UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hi there,

I bought a second hand Polo (2012 1.2l Silver) earlier this week off of AutoTrader and it was a great price (£4750 and 40,000 miles). The car is immaculate inside however it has its understandable flaws externally and is also a very basic spec inside. Me being the tech fan I am, I have some questions on how and what I can do to the interior and exterior of this car to make it more functional and a nicer place to be. Here are a few questions I would love to know the answers to, I greatly appreciate any help and any recommendations outside of my questions

1. My car came with the manual locking/unlocking key (Key in the hole method). Is there a way I can upgrade to the remote locking/unlocking keys that some polo's come with?
2. The car came with what I believe is the RCD210 radio, can you fit Apple CarPlay to this model? The head unit I am interested in is the Pioneer SPH-DA120.
3. The car's steering wheel is very basic, just a horn. Can a MFSW (To control volume etc.) be fitted in cars that didn't come specced with this. If so, which steering wheels are compatible?
4. The front wings of the car have faded in the sun to a lighter shade of silver than the doors and most of the car, is this a known occurrence and if so, how does one get this fixed?
5. The wheel trims are scratched and in need of a replacement. Where can I find new ones and which are compatible?
6. Lastly, where is the best place for genuine spares and accessories for Polo's?

Thanks a lot and sorry for all the questions! I look forward to your responses,

Ben

Hm, so welcome. Congratulations of being the proud father... i mean... owner of nice Polo 6R. Excellent choice if I may say so.

Question 1: Yes there are several possibilities.
a) aftermarket kit for central locking. Not sure how well it works.
b) OEM method, possibly needs a BCM upgrade to 6R0 937 086x minimum for remote locking.
Now, you can use an original VW keyfob. But remember, there is a transponder in your current key for the immobiliser. You'll need to somehow transfer the transponder chip to the new key OR program the new key to the immobiliser. This is not something that's easily to do yourself. Transponders are very fragile. Break it and the car won't start.

Question 2: I don't know for sure about aftermarket radio. I guess it should work, but I'm not sure.
An upcoming retrofit here in mainland europe is the VW RCD330G. It's a radio that is supposed to have Apple Carplay and Mirrorlink.

Question 3:
You can use a VW Polo 6R MF steering wheel with only buttons on the left. It is also possible to use, for example, a steering wheel from Golf 6 and its relatives.
But once again, I'm not sure whether your BCM is compatible.

Question 4:
This is not common. Maybe a good old polish workout could bring back some shine. If it's only the clearcoat that is damaged, you have some reasonably good odds.

Question 5:
Any 15 inch trim should fit.

Question 6:
New parts: VW dealer. Used parts: ebay.co.uk, ebay.de, allegro.pl. Possibly imitation parts but also a lot of genuine VW parts: aliexpress.com.

Overall I think it's a lot easier to answer your questions with a bit more information about your car, since I'm guessing a bit in my answers. If you use the power of google, I'm sure you're also capable of finding out a lot of things by yourself and ask more specific questions.

Thanks so much for your detailed response!

How can I help find out whether my cars BCM is compatible for these upgrades? And also, will this RCD330 I found on AliExpress work? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/RCD330- ... autifyAB=5

Thanks,

Ben

bengosling wrote: Sun Jan 21, 2018 12:34 pm 4. The front wings of the car have faded in the sun to a lighter shade of silver than the doors and most of the car, is this a known occurrence and if so, how does one get this fixed?

Ben

Hi Ben. Welcome to the forum.

Are you sure that the paint on the wings has faded and they’ve not been repainted or replaced? It would be very unusual for just certain panels to have faded if it’s the original paintwork. When the car’s built, the wings, doors, bonnet and tailgate are all attached to the body shell before it goes through the painting process on the production line in the factory. So all the metal parts of the car’s body will have been painted at the same time using the same robot painting process with the paint coming from a single paint batch.

Polishing the wings could improve the shine, but It’s unlikely to improve the shade difference; repainting the wings and blending the new paint with the adjoining panels would be required to get an even colour match.

Silver used to be quite a difficult colour to match, although a good body shop using modern paint matching techniques should be able to get a good match. However, if specific panels are repainted and the new paint isn’t ‘blown’ into the adjoining panels to blend it with the original paint, there is a risk of shade differences between the original and new paint. If your wings have been repainted, there may be tell tale signs such as areas of overspray on door seals/rubbers, in the engine compartment where the wings are bolted to the car, and possibly thin paint coverage on the flange edge of the wheel arch where it meets the plastic wheel arch liner.