HJ has commented on the Mk3 Golf rust thread that pre-2000 Polos also are prone to rusty doors, with more detail in the c-b-c-b.
I have recently noticed a small patch of rust, just above the rubbing strip, on the rear door of my 97 Polo. I would say that there is no way it has been caused by a stone chip, but has clearly come through from inside. The car is visiting the dealer on Saturday for a service and I will certainly point the rust out to them and report back on progress.
Has anyone else had experience of this problem? Has anyone had it resolved satisfactorily by VW? Or not?
Some ammunition would be really helpful.
Thanks all!
Andy
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I've got a P reg (97?) Polo with a large rust patch on the bottom of the offside front door. The standard response when I approached 3 VAG dealers was 'Our engineer isn't in today. He'll be back in x days'. When I finally caught one, he claimed that it was corrosion near a seam and was therefore not covered under the 6 year warranty. If you have any luck, I'd be pleased to hear it.
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Took the car to the dealer yesterday. The service manager had a look, but said he was no bodywork expert and such queries were dealt with by the bodyshop 20 miles away. He was more than happy to arrange for someone to have a look at it and said that the bodyshop has all sorts of equipment for determining the cause and extent of corrosion.
I am not sure whether I have the inclination to take the car in again to follow this up or not, because I am so convinced they will fight hard to avoid paying out to fix the problem.
Andy
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My wife's P (97) Polo had the same problem - rust spots on the drivers door. By the time I finished digging, I had 5 areas each the size of 50p pieces both above and below the rubbing strip and away from the seams. None of them seemed to be caused by stone chips; indeed one was just a tell-tale spider's web under the paint. All of them showed a thin layer of rust on the surface of the metal, so it makes me think that the panel had started to rust before it went for painting. Fixed them myself. Strange, the rest of the car is completely rust-free!
Hope this helps
Mike
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Thought it was worth posting a partial and hugely delayed resolution to this issue.
When I gave the car one of its infrequent cleans, I noticed some further corrosion. The rest of the external bodywork is 100% corrosion-free apart from the door bubble I've already mentioned and a hefty stone chip on the leading edge of the bonnet. What I noticed was more worrying - the start of corrosion in the seam where the sill meets the rear wheelarch section. This area is normally hidden by the rarely-used rear doors (and a coating of mud) on my car.
So I decided to get off by butt and make an appointment for an inspection at the VW bodyshop. They declared and convinced me that the original patch on the door was from a stonechip and therefore not covered under warranty. The corrosion on the sill, because that is a seam, is also only covered under the 3 year paint warranty rather than the longer perforation warranty. The helpful comment was the suggestion to phone VW customer care and make my disappointment with their quality product known, mention full VW history... and suggest that they might like to make a contribution to the £200 repair cost.
To bring this now rather long story to a close soon, I had all sorts of problems trying to get an answer from VW, but the final call was an appology for all the hassle and an offer to pay for the work on the sill. This has now been completed and I am happy with the result.
VW would have had a happy customer were it not for the fact that the recently taken-over dealership refused to let me have a courtesy car for the 3 days that the bodywork and a 100k mile service would have taken. So I took the car to my local garage for the service and will not use the VW dealer again!
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