what does this part do?

[dantheram]

Had an MOT this morning and found out a small J shaped arm attached to the rear axle (passenger side) had siezed up and was not working. but i'm not sure what it is. is it the brake balance sensor/switch (it sits on the axle, up close to the brake lines and joins with an electical switch higher up).

Any ideas?

[Dom_]

Might be one of the load sensors for the headlights

[Mart!n-GTI-DK]

Yeah. It's the linkage between the headlight range sensor and the rear axle... Without this the headlight's will either shine to high or to low, depending on how the sensorarm is possitioned...

I have just removed mine along with the range sensor because the arm had snapped in the balljonit on the axle and the sensor was shorted out...

[dantheram]

Cheers guys,

MOT man was trying to fail it for damaged braking components and also the headlight pointing to the floor . Now i know which is right, thanks again.

[dantheram]

Has anyone found another online version of ETKA? the one on VAGCAT has stopped working

[Mart!n-GTI-DK]

This one works pretty well

http://www.wagenstad.com/

[bradley1983]

Mine failed on the same part.

Don't buy from VW as it's £160. Get one off a polo being broken.

[dantheram]

Mine was just a seized sensor arm. Took the whole thing off and brought the arm off TPS for £20.

Also got a whole sensor complete with arm from a breaker, any SEAT or VW, with xenons, of similar age to the Polo may have one fitted so there should be quite a few around.