In a driveway far far away....

CORRADO

WARS

Chapter One: A New Hope

got the car back from the garage with the intention of fixing the following things so i could test for an MOT:

1. Rear cill needed welding
   
2. Idle speed needing reducing
   
3. Rad fan needing fixing
   

I got my friend Ali-one to help with the welding and I have to say he did a GREAT job! The weld is strong with him...

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While he was prattling round the back of the car I went to have a look at fixing the fan... Turned out to be a dodgy earth so reconnected that and bingo! job done!

Next the idle speed... I cleaned the ISV out and gave it a good scrub... Was still really high though so I may yet need a new one... hope not though, not at a tone each!

When I had finished doing that I got a wink from Ali-one and he pointed out a problem...

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Not good at all! no idea why they are rubbing but they are! against the inside of the tyre wall. Happily I had a simple fix in mind for this...

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BOOM 20mm spacers..... Weapon!

Then Ali-one went home and I finished off the day by tidying up my bonnet

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And thus the first chapter ended...

Chapter Two: The Engine-Fire Strikes Back

The next day I decided to take the car round the block and get a feel for her and listen out for any noises... knocking, misfiring ect. There was a rubbing at the rear wheels... Looks like 20mm may have been a little optimistic without arch rolling!!

So I decided to head back home but before I made it I got a nasty fright... Horrid burning smell from the engine bay, and then the car cut out. I had an engine fire!!! :suprised:

Jumped out opened the bonnet... It was lucky I had recently wrapped my loom in new tape because i think that's all the stopped it going up in flames.

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That's the part of the loom that goes up to the ISV and stuff, gutted. It looks like it was sitting on that metal water pipe. I reckon after it got warm it was enough to slowly melt the plastic, cause a short and start a smouldering fire.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]48768[/ATTACH] SO I exposed the wiring loom and remade that loom with some new wire, re-connected the wires and then wrapped it back up. This time ensuring the wiring didn't go anywhere near that pipe!

Now here's the fun part....

Went to start the car to check the ISV and I saw (yet more!) smoke coming from the open bonnet and a sound like a loose fan belt... left the car running and went to have a look and I saw pools of molten plastic dripping off the fan belt! ARGGGGHHH! What! :suprised:

stopped the car but by this point it was to late... For some reason the tensioner pulley had seized and the fan belt had melted it into a half moon shape... no way was I getting that to a garage now...

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I'm so gutted... Thing is I don't think I'll get that pulley off without the tensioner coming off and the tensioner damper looks like It's about to fall off...

Tried sourcing a new pulley and damper...

037145299 - Belt tensioner damper - £81.65 + VAT

074145278E - Tensioner roller pulley - £26.71 + VAT

037145933B - Ribbed v-belt - £19.80 +VAT

So that's £155 before I even get to the MOT centre.... And that's if I do the work myself! :( (if I could find a crying smile I'd be using it...)

BTW... I've tried every VW garage for 50 miles no one will give me a discount... :(