UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Sweet! The closest GSF store to me is about half a mile further than the more distant halfords store, in the same direction. I now know where to detour to
(it's buried deep in a dodgy industrial estate though, behind the shopping precinct halfords is in, so little wonder i never knew!)

ECP is a bit of a trek though, in Smethick Warley - take about a half hour each way.

Just got to figure
1. opening hours
2. can either of the three (GSF, ECP, Hals) supply single cables? £15 is £15, for four leads that i dont actually need - just the one.


EDIT right, a set from GSF for the 90-94 car i have is £24.50 (compared to £6.50 for an 84-90, or £18.00 for "best quality")... which is only about £2 under halfords. What's the likely quality like, comparitively, as GSF aren't giving any details there. Just that it's an ignition lead kit. Could be exactly the same thing as at halfords just with a different name printed on it at the company after receiving the goods from some random korean manufacturer.
Going to go out, drop a fridge at the disposal place at my local tip, pass by GSF and see if their open (if so, buy the set), and return these far too bloody small cables to halfords (and get replacements, or preferably single replacement, of the right size if GSF are shut - not really worth the extra trip for the saving.. if you reckon they'll be bobbins in comparison, i'll just take em back again)... laters

GSF usually shuts at 5-6 round here ECP is more expensive than GSF usually so i tend not to go there. Have you got two sets with the same knackered lead then? I did a 70K mile service on my silver CL a couple of years ago and changed my plugs/leads/oil. I kept the leads, which was fortunate becuase a while later my blue GT started playing up and I was able to use one of my old leads as a replacement to the dodgy one. They should have metal shrouds on them if theyre the proper ones. The "best quality" ones were the ones I bought I think.

I'm glad you got that sorted out. Thats the trouble with misfires, it can be one of many things that is causing it.

You can't buy HT leads singley. Just get yourself a hole damn set and keep the other three as spares! Replacing the air filter, dizzy cap and rotor arm comes as part of a service anyway, so don't worry about that - you haven't wasted your money!!! Your car will thank you for it, believe me.

If you ever need little things like a single HT lead that halford or GSF or whatever don't sell, I've got a decent little local car parts shop that sells that sort of stuff relatively cheap (for example, my spark plugs were £2 each and a replacement coil HT lead was £2.50). I'd be perfectly happy to buy stuff for you there and post it on, should you need it.

K, well, predictably, GSF were shut tight. So I just returned the leads (tried to make a point of saying they were far too short and could i pass a note on, but the girl on the desk seemed more interested in chatting to her mate on the company phone about BB), got a maccy D's and chugged home. Over this fine and thankfully rare takeaway meal, god (or mum as i sometimes call her under my breath) mentioned there's a little car parts shop like the one Groovy knows nearby, so i may take a look tomorrow before setting out.

In any case if that doesn't work, I'm likely heading off to Derby to take a look at a "new" door tomorrow, so I'll zip past GSF before hitting the A38. Don't want to go all the way there with this nonsense going on! Their set of 4 is actually a good fiver less than anything halfords sell that has a chance of fitting anyway (pulled open a few packages and compared them to what I already have - which are actually as much in the direction of "too long" as the others were "too short" so i'd like something in between)... so I'm going for that.

Didn't know my distributor stuff got changed at service! Thought they lasted longer than that... guess not

£2 each for a plug and £2.50 for a lead, that's value in a bucket that is. Does it all work ok?

What I have is:
One set of leads, with (at least) one bad one. The others may be ok for now but could easily go wrong in a similar way. Kind of worried about how it looks though! like... melted... though there shouldn't be anything nearby that can make enough heat to melt them? crappy cables, or something getting too hot?.
Last time I changed the leads, I had a load of orangey things in there - the "Hotwires" you can buy in a set, or indeed singly from halfords for about £3.99 each. Got pissed off trying to diagnose a different type of misfire it had - on reflection a more serious but short-lasting version of this one - and after several things asked the local VW stealer (in bangor) about it. He took one look under the bonnet and told me to shove that hotwires sh**e (his words!) in the bin and either get new cables from him or tow it somewhere that sold them more cheaply. Well, I couldn't afford dealership prices, and the otherwise good nearby "motor factors" (ECP affiliate i think) was shut for refurb, so I went to halfords. That time too, the ones I chose didn't fit, so I swapped them out for some supposedly 1.3-suited leads (think i was still at the time under the impression i was possibly driving a misregistered 1300 because it felt fast )... expensive, a bit long, but fit right and worked like a charm.

Now the hotwires are possibly in a bag in the garage as last-ditch emergency spares if i didn't bin them, and the ones in are the only really functional cables i have. Will change all of them but hang on to the four decent ones. They have L-shaped bits at the dizzy end (the 1-litre ones mysteriously have straight bits) and metal sheathes at the plug end (the 1L plug connectors were also different on the inside - solid with a hole, rather than a 'floating' hollow plug-thing).

I'll have to see if no.2 lead gets worn out again in another 18 months, if i keep the beast that long (if it does... well, no.1 might even fit, if not then certainly 3 or 4)

Solid with hole is better cos it will definately go over the end of the plug. And the wires should be L shaped on the dizzy - it makes it easier for the wires to be routed to the plugs.

Well if I'm in luck the GSF ones will be like the two halfords ones mated together - just the right length, solid at the plug end but L-shaped at the dizzy end - but cheaper and better quality

They will be exactly that. You dont get any generic rubbish from GSF.

Straight or L shaped is a matter of preference really.. personally I find straight ones easier to fit, but I guess that's just me And it doesn't terribly matter whether they're solid or floating, as long as you make sure to clip them on properly. If you've got a floating one, best way to fit it is pull back the rubber boot, push the connector on until you feel it click, then slot the boot back over it again.

As far as the quality of the stuff my local place sells goes, the spark plugs and boxed sets of HT leads were all good. The individual leads had about 2k ohms more resistance than the boxed ones though, so I'm a bit suspicious of those really. Haven't had a problem with anything else I've got there though, nice cheap air and fuel filters etc, all good

I think I need to take a look at my dizzy tomorrow.. haven't checked it since I bought it, didn't realise they wore out easily

The best quality leads that GSF sell are made by Beru who supply VW themselves. I have a set on my Polo and they are no way too short(the opposite in fact)
Worth any extra money over the Halfrauds rubbish

Yep got em on now, they make an even bigger difference than the fresh halfords ones!

Get this - until today, whenever I turned the engine over on the starter, the stereo would cut out dead because of the current drain. Now it keeps running at full blast and i can do my pretend-hybrid thing with none of those annoying Momentary Deficits Of Rock. That's the difference in efficiency between the old 'frauds ones and the fresh Beru jobs. And that's with only the coil and plugs 1 & 2 "un-downgraded".
The old cables were offering so much more resistance that it must have drained a good 100w extra power if not a whole lot more - little wonder I couldn't "drag" the run-dry car on the starter more than 30 yards! And as we know kids, extra resistance drain means more heat means...... insulation meltage. Could the HT lead for spark plug 2 have done itself in?

Besides that - the bloke in GSF was a picture of slightly-detacted, nominally friendly helpfulness (unlike the pushy knowall tw*ts in halfords). Hunted the leads out quick, told me right up front it was £24.50 plus tax (grr!) on my first enquiry, grabbed a spare brake bulb (one of mine apparently burnt out since i tested 'em on sunday - mate was following me somewhere tuesday and reported it) and didn't even bother to include it on the bill by the look of things. In the world according to him, clear indicators, and by that he mean the entire unit (side repeaters or wot?!) are £7 per side. Good lord.

The leads do look and feel the business too. Very little printing on them, nice and clean rubber that seems to be pre-impregnated with a small amount of silicone water displacer (unlike halfords dry sponges that still leave black marks on your fingers) - and indeed, L shapes at the dizzy with a more solid inside for the plug end. Well, almost. It's got the same hollowed out pin thing, but it's cosily nestled by thick rubber on all sides that juts out a little "above" it, so it's going nowhere and provides a great fit.

Then i went to that derby scrappy (got a near-mint door for £23.50, well chuffed - though i'll have to swap my own card, window handle, glass in, think i'll leave that adventure and any paint clean-up to the culprit and kin) I think I can credit them for the rather economy I got on the way back. Potentially 70mpg, and no less than 60mpg, if the tesco pump wasn't carbonating the fuel.

I knew you would sort it mate! Just goes to show how it can be little things like a breakdown in one of the leads which can cause major problems! Right from the start it sounded too familar to my problem. Glad you tried the leads before you went out and spent more precious £££.

Steve