2000 Polo E uneven tickover

[Bobbie83]

I'm sure this is a "known" problem. 999cc polo E ,ever since it was a couple of years old suffers intermiitently with uneven tickover and needs a few more revs when pulling away than normal, to prevent stalling. I took it to the dealer a couple of times who even charged me while under warranty to clean out something?- but only cured it temporarily. Doesn't seem to follow any patern, hot or cold & sometimes ok for a couple of weeks. Can anyone help please ?

[FreddyTheFrog]

Had a similar problem with a Polo 1.4CL R reg ('97) once.
All I did was to take the air intake apart on top of the engine and clean the butterfly valves and inlet chamber. There's two valves, a throttle and a choke in a vertical formation. Dirt gets around the edge of the valves (mainly the lower choke valve) causing erratic tick-over and occational stalling from cold. It's quite an easy job. You'll need something like a 5mm Allen key to remove the throttle housing on the top of the air inlet housing on top of the engine.