Steering judder anyone?

dxg · Post by **dxg** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 6:54 pm

Er, um...

(Sorry for the picture quality - the car was filthy and I was kind of rushed...)

I can't comment on this - libel laws and all that - but at least we now know what's under the dash...

polo2k · Post by **polo2k** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 7:11 pm

dxg · Post by **dxg** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 7:36 pm

polo2k wrote:

That kind of sums up what I thought when I saw it!!

Deek.

polo2k · Post by **polo2k** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 8:34 pm

i think the principal is that if you cant drive it then you cant get any judder

seriously though what is happening did you get robbed? rally stylee? and is the passender airbag deployed ?

dxg · Post by **dxg** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 8:54 pm

I think the stuff on the passenger side is just sound deadening hanging down. You can see the (yellow) connector for the airbag (I guess?) hanging out from under the cross member.

Basically - and these are just the facts, not opinions - I handed my car into my dealer at the start of March with the request that they sort out the high speed shudder, the ECU light (which came on on its way to the garage

) and if they could address several dashboard rattles.

I was getting kind of worried that it seemed to be taking rather a long time. I had specifically requested that they test the car at high speed (mway's not far away) to resolve the shudder and was panicing that they'd crashed it or something.

So I stopped in this evening on the way home from work to see if it was there and this is what I found. I suggested to the guy that this would be ideal time to fit a CD player, but he didn't take the hint!!

Can't express any opinons about this, really. Just letting it all flow over me right now.

The dealer's approach to resoving the dash rattles has been to take the dash _completely_ out and rebuild. I mean pretty much everything's out the car. No central console, no steering column surrounds, no glove box, no instruments - they've even taken the a-pillar linings off (lying in the back seat - along with the stereo

)...

They say they've been getting rattles from the underneath the vent ducts that come up from the heater to the windscreen vents, so they'd had to take eveything out to get to these. This is still be talen out (so there will be even more coming out before it goes back in).

Actually, I was quite suprised at how few wires there are hanging around.

The service manager seemed to think I'd flip out about it - they had the car parked way round the back (well out of site of other customers). He gave me a big speach about not to be freaked out by what I was about to see!!! I'm more interested in seeing what's behind the dashboard. Unfortunately it was 6pm this evening and they were shutting up, otherwsie, I would have got the keys and taken some proper pictures. I had turned up unexpectedly, as it were.

Maybe I'll go back tomorrow for another look - if anyone wants a specific part photographed, let me know!!!

Did see the sales manager getting into (presumably one of the first) beetle convertables - very nice car - it must have just arrived as all these sales people were crowded round it - indicators in the wing mirrors, you know.

Hmmm.

Deek.

dxg · Post by **dxg** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 8:56 pm

Just thinking, though - I could get them to spray the dash pink before putting it back, in a max power'd corsa stylie!!

Although this would be a good time for some underdash lighting to go in... I _will_ go back on Monday to speak to the service manager, I think....

polo2k · Post by **polo2k** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 9:14 pm

if you could get a load of pics of inside the dash i.e. all the parts theyve remove im sure it would proove invaluable to any one wanting to remove a part of the dash so they could see where screws and clips are. as for the under dash lighting i doubt theyll fit it but you might as well try and when is it due back?

Post by **mole** » Sat Mar 29, 2003 12:56 am

Mad, very mad!!! That's all I can say.

Good luck mate!

Post by **Josh_PoloGTi** » Sat Mar 29, 2003 10:43 am

Wow!

That's mad!

I was speaking to a guy at the dealers yesterday and he said that if they get bad rattles, they usually take the whole dash out.

I also saw a black Beetle Convertible yesterday morning! Looked well nice!

Hope you get it all sorted

polo2k · Post by **polo2k** » Sat Mar 29, 2003 11:44 am

with the whole dash out you can stop rattles by placing some packing in each clip to make it firmer
and those new betle convertables look nice with the top down but the one ive seen with it up didnt look as nice

dxg · Post by **dxg** » Thu Apr 10, 2003 9:05 pm

Well,

I was supposed to get my baby back this afternoon, but didn't accept it in the state it was in.

Went for a drive with the service manager and - yup - it *still* rattles! Fair enough it's nowhere as bad as it was, but it's still not right.

Oddly, the dash looked somewhat "weird" to me - it's been so long since I'd driven it that I couldn't remeber if things had been put back together in the right place or not! Anyway - a quick check of the photos I have of it before this escapade confirmed that it is the same as it was before. For some reason, I could have sworn the gearstick gator was different.

Anyway I also didn't accept it because it was absolutely filthy inside. Oil stains on the seats, door panels, sun visors, seatbelt mount on the b-pillar - you name it, it had oil on it. The whole dash seemed to have this veneer of grease over it - the chrome door handles were so filthy that they looked brushed, rather than polished!! Oh yes, and they'd scrapped the top of the gear stick knob!

Anyway - there was one positive out of this afternoon's test drive and that is that the shudder's been totally fixed - no evidence of it at all. Now I won't be afraid to go above 70!!

Guy said he'd rebalanced all the wheels, which we've discussed above, but also replaced the top suspension bushes - where the top of the damper/spring assembly goes - i.e. at the top of the wheel arch. He said he'd done this because the old polos used to have a problem here, sometimes.

So - Mole - maybe this might be worth mentioning to your dealer - I'm guessing you still have the original bushes in, even with the suspension mods. Although I'm not sure what difference replacing the bush with another one the same would make?? Surely it would have been a case of re-seating / re-positioning what was already there?

Anyway, we'll see how this whole thing pans out...

Deek.

polo2k · Post by **polo2k** » Thu Apr 10, 2003 9:11 pm

you did right to not accept the car and yes changing the strut bearing can maake a difference because the ball bearings can seat badly and then the bearing wears abnormally fast meaning the top of tyhe strup can move around as it wishes meaning the geometry of the car is contantly changing which can cause vibrations

Post by **mole** » Thu Apr 10, 2003 10:46 pm

Yeh best thing was to not accept it, I got mine back from some warranty work, and it was filthy, grease stains on seats, dirty hand prints on the roof lining and all the light panels. Panels hanging off, clips on the floor that hadn't been put back on...... Didn't want them to keep and, it'd come back worse I'm sure.... So Im just going to write a letter.

As far as the shudders concerned, I took my steels off and put my alloys back on, and its gone!

Let us know what happens with the car then!