UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

What should I be looking out for?

Going to look at one tomorrow for a friend, I know about the heating controls as had to fix mine and also the bushes. Anything else to look out for?

make sure its always had the corect oil in a pd engine, that the cambelt has been done around every 60k or 4 years whichever comes first, if its got MFD make sure it returns a decent amount of MPG if you take it out for a run, rear bushes on the wishbones on 9ns i know youve mentioned the rear axle ones, usual bits and bobs when going to look at any car really but there maybe some other more common bits to look out for

*** regarding bushes i assumed you meant rear axle ones when you put bushes

I still need to get round to sorting my heating controls out...

Pretty solid engines, just the usual really, ie timing belt done every 60k / 4 years. If at all possible, try and verify what oil was being used - something that meets or exceeds VW 505.01 spec. Inferior oil has been attributed to camshaft wear, although I've never come across that problem in the UK.

A few other little niggles:

Alternator sense wire on the engines (in the Polo/Fabia/Ibiza platform) is prone to snapping at the connector near the gearbox. Tell-tale sign is the battery warning lamp will not light up with igniton on but engine not running. Simple fix though, 10 minutes under the car and some crimps - had to fix mine last year.

Check the alternator pulley for weird noises, they sometimes go around 60k miles.

Ash

EDIT: 88rsr beat me to it for the first part.