davidwort

motorists = cash cow (fuel duty, parking costs, speed cameras...) that's just how it is now, you can't have a basic rate of tax at 22% (it used to be 30 odd?) and not get the money from elsewhere, there's a lot of MP's second homes that need paying for don't forget. There's been a long trend towards indirect taxation like VAT and other taxes on stuff we buy, as it's seen as politically more acceptable.

hall sender and or/ignition coil? Unfortunately I've only got the hall sender test info for the 1.8, but it must be fairly similar on the 2L, basically you disconnect the loom that runs from the hall sender to the control unit and use an LED test lamp to check for pulsing current when the starter is operated, this presumably tests for a totally knackered hall sender, but they can start to give trouble without failing altogether too. Can you borrow a coil and distributor from another car to rule this in/out?

need to drill and split tjhat top nut off, not easy in that position mind, go v slow with a good quality drill bit, or try a nut splitting tool.

where the blue arrow is in this picture, there is a groove cut into the damper a circlip sits in the groove, the spring baseplate (5 in the picture) then sits on that machining another groove higher up the damper and moving the circlip into that raises the ride height but that depends on the type of damper fitted, some will have spring baseplates welded in one fixed position Image1.gif[/attachment:3hck2la8]

as I said about Koni dampers, they have adjustable rear spring baseplates, original VW rear dampers often have the same design, i.e. a groove machined in the damper body and a circlip fitted into that which the baseplate sits on, so you could get a VW damper machined with a groove a little higher up. The only difference from standard would then be the small (original) groove visible below the new position of the spring baseplate which you could even hide with a bit of underseal :wink:

I wouldn't flush it with anything other than plain water, but the key thing is to check for coolant escaping from any of the hose joins, which can be quite difficult as not everything is easy to get at and if things are dirty. You should have some tell tale signs of crusty dried antifreeze. You could also pull off the black header tank overflow cover to see if anything has squirted out down there. If you were also getting a slight smell of antifreeze inside the car and steaming up inside of the windscreen it would suggest a heater matrix leak, you could rule that out by bypassing the matrix (connect the inlet and outlet hoses together).

same page as your post in the suppliers forum :) viewtopic.php?f=15&t=84188

It's an old problem with eibach springs, my valver used to sit lower at the back on them too, I tried front lowering top spring plates and although it sat nicely the front wishbones were slightly above level, so I removed them. In the end I solved it with some koni rear dampers, the kind with the grooves machined for adjusting the spring bottom plates. I did end up having another groove machined in them to raise them slightly higher than the maximum setting out of the box, car sits lovely and level now.

yes you can, sometimes a fiddle, but as long as you can get purchase with an allen key and not round off the heads you can def do this without taking off the inlet, done it a couple of times myself.

bit of a vague description so it could be any number of things, what are the plugs like? You can check a lot of stuff yourself, like is the air filter clean, not caked in oil, does the air metering plate/plunger move smoothly are all the ignition components in good nick and within tolerance, when was the fuel filter last changed, Does the throttle move correctly with the pedal? - do you get full throttle when the pedal is to the floor? Once you can eliminate a lot of this stuff then you can start thinking about collapsed baffles in the exhaust, compression checks and fuel system checks like pressure and injector spray pattern.

prompted by another post today and using a nicked photo :) red arrows = marks in sill for spare wheel jack locating on seam green arrows = strengthened jacking points, trolley jack/lift blue arrows = subframe mounting points where an additional axle stand can be placed if there's anything to add or wrong say and I'll update the pic c_under.JPG[/attachment:18cloqny]

If you look at the sill there are marks indicating where to position the spare wheel jack that comes with the car. Immediately behind the sill/floor seam there is a strengthened section of floor both front and rear, it has 4 or five ribs inthe metal. Those sections then have a raised strengthened section ust behind them, about 10cm x 4cm that you can put a rubber jack support/piece of wood under. You could also use the front subframe main bolts to floor as a jacking point, but it's not flat. Be careful though, and don't rely on just a trolley jack for support, or jack both front and rear up onto axle stands, one big wobble and you could end up a lot wider and flatter than when you started.

2L 16v system (KE-jet)? that expects to run with the lambda, knock sensors, fuel metering head sensors etc, can't see you could run it for ignition alone. The 1.8 (K-jet) system is ignition only anyway, it can't be re-mapped (unless you have a plug on K-star or V-sam to alter the advance curve) so that might be an issue optimising ignition for running with carbs. The standard K-jet system is good for 200bhp, so I doubt that's ever going to be a limiting factor on a 1.8 valver.

do you mean the small alloy bracket or the longer pressed steel one that runs from the top of the box back to the gearbox mount? for some reason VW's with the 02A type box from about 1992 onwards don't seem to have the longer bracket fitted at all :scratch:

whatever, these mysterious high power carb valvers never seem to be running right whenever there's a rolling road day though :lol:

so who exactly did the clutch change? perhaps worth asking if they had any bolts left over after they put it all back together :roll:

I've never quite understood the carb thing, unless you want a clean engine bay for showing a car or are doing a transplant and it makes the install simpler. Don't get me wrong, I've been in a few VW's with well set up carbs and they can feel quite nice to drive, but even compared to K-jet, they're going to be hard to get set up right, may cause problems running in damp/cold weather, will use more fuel and develop less power. :shrug:

no guide with pics but it's pretty simple really. 4 connections on a relay: 1 (pin 30)the relay needs power straight from the battery, via a fuse for safety. 2 (pin 86)it also needs a switching feed (one of your existing headlight live connections, removed from back of headlights or cut into wire before headlight) 3 (pin 85)it then needs an earth (back to battery or suitable chassis earth point) 4 (pin 87)then lastly the output from the relay to the headlight live on the back of the headlight unit if a single relay is used and only for say dip beam, then you need to split the output of the relay (87) to the backs of both headlight units if both dip and main beam are to be 'relayed up' then you need two relays, one for dip circuit, one for main. if you want the additional safety of left/right separate circuits then you need four relays, that way you'd only ever lose one light if a relay stuck or a fuse popped. Doing this you'll also need to use the existing feeds from both headlights as switching feeds. the corrado splits the main beam +ve to the twin filament main/dip bulb and the centre spot lights inside the light unit itself, so no need to worry about that. If you have a loom kit with VW connector blocks already attached then it should be plug and play apart from the +ve feed from the battery and possibly earth back to it. If you just have a bunch of wires, then you need to cut into the existing feeds to the lights and connect up with male/female spade connectors, preferably covered in waterproof sheaths.

I've got 5 more years and 50K more miles on my original matrix than you have (1990 car), I think it's more down to frequency of coolant change and mix/quality of coolant than anything else, I only changed my original radiator because the fins were looking a bit worse for wear from stones, no noticeable cooling difference from the brand new one. The last of the Corrados may have got the strengthened mk3 matrix but I don't think that will help longevity if tap water is used with the wrong type or wrong strength of additive.

warped disks? do you have a local Kwik-fit type place that'll do a free brake check?

they seem to get better from mk2 to mk4 but all sieze eventually, having said that, my exchange mk3 recon ones from GSF have done 12 years trouble free.

could be radiator bottom hose or stat housing then.

well water pumps usually leak from the driveshaft, but it could be the plastic thermostat housing at the bottom of the pump, hidden under the PAS bracket unfortunately. Probably a hose though, one other thing is the metal water pipe, they do eventually corrode through.

I can't remember if it was you who replaced a burst hose recently, but my bet is on one of the hoses that connect to the water pump/heat exchanger popping, the favourite is the most inaccessible, the short straight one connecting the metal water pipe to the pump.

I'm sure you don't need to do that, just unbolt the tailgate from the hinges, not the hinges from the car.