UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hi Folks,
New member - old Polo.

I have a 2000 1.0 3dr Polo as a spare car for the last three years, It's a fun little car and gets us to work when the BM doesn't want to.

It cost 85 Euro three years ago, which will give you an idea of the cars condition but has no body rust. Now it is getting some TLC.
The handling was poor - felt unstable over 50 MPH, It had 10 year old 60 profile tyres - worn shock absorbers and all the usual neglect.

It now has new Hankook tyres 185 55 14 - new kyb shocks all round new bushes and ball joints.

I am just setting the camber, centering the rack and then the toe, however while googling I came across some posts about the ball joints being swapped over for 14" wheels. I do not know if our polo came with 14" wheels from the factory and would like to get this correct now before I set the alignment.

So for a 1.0 petrol should the ball joints be to the rear of the wishbone for 14" wheels - current set up, or should they be swapped so they are center in the wishbone?

Thanks

Welcome

This is what I would suggest is the definitive thread, but for the Gti

So for 14" wheels you need left ball joint for right hand wishbone & vice versa. But that assumes the car came with 14" wheels from the factory..... with the different hubs

I would take my first photos in the thread above as being what it should not look like, so the base of the ball should be central in the cutout

937carrera wrote: ↑Sun Oct 13, 2019 9:46 am so the base of the ball should be central in the cutout

More work to do now

Thank you very much for the clarification - with the different hubs and not being a GTi, I was getting myself confused.
the wheels do look quite close to the rear of the wheel arch - on lock it must be close with the wider wheels.

Changing the ball joints will help.

I took it for a spin this morning - roughly aligned - to see if it was worth spending more money on new headlights.
It is like a different car withe the new tyres and dampers - very sure footed - happy driver.
It now has a misfire on one cylinder - so I now need a set of ignition leads - ho hum

I had a 6n1 97 red 3dr 1.0 back in 2000 - it was a great little thing - nearly bought a new 6n2 like my present one only in maroon in 2001 - but waited and bought a mk 4 golf 3dr comfortline instead. My wife ran a 2001 lupo 1.0 for a couple of years too - so I guess we have a soft spot for them.

yamfan wrote: ↑Sun Oct 13, 2019 2:51 pm More work to do now

Yeah, but it's only 3 bolts per side, so long as they will unscrew

It might have helped a little more if I included the link viewtopic.php?t=67477

3 bolts and one nut

I had seen the post you referred to, so it's all good.

Hopefully the cheap and cheerful magnetic camber gauge I ordered will arrive during the week, to save using the calculator, spirit level and vernier calipers.

Also ordered new Hella headlights and indicators - best not add up the reciepts