UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hey my vw polo rev counter is sitting below the 10 mark. and when im coming to a stop when i put my foot down on the clutch its sometimes causing the car to stall unless i kepp the revs up!

can anyone help??

cheers in advance

which polo is it?

your throttle body needs cleaning...

is it a mk4/5 by any chance?

yes its a mk4. called up vw garage they said it would cost me £70 odd quid. basically an hours labour!. they will strip and clean it. a bit gutted but i need to get it done.

ouch! I'd just try spraying some carb cleaner down it first. I think theres a guide on porka.net to cleaning it out properly yourself but the site seems to be down at the moment (either that or theres something wrong with my PC).

well it should sit around 800-900rpm anyway, not 1000...

Tahrey1043 wrote:well it should sit around 800-900rpm anyway, not 1000...

yes, but it is dropping completely to 0rpm when braking/coming to a stop. and stalls, with no assisted brakes and no power steering, its a scary situation. after the cleaning, my mk4 went on without a problem

carmadaaron wrote: and stalls, with no assisted brakes and no power steering, its a scary situation.

Welcome to my world
Gawd bless Wolfsburg's total disregard for the safety of right hand drive drivers under heavy braking...

its a right hand drive thing?

think it might be something to do with that engine design - skodas of the same period share the engines... last one i test drove did exactly the same thing. complete refusal to idle if it had already seen higher revs.

Tahrey1043 wrote:its a right hand drive thing?

The lack of brakes business is, yeah - not physically enough room to fit a servo on the right hand side on a mk2, that's why your mk3 will have a recess in the bulkhead and a little servo crammed in there as a bit of an afterthought Reminds me, I was looking into the possibility of fitting a remote servo from a mini a while ago, ought to look into that again...

The engine dying business I have also experienced, for me it turned out to be massive overfuelling so it was a case of carburettor tuning.. however you don't have a carb and your tuning is done electronically, so I don't know what to suggest

probably a lambda / temp sensor type cockup then...?
or ISV, ignition, cut-off rev sensor or whatever.

shoves far too much fuel through whilst it should instead be on over-run or running very lean, spark too weak to ignite it for some reason (problem that i had with the astra in the storms earlier this week - leads got wet and there was field breakdown below ~3500rpm / 30hz whereupon i assume some kind of voodoo happened*), idle stabiliser being sticky and not opening enough and/or in time as revs fall, overrun fuel cut-off continuing into too low a rev range (most cars ive cared to notice it on, Spi ones anyway (never checked on the mpi's!), it's only active over about 1500-1800rpm, guess the extra fuel used is minimal vs the risk of the returned supply not getting to the cylinders in time)

etc

the LHD mk2s had servo braking then?

lol at the no power brakes, no power steering thing... it really dies that quickly? unless you're under about 15mph you should be able to find a gear where you can safely lift the clutch (even if for a second) to get it running again, but i'm surprised if in that speed range it's a serious problem. There should be enough pressure left from the servo for a couple good pumps of the pedal (certainly sufficient to bring you to a very quick halt from that speed) and how heavy does the steering really get?

--- i cant really comment on the steering so thats a serious question. The skoda i test drove became quite chronic almost immediately when the engine cut, but still controllable with a little grunt... the astra, when i tested it by killing the engine in neutral at various speeds up to ~40, took a couple seconds before ending up no heavier than a non-PAS model.. heavier, certainly, but not anything to write home about until you were below walking pace.

* known as the "wave a dead chicken" branch of home car mechanics

if there are two allen keys on the distributor, if you loosen them and twist it one way when the engine is just ticking over and one way retards the timing and the engine revs will drop---- and the other way is to advance the timing and the engine revs will increase.
hope this will help.
cheers,

Dave

Tahrey1043 wrote: (snip)
the LHD mk2s had servo braking then?
(snip)
There should be enough pressure left from the servo for a couple good pumps of the pedal (certainly sufficient to bring you to a very quick halt from that speed) and how heavy does the steering really get?

Yep, bloody mainland europeans had all the luck..
The servo pressure thing: yes, if you're very quick.. however, I tried this particular trick today in my mum's mitsubishi shogun, and discovered it's not something you want to do on a regular basis. Thought I'd see what driving a mk1 landy must have been like so cut the engine at about 35, tried the brakes, thought 'ah, this is alright, still got enough pow*woah* s**t the pedal just went solid!' Obviously the effect will be lessened in a polo as it's so much lighter, but unless you're planning on an instant emergency stop, which is not going to be wonderfully safe, it's very easy to be lulled into a false sense of security by the first couple of pumps.
Ditto the steering really, I can't imagine it'd be too bad if you're used to not having power steering, but if you're half way round a corner steering barely holding the wheel as it's all to easy to get into the habit of with power steering, suddenly reverting to manual steering is going to be a bit dangerous as the wheel suddenly leaps out of your hands and tries to drag you into the bushes..