New user, new Polo GTi

fivelittlefish · Post by **fivelittlefish** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 9:07 am

Hello everyone
I just joined this morning, after picking up a new Polo GTi on Saturday. It's a flat black 3 door, with no options...

I have an immediate question

Will the standard springs settle any further? The ride height seems ridiculously high...
If, as I suspect, it's as low as it's going to get, I'll definitely be in the market for some lowering springs...

jammydodger · Post by **jammydodger** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 10:46 am

Welcome to the forum...

The ride height is quite high at first. I've found from my last two Polo (MY 2011 & 2014) that they do settle by a couple of MM... If you're after no arch gap at all then your best bet will be lowering springs.

Also check that the delivery suspension chucks have been removed as sometimes they are missed as part of PDI.

fivelittlefish · Post by **fivelittlefish** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 11:55 am

Suspension chucks? Are they bits of plastic in the springs?

Thanks for the reply BTW

fivelittlefish · Post by **fivelittlefish** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 3:57 pm

I don't often feel the need to type OH MY GOD, but this is one of those occasions. Thanks to jammydodger who suggested it, I checked the suspension and the plastic spacers for shipping were still in there!

This is appalling - safety concerns, vehicle damage concerns, me hating the car concerns. West London VW have just removed the spacers (I had to take the afternoon off work) and checked tyre pressures, damage etc. Seems everything is now OK. And it's a different car - lower, more supple and just more what I was hoping for.

To everyone buying a new Polo GTi - if the car feels like it's crashing over speed bumps and potholes - check this! In fact check this before you even get in it - they are yellow plastic things around the shock absorber shafts on the front. You can see them without taking the wheel off or even jacking it up.

Once again - massive thanks to jammydodger.

Ricmondo · Post by **Ricmondo** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 5:12 pm

That's appalling, it's not as if it's a minor or obscure problem, every car delivered to them must have the same shipping protection.

Goes to show what a waste of time the PDI checklist can be. My dealer assured me that it had all been done and gave me some nonsense about optimizing the sat nav. The list ticked off the sat nav as having been tested and verified as aok. As you will have guessed it didn't work. When I challenged them they confessed that they had forgotten to order the SD card so go back the next day. Needless to say we had a short sharp discussion, I'm a grumpy old git who hates being mucked about. To shut me up and get me off their back they delivered it to my home by courier the same day. Further checks confirmed that everything else was as it should be, more by luck than proper checking I suspect.

duffman · Post by **duffman** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 12:37 pm

fivelittlefish wrote:I don't often feel the need to type OH MY GOD, but this is one of those occasions. Thanks to jammydodger who suggested it, I checked the suspension and the plastic spacers for shipping were still in there!

This is appalling - safety concerns, vehicle damage concerns, me hating the car concerns. West London VW have just removed the spacers (I had to take the afternoon off work) and checked tyre pressures, damage etc. Seems everything is now OK. And it's a different car - lower, more supple and just more what I was hoping for.

To everyone buying a new Polo GTi - if the car feels like it's crashing over speed bumps and potholes - check this! In fact check this before you even get in it - they are yellow plastic things around the shock absorber shafts on the front. You can see them without taking the wheel off or even jacking it up.

Once again - massive thanks to jammydodger.

Yeah that's shocking! Do you have any pics from when you first got it to see how high it was?

CJO · Post by **CJO** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 1:05 pm

Wow. My old Audi also still had the tyres inflated to 'showroom spec' which was alarming as nearly 15psi more than needed so probably best check that as well! Just wow.

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fivelittlefish · Post by **fivelittlefish** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 3:32 pm

No pictures, I'm afraid, but it just looked... wrong.

I asked VW to check tyre pressures when they took out the spacers, so hopefully now all good.

CJO · Post by **CJO** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 4:33 pm

fivelittlefish wrote:No pictures, I'm afraid, but it just looked... wrong.

I asked VW to check tyre pressures when they took out the spacers, so hopefully now all good.

Given the experience you've just had I would pop to Halfords and buy a tyre pressure gauge. £8. http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... reId=10001

The digital gauges on the garages air compresses are rarely calibrated so you'll be better off to slightly over inflate (with warm tyres) and then measure the pressure when you get home and the tyres have cooled and then even them up using the analogue gauge.

I'm a little bit OCD and put nitrogen in mine. :s

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