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Hi, I have just bought a 2011 VW Polo 1.2 TSI Highline with 23000km on the clock. I'm not much of a mechanic myself (understatement) so my diagnosis is likely totally out of whack. I am hearing a weird noise that sounds to me like a belt issue. Is there a common issue with these cars/ is the sound recognizable to anyone? Is this something to be worried about? I would have thought a car with such low milage should be fine...
https://youtube.com/shorts/3IZnxj6WRNs?feature=share
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Something rings a distant bell wrt that cyclic noise, you would really need to remove the auxiliary belt and check how/what all the pulleys, etc in the drive train felt like before making any judgement on this, but that sounds a bit out of your comfort zone.

Running the engine with the auxiliary belt off completely would prove/disprove it was something that is driven by the auxiliary belt.

Thanks for your response RUM4MO. Since posting, the dealer has came back to me and let me know that the noise is coming from a new fan belt which was installed when servicing the car a couple of months back and that it is common for new belts to make a bit of noise until some miles have been clocked up. It makes sense to me that this could be the case but a second opinion might put me at ease. The service wasnt carried out by a VW dealer. The replacement oil filter from the same service has some Chinese writing on the side which would make me think its a non genuine part...

Good or Bother!

Most of us know many items are now manufactured in China, but still annoying when you expected it to have had a mainstream aftermarket European brand name, though maybe still manufactured in China.

For what it is worth, I service all our cars over the years, for auxiliary belts I always buy genuine VW Group branded ones, though the genuine one for my wife's previous 2002 Polo was made by Dayton(?) a French brand(French made parts on a German made car as that one was!), I replaced the auxiliary belt and the supercharger belt on my 2011 Audi S4 last year, again with using genuine VW Group parts, one belt had "made in Thailand" on it and the other "made in Vietnam" - same for the factory fitted originals!

For filters for all our family VW Group cars, I buy filter, air, oil, from Mann - though I'd rather not dig too deeply into where they are manufactured now!

At least from 2002, VW Group have fitted at factory petrol filters made in China as are the genuine replacements.

Dayco, Ina, Continental all good manufacturers of belts, and big service items.
One also good brand of oil filters is Knecht

amer6R wrote: Mon Jul 12, 2021 7:26 am Dayco, Ina, Continental all good manufacturers of belts, and big service items.
One also good brand of oil filters is Knecht

Exactly, Dayco and not Dayton, although the belt VW supplied me with was cut diagonally across the bias of the reinforcing material, so when the new belt was passed edge down on a level surface, only a small part at each end touched the level surface, ie it was "bent" and that would not have been the intended form for the belt to take, I was not impressed, I saw "made in France" and worked out why! I fitted though and it was okay, just not as okay as it could have been.