UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

on my ole 1.4 8v the backbox/k&n combo wrecked my mpg

sounded cool though

tempted to buy another k&n and backbox but as i occasionally do mega miles (that is manchester to falmouth, 360 miles - and then back again to make 720+ miles over long weekends)
i'm a bit like "arse, it will cost me tonnes"


plus on a 16v your doing loads of revs for 70-100 mph in 5th so can imagine my car becoming really loud and annoying when i'm sat for 5-7 hours on those long drives

does it sound like the lambada probe on mine,,,,does anyone know?? hope so,,,,,is it an easy enough job

I have just got my mate to run VAG com on the Polo but it came back with no faults at all.

I will try and clean the throttle bodies as mentioned in this thread but if this doesn't help then I am not sure what will.

The only other thing we can think of is that the revs always seem really high in the car.

For example if we are sitting at 60mph in 5th gear it is reading 3,000rpm. Usually a car sitting at 70mph would register at 3,000rpm but this might be different for this type of car.

Also we have noticed that you can sit at 30mph in 5th gear and it will still pull with no hesitation at all. My S2 can't even do this.

So we were thinking that the gearbox may have been replaced for one that has a smaller gear ratio.

i had a new throttle body put on 6month ago so it shouldnt be that,,

your gear box sounds about right

it was the first major surprise when i bought my 16v

it takes more revs to do 70 than the 8v lol


and mine pulls from 30 in 5th also (right up to 125 lol)


there was talk of a fella on here with an 8v's gear box installed into his 16v - but i believe the general consensus was he crippled the cars performance (no idea what his mpg was) gotta admit it was something i considered (if you can find the thread, post it here - i dont got time to now)



i did just manage 290 miles from full to fuel light coming on - most of that was 85 mph motorway work

If all else fails, take your dad to the petrol station and force him to put £30 in the car...

..worked for me ..

rich16v wrote:does it sound like the lambada probe on mine,,,,does anyone know?? hope so,,,,,is it an easy enough job

sounds like it mate. i changed mine lthis week and my MPG has got back to normal now! its an easy enough job too as long as you have some axel stands as you have to get right under the car. then its just a simpe job of unscrewing the old Lambda and unpluging it from the car then putting the new one in its place. all i can say in advice is have plenty of WD40 on hand cos the old one will be a b***h to get out!!!!

excellent tom,,,,cheers fella ill get one sorted tomorow,,,,,you busy tues night fella

i'm working in Darlington mate so not gunna be back till late. Its a really easy job to do mate. the hardest part is getting the old lambda out. make sure you have plenty of WD40 to hand!! after the old ones out its a piece of cake!!

My polo is on 83k at the moment. But fuel economy is not as good as what it appears to be. I'm averaging about 40mpg which I would consider to be quite poor but having said that my average motorway speed is in the silly numbers. A roads are fairly standard, living in central F**king London be lucky to get anywhere above 30mph.

Ok I've changed my air filter to a K&N filter, I've got one of those silly eco-tek fuel devices, and a magnetic fuel device. I'm running my car on Slick 50 oil. So my car engine is as well as can be.

I'm getting the performance from my car no sweat. Over a New Clio, the polo wins hands down the boys in the pimped up clio must be shocked!!!!

Theres one factor you need to take into a car and that is AGE! I never thought about it before but cars 5-10 years ago arent as economical as they are now! So 35mpg.

As for the guy who has a car that does 40mpg on £10.00....

1. What gear are you driving in?
2. Do you weigh your car to the ground?
3. My dad's mercedes ML 320 is doing better than yours and that is running on PETROL!!!!!!!!

Hey Guys...... you lot should try Super unleaded Petrol from Tesco. Its 99RON and has been super good to fuel economy. Ok its supermarket petrol but its been rated better than Shell Optimax, and BP ultimate which those two are running on 95 RON.