Friend has a problem with her polo

[Mitching]

Thought I'd enquire here about an issue a friend is having with her 1L 6N polo.

She says that the issue only arises every few months.
When she starts it and drives off, it's really slow and jolts forwards, even when she changes up the gears, and no matter how much throttle she gives it.

I suggested either just a dodgy battery (my car was juddering when my alternator belt wasn't charging the battery, causing the battery to die)
or possible sediment from the fuel tank in the fuelling system?

[Dolly]

ive had kind of the same issues except only jolts from cold with very little throttle, more throttle it doesnt do it. solution i cleaned the throttle valve up and replace some perished breather pipe and it fixed it

[danny_p]

exhaust leacks can play havoc with the ecu on some of the small enignes.

basicly it won't bloody go at all till you've burried your foot in the carpet and got a few revs on  then it picks up and drives fine and will drive ok as long as you go everywhere flat out.   usally wont even pull off on part throttel

[Mitching]

exhaust leacks can play havoc with the ecu on some of the small enignes.

basicly it won't bloody go at all till you've burried your foot in the carpet and got a few revs on  then it picks up and drives fine and will drive ok as long as you go everywhere flat out.   usally wont even pull off on part throttel

But would that be a constant problem?
This apparently happens every few months, so isn't regular.

[brianpologti]

Throttlebody clean breather pipes / drawing in air through leaks, coolant temp sensor,

[AudiA8Quattro]

Any faults stored?

[gm8]

at the risk of sounding sexist , is she pulling off with the handbrake on every so often ?

[Mitching]

Had a look at it earlier, throttle body was a bit grotty, but not too bad.
Turned out to be a f**ked battery.

[clipperjay]

My mates bird had overheating on hers and the thermostat housing was leaking.
Dealers wanted £100 for one, she didnt have the money lucky at breakers there was one in good nick, so we took as many bits off she needed and now has a newish Polo!
I think the 6n's are quite good as a first car but not sure about gear boxes?

[Mitching]

Yeah, when I had the airbox off checking the carb I saw a bit of crystalised pink coolant on the side oh the head, couldn't see where it was coming from though.
The engine bay was weird though, the engine was the wrong way round and everything was so close together, was nothing like working on my mk2.
And the bolt holding the battery in had threaded so I spent about 20 minutes trying to get the old battery out, without having taken the retaining plate off, then when I got the new battery in (using flat head screw drivers to pry the plastic of the fixed side of the battery plate) it was the wrong bloody way round!