I have recently acquired a 1997 VW Polo 1.9 CL Diesel.
The car is in excellent condition and has recently (March) passed full mot and service no problems (all paperwork to prove).
The only problem with the car (that we can see(!!) is that under 1000rpm the engine sounds a fair bit louder than you would expect, even from a diesel. In fact, at standstill the cabin vabration caused by this is quite extensive.
The car has been taken to three different garages (two of which are VW specialists) and they cannot see anything mechanically wrong with the car. One garage actually said - "that's just the way it is, the car is perfetly fine". Very helpful indeed!
Having run out of ideas regarding a solution to the problem i thought i would turn here to hopwfully shed some light.
The cam-belt was recently replaced by a VW specialist at 94,000 miles (the car currently has 103,000 on the clock). Could this have been over tightened and cause a problem such as this? Or is it possible that a bearing is sticking or something?
I'm really rather stumped as the car drives perfectly well even with this annoyance.
Any help would be great thank you.
Ollie
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Do these have a duel mass flywheel?
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Why oh why did I put 'duel'? En guard!
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Just as well, dual mass flywheels are beginning to throw up some problems and are very expensive...
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If three VW specialists say the car is fine then why worry? If you find that the engine noise is too much then the only cure is to find another car. It may just be that as the polo is a small car the engine noise is more noticeable. I have driven a VW golf diesel of the same year (it was about a year old at the time), the engine noise of that at tickover was very loud, at low engine revs it seemed to resonate through the shell of the car, a bit like a drum would. In fact the noise/vibration/resonance was so load I was worried it might harm my hearing!
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what gets me is you ask advice on 1300 and 1400 petrols and then go buy a tractor engine,they are ok in pickups but not that nice in the polo also they tend to be a bit front heavy,as posted this is how they sound and if 3 garages have said the same what can we possibly say to make it quieter?
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You could try having the injectors serviced. Worked on my daughter's diesel Polo (AEF) engine, but they tend to be noisy on tickover (750 rpm), especially when cold
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I would carefully check the engine mounts. One of them used to be elastomerically filled i.e. a gluey viscous filling inside the mount adn these can leak the contacts, even before you had it and, and become harder thus not obsorbing the lower frequencies. Get a godd VW independant to check them out or speak with VW parts department to see if yours hads these type of mounts. Regards Peter
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I have the 97 Polo 1.6CL Saloon and I too get a vibration noise at around 1100rpm - and I have found it to be caused by the heat guard around the exhaust pipe under the gear stick area of the under chassis. Could it be something like this?
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I drove a 96 1.9D Polo for 20,000 miles and unfortunately I can confirm what you are experiencing is normal. It had been in my family since nearly new and was always the same. It's easily the most agricultural diesel I've ever been in - especially at low speeds and on the motorway.
I don't think it's an engine mounting issue, it's just that the car and the engine aren't a paticularly good match - there's not enough sound proofing (maybe not enough room) and the engine idles at the resonant frequency of the whole car. You can try adjusting the idle speed on the Lucas fuel pump but this is probably not to be recommended. I've now switched to a PSA XUD powered car - supposedly a much older design but lightyears ahead in terms of refinement.
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