marques.

You mention the alternator and then water pump end, I'm sure that the mechanical, ie engine driven coolant pump, is at the gearbox end of the engine, there is probably an electric coolant pump though at the "other" end of the engine. I'm only mentioning this in case you assumed that the "water pump" is at the alternator end of the engine. So, maybe check around the electric coolant pump body for signs of leakage.

Yup, sensor 1 is the control sensor at the engine side of the cat or manu-cat, sensor 2 is the measuring sensor at the rear of the 2nd cat. The reason why I "liked" an earlier posting was that having a torn/leaking flexipipe in these cars normally means having to buy a pipe with a cat in it as most garages I found many years ago, just don't want to bother with sourcing a suitable duty, dia, length of flexitube and welding it into the existing exhaust - I had to get that done on a 5 years old 2002 VW Polo 1.4 BBY as the alternative at that time was to buy a genuine VW Group 2nd cat with pipe as the aftermarket were not into supplying for that engine yet.

One thing or issue I came across with any CTEK smart charger is, the instruction manual claims that once you have set the "mode" the first time, and if you are then, some time later using it for the same, then it will have remembered the previous setting. I found out, much to my disappointment, that it can not always be trusted to operate like that. What happened to me was, I had left my own car connected up for a couple of days or more, as I had used it previously many times, I just connected it up and switched it on - waited to see that it was indeed charging as expected, ie the LEDs were lighting up sequentially, and left it to get on with things. A couple or so days later, all looked good, ie it was at the end of the prog'd range of LEDs - but for some reason, I measured the voltage and it was presently at the CTEK "safe low level" - luckily I had not planned to need to charge up another battery just then as my car's battery had essentially been discharged instead of charged, so I cycled through the charging mode options, and that sorted that out. Now I always cycle round all the charge options before walking away, and so far no more charging problems.

I agree that I've always seen high charging when on the over run, this year only, is the first time that I've spotted that the charging voltage is always high when the ambient temperature is very low, it must have been happening in the past 5 or so years that I've been "glued" to the plug-in 12V DVM. Maybe what was concerning me was that I changed the still useful 59Ahr EFB for a 70Ahr AGM in my wife's 2015 VW Polo - just because it was then over 10 years old and on its original Exide VW Group battery - and the charging "behaviour" was not exactly what I had expected for a new battery, especially in winter. Now that the temperature has risen, that is no longer an issue heading into Summer.

For inner track rod joint wear, maybe just rock the steering wheel with just the ignition key in to open up the lock. I've only ever had that issue on a 2002 VW Polo and a 2009 SEAT Ibiza, both of them had electro-hydraulic power steering. The 2002 VW Polo had an advisory for that in an MOT so I followed that up quickly, confirmed that it was the inner ball joint(s) and replaced both arms and TREs. The 2009 SEAT Ibiza, I was working on the front suspension, broken spring, and I again rocked the steering wheel, felt/heard a slight "knock" then got my wife to do the steering wheel rocking while I held the track rods tightly so that I could work out if any knocking was coming from them.

Remember to use a suitable lubricant on the spring compressor rod threads, not doing that will cause dangerous wear on the rods and "nuts" - I'll admit to "being there done that" on my first "set of 3", they have now been replaced, ready for the next time.

The last time that I replaced the front and rear wiper blades on my wife's 2015 VW Polo, I bought a Bosch "correct parts" or set for the front wipers, and ended up finding that it was cheapest to buy the rear Valeo wiper blade from Valeo directly - which surprised me!

So, logically, if you are moving away slowly without any loss of grip at the front wheels, the coupling should not be providing any gearbox derived drive to load the rear diff - when you remove the Haldex pump fuse you are 100% removing the possibility that any gearbox derived drive is being fed to the rear diff. Kind of strange situation, are the front wheel tyres the same tread depth as the rear ones - just in case there is drive getting through and "wind up" is happening slightly? I ran a 1991 VX Cav GSI 2000 16V 4X4 for maybe 8 years back then, I replaced the tyres at one end and in doing so should have removed any difference in tread depth as fitting the same Pirelli model of tyres. It was a bit annoying to after that, find out that when I pressed the brake pedal there was always a "bump" from probably the propshaft support bearing, as we were away from home I just removed the 4WD fuse and that sorted that for the time being. When I returned home I booked the car into my local VX dealership "unequal tread depth between front and rear tyres" was the diagnosis! I measured the tread depth at all 4 tyres and it was exactly the same, so I measured the rolling radius of the front pair and the rear pair, the fronts were the same and the rears were the same, but the fronts and rears had different rolling radius - very annoying. So I gambled on the fronts being the "correct" versions as they came from a "better" local tyre place, and got them to supply another 2 new tyres and fit them on the rear, which were almost brand new, but had a bigger rolling radius. That sorted that out - also, as I retained the almost new but bigger rolling radius tyres from the rear, if I had got the wrong tyres replaced, I could refit the almost new ones onto the front. I can't explain why that happened, possibly just different factory Pirelli used, these almost new but "bigger rolling radius" for the same tread depth tyres ended up being gifted to the primary school my wife worked for as playground equipment. Note, with that 1991 VX Cav 4X4, bought slightly used, pressing the brake disengaged the rear drive "to improve stability under braking" - that car was other than that issue, the best car that I have ever owned, only equalled by my slightly used 2011 Audi S4. Edit:- maybe the Haldex controller is getting duff wheel sensor info from the ABS controller at slow speeds - or a wiring issue. Second Edit:- I'm assuming that when the Haldex was service, "re-learn" procedure was run to optimise the Haldex clutch gripping, same for the next pump? Mind you, the pump should only be running and so applying pressure to its clutch pack when front end slip is being detected - still sounds a lot like inconsistent/incorrect being fed to the Haldex controller front the ABS system.

Yes, the top bearing is the top spring seat. You will probably need to release the right hand side drive shaft to move the hub out of the way as the drive shaft on that side ends up limiting how far you can push the hub down to get the damper out of it. You can buy "hub expanders" very cheaply on ebay or just buy the set of 2 bits that get sold to do the same job, I ended up breaking a screw driver bit using it to open up the hub pinch point, none of my chisels were up to the job of staying in the slot, for the side that had a broken spring, so essential to sort out, I might have used a ground down allen key to open up the hub. After messing around on that first side I made sure that I had bought a set of "hub opener" bits - and they worked really well! In recent years I bought a "hub expander" tool to use on another car, and that also worked very well - using my "hub opener" VAG bits was not the best plan for that second VAG car front suspension job. Edit:- removing one end of the ARB drop link and the track rod end also makes this job easier, best plan to to replace any/all bolts and nuts you remove - maybe even prepare for fitting new ARB drop links as "getting rough" with the fixing nut might lead to messing or cutting an end off, just don't buy genuine VW Group ARB drop links as doing that will damage your wallet a lot for no good reason!

Chineseium, hummm, I try to avoid buying that sort of thing as far as car parts are concerned - certainly important ones anyway, but sometimes even when buying trusted brands, you can end up with something made in China - probably I'm being "brand snobbish" especially now that UK and to a lesser extent Europe, don't seem to actually manufacture much!

It does sound a lot like the flap opening solenoid has failed - this is not unusual it seems right across the VW Group marques/models/ages, for me "so far so good"! I'd think that there will be a "how to" available online, to resolve this which normally involves replacing the solenoid assembly.

The "rolling radius" of the 15" steel spare with that tyre size will be the same or near enough as the 16" factory fit wheels, so no problem, also the "off-set" will be correct. Even with the bigger front disc brakes, the 15" steel spare will safely clear the callipers. Edit:- just remember that you will need to source the correct 15" steel wheel.

You'd need to bleed the clutch hydraulics system separately as it has its own fluid feed from the "brake" reservoir. Quite a few people don't feel the need to bleed the clutch as often as the brake system.

I used to fill in the customer satisfaction survey our VW dealership caused to get handed out, on behalf of my wife, a bit like p'ng into the wind, but it can make you feel a bit better for a few seconds. These surveys are well designed, no chance of any carp heading "their" way, just a pity that the same effort is not put into product design/manufacture.

EGR - on all cars, not true.

I handed in my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI for its 1st service from new, that car was bought with a 3 year service plan, which turned out to be a "dealership chain" version of the official VW Group new car service plan product. When the keys were handed back - but no paperwork came with them, I queried that and was told as it was a prepaid service plan there is never any paperwork handed over - I objected and was sent out a copy of the work sheet from their accounts dept a few days later, as said in an earlier post, the price of filter etc was "really dirt cheap" - I didn't expect to get that info handed over, just a statement of what work had been carried out on our property. So yes "self to self" pricing is peanuts which seems to be the same for new car warranty work, which is why main dealers are not jumping over themselves to get your warranty business - along with the fact that VW Group, like most other product suppliers, will tend to initially try rejecting any warranty claims.

I've been monitoring the ph level of the original coolant in my wife's July 2015 build VW Polo 1.2TSI as this should tie in with how the anti corrosion properties are "behaving", it was filled G13 at the factory and has no Silcate "boosting" package as probably VW did not consider that these small TSI engines would end up needing the Silcate levels boosting as there should never exist really high temperatures locally in their cooling systems to start degrading the G13, but I found that they were wrong there and the ph was heading towards being too acidic a lot quicker than the G13 in our older daughter's May 2019 build SEAT Leon Cupra that does have a Silicate "booster" in the coolant reservoir - okay that Leon Cupra, probably like some TDI with the exhaust gas cooler, can end up getting the G13 hot enough at certain points in the coolant system to start degrading the G13, and that Silicate booster seems to be still doing its intended task. I replaced the G13 with G12evo at the 10 year point in that Polo's life, using a coolant vacuum refill kit, a Draper version which cost a bit, I think that there are many (Chinese) copies out there for a lot less money and perfectly good for a DIYer to use now and again. When you look at the BASF specs for the old G12+, G12++, G13 and G12evo - they do tend to get called "long life" or "long service". When you look at the resellers version/offering for the same BASF based coolants, they all reckon that they should be replaced in 5 years - obviously that works well for their sales! I did the same for my old 2011 Audi S4 - it came from factory with G12 in it, it's coolant ph level seemed to be heading towards being acidic a lot slower than the G13 in the 2015 VW Polo, but I felt to need to replace it "just in case" - again using the Draper Coolant Vacuum Refill kit. Note:- even using the official workshop manual instructions, I found that you didn't get as much of the old coolant out as possible, if you only "drain and refit pipes - apply vacuum" once - old coolant appeared in the reservoir twice after applying a vacuum - so I opened the system up again and let more coolant out twice, I could have repeated that a few more times, but only only small quantities of extra old coolant dropped out each successive time - I did not have that issue with the 2011 S4 though - but it only had 2 coolant systems with few if any restrictions etc fitted like the 1.2TSI and other newer engines have.

Thanks for getting back to us with what you think was the root cause - lots of people would just have ran away and hidden!

The "air valve looks to be a "push fit", like snapped into place. That other pipe that has the black foam over it might even be a steel pipe, so I don't think that it will be causing a problem, I've forgotten what it's function is, maybe just the low pressure fuel feed to the high pressure fuel pump.

Having looked at an online parts listing, I've remembered that the crankcase purging pipe is the small one showing on your picture to the left (in that picture view) of the air filter tube you have circled in red that has the resonator/damper build onto it. That pipe connects between the rear of the air filter assembly and the "air valve" on the top of the cam shaft chest.

Ah, yes, "foam lagging" not "fabric", now that you've reminded me, it does tend to look distressed, but is that not just an intended bit of "shaping" so that it fits into the space that it does. From memory, that pipe is probably a crankcase purging pipe so it probably gets connected to the underside - or side of the air filter assembly - unless you know otherwise by your recent access to under there. Edit:- I bought a copy of the official workshop manual from easymanuals.co.uk who just grab a copy from eWin online and sell them on. That worked for me for a 2011 Audi S4 and a 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS.

@goatus , yes, it was the charge pipe you've circled in yellow that I was referring to, and now I can see and so remember, that that charge pipe is retained by plastic lugs which get eased out using a tapered U shaped tool - not that this should interest you now, but I'm just clarifying what I should have written in my previous posting - and so there are no rubber O-ring seals associated with the air tube connectors that you removed - and also lesser reason for what you did being to blame for the smell of fuel/oil fumes, unless there is a small air hose that connects to the bottom of the air filter assembly box - I've forgotten if there is one, but I think that there is a preformed one that has fabric protection covering it to prevent it chaffing on "stuff".