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My coolant bottle also looking yellow. It's just the plastic aging. Heat cycling and engine bay heat will do that.

You think those rubber barriers will affect air flow into the engine bay?

2226 wrote: Mon Jan 05, 2026 8:11 pm My coolant bottle also looking yellow. It's just the plastic aging. Heat cycling and engine bay heat will do that.

You think those rubber barriers will affect air flow into the engine bay?

I don't think any air flow will be affected since i consider that gap as a cost cutting measure, whereas our other car has dedicated seal for that area.

After a long while, i finally found some time to post what i have done in the past. The car gets constantly updates so i am capturing everything during the process.

Since it is a B class, small and compact car, it does not have that many storage spaces. I personally have two sunglasses, and there is no proper point to put them.

Putting the sunglasses into the center armrest is not the best idea since that thing moves and other stuff can scratch the glasses.

Using the glovebox is also another option but i store other items in there, plus it is far away.

Retrofitting a Golf style middle storage is not an option(!) on the polo since there is no such part for it (excepppppttt...., you design your own like me )
Our only best choice would be to change the driver grab handle to sunglass holder, since it is OEM and grab handle for driver is pretty much useless.

For this, you need to find a correct part for Polo since it never shipped with this option, and every case is not 100% compatible with Polo. So, i made different purchases.

Purchase #1: This was not compatible with polo at all, it fits but not completely. Also, while getting in and out from the car, i was constantly hitting my head to it. But this one has more empty volume since it is bigger, the quality is very poor to be honest. And it is not a reproduced part or whatever, someone just designed this thing without any real collision and fitting checks.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004175256234.html
Purchase #2: I ended up buying a different one immediately. This time, i searched for it a bit. This part is not OEM but it still had a part number which is great. It also had vw logo but I am not sure what it was used for.
Since it is a lot thinner, we get less empty volume which causes it to not close completely. Bulky sunglasses does not fit well inside this. The tabs are metal like original handle and unlike the first product which was plastic. The quality is really good and I recommend this mod for everyone.
You can also store different stuff like candies, cables, or whatever you can fit anything in. Just be careful while removing the original handle.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002995170471.html
Bonus:

Since the polo never got roof storage for sunglasses, we either create a new part entirely, or just adapt the well known Golf5 case somehow.
I don't have the photos but Golf5 storage cubby just fits to the polo with exposed headliner surroundings. Also, it has curvature unlike the polo which is flat. This option will be very cheap and easy to apply everyone. The storage volume of this part is not too much and it just stores the sunglass.
Easy option is to just cover this exposed area with a simple 3D printed part and fix it somehow.
Other option is, create an entire new part. For this purpose, i need to scan the whole headliner cover and interior light area. Since there is a ton of space on the interior lights, this are can also be used for storing something like smartphone or a small book.
Since my car does not have sunroof, i have no idea how this will work cars wtih sunroof. I might need some help at that point with a member who has sunroof. Notice the curvature and flatness, this will be an issue even if an adapter part has been installed.

Simple and easy mod for any car, sound insulating.


A video for tin metals like sheet metals. Note that you don't need to cover the whole area, even some bit still works effectively.

It is a truth that if you crank up the music, you won't notice any rattles or noises anymore. But still, i wanted to waste some money.
The same thing has been applied to under the rear passenger seats. I will update the post when i will take the picture of that.

I just used a budget friendly option since this was not really important to me.
Sound wise, It made the car worse actually because now i hear the engine more
With winter tires there is too much of a tire noise inside the cabin, the same application has to be done on the wheel arches, which needs the plastic covers removed. I will do this too when the weather allows me. This will be also posted to the forum.
Also, Now the trunk carpet won't rattle since it does not touch the car body directly. This material is foamy one compared to some other options, so it spreads the weight on the metal evenly.

It made the sounds more full-bodied and deep.

Glovebox Lightning Retrofit

It is interesting to see that my neighbours 1st gen. Skoda Fabia has this option, whereas no polo got this.

It is a pain to grab something from the glovebox when there is not enough light source.

Procedure is known, but I don't see enough guides about electrical connection. For this process, you need to remove your glovebox.

First of all, we need the light assembly and connector for it. Normally, the glovebox connectors have two overhead tabs unlike the trunk light which only has one. Most Chinese lights support all kinds of connectors.

I got the light from aliexpress with LEDs. It is not original part but i am happy with it.
Electrical wise, some conditions must be met. For example, it has to work while the ignition is OFF, it has to turn off when the car is locked or when the car switches to sleep mode.
Best candidate for this behaviours are the vanity mirrors, since soldering something to the center lightning is not the best idea for me.

As one can see from the figure, there are only two cables that goes to the vanity mirrors, Plus and minus. The connector is AFAIK mechanical and we can safely connect our light to this.
Now, you can either connect your cables parallel to the vanity mirror assembly without chopping any cables, or you can just cut your wires and insulate them.
For the cable, you need to run it from left side of the glovebox, then the A pillar cover, then the headliner which you can just tuck from the top side of the windscreen.
Just be careful while cutting the vanity mirror lights, you don't want to short these two wires because there is mostly current flowing through them.
After connecting the wires parallel, insulate them thoroughly. Then, you can just hide it behind the plastic as shown in the figure.

Cutting the glovebox was easy, the instructions can be found online. The result is amazing.

Second trunk light and trunk net retrofit.

As you all know, the light quality is really poor with this car. There are even some members that install 3rd trunk light.

Process is known and simple, just cut the trunk trim with a proper location and run the wires to the original trunk light.

Removing the plastic trim is just too hard thing to do, but you can do it without removing it too. I sadly have no photos of removing and cutting it, but i assure you, it is a simple process.
The cables are run from the left side of the to the right side of the car. I didn't want to hassle with wiring loom. Instead of buying original part, you can order LED replacements from China, it is far more better compared to LED Bulb converted options.

Trunk net is also another retrofit for this car, and, you can get OEM trunk nets too as some members in the forum did.
But, i am too lazy and broke to get all of these parts from the dealers. Instead, i bought this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008784554022.html from aliexpress, which works really great for me. It really has strong velcro tapes and luckily, the trunk cover of the polo is carpet which works with velcro tapes.

Both retrofits are highly recommended, they make my life easier.

Central Locking Problem Solved

This was the issue that could be seen in VCDS:

Locking Unit for Central Locking; Driver Side
B1679 29 [00001001] - Signal Implausible

The symptoms were;
Driver door was not locking with remote (99%)
Driver door sometimes was not unlocking with remote (50%)
Driver door was not locking from the interior button (99%)
Driver door was locking and unlocking with key manually inserted.
When the car locked with remote, the tiny security LED lit for 30 seconds straight, meaning something is wrong with the system.
The door module has a distinctive loud buzzing sound which was not usual.
It is hard to notice but while manually turning the key, the vibrations of the motor could be felt.

My guess is the gears of the locking motors were melted or had some wear.

The original door lock removed: As one can see, the old unit is out and it is not possible to open it without damaging it, since it was closed with rivets and adhesives.
The only solution for this problem is to replace the entire door lock which is kinda sad since the problem is just few plastic gears inside.

My car has central locking, child locks and has no SAFELOCK feature. The original part number is 5K1 837 015E.
It turns out that many VAG cars do use the same lock, Passat, Golf, Polo, Skoda... you name it.
You can harvest the very same lock from any VAG car from this era if you have no access to spare parts.
I chose to buy an OE part since it was relatively cheap and easy to get (Service asked for roughly 110 euros for labor, and 300 euros for the lock itself)
The part is FEBI 184634. There are other alternatives like FEBI 172121, But it was more expensive so I got the first one. It costed only 40 euros to get.

Few photos: After the replacement, the issue solved completely. One thing to notice is that new lock makes a clicking sound when the door opened by handles, it is not disturbing but interesting since it wasn't there before.
The operation took roughly 2 hours and few scratches on my hand.

This tutorial and repair manual helped me during the process.



Bonus :
There are some VAG Door cover kits at the AliExpress, which covers the metal parts attached to the body and the door. They cost only few euros and easy to install. I can not recommend them since they have no benefit except the looks, but why not?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32929673607.html Update:
The clicking noise is gone now and now there is a very pleasant sound when closing the door.

I fitted the VW Golf sun glasses storage unit to my wife's 2002 VW Polo 9N just after buying it new, then did the same to her 2015 VW Polo 6C just after buying it - though using screws to fit the second one to the 2015 6C Polo was a bit challenging!

It is very annoying that the Skoda Fabia "unit" can not get fitted.

Second rear hatch/boot light - was always an idea, but never moved forward, a 12V DC outlet in the rear hatch/boot would be helpful if using a 12V DC tyre compressor.

Glovebox light, I've not considered as it needs the plunger switch to make it really useful.

I don't think that my wife's 2015 Polo has the "freezer" option in the glovebox, I'm sure that her 2002 VW Polo did have that feature though - both had/have Auto AC.