VW POLO CONTROL ARM & TIE-RODS
A couple of weeks ago to my surprise, I discovered that my car's front tyres were running smooth on the inside. It was that bad that I needed to replace them but somehow I never noticed until from a distance, I saw something white stuck to the right side front tyres. I was thinking it may be a sticky sweet wrapper that got stuck to the thread, so I went to remove it. That’s when I saw it was a patch of shining wire protruding through the rubber. I was dismayed. The outer edge up to the middle of the tyre had perfect thread, at least 4mm or more but the inside was bald as an egg.
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| My VW Polo getting the full treatment. |
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| Thats where the control arm rubbers sits, |
There was no way I was going to fit brand new tyres and allow the same to happen to them. I suspected that the alignment went awry so I drove my car in that condition to determine whether I was right or wrong. I released the steering on a straight road a few times and every time the car veered to the left, towards the pavement. Convinced that it was alignment, I fitted my spare wheel and took my VW Polo Highline for wheel alignment to get it sorted before replacing the tyres.
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| New VW control arm rubbers / cleaned-up VW control arms |
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| Busted rubber boots on both and left tie-rod ends, due for replacement. |
After waiting for more than an hour at the wheel alignment centre, it was eventually my turn to get service. My car was hoisted about hip high on the lift. The technicians then jacked-up the front wheels placed metal pad of sorts under each of the front wheels which was part of the wheel alignment sensor equipment that they later fitted to all four wheels. They then centred the steering wheel, locked it in place with a mechanical device and fired up the diagnostic computer/programme to check my car's wheel alignment. A good 15 minutes later they discovered that their version of the diagnostic software did not have the settings for a VW Polo 2.0 litre Highline. In fact there wasn't even a 2.0 litre Polo category listed.
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| Front and back view of new tie-rod ends. |
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| There is absolutely no difference between the original ans pirate part other than the VW logo |
The technician scrolled through the entire list a couple of times before he gave up and told me that they are stuck without the correct setting and therefore cannot do the alignment. I asked, what about trying the software for one of the other VW Polo models. Considering all the Polo's are the same shape and size and that it’s only the engine capacity that vary, perhaps it may work. So he tried the 1.8 litre setting which showed my Polo's alignment was perfect and that there was no error. He then tried the 1.6 and the 1.9TDi software, both with the same results -no problem. I protested “How can that be? Look at my front tyres! Now that the car's tyres were eye-level the left tyre was almost just as bad as the right one. The technicians agreed that there is a problem and started speculating that if both my swing arm rubbers were uniformly perished the alignment would technically still be in but the car would veer off the road and the tyres would run bald on either the inner or outer edge. They lifted the car higher and pushed a tyre lever into the control arm rubbers and convincingly said the one side is definitely broken. Thank you very much and off I went.
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| Left image shows left Control arm Rubber, Right image shows right side. |
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| Left and Right Control Arm Rubbers |
Back at the VW service agents, 2 x control arm rubbers please. Yes, we have stock, R1200 (+/-$120) please. What! For two pieces of rubber? But since I needed it, I paid. Back home I jacked-up the car, placed it on car stands and stripped the front suspension until I removed said rubbers. By the way, I found the boots on tie-rod ends torn so back to the agents I went. "Sorry out of stock, expecting stock to arrive in 40 days". This was unacceptable so off to the local motor spares I went in search of tie-rod ends. I found them sold together with the control arm rubbers at R180 each, tie-rod ends R120 each. Everything together cost me R600 ($60), exactly half of what I already spent on rubbers alone. So after I fitted them to my Polo, I returned the Control arm rubbers to the VW agents for a full refund. Amazingly the car now drives normal, no veering to the left or right and the alignment centre still says my alignment is normal, even though they or none of the other service centres they phoned have the software alignment settings for my 2.0L Polo highline. I now realise that she's an oddball.
