davidwort

on the rhs of head you should have 3 of the water temp sensors (to gauge, ecu and idle control unit) and then the 2 pin larger thermo-time-switch which controls the cold start injector at the end of the inlet manifold on the 1.8 16v you also have the warm up regulator that has a 2 pin connection to that for it's internal heater, no such part on the 2L on the back of the head, just around from the dizzy, is the oil temp sensor (for MFA) and the dizzy itself has the elec connector for the hall sender on the front of block you have 2 oil pressure sensors on the oil filter housing, 2L 16v's have a 3rd blanked off sensor hole and also a couple of knock sensors bolted to the block and UK 16v's should also have the fan run on temp switch on the front leftmost cam cover bolt. that's about it.

:lol: no that's right, it's there to stop the underbonnet temps getting too hot a causing fuel to vapourise in the fuel lines, it has a live feed all the time and earths through the block when the temp rises too high, if the switch fails shut then the fan would run forever (well as long as the battery lasts) looking on etka it seems like some cars may not have it fitted, but I think all UK spec cars should have it.

I think your best bet would be to speak to someone with a 9A Corrado, for instance, at a show or locally to you, and see if you can trace the 2+2 connector wiring from under the gearstick back.

bit confused by your post, but in that pic is the mounting arm for the pump (3 bolt holes around the curve) this hangs from the alternator bracket and swings the pump to tension and on the left is the arm for the tensionner bolt, this bracket bolts to the side of the block

the small black sensors around the head water outlet (16v) are all the same (x3), one round the back is the oil temp sender and different.

I just asked for a cap from GSF and it happened to be blue (a long time back), don't think they've made the black ones for many many years so highly unlikely you'll get given the wrong one.

that would be pretty short sighted of VW, because it's owners that get the bigger repair bills, you can save money in some areas as long as engineering doesn't suffer look at what happened to mercedes, the accountants ruined the build quality and customers definitely noticed, VW's are no better than their competitors now on quality and often much more expensive, in the 80's and 90's they were genuinely better engineered than a lot of rivals, you can't rely on badge value only

Absolutely! try working with the crappy electrical connectors for instance, brittle plastic, stupid release tabs that just don't (even the ones in clean locations, no chance with abs sensors etc.) and lifespans of parts that are worse than older cars, there's a lot of 'cost saving' gone into VW's in the last 10 years or so and it makes working on them a real PITA. Some things have obviously improved, body rigidity, door check mechanisms, some interior plastics, but a lot has gone the other way.

you can either use front spring lowering caps or rear dampers with adjustable spring baseplates to sort this, on the 4 cylinder cars the latter is better as lowering caps and eibachs mean the front wishbones are slightly pointing upwards, so better to raise the rear.

I'm sure the ignition coils all have extra connections (not used), so don't worry about that. the other wire, near the airbox, I think, if it has just a single wire inside, that it's the feed to the fan run on temp switch which should be bolted to the front leftmost cam cover bolt, can you see the little sensor there under the fuel lines?

exactly what I'm looking into now, what guns etc.. I have a big compressor but not enough to run an air fed mask and HVLP gun at the same time, might have to invest in a smaller comp to run the mask, both are air hungry and not enough air means crap spraying. I'm not going for a mega bucks sata or devilbiss gun, something like you mention above, but a 1.4mm tip for colour coat and possibly a 2mm for primer. I've seen that gun with a 1.4mm tip for 35 quid new on e-bay and I'm sure as a beginner it's me that will be the limiting factor in quality of finish, but then if I do spray 2 pack it can be flatted a polished well. a lot to think about, but seems very do-able with a bit of patience.

got pretty much the same job to do on mine :( trouble is you have no way of knowing that they damaged the paint on the screen fitting and if water creeps in by the time you see the paint blistering the holes are there. how did you deal with the screen company/insurance, did they need to see the screen before you took it out? will they come to the bodyshop to fit the screen?

This Is why I've bought a compressor, how hard can painting be :lol: I had a quote for 2 grand for the complete car and all dings etc sorted. All I need to do now is decide whether or not to risk myself and the local area with 2 pack paint :pale:

oil on the rhs of the head is almost certainly from the cam cover gasket, they leak on most 16v's, a new one might fix it, sometimes a bit of gasket sealant in the corners where the seal goes up and over the curved sections near the distributor helps. I had a longstanding very slight water leak, everything seemed OK, on the end I traced it to a very small leak from the hoses that connect to the oil cooler/heat exchanger above the oil filter. your plug near the alarm bracket is definitely not a VW underbonnet connector, looks like a connector I've seen for power to radios and similar stuff so it must be for an old alarm unit not present any more. Your loud rattling may well be a pulley on the waterpump, if your car appears to have two pulleys on the waterpump, then you have the earlier setup and the pulley that is rattling is very likely to be the idler pulley that is there just to deflect the alternator belt around the waterpump, it's designed to slip but not drive the waterpump but the design isn't great and they can make a lot of noise when they wear, there's been a thread on fixing this setup with alternatives recently.

looks fine apart from the camber on the rear +ve on one side -ve on the other, could you have a knackered beam bush on one side?

not without taking the hubs off and shimming or unbolting and moving beam and or bushes, none of that is easily done or covered under the usual time/rate for wheel alignment, and in any case if is that bad then there's a major problem somewhere, bent beam etc...

by 4 wheel alignment, what they mean is they aligned the front wheels to the rear, i.e. so it doesn't 'crab' down the road. I think it's just terminology, did they provide a report with the settings on? If the camber is slightly off on one side it will tend to pull, even if the 'alignment' is correct, also, your tyres may be worn to the old 'misaligned' setup and may now be pulling a little due to the uneven wear on them.

I guess they've just quoted you an hour labour, TBH I'd buy a timing light (for less than that) and do it myself It's pretty easy to do, the dizzy is two bolts and the plugs leads in the right order :) and the timing is pretty much a doddle, any haynes manual will show you how if you can't follow advice on here

if you're not sure where the noise is coming from, then whack the rears off clean all the old grease out of the bearings and races and inspect them, if they are rumbling/roaring then you'll see (probably v small) pits in the bearing rollers and races, if they are spotless no point in replacing unless they can't be adjusted without excessive play. As for the fronts, as Kev says you can't check on the car at all, FWIW mine were making a fair old noise and yet still had no play in them even when the hubs were totally removed from the car, doing this the noise was really bad when you just spun them with your hand. If you do the fronts it would be worth taking off the CV boots, cleaning and inspecting the joints and repacking with grease if all seems well, as long as the CV bearings and surfaces are smooth they should be OK, wear marks you can see and feel would be bad news. It's only going to cost you a bit of CV grease and some CV boot clips (plus time) if it's all apart anyway (hubs out etc.) old CV joint will thank you for some fresh grease :)

:scratch: got any pics? glad you tracked it down though, if only my weekend was as productive, my golf has been going mental and a complete new throttle body (drive by wire compterised nonsense) made no difference, trying a new manifold pressure sensor tomorrow, the Corrado is so straightforward in comparison :mad2: I now have a stinking cold and to top it all today the LNB on my satellite dish decided to stop receiving 50% of the channels including the HD ones :censored:

senders on top of oil filter bracket are for oil pressure, need a big spanner (20 odd mm or so) the one on the leftmost cam cover bolt is a fan run on switch (yellow or sometimes blue) the switches on the side of the head (small black) are the water temp senders and the thermotime switch (affects cold start injector spray) is the bigger one on the side of the head with a 2 pin connector, there's a small oil temp sensor around the back of the head from distributor pretty much all of them complete their circuit by earthing through the block, so have a single wire to them which should be getting a live feed, not sure of all the voltages.

do you mean one of the oil pressure warning switches on the oil filter bracket ???

This might be of interest, shamelessly pinched info from Club GTI, but I've tidied it up into a meaningful table for myself, and thanks to daves16v I've got a pair of ABF cams I'm planning to try out to compare to the KR set, I reckon the ABF pair should produce a fair bit more power. cam-specs.jpg[/attachment:3mjrbe3x] It looks like the ABF cams have 1 or 2 degrees of overlap when the inlet opens (inlet 1 deg BTDC and exhaust 1 deg ATDC) Whereas the KR cams have no overlap (inlet opens 3 deg ATDC and exhaust closes 3 deg ATDC) ABF inlet has longer duration, but slightly less duration on exhaust compared to KR and of course the peak lift of both inlet and exhausts on ABF cams is more than the KR sorry, just realised, last thing you want right now is to consider a cam swap :lol:

with a multimeter or test light you can check the micro switch is actually making a circuit, but you haven't said if your throttle cable is nice and smooth, is it old, after 10 years 100K not many operate properly, so much difference from a new cable and the throttle will be able to pull it closed easily. does ISV vibrate/buzz when ignition is truned on?, if so then usually the worst that can happen is they will stick open a bit and sometimes revs hang too high at idle, throttle blips may then settle them. resistance across ISV connector pins should be 3.5-4.5 ohms ISV control unit could be knackered, it's above the fuseboard in the car. you can also check the control unit by reading the curent (in mA) to the isv (need to rig up a bit of wiring to connect inline to ISV I guess) 2.8l 24v Climatronic system.pdfisv-control-test.jpg[/attachment:vz1hai8j] idle_switch_adjust.jpg[/attachment:vz1hai8j] have you tried swapping over the sensor connectors on the RHS of the head, three are the same and feed ignition ECU, ISV circuit and dash water temp gauge, pull one at a time until your gauge drops, then you can use that as a known good one for the other circuits, they don't usually give trouble it's the wiring to them that corrodes.

I'd prefer a bit more toe-in and camber on the front, would make it drive in a line better with more toe as they tend to pull out when you accelerate anyway, bit more camber would be nice in the corners.