mk2

If you get the bearing completely off, measure it, I'm fairy sure it'll be a bog standard deep groove thing. Off the shelf from any bearing supplier. I bet that must have made a lot of noise, grinding away.... There's a clear reason why engine bays shouldn't be washed... once a rubber seal gets a bit worn, water gets in, dragging all sorts of particles of hard silicates (sand) with it. Sand, water and a bit of grease work superbly as an abrasive- lots of bearing wear.

Have a look under that big plastic cover... it's all happening under there

It's probably sucking in breather fumes, but could be the piston rings, worn valve guides, head gasket, bunged up throttle valve, all of the above... Try diverting the breather pipe down to the road and blocking off the flange that sucks all the gunk into the engine. Then take it on a good motorway run to clean things out. When's the last time you changed the air filter?

It's got a polo part number... 6N0820803B Just had a look online. It's pretty much universal for many many cars. Mainly german stuff though. Looks like you degassed it then... it's hard to find R134A over here now (not inexpensively). I was going to say that if you can get that clutch off, it's worth having a go at simply changing the bearing. And they're cheap. But having heard about Canadian weather, you have no rush...

Yeah, and if you get the angle wrong it actually makes everything worse... you need a zig zag vertical movement, not a wave action. No horizontal scoring. So you can't start or stop the drill while the brush is in the bore. Ever.

Yeah, seen that pic... i've also seen a few hg for sale, all with a swirl chamber redirectors. Me thinks it's an indirect injection lump. i know nothing as i keep telling everyone.

You sending me on a wild goose chase...? I can't find anything about the engine in that thing. Pics yeah... the pump is driven through the camshaft, at the wrong end of the engine! How wierd is that?! Ever worked on one? Trying to find a pic of the cylinder head or an injector... it looks like an experimental engine, not a production thing!

I think i just found a 3 cyl non turbo 1.4 DI used in a polo for a year in 1991 but that was before I was around... got any more info? What car was the engine you're thinking of in?

After going mad for months trying to figure out what the ticking noise on one of my SDIs was (a dodgy but perfectly working injector), i even ended up swapping the engine.... I think I have a pretty good grasp on how the injection system works. In fact they are the same as all previous non common rail vdub systems, so yeah, i can believe that they will run on just about any viscous oil based 'stuff'. But my only concern besides filtering is the cam and injection advance mechanism inside the pump. Everything else will always have a film of fluid between moving surfaces. The injection pump has a bunch of rollers that follow a circular track, without any bearings. Just rods through fat metal discs. So there is quite a bit of wear in there. I should have taken some pics when i stripped down and rebuilt one of my diesel pumps. I'm convinced from the lubricity numbers (how effective the fluid works as a slippery lubricant), straight veggie isn't very good. In fact the glycerol (water soluble) portion causes cavitation on the roller surface increasing the rate of wear... other than that, i think veggie oil (SVO) is great as a fuel. Yeah, I'm convinced our little SDI engines (or most older distribution pump based vdub engines) can run fine for years on the stuff. The roller wear is automatically compensated for by the servo pickup mechanism- you can give the pump new life by doing 'the hammer mod' adjustment.

Yeah, that one is similar to the indirect used in older Peugeot. The indirect diesel injection engines from Peugeot were (are) very very good. Used in many non automotive applications to this day. Generators, tractors, jcbs, excavators, refrigeration systems, boats... l think the only reason they stopped using them in cars is because the emissions rules changed to Euro 4 and they couldn't get the same efficiency as the direct injection engines. Getting a small capacity diesel to work with direct injection diesel tech is notoriously difficult. The problem is that it's difficult to throw fuel in without hitting the piston and burning it out. The reason for that wierd doughnut shaped crown. I don't think there's another direct injection diesel the same size or smaller anywhere on the planet that has such a small capacity and is non turbo. Our little 1.7 SDI is a bit special.

I'm about to order a bunch of bits from that german supplier (and a complete Ernst exhaust system for my black SDI- basically it's the OEM Vdub system for half the price). 15 euros delivery. If anyone want's I can add to the order, but you'll have to drive to Reading to collect it... same exhaust as needed for this gorgeous white SDI above.

Do you hone the bores with a double angle cut (30 & 60 degrees)?

2 for me... both £30, one's S spec, the other E. I like the simpler E spec. Less to go wrong, esp leccy windows and those god awful VAG central locking switches.

Yeah, a lot of parts are interchangable. The thing that makes it tricky is the part numbers. Same goes for older Audi parts, but I can't remember if Audi were ever stateside. Quite a few Audi 80 and 100 parts I've noticed are exactly the same as Lupo parts. The onky trouble is that none of the cross reference guides say so. Depends how friendly you are with your local independent car parts supplier, if they let you wander around their warehouse, with an old lupo part in hand... comparing like with like is so much easier. The most recent thing I've discovered is the lupo clutch. It's an Audi 100 clutch from early 80's! Pay $5 instead of $100+ for the same thing. Especially if you're only changing everything because it's in pieces which I like to do just to save time.

Just tried the wiki tab at the top, which now dumps out. Start at cl main landing page then select it... dunno what happened to it? Anyone?

Not entirely sure, but I think a few Plymouth models share some older vdub and renault parts if you're looking at a compressor swap If it is just the bearing, you may be able to get a bearing puller on the end once the friction plate is off. Usually a hex key bolt holding it onto a splined shaft. If you then use a 3 way hub puller, with the central bit resting on a socket (to avoid the splined shaft), just inside the siezed inner race, you might get lucky and be able to slide it off the compressor... and without needing to degas it. If you do manage to remove the pulley with the bearing inside it, it's just a case of pressing out the ball bearing and sticking in a new one for perhaps only a couple of bucks. Fiddly work, but you might get lucky! in the mean time, you could just bung on a shorter belt and simply bypass the compressor (but not 100% as i'm not sure what route the belt takes ariund the engine....).

Yeah do as @Rich suggests. Bosch car parts are made to a price... i prefer hella or other brand relays. They make decent dishwashers though . Try the relay before the ig sw.

Show us a pic of that pulley...

I like Ajusa HGs... great for when you up the compression ratio.

yeah could be. but there's also an ignition relay near the fuse box below the steering that can cause identical symptoms/problems too. Not easy to access, but an easy fix if it is that. unplug it and plug in a replacement if it is that. unlikely to be the crank sensor, as the computer (ECU) would throw a fault light. so most likely ignition or power related. checked battery terminal? but unlikely. so my guess is ig switch or relay. you don't have a fault/check engine light on the dash (I'm guessing)?

Just thought, vdub ignition switches are not the best. Like @Rich mentioned, could've cut out, but then she'd have to have cranked it to get it going again (unless she bump started it)...

Yeah, lupos come with undertrays to protect the pulleys/belts as they're so close to wheel. My guess is same as your's... belt slip caused by water spray. Unusual, especially if it's as tight as you say it is.

How long have you had your SDI? If it's part of the family, you can't just get rid of it!

I can post you a small pack of interesting colour enamelling powder. My guess is you only need half a teaspoon of the stuff? Do you use an enamelling oven or a microwave mini kiln thing?

@Andrew1971 what upholstery style/colour do you have in your black SDI? Mine's E spec, so has a striped golfball pattern... Also a black SDI.