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-   -   VW Polo GT TDI ownership log EDIT: 9 years and 178,000 km later... (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/142745-vw-polo-gt-tdi-ownership-log-edit-9-years-178-000-km-later-50.html)

I am, thanks for asking!

It would. The mounting bracket is exactly the one as shown in the picture on the link.

A medium + BCM.

There are 2 ways to get it done - either mount the RLS + mirror below the location of the original mirror mount below the black patch at the top-center of the windshield. Or, mount the mirror on top of the stock mirror mount and the RLS separately. You will need an extra base for this method.

I have been using 35 W ballasts and the performance has been satisfactory for the price I’ve spent. Type of bulbs depends on how much you intend to spend. I chose to go with the cheapest Osrams which are OEM replacements. They are rated at 4300 K and have a white light with no tinge of blue.

Please refer graaja’s thread - he has put up the steps for alignment and the connectors used for wiring which is a must for the newer cars which come with dual barrel headlamps.

Yes they can be.

No it won’t. Not all parts that are meant for the Golf and other VW vehicles are a direct fit for the Polo. Please note this and do not risk buying something unless you have cross checked from multiple sources.

First things first, the seatbelt warning light is not linked with the BCM directly. It connects to the ACU (airbag control unit). This is the current flow diagram:



Two, each ACU (airbag control unit) comes coded from the factory or supplier directly and VCDS cannot change the coding of the unit. And an ACU with the same part number (in my case - 6R0 959 655 J ) has several variants as per the PR code that is associated with the ACU. This is the Autoscan bits for the ACU:

The code is U06 from my ACU and from the parts database, the PR code is 9P0 (Thanks to my friend Fernando for this info!):



And when we enter 9P0 in the PR Code Search database (from http://prsearch.planetvag.com/):



It says ‘without seatbelt reminder’! Which means, the ACUs for the Indian Polo and Vento do not have the provision for enabling seatbelt reminder. There are ACUs with the provision of seatbelt reminder:



Physically, the ACU has the corresponding pin:


(Image source: Google Images)

You can access the instrument cluster under VCDS, head to long coding and try enabling the seatbelt reminder, it will accept the coding but check again and the check box would be empty. It is probably not accepting the code since the ACU doesn’t support it or the relevant connection to the seatbelt buckle is missing.

I should be receiving my seatbelt buckle with the wiring in a day or two. Will post the results here on what comes up after the test.

Thanks gannu for the answers. Have you installed the rain sensor? Do we need to route the cable form the RLS sensor to the BCM? :)How?
I had also installed the auto headlight module. Can the RLS sensor be used to provide input to the auto headlight module as well?

Does replacing the antenna to shark fin one helps in better reception?
Can one install door warning lights like these http://www.aliexpress.com/item/OEM-O...a-2dbc5af4b425 on polo. How these should be ideally wired?

No I haven't. Will do it when I get some free time over the weekend, which doesn't seem to be happening immediately.

Yes.

Through the headliner > driver side A-pillar.

And connect it to pin number 24 of T73b connector as posted previously.

No cannot be done. If you wish to use the RLS' auto lights/coming home/leaving home functions, you will have to prepare a completely new wiring.

No it doesn't. It has in fact worsened it for some folks - I am not sure why.

No since the door cards do not have the provision for these lights. On cars like the Laura, Octavia etc. they are connected to the BCM in such a way that the light of only those doors turn on which are opened. Cannot be done on the Polo this way. You can at best connect them in parallel to the cabin light.

Hi Gannu, I managed to get the Toyota glove box damper that we discussed earlier, somehow couldn't find the right place to fit , was wondering if you already fixed it yet ?

We drove to Somnath, Dwarka, the Rann of Kutch and Narayan Sarovar (the western most point of India) couple of weeks back and enjoyed the drive and stay! Sharing some snaps:


We covered 2865 km in 5 days - it was a memorable drive albeit a short one. We couldn’t visit a few places due to the paucity of time and the crowd. Sometime later perhaps!

Hotel and stay details:

1. Somnath:

Hotel Lords Inn
Location: Google Maps
Contact Nos: 02876-232072/73/74

Pros: Clean rooms, hygienic washrooms (with hot water facility), attached veg. restaurant, reasonable room tariff, located on the Somnath-Dwarka bypass.
Cons: Open car parking

2. Dwarka:

Hotel Dwarka Residency
Location: Google Maps
Contact No: 02892 235 032

Pros: Cheap, attached veg. restaurant.
Cons: Unhygienic and poorly maintained washroom (without hot water facility), No car parking facility (had to park by the road side).

3. Bhuj

Hotel Grand 3D
Location: Google Maps
Contact Nos: 02832-245075/80, 94082 48097

Pros: Clean rooms, hygienic washrooms (with hot water facility), attached veg. restaurant, reasonable room tariff, located near the ring road on the outskirts (perfect for Kutch visit).
Cons: Open car parking

Many thanks to Parag and ampere for the tips. Was in touch with Parag throughout the journey and man, this guy knows the roads here like the back of his hand! Really appreciate the help Parag bhai!

Nope I haven’t.

Thanks Gannu_1 for this post, brought back memories of my last year's drive to all these places.

In the photo, it looks like he's thinking "I don't know why, but this doesn't look like the other Polos I've seen" :D

Even we had stayed here and good to see that after 1 year he has maintained the same quality. Location was the deal breaker for me too.

agree:
But what surprises me is that he knows many places like this.
Be it Gujarat, Be it Karnataka (and some more), when your GPS isn't working, this is the "Go-to guy".

Great Pics, gannu bhai. I think you had a great time on board the POLO GT.
Even I am planning a road trip to gujrat in the coming months. How were the roads on your trip?
Any new news on fitting rls or bilstein shockers?

And I was wondering if there was a travelogue in the making. Thanks to hectic schedule over the last few days that I missed this update. Catching up with this only today :).

With this trip, you can at least say that you covered most of the Saurastra and Kutch very easily. Something I told you that you must do before you head south.

You are welcome Bro. Anytime for Roads and Travel!

Since I have driven here couple of times, I always recall most of the POIs that helps. Be that Bad road, Toll booth, Fuel Station, Railway Crossings - These elements ensure that I don't forget them at all till I drive there again and see further improvements with something else.

Roads to Somnath was never good until recently and when I drove 2 months before, It was evident that it was THE Road to take.

Yes, not just obligatory but Mandatory to capture this wherever you pass the Tropic of Cancer. A pic from my second Anticlockwise drive on the Golden Quadrilateral in 2013 between Ahmedabad and Mehasana (we deviated a bit off GQ then):



So thanks again for bringing back some memories. Few times when we spoke, I was raring to crank and drive that side even though its been just 2 months.

Thanks Hemant. Well, till I have driven into that territory in the recent past believe me, I wouldn't really pour my inputs as things change on our roads in under a year. No 2 consecutive years are same when it comes to roads in our country. A road with zero facilities will suddenly have 3 Star Hotels and frequent Food Courts. The "Honest" and "HFM - Highway Food Mall" chains in Gujarat is phenomenal over the last 3 years alone that they have managed to be there where people expected them the most. Happy that our highways are getting more and more of these similar options everywhere across the country.

But thanks to my "regularly inconsistent & unplanned" drives that happen, I am able to recollect the Good and the Bad bits more easily than remembering my wife's B'day that I have forgotten twice :Shockked:.

Last year while on the way back to Ahmedabad from Somnath/Gir did an impromptu diversion to Bhavnagar. Took all the local 2-Lanes.

Gir-Mendarda-Moniya-Visavadar-Bagasara-Amreli-Lathi-Chavand-Bhavnagar.

Even the interior roads were very good. Not to mention, 3G works most of the places. Once in Chavand you are on to the Rakjot-Bhavanagar highway.

well said, the many road query threads on this forum is just a justification for that.

Yes, travel is so much easier now with one less thing to worry about.

And you are alive to tell the tale! :Shockked: :D

Just a headsup - I forgot to mention HVK's name in the last post. I had contacted him before the trip and as per the initial plan which was worked out (as indicated in the post here), he had corrected the route (like how Parag did - first to Somnath followed by Dwaraka and then towards Bhuj) and also forwarded me a detailed itinerary. I am thankful to him as well! Apologies for missing it from the previous post.

Here's the Navsari-Somnath-GRoK.xlsx forwarded by Kumar Sir in this post in case someone wishes to refer it.

Fabulous! Except for the single-laned roads towards Narayan Sarovar, the rest were 4-laned. There was one detour while we were headed from Somnath to Dwarka probably because of the broken bridge.

Not yet. Will be connecting the relevant pin to the BCM in a few days. The Bilsteins will have to wait since I am going to have to park the car at my home and the usage is going to be lower starting April 1st.

As much as I wished to create one in the Assy Line, due to the paucity of time as a result of this upcoming relocation, I have been completely busy at work.

Absolutely Parag bhai. After having heard so much of the Rann of Kutch and after several failed attempts to visit Dwarka, I wanted to wrap this up before leaving this place.

Haha what time was it when you clicked that snap?

And expect an unexpected cut in the median where there's a Honest/HFM outlet. lol:

But really, the washrooms were clean at these locations and the food was good.

Amazing state highways and interior roads here. I am going to badly miss those once I am back home.

Hey Ganesh. That was an very interesting travelogue. I hope to do something similar one day.

I had a query regarding the map image you put up for the entire trip. Did you use any app for it or was is something you created manually on Google Maps.

Thanks

Google Maps. It lets you add up to 10 destinations for a route. Try it out.

This was around 10:00PM. We drove non stop from Delhi to Mehsana, stopped for 4 hours here at my relative's home and post dinner we
started back for Bangalore. Now don't ask me if this was also non stop - Well, yes. We did this drive to get the Grey Palio that you see in this pic owned by a Bhpian to Bangalore :-)

Trust me when I say this, but downsouth, between Bangalore and Mangalore on NH48, soon after "A2B" opened, there was an illegal break in the median to enable cars to access this Hotel.

A BHPian friend reported this to NHAI who after few days ensured the gap was closed permanently. Not only that, he captured an accident here when a Swift suddenly slammed its brakes to turn right and a truck barely missed it by inches. This accident was reported to NHAI on their FB Page and action was taken. Surprising indeed, isnt it?

Exactly and that's what you want when you are on the highway with family. Fuel stations become your last option and they are improving now. During my recent run from Rajkot with parents to Bangalore, we used the services of a toll booth in MH at 0300am and mind you, the facility was really clean and there was already a Bangalore bound Scania stopped here for a break to help the ladies in there. Talk about Safety on our highways today, well things are gradually improving.

Goodbye to Gujarat!

I hate to share this update with mixed emotions but let me do it regardless. I have been given a transfer of employment to Chennai along with some of my colleagues starting 1st of April, 2016. I do not intend to take my car along to Chennai at the moment until I get a hang of the roads and the traffic sense there. Besides, from what I heard, parking space in a rented apartment comes at an extra price! A relative of mine has come here to help me with the relocating and giving company during the drive. I’ve sent most of the stuff home last week and will be lugging the remaining ones in the car. Just a bit worried about the traffic at Bangalore as we bypass the city. Hopefully, the drive would go well. I can’t wait to cross Kolhapur and get to the beautiful side of the MH-KA border!

Anyways, before leaving, I wanted to get some work done at the service center here (man, I am going to miss these guys so badly!). The work was completed over the last two weeks. Details follow:

• 6C front bumper + fog lamps:
  
  
  
  I loved the front bumper of the facelift model and wanted to swap mine. The stock one though in good shape, had its fair share of paint nicks and scratches due to the daily usage. I got the rates for all the parts and labour from the service center. Initially, the idea was to get the bumper without the chrome insert in the lower airdam but changed my mind after going through the snaps of the black Polo on the internet:
  
  Without the chrome insert:
  
  
  
  With the chrome insert:
  
  
  
  
  (Source: Google Images)
  
  The choice was obvious thus. The all-black one would have been just too much of black whereas the one with the chrome insert breaks the monotony. BTW the facelift variant is no longer sold in black shade in India. :)
  
  The bumpers are always in stock as this seems to be a common part replaced very frequently. I dropped by the service center on a weekend with the necessary tools and the sensor hole cutting tool (explained in the previous post here). Now here’s the best part - the front bumper comes with the locations for the front parking sensors pre-marked from the factory!
  
  
  
  That quite took me by surprise. Possibly some of the export markets are getting these variants with the front sensors.
  
  My work just got a whole lot easier! Quickly drilled the pilot holes and then cut the holes using the tool:
  
  
  
  While they had to paint the bumper, I wanted the sharkfin aerial and the sensors painted as well. So dismantled them, fixed them to a piece of cardboard and sent them for painting along with the bumper:
  
  
  
  A couple of days later I got a call that the parts have arrived from the paint shop and I drove to the service center the same day for getting them fixed. Installing the new bumper was easy - remove the headlights, remove the front grill (not necessary since it clips to the bumper and can be removed with the bumper together), remove the fog lamp covers, remove the fog lamps, remove the Torx screws holding the front wheel well liners against the bumper, undo the clips and pull it out. Before getting the bumper installed, we had to get the parking sensors installed.
  
  
  
  And the painted sharkfin aerial:
  
  
  
  BTW, the newer 6C fog lamps are manufactured in India and thus, retail cheaper at Rs. 2400 per unit whereas the previous 6R units were imported (Made in Slovakia) and retails for Rs. 4500 per unit!
  
  Source: VW service center, Navsari
  
  Parts, part numbers and cost breakup:
  
  
  • Front bumper - 6RG807217A GRU - Rs 3530
    
  • Cover for towing eye - 6RG807241B GRU – Rs. 55
    
  • Set of fog lamp covers - 6RG898665F – Rs. 870
    
  • Center vent grille - 6RG853671A RYP – Rs. 652
    
  • Spoiler - 6RG805915A 9B9 – Rs. 100
    
  • F. L. fog lamp – 6RG941661 – Rs 2088
    
  • F. R. fog lamp - 6RG941662 – Rs 2088
  
  
• Front parking sensor harness:
  
  
  
  I prepared the harness myself after ordering the sensor connectors and terminals from Latvia (same dealer who had shipped the coolant reservoir connector and terminals last time). I had a 10-core cable with me, stripped off the outer insulation and removed 2 cables from the bunch (required only 8 cables) and then used some Tesa cloth tape to wind them up. The terminals were crimped to the cables and inserted into the connector. The harness was finally ready after some hard work on a Sunday. Some WIP pics:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Source: eBay http://www.ebay.in/itm/171725901853
  
  Part numbers: 4H0973703
  
  Cost: Rs. 2255
  
  
• Front parking sensors (W.I.P.):
  
  
  
  This is a W.I.P. For now, the sensors have been mounted to the bumpers secured with epoxy glue on the holders, the harness has been routed through the firewall’s hole on the top-right corner and below the door sills all the way till the right C-pillar. I shall post the details in a dedicated thread later.
  
  
  
  Source: VW service center, Navsari
  
  Parts, part numbers and cost breakup:
  
  
  • Sensor - 1S0919275 GRU - Rs. 18000 (for 4 nos.)
    
  • O-ring - 1T0919133C 9B9 - Rs. 17 (for 4 nos.)
    
  • Sensor retainer - 6RU919491 (L), 6RU919491A (CL), 6R0919492 (CR), 6R0919492A (R) - Rs. 100 (for 4 nos.)
  
  
  The other parts viz. the OPS module and some harness are in transit whereas I am yet to get the dashboard switch:
  
  
  
  Will provide the details of this retrofit in a dedicated thread later.
  
  
• Headlight repair fixtures:
  
  When I had baked the headlights during the projector installation, the screw mounts had become weak due to the exposure to heat. Sometime back I had noticed cracks at the joints on one mount on both the headlamps so decided to replace all of them with new repair mounts:
  
  
  
  Source: VW service center, Navsari
  
  Part numbers: 6C0998225 (for left headlamp), 6C0998226 (for right headlamp)
  
  Cost: Rs. 1413 (per pair)
  
  
• Bonnet open indication on MFD:
  
  
  
  When I was researching online, I saw that the Polo retailing overseas has the provision of indicating an open bonnet on the MFD with the maxidot cluster.
  
  
  
  Dug up a little further and found that the BCM has a provision and from the current flow diagram in ELSAWIN:
  
  
  
  Figured out that Indian Polo lacks the microswitch in the bonnet lock, I decided to get one from the local service center. Surprisingly, the replacement bonnet lock comes with the microswitch and my service advisor gladly gifted me one which otherwise costs some 45 USD!
  
  
  
  Microswitch inserted into the lock:
  
  
  
  Source: VW service center, Navsari
  
  Part number: 6R0953236
  
  Cost: Nil (SA gave it for free :D)
  
  
  
• 6C glovebox:
  
  
  
  I wanted to change the beige stock glovebox with the one that came with the grey/black one that comes with the Trendline model. Ordered one from the service center and it came within a week’s time. Good thing is, it comes with the cooling valve slot pre-cut, footwell light slot and pre-cut slots to the TPMS’ SET switch and the passenger airbag deactivation switch which I intend to fix sometime next year when I have some time and funds at my disposal.
  
  
  
  Used the hinge pins from the stock glovebox:
  
  
  
  Source: VW service center, Navsari
  
  Part number: 6RF 857 097 AD
  
  Cost: Rs. 1800
  
  
• New location for the 9W7 BT module:
  
  
  
  Previously, the BT module was screwed below the glovebox and was jutting out like a sore thumb. Decided to relocate it behind the climatronic panel which has plenty of free space. Covered the unit with some sponge to prevent rattling, removed the climatronic unit (there are 2 Torx screws below the unit which has to be removed), removed the 2 connectors, routed the cable to the BT unit and replaced it back. All good now and the unit remains discreet!
  
  
  
• Seatbelt reminder – didn’t work:
  
  
  
  Just as I had mentioned in detail in the previous post, the seatbelt reminder would not work due to the ACU (airbag control unit) not supporting this function. Had to remove the entire centre console to access the ACU, insert the pin in the relevant slot of the 50-pin connector, enable the option through VCDS under Instruments > Long Coding Helper but the cluster threw an Error: Airbag with the airbag warning light. Reverted back to the stock configuration. I will however revisit this later next year with a new ACU which supports seatbelt chime and passenger airbag deactivation. Swapping the ACU is relatively simple from what I’ve read.
  
  
• NOC from Surat RTO:
  
  Since the car will now be registered at Palakkad RTO, I had to apply for an NOC from the Surat RTO before relocating. Got hold of an agent who charged us Rs. 1300 per vehicle and received the NOC within a week’s time. Will be applying for the new registration shortly. I don’t think I stand to receive any refund from the Surat RTO but will definitely be doing it.
  
  Well, that’s about it for now guys. I am truly going to miss Gujarat after having spent 7+ years here. The amazing roadways, the traffic sense of the truckers, the places, the people, the food, the amazing service center and so many things. I guess all good things must come to an end and this perhaps marks an end to the Gujarat chapter for me and my ride. I shall share the update later.

A parting shot of the service center folks at Navsari:



What an amazing bunch of guys! I wish them luck. It was also good to catch up with BHPian Freewheelin_KD at the service center today.

Alright, that’s about it. Wish us luck for the homebound trip tomorrow! We start at 3 AM: