[shibujp]

During the last service I had got the suspension bolts retorqued and this seems to have reduced the steering rack sound and generally tightened up the suspension response. I have decided to keep an eye on the rattle for a month or so before taking this up as a warranty repair.

Meanwhile the Polo also covered a milestone, my third car to do so.



Drive on,
Shibu.

[avinash_clt]

Hello Shibu,

Good to know that you are crunching up miles in your GT and enjoying it without at any major niggles. I used to drive a GT 1.6 TDI (bought in Sep-2013) before I moved abroad. Had clocked close to 30,000 KM by Aug-2014. These days the car is used by my brother and sits at 78,000 KM.

Can relate a lot to you regarding the service experience at VW. Good cars, but unless you are an informed customer, the service centres are likely to charge you for random unnecessary add-ons.

Originally Posted by shibujp

I bought the oil before checking the manual and as per the manual it recommends VW 505 01. Mobil 1 meets the VW 505 00 standards. I proceeded to do some research on which engine oil meets this standard in India and found that the so called recommended Castrol Magnatec does not either. If fact as per online information Castrol Edge or Castrol GTX seems to be closest as their data sheets explicitly specify that they meet the VW 505 00 standard while the Castrol Magnatec does not specify it.

I am not sure whether the Castrol Magnatec OE conforms to the VW 505 01/API CJ4/ AMEA C3 standards but wouldn't be surprised if this is another crapshoot.

Drive on,
Shibu.

Since our car was remapped at 10,000km itself, we had shortened the oil change intervals to 11-12k KMs. We also keep stock of a spare bottle of Castrol Magnatec Professional OE 5W40 in the boot. Identical grade of oil used across VW/Skoda workshops.

The Magnatec OE confirms to VW 505 01 standards (see picture below). However it has an API 'SM' rating. At times when we couldn't procure sealed bottles from the ASC, we had also procured Castrol Edge 5W40 as a backup. It isn't VW 505 01 rated, but has a higher API 'SN' rating.


Cheers,
Avinash

[shibujp]

Originally Posted by avinash_clt

Hello Shibu,

Good to know that you are crunching up miles in your GT and enjoying it without at any major niggles. I used to drive a GT 1.6 TDI (bought in Sep-2013) before I moved abroad. Had clocked close to 30,000 KM by Aug-2014.
The Magnatec OE confirms to VW 505 01 standards (see picture below). However it has an API 'SM' rating. At times when we couldn't procure sealed bottles from the ASC, we had also procured Castrol Edge 5W40 as a backup. It isn't VW 505 01 rated, but has a higher API 'SN' rating.

30K in 11 months is a pretty good pace.

Where do you get the Professional Grade oil from? Do you procure it from the dealer ship? I was unable to find that grade in the Castrol lube shops.

This time the SM also mentioned that the oil has been changed and is now golden in color as opposed to the greenish color that the old one had. Never actually saw the Castrol oil so can't comment on the color. According to him, that have noticed much less smoke on cars that use this.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[avinash_clt]

Originally Posted by shibujp

30K in 11 months is a pretty good pace.

Where do you get the Professional Grade oil from? Do you procure it from the dealer ship? I was unable to find that grade in the Castrol lube shops.

This time the SM also mentioned that the oil has been changed and is now golden in color as opposed to the greenish color that the old one had. Never actually saw the Castrol oil so can't comment on the color. According to him, that have noticed much less smoke on cars that use this.

Drive on,
Shibu.

You are right. I was never able to source Professional OE from the open market either. I normally buy these extra bottles for backup, when needed, from the dealerships themselves. Last time when I procured couple of bottles in Dec'15, it was the same green color Professional OE oil. Don't know if they have changed afterwards.

Avinash.

[shibujp]

Got my PUC done. There has been a change in procedure that I have detailed here.

Here are the reading. Not sure what to make of them but its a pass. Anyway VW holds the dubious distinction of suddenly making diesel a suspect.



Drive on,
Shibu,

[shibujp]

Replaced my cabin filter with an aftermarket filter from Altech. The filter looks fluffier and the filtration element seems softer and thicker than the stock filter. Anyway let us see how this holds up.

Ordered it from Amazon for 695 rupees.





Here is the old filter. Looks pretty saturated.


The Polo is at 57800 kilometres.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[shibujp]

One of my grouses with the Polo is that the rear suspension while very comfortable is a bit too soft. I always wanted to sort this out on my GT. With this in mind I placed an order for a pair of Koni yellows on carpowergrid.com. Well I ordered yellows but when the order arrived I found that they were a pair of Koni Specials instead. Carpowergrid gave me a refund as the specials are cheaper than the yellows.


The Koni part number for the shocks are 80-2815. Specials are not as aggressive as Koni yellows so I was not too disappointed that I did not get them yellows as it would be a gradual introduction to suspension changes. I was nervous that I would end up with a very hard suspension.


I will detail the installation procedure in a DIY post and will focus on the adjustments and my current experience with the shock over the past two weeks. According to the literature available online, the adjustment mechanism must be turned clockwise for firmer and counter clockwise for softer.

Initial setting
I set it to one turn (360 degrees) below full firm and proceeded on a test drive. Here is where I realised that the advice to tune the suspension on bumps/bumpy roads and low speeds was spot on. On well paved and level grounds the car was flat and poised. However on bumpy B roads it was what I term "jiggly pop". You hit a bump and it would jiggle a bit a bit then come down with a sharp rebound. Not a very comfortable setting for a daiy driver. I quickly removed the shocks and made them - unknowingly - even firmer. The dang instructions on the package were the other way round and told me clockwise for soft and anticlockwise for firm.

Predictably this made the behavior even more pronounced and the car started the "jiggly-pop" behavior for every small depression or bumps even on good roads. But at the same time I did appreciate the firmness of the suspension. There was little of the rear end weight transfer on acceleration and braking. So much so, I tried it out for a week. But it's a difficult setting to live with on a daiy basis and you find yourself babying it on bumpy roads.

Current Setting
Over the weekend I removed the shocks and readjusted them. The current setting is 1.5 turns (360 + 180 degress) below full firm and the bumpiness has been completely dialed out. The suspension seems firmer than the stock at the same time delivering as ride that is comfortable. However only a week will give me a full picture of how it really is as I take it through the rigours of a daiy drive. I think I may be able to get away with a quarter turn (90 degrees) towards firm as well. But thats for another day.

Observations
Compared to the OEM shocks the Koni shocks are a bit heavier and a couple of milimetres larger in diameter.


The OEM bump rubber seems to be made of some mattress foam like material and the lower end has started disintegrating as seen in the shot below. Will have to get a repacement for this. Same condition on both sides. Perhaps I should try for those polyurethane ones.


The inner tube OEM shock when compressed and left starts pushing out immediately while the inner tube of the Koni shock does not. It has to be pulled out to extend.

Looking forward to one complaint sorted out.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[shibujp]

Well so the Polo is past the 60K mark - 62K actually. Conducted a DIY oil change. Replaced the oil filter and used Mobil 1 0W - 40 fully synthetic oil. However the sourcing of parts is a serious headache and VW should either start OEM parts shops like Maruti or ensure that we can source it from their workshops.

The front suspension has now developed a tak tak sound on anything but a smoothly tarred road. Showing this at a VW service center produced a 30K estimate. Parts proposed to be replaced were the stabilizer links, steering box and the lower arm. Freakiing daylight robbery.

I decided to do some troubleshooting of my own in the meantime. Started by removing the stabilizer links and checking out the impact on the noise.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[shibujp]

Finally got down to trying to pin down the source of the tak tak noise on uneven road.

First I removed the front stabilizer bar links from both the left and right. The noise completely disappeared. However back from the drive I realized that I should have taken some precautions. The anti-roll bar should be tied up otherwise it will touch the front drive shafts. Luckily no lasting damage was done with the driveshaft surface being scratched a bit.


I had my previous links that were in decent condition when I replaced them with the TRW links. I refitted them back and test drove the car. Well - touchwood the noise has gone. A few hundred kilometers will prove how good the fix is. Suspension noises and their inadequate solutions remain a great avenue for service centres to fleece customers.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[shibujp]

The diesel filter was the one item pending from my 60K service as I was trying to source an OE. Ordered one from spareshub.com and received it last week.

Filter made by UFI. Made in Germany.



OE cover indicates it is used for all VW group vehicles.


Connector pipes with the inlet and outlet marked. The inlet is usually covered with a cap as seen.


Installed!!


Removal
To remove the connector pipes, push and hold in the tabs on the fuel hose indicated by the red arrows above, push the fuel hose forward in the direction of the yellow arrow and pull back the hose to take it off. REMEMBER THE POSITION OF THE INLET AND OUTLET hoses. Do not mix them up.

Push out the black clips indicated by the green arrows holding the filter in place. Pull out the filter.

Installation
To install reverse the procedure. Pull the new filter in till you hear a click as the black clips lock into place. Then simply push the fuel hoses back over the respective inlet and outlet pipes on the filter. You should hear a small click as the connector locks in.

Post replacement, you may have to crank the car a couple of times to get diesel into the filter before you start up. There is also an option (the better one IMO) in the VCDS software to activate the diesel pump to fill in the filter before installation. However that option is not enabled on my version of the software.

Other updates
- Suspension fix still holding good after around a thousand kilometers.
- One of the Yokos developed a bulge after 20K kms, so waiting to get that replaced.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[shibujp]

While swapping out my rear OE shocks for Konis I had noticed that the rear bump stops had reached their end of life with a deep crack(for want of a better word) developing at the lower portion where the bump stops hit the shock.

Sourced a new set of bump stops through sparehub.com. Cost me 1580/-. Got a pair made by Febi-Bilstien. (part no : 23410 Catalog : http://www.febi-parts.com/?lang=GB)

I had contemplated going in for PowerFlex Purple brand of bump stops as earlier suggested by Shankar but decided against given the cost and also since I could get more stiffness since my rear Koni shock were adjustable. They would have been a good option perhaps, had I been running OE shocks.



Old v/s new


Installed


Sorry about the picture quality. Was using my mobile covered with a plastic bag which was masking the camera.

Post Installation
After installation, the ride has actually become softer which means I need to dial in more stiffness into the shocks. Unfortunately I also ended up slightly stripping the thread on the one of the top mount bolts. Not having a replacement, I had no option but to use it. Just hope I have not damaged the thread of the nut too much. So that is something else I need to get sorted out.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[shibujp]

I was never happy with my last oil change primarily due to a goof up on my end. Got the wrong filter, realised it after removing the existing filter, put the old filter, gaskets and all (BIG mistake), ended up with an oil leak and did an emergency replacement with a local spare that I was not convinced about.

Determined not to repeat the same issues, I did some ground work and sourced two filters - one was the Bosch diesel filter for the Jetta and the second was a Mann Hummel OE replacement from Spareshub.

I used the Bosch oil filter for the replacement.



Got a great aid for an oil change. Picked up a oil drain pan from a local tool shop. made by Groz this pan allows me to easily pour the old oil collected from the sump into storage cans using the spout at the end.


Made a change in oil as well. This time I used Mobil Delvac 1 which is also fully synthetic. 500kms so far. I noticed that the engine was a little slower to rev up compared to Mobil 1. This oil is much more economical at 4.5K for a 5 litre can compared to 6.5K for 5 litres of Mobil 1. The dealer who sold it to me said that he personally knows customers who use the same in a Passat, Vento and a Polo.


The old oil filter was a mess, all bloated and stuff. Was an eye opener on the downsides of spurious parts.

500km post the change things seem to be okay and the engine is smooth.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[Gannu_1]

Shibu, how do you unscrew the drain plug from the sump? I recall using a regular wrench at the service center sometime back and the plug didn't budge! Do you have a torque wrench to tighten the plug back? Especially since the car is resting only on the jack stands which do not leave much space to play around with.

Nice oil drain pan. Will pick one up. The oil filter which messed up - I hope it wasn't the OE one you were referring to here.

As for the turbo not spooling at times issue and making the car do a restart, it appears the harness is to blame! I read up on some other forums that the ground connection would intermittently go off and he changed the harness to resolve the issue. Will post the link here when I find it.

[shibujp]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Shibu, how do you unscrew the drain plug from the sump? I recall using a regular wrench at the service center sometime back and the plug didn't budge! Do you have a torque wrench to tighten the plug back? Especially since the car is resting only on the jack stands which do not leave much space to play around with.

Nice oil drain pan. Will pick one up. The oil filter which messed up - I hope it wasn't the OE one you were referring to here.

As for the turbo not spooling at times issue and making the car do a restart, it appears the harness is to blame! I read up on some other forums that the ground connection would intermittently go off and he changed the harness to resolve the issue. Will post the link here when I find it.

I use a 19mm socket with a T bar but haven't had any issues unscrewing it so far. If it is tight, I try to loosen it with a few strikes with the palm of my hand. Once loosened, I then use a ratchet to unscrew it.I do have a torque wrench but never used it on the plug only on the filter cover as that is plastic. Generally I tighten it as far as my hand will allow and that seems to be enough. I do monitor for leaks after that. You are right, on jack stands the space is limited but using jack stands on both sides makes it easier. I also need to be flat on my back to get enough leverage on the wrench.

Here is the link to the drain pan I got. I bought from from a local tool shop though.

The OE filter you are referring to was the fuel filter. That is fine. The oil filter is the one mentioned in the previous post, sourced locally and was from a company named ADSORBS - it seems to absorb all the oil and bloat... I was never able to track the company on the internet. Anyway lesson learnt.

Regarding the turbo issue you were talking about, were you addressing the slight loss of rev happiness that I mentioned?

Drive on,
Shibu.

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by shibujp

Regarding the turbo issue you were talking about, were you addressing the slight loss of rev happiness that I mentioned?

Exactly. But pull over the car to the side, turn it off and on and, it's gone - the turbo spools like before. Looks like the wiring harness of the G31 boost sensor has to be renewed. The sensor is located behind the front bumper though. Not readily accessible unless you remove the bumper.

As for OE spares, I thought I'd ask my friend to drop by my previous service centre and pick up the spare filters and ship it to my Chennai address. Does spareshub.com stock all the OE spares?