UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hello all, another n00bcomer here..

My alterego is Tahrey, you may call me what you will. Right now in Birmingham but may oscillate between Northampton and NW Wales too (unfortunately missed inters before - was paintballing, and working 'hard' on degree anyhow ). "Proud" owner of a Navy blue (well.. mostly) MkIII CL micro-hearse , with the classic 1 litre, 45 horse, 4 speed combo up front. Glad about the reliability of the setup (single injector replacing carb and away from combustion = near bombproof), the comfort, and it's sheer load lugging capacity for such a small car (100.2% of my student possesions using roofrack too (inc bike!), or alternately 500kg of catalogues) but not so much the raw performance, considering sometimes it's full throttle to keep up with traffic. Or the motorway noise past 65mph with that low-ratio top. Handling is... OK. When no more then 2-up...!
(Hi, dan&doug, and all the other 1043/4 massive )

However, for reasons such as "insurance" and "negative bank balance", it'll have to do for now, save some hairbrained ideas involving tophat air filters, de-catted back pipes, and the addition of an Ebay'ed G60. The most practical upgrade right now would be a 5-speed box. Thoughts of alloys and lowered springs are a far off dream, especially as the exhaust's ground clearance is dodgy at the best of times, but one day... one day I may be able to afford some metallic spray for the steels, and some towing spring-stiffener props For the moment, it's enough to just view all the pics on here of sweet modded polos and the stories to go with.

Actual mods so far are some of those little wide-angle mirror things (they count!), a roofrack that brings the top speed down by a good 15mph, and more seriously a set of modest Microline front fogs, bought after a hair raising joyride through some unexpected welsh "mist", and a nice Sony 4x40w head unit (second hand, cheap at 3x the price!) mated to some recycled stereo speakers. Both of which installations, I'm sorry to say, I botched up a little, so I may dare to ask for a bit of help sorting out in the near future! (The fogs have been routed to the wrong control wire, and so only light up with the dipped headlights - and so are totally useless except for looking smart. The stereo isn't *so* bad considering the all-in cost was £50 including socket adaptors, wiring, plywood and glue, but the fronts are still original and so either need capping intelligently, or replacement with something cheap but decent. And I have high ideas of transferring the 12v sub from my budget home cinema to the car! Oh yeah.. and the blasted tape adaptor won't work). A minor style plan for this year is to put on some clear indicators

I may also have to ask for a bit of assistance with gearbox stuff.. would a 5-speed be worth it? Would it offer an actual higher 5th gear (and slightly lower, tighter 1-4), or just squash the ratios together? (saw someone else on here claiming their 1998 1-litre polo was pulling 4400rpm, at 80, in 5th.. which is approx what I do in 4th, and that HURTS )... and in the meantime what could be done about the 4's slowly degrading synchro (balking 2nd and 1st from time to time without some now-well-practiced double declutch), and linkage which slips in summer? And does anyone, anywhere in the world have the official ratios for the Polo gearboxes written anywhere?
Can the seat tilt release be fettled at all?
And, damn it all, is there any definitive answer to the exhaust gasket problem? It looks common on here, and I'm only just starting to experience it.. and it's a right pain. Had it sorted once for the MOT, sorted again a couple days later, and now a few weeks on it's slowly starting to blow again. Fair enough it's been razzed of late because of work timetabling trouble, but at £25 a time it's a bit of a pain!

In return, I offer you.... um... love! And a few pics to show what an essentially unmodded mkiii looks like - I know there's precious few left! And a helpful mind to offer assistance to other noobs with questions i actually know how to answer.

A long introduction, my apologies, but I tend to get a bit gabby like this in text. Get me on the phone, you'll soon see how quickly it all dries up!

Bye now... bed is calling.


(PS one more for the SPi/single carb crew - whats your metered top speed so far under any conditions? A separate queue for 1.0 and 1.3 please To start the ball rolling - 106mph on a biiiig straight hill whilst a little bit time-crazed. Forgive me gatso for i have sinned..)

Just a quick Hi from me, Tahrey - I've seen you on the Tex before!

Lots of tech stuff I don't know about, so I'll leave that to the more gifted members...

Anyhow; Welcome!

Roofracks are the shiznit btw

Hi Tahrey

I've got a Mk1 1100 4-speed, not used it much yet 'cos I'm working on it. Will be on the road soon so I'll let you know what the top whack is on that bad-boy!

G'Day Tahrey,

1.0's are great. For some reason I always end up gong back to small cars, they're more fun for some reason... Although my 1.3CL Coupe will be getting joined by a G40 just as soon as I can get my hands on one.

Anyway, welcome

Top speed? To be honest, I've got no idea (that'll gimme something to do this weekend, after I get the straight through exhaust fitted). Might be an idea to empty all the dead weight out of the car first (boot full of junk)... Yes, I'll try to find a big hill as well.

hey there, and welcome to the forum, thanx for the mention at the biginning! made me all proud!

anyway, 1.0ltr's are cool, they are great little cars and don't hang around for the engine size. the four speed gear box is a pain, however i had the same dilema and am still thinking about it, there is a section in the mk3 section that u may be interested in, its called "gearbox! injector system!" well worth a look cause i can't remeber who gave me the info, but its all about the gearbox's throughout the mk3 range! well worth a look!

reason i've got a 1.0l is the insurance the same as u! i would love a G40 or i would be happy for a while with a GT! the injection system is soooo much better than the carb system as i have too polos, a mk2 (carb) and a mk3 (injection) and the difference is quite amazing! also the mk3 has servo brakes whereas the mk2 doesn't, so u could imagine that it would be quite interesting braking in a mk2!
now that i am working full time the mods are going to be popping up on a regular basis!

keep us informed of the mods and ask any question u like, we are here to help!

by the way, indicators are a good place to start, really does improve the cars looks no end!

and another thing, i haven't pushed my car that much but have got 80 out of her, but then, its a 1litre, not really built for speed were they

Hi. I've got a Boulevard, top speed I've had up to now is 90mph.

Welcome!

What do you do in Northampton?

I had a 1.0 4 speed Coupe as my first car and it's not a bad little car... I know it's still going and has 160k on it and is still mint!

yeah 85-90 is more the usual terminal velocity after a few minutes with the pedal jammed down... gets real noisy past 65 though, so i tend to keep it slow like that (need one of the fabled 'slowrider' transfers..)

or 55 up certain hills.. still, it allows that satisfying full-throttle driving style in a lot more safety than a more powerful car, but got an almost diesel-like torque curve so it's plenty docile at low speeds (just purrs at 40, if only you could get away with that speed any more), with a fair bit of acceleration left - until you're only -just- faster than the other traffic, when it all goes flatter than a 2 month old bottle of coke (and you may as well change up at 5600 for all the go thats left past there - keeping it out of the red means the engine wont explode..)

...still, for those who are familiar with the area, it can still do wylde green to the belfry in 9 minutes flat. enough about asthmatic engines though

any changes may have to hold off for a while for that fabled 'credit' thing to happen, esp as im about to quit one of my jobs (boss is a total biotch - dont need that for £4.20 an hour!) but the small stuff at least is possible. i think alloys and suspension could be an insurance trouble too!

and more specific callbacks

toXXin, northants is where my dad lives.. visit sometimes 160k, hm, this one should be good for another 90-odd then.. did you thrash it much?

Low Phat - good work. that was in an unavoidable emergency or for testing purposes on a closed track now wasnt it?

D&D, cheers for the link. i dunno... theres not many orange indicator cars left any more.. mite hold onto the old filters if i swap em, could be a valid mod some day to put them back on!

Gobert - no! if you're getting a big hill, keep the dead weight... gravity helps! if your brakes are up to it of course, and you can stand the climb back.

Stu, should be quite nippy, back from the old skool when more power took precedent over emissions.. the gears are probably even lower than the mkIIIs tho so don't blow it up!

Speedlaw.. thought you looked familiar probably one of your posts on vortex (if thats where it was) that led me here! Aye, roofrack would be even more mighty handy if the back suspension was a mite stiffer.. as it is the poor porka drags it's tail simply with the stuff on the inside..

Cheers all, very kind.
Glad I came back to look today, learnt a new word - breadvan