UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hi all, new here (1st post), I'm not sure if anyone can help with this problem I'm having.

Recently purchased a 1.4 Petrol Polo, W reg. 52000 miles and am now having some probs.

When im pulling off in 1st gear and push the clutch in to change into 2nd i can hear this sort of juddering/rumbling sound under the hood, its pretty much the other side of the window from where the driver sits (is that where the throttle housing is?). It happens in most gear changes but mostly in 1st and 2nd, I am also finding that the car is lacking a little torque when I change gears, for instance if im just over 20 mph and then change to 3rd it makes a small gurgling sound (like when you accidently go to fourth at 20 mph), its not massive but im sure it's there.

I had issues when i first got the car, stalling and erratic idle which turned out to be the throttle body, had it cleaned and the fuel system cleaned out and it was fine for a bit.

Anyone have any idea what could be wrong? Throttle body again? Clutch/transmission? is this likely to be more than one problem or all part of the same thing?

Very grateful for any help at all,

Cheers guys,

BFG

Your clutch might be badly adjusted or just plain worn - if you're up to 52k miles and haven't had to change it yet, there's a chance it needs replacing especially if it's had some abuse or you've done a lot of city driving. The position you describe would be where the clutch & gearbox sit on most FWD cars, especially VWs. Alternatively your gearbox (esp. the synchros) could be experiencing the recently all too common VW 020 box rot and be about to blow up

What RPMs are you pulling when you get this gurgling noise? If you get up to, say, 25mph in second before changing does it do the same thing? (Perhaps it just doesn't like running at that speed for whatever reason). There's a few things that could cause lack of low end torque, oddly enough the ignition leads are one starting point.

Hey Tahrey, thanks for the reply, appreciate it.

I did wonder if the clutch might be wearing out, but it's weird because the weird rumbeling noise is only every now and then and only noticeable in lower gears, is that possible if the clutch is going? Could it also just be a loose bearing/bolt?

Typically i'll chnage up at just over 2000 rpm, so yeah, in second gear ill hit close to 30 before going into 3rd. But if i were doing 25mph and went into 3rd then i would deff get this gurgling noise untill the car got to about 35 mph then it would be ok.

The issue is that it used to be fine, so i could easily change into 3rd at around 30mph and no noise but it seems to be getting worse, and its even more noticeable if ive just done a long duel carriageway drive, when i get back into town and start using lower gears the weak tourqe and gurgling sounds are much worse then when ive just started my journey or if ive just not done any duel carriageway driving at all.

Do you think it could be a vacume leak at the throttle body or inlet manifold problem? My TB gunked up a while ago and I had it cleaned but I have heard that is often a sign that they will soon need replacing.

cheers again.

wouldn't know on the whole vacuum leak / throttle body thing, but it sounds like one of those doodahs that can cause running problems (air getting through in an unregulated fashion isn't going to make anyone happy) so if it's done it before, get it checked out again. it may be the leads if you haven't had them changed before - the symptoms i got (and occasionally get) are quite bad loss of power and misfiring at lower rpms, which only gets worse with wider throttle settings (not enough current getting through to create sufficient spark to set off the larger amount of fuel) and is especially bad in the wet (think it's a breakdown in the insulation...). In the polo it mainly knackered my ability to pull away cleanly into traffic without revving the thing like crazy (if you had it bog down below about 2500 AT ALL you were in shtuck and had to slip the clutch immediately or give up - took forever to rev back up even in neutral), in the astra it was noticable as a sudden unwillingness to accelerate on the motorway, doing about 50 in top in the wet, had to change down to 4th or even 3rd to rev it up and make things work again. dunno why revving it up works, but it just does.

anyways. getting a little sidetracked there i think. basically have it checked out for any previous problems, as they're a known weakness, then explore your ignition leads, lambda and temperature sensors, all that bumpf. this would probably cover your gurgling noise and lack of power quite nicely. another one is your acutal manifold gaskets (inlet or exhaust, though i suspect more likely inlet) has blown. This isn't a terminal thing, but will make a fair noise with wide throttle (esp. exhaust) and may affect performance.
You say you change up "a little over 2000rpm" - from the speeds you mention, i assume you mean you change up so the engine's turning about 2000 once you've finished the shift, rather than you rev up to 2000 then change? i do a lot of driving the second way, but only because i have a torquey, high geared car and take a lot of chilled-out crosstown trips using hardly any throttle; therefore it's the most economical way and the engine doesn't mind it. If I was driving slightly more energetically i'd probably choose a method more like the former, as the engine's into it's stride by this point.
Still, unless your car is hilariously high geared or that engine is typically very fussy anyway, having it complain at you getting into 3rd at 25mph sounds suspicious and indicative of a fault (20 is about borderline for any serious throttle opening, by my standards). I wouldn't expect it to labour and rattle much above 1500; certainly not over 1750 (that was the tinny 1043's general comfort limit for giving it wide throttle on slight hills etc). 1250 seems the throbbier vauxhall's lower bound of useful, non rattly power! definitely you should have it looked at.

the gearbox thing .... sad to say you might be another victim of VW's recent poor record with reliability (their modern "020" cable-change boxes have had a infamously terrible failure rate). can't offer too much more than that. the wierd rumbling noise could be a shot bearing, don't know what it would represent in a clutch. it only appearing in the lower gears might be a result of only these typically more-stressed gears (and their bearings?) getting beat up; or it could be that you're more likely to stress the clutch by slipping it when in low gear than in high. one for the professionals to look at, that. don't proffer them any of this info but keep it to "inform"* your own thoughts and research
* does not imply any kind of guarantee that i'm not spouting Absolut-brand triple distilled and filtered BS

Wow, thanks for the reply it is very much appreciated and the level of detail is great, must have taken a while.

I think alot of what you said seems to make sense, i think my figures were slighly wrong before, i usually hit 3rd gear when ive just exceeded 20 mph, so ill be doing say 25 mph when im now in 3rd, i guess that could be about the earliest you should change up in a 1.4 so maybe i have nothing to worry about, ill see how that goes for a bit and then if it gets worse get it looked at.

I do also find my car whines a bit if i drive in 1st gear, i know you should use 1st mainly for pulling off and then change straight to 2nd but if i drive say 30 yards in 1st (up to about 3000 rpm by then) it seems to whistle, whine and groan a bit, not sure if thats to be expected, i know polos are very clunky and whiney cars, but maybe again this could be symptomatic of some kind of vacume leak or manifold issue.

Oh, one more thing, its really bothering me dont know if you can help, but if i stall my car when i go to re-start it makes a very unhealthy noise, sort of screeaching, flat battery din noise before eventually firing up and then driving as normal, i have had no pobs starting the car from cold or once the engine has been on (since i had my sparks changed and throttlwe body cleaned) but any idea what that could be? Would you associate such noise with flodding the engine maybe? if so what do i do?? leave it a bit longer until i re-start or give it some more revs?

Not sure what it could be really!

Thanks again for the help!