THE Polo GTi Pedal Box Thread

[pberry]

looks like its a VW thing across all their cars....

...and vans.

Irony is I went through a bad time with the pedalbox and cable so called AA out a few times. Got a few comments from them that it happens to their VW vans too. Do they call themselves out?

[johnoirl]

Well after my clutch being replaced and clutch cable im back to square one. my clutch is feeling s**t when pressing it in. and squeaking on the clutch pedel side not the gearbox side. the pedel box was replaced a few years ago. im wondering if it could be on its way out again.
I thought it could have been the release fork and bushings but after buying the parts i wanna see if their is anything else i can do before stripping out the gearbox. cos im dreading it.

cheers

john

[Tim_GTi]

what clutch kit was it? i've known new clutch kits to feel worse than the old ones, including genuine vw ones.

[johnoirl]

sachs clutch kit.
p/n 3000581001

[johnoirl]

I did some more investigation today, took the whole clutch pedal and cable off, noticed some ware on the rubber bushing that is attached to the pedal box but not much, cable is free even wen i bend it. got the missus to press the clutch for a few mins and the squeaking noise is definitly now coming from the gearbox side. id say the squeaking is gone from the pedal box side.
I bought a new release fork. and im gonna buy the shaft for it also. has anyone done this? I should have done this when i got the clutch replaced recently.

Cheers
John

[sandshoes09]

Anyone heard of a clutch cable snapping? I suspect this is what has happend to mine but it cld also be the pedal box, going to look at it now! All i know is its gone on the inside of the blkhd.

I have a love hate relationshio with my GTi, I love it but hate the amount of money its costing me!!! bought it about 4/5 months ago and since then i think ive spent £1300 getting things fixed! Paid £500 cambelt/tensioner & service by VW for peace of mind after buying it as no record of cambelt change (89000miles). month later gear box is f***ed - another £600 to VW after some tense negotiations, and they had the cheeck to say they were loosing money! They said my clutch needs looking at (and I think they may have adjusted the cable) but cldnt afford it straight away, was gonna do it this month but had to spend £150 of 2 front tyres (were way illegal @ only 4/5 months on the car!) and camber re-alignment was miles out. and now this

Gonna get a SACHs kit and get my mate to fit with new cable etc and can hopefully beef up the pedal box if needed which was replaced in 2004 throught the re-call.

I must admit I could treat her a little better but I wasnt feeling any of the problems that have been described, it litteraly just went when i wasnt actually in gear, mid gear change, is this bad?

[johnoirl]

Hi sandshoes09

Just a note, when getting the clutch put in make sure 100% that the release bearing is put on correctly.
I got a sachs kit about 3 months ago and it was great. but after a week of driving it became stiff again. now a week ago my diff bearings went in the gearbox. got that done and the guys looked at the release bearing and said the person who put it in put it in wrong. so it was not hitting the pressure plate right.
have to say after they fixed it its like pressing air

[sandshoes09]

Hi johnoirl,

Cheers for the advice, my mate is pretty good though, he slates me for taking her to the "stealers" in the first place! He knows the history of the gearbox and done my fiesta gb many moons ago so im failry confident he will do a good job and cheaper than VW too! I will post a reply as soon as she is up and running again.

Only thing i can say is the clutch was stiffer than any of the newer hire cars ive driven recently (but nothing like some of the threads ive read) but i just thought this was due to age???

[spawngti]

After being stuck in stop start traffic for 5 hours last week I've found it extremely hard to engage each gear - I nearly bent my gearstick trying to get 1st in a rage yesterday! Today I realised that if I jam the clutch deep into the carpet I can get each gear without grimacing, but it's just rediculous. Polo is 51reg 1.4 8v 51k, not thrashed, miles. Is this pedal box, new clutch or linkage/ cable issues do you think? Due a service, so will be going into the garage early in the New Year, but it's always nice to have an idea of what I can expect

cheers for any help guys

[Tim_GTi]

Sounds like the clutch to me, as I was having same issues.

Check the following however:

Remove the gaitor and check the internals for linkage breaks/jams

Listen for 'box sounds, they'll disappear when you depress the clutch.

have a look up in the footwell, see if you can see any breaks in the weld of the pedal box, or if the pedal creaks when you depress it.

When was the last time the clutch was changed? if at all?

[spawngti]

Thanks for the pointers.

Pedal is making some nasty creaking sounds so I had a look and it's definitely pedal box issues. Had a quote to fix it including welding the new one up to make it more robust, but is it something I can do myself? How much of a hassle is it?

[Tim_GTi]

Can you weld? You gotta remove the steering column etc to get to it I think. What was the quote?

[spawngti]

Never tried welding before, so probably best to steer clear Quote was £140 inc. but will probably go down once he's done it. What do you think?

[Tim_GTi]

If you can get him down to £100 that would be a good deal.

[spawngti]

Well, had it done and now all happy happy joy joy again Along with a new hub as the bearings were shot. Something I should have noticed really