davidwort

support the engine with an engine supprt beam (preferable) remove rear engine mount and gearbox mount remove outer track rod ball joints from hubs drop subframe leaving wishbones attached and also still attached to bottom ball joints you'll need to remove the UJ from the rack input shaft at this time too. this should give you enough room to get at everything without removing the wishbones and subframe completely I've never done it on axle stands, only a full garage lift so it may be easier to drop the entire subframe with the PAS hoses still connected up to save making a mess and deal with all the fluid and unions away from the car, it would be a good opportunity to clean, derust and repaint the subframe if you removed it altogether.

mineral gearbox oil does smell bad, the synthetic fluids don't smell of anything, easy way to tell what's in a gearbox. MT90 or VW fully synthetic are good, and so is Castrol SMX-S, which is available from Halfords.

Use a genuine VAG 2L 16v gasket, the one for the 9A is the same now as the mk3 16v, a metal layered one.

they do have grease, if you look on boostmonkeys build thread I'm sure he got a tube of rack grease with the rack seals he bought for a refurb and my original rack had grease on it when I changed the track rods and boots

brake hose clamps on the rear hoses and swap them over or a very messy quick swap as fluid dribbles out, just need to bleed a little through the rear then, not a complete fluid change.

says the man with fewer VW bits on his Corrado than anyone else one the forum :lol: - only joking, I know you're referring to bearings, joints, matrixes and the like. I agree it's not a bad thing some old rados are being stripped of good bits and scrapped, some are getting serious rot in them, 20+ UK winters are taking their toll, I always feel a bit sad seing them broken though :(

you can't really skim a 16v head due to the design, a small amount can be taken off if a head gasket has gone and the head slightly distorted, but it can only really be done once in general skimming to raise compression will allow you to develop more power from the same capacity engine, provided the right engine management is used, i.e. suitable ignition and fuelling controls, but again, the 16v is pretty high compression anyway and short of running on race fuel you really do risk pinking and engine damage. A 4 branch manifold may gain a little peak hp, but the standard 16v cast iron manifold flows well and it's probably a more reliable alternative to internally polish and port it instead.

Can I buy the drivers seat. Don't worry about cleaning it or anything. Want to preserve the taste. :) now I know what those plastic side pockets on the later seats are for, drip trays.

yeah, it's essentially the same fitment and can be done with or without the existing heat exchanger with the right extension piece for the oil filter. Probably only want a relatively small cooler for a valver though and a thermostatic sandwich plate so it doesn't take the car all winter to warm up.

yes, a well fettled 16v head will make the engine more efficient, powerful and give better torque throughout the rev range, a bad one may rob power and torque. Done well 10-15% or more power at peak. There's a range of things that can be done, simply smoothing out imperfections in the casting, matching the manifolds mating cross sections to the head faces and modifying the area around and behind the valve seats and throat. The combustion chamber in the head can be smoothed and polished to help reduce pinking under higher ignition advances or with increased compression that enables more power. A skilled engine builder with a flow bench to measure improvements in flow through the ports as modifications are done, will also match the combustion chamber sizes precicely to balance the engine and further release power, ultimately 'blue-printing' and precicely matching the volumes, weights and dimensions across all cylinders. Unfortunately quite a few so called 'ported and polished' heads are nothing more than an exercise in bling and size boasting, the result is often inlet ports opened up far too wide, reducing the velocity of air entering the head and messing up low and mid range torque.

drove to work once this week in the rado, going at 9 was fine, coming home at 5.30 was grim, this evening got the gas recharged in the mk4, had icicles hanging from my nose by the time I got home, that's more like it 8)

if you tap it in each of the 3 gaps in turn where you can get onto the back of the race (with a punch) they always drift out bit by bit, the race often pits as badly as the bearing rollers so you can't really leave them in.

it might work well, it might not, the abf inlet has a bit more lift but TBH I can't be bothered to try it when it will probably just shift the torque curve up a bit and my car pulls fine to the red line with the KR inlet.

yep, two adjusters on headlights, one does left/right handbrake cable is usually a sign the rear caliper(s) have a partially sized handbrake release mechanism :(

back of a 1994 laguna :| 1995-renault-laguna-pic-31104.jpg[/attachment:165ovkqp]

only cost me 21 quid for a VAG front bearing

the mothercare urban detour (admittedly not a stroller, but did fold up compact) had a neat furry insert to support tiny ones, will try to find a pic. sadly I don't think they do them any more, but this is the sort of thing: http://www.mothercare.com/Maxi-Cosi-Mur ... 1&mcb=core suitable from birth, you need one with quick release wheels ideally for space saving

I've had a couple of critters now and my top advice about travel systems would probably be 'don't bother' they are usually expensive and neither one thing or another size and capability wise. The only time it is useful is when they are really tiny and you don't want to disturb them from sleeping in the car to going for a walk, shopping etc. realistically we hardly ever did that. After a while you realise that a small light buggy/stroller that is easy to hump about and folds small and takes up little space is what you really need and possibly a larger sturdier buggy, like pneumatic tyred 3 wheeler for longer outside walks like off-roading :) etc. We had a M&P large folding buggy and matching car seat (Pliko or something) and TBH the quality of the car seat was fine but the rest of the system pretty suspect, it wasn't that big but still struggled diagonally in the boot of a mk4. The best ever buy was a Mothercare Urban detour 3 wheeler, in fact we had two at different times, a twin and a single, very sturdy, look comfy and the way they folded and with all 3 wheels quick release, meant it would fit in the back of most cars. Edit: Reading walesy's post, I think the most important thing is to work out what your needs are, where you go and what would suit you best, don't buy based on how smart the seat and buggy system looks, my sister spent about 600 quid on a travel system and only ever used the car seat, she then bought a 70 quid buggy.

I did a little rear brakes/bearings how-to in my gallery thread: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=19344&start=15 I think Boostmonkey has done recently too If it's a front bearing, simply remove the hub complete, buy a bearing and pay 10-20 quid for a garage to press the new bearing on for you, you'd need alignment done afterwards though.

never quite understood how that works in conjunction with the Idle Stabalisation Valve, I think it's actually called the Auxiliary Air Valve

worth trying VW on price, most racks are recon from them now I think anyway, you should be able to get a recon rack for around 200 quid from specialist rack refurb firms or you could risk a mk3 GTI/VR rack, same part as all mk3 GTI's have the VR6 plus axle so the same rack and track rods, I picked up a sound mk3 rack for 40 quid or an Ibiza cupra up to 2001 has the same part.

yep, nope, for fog :) and yep there's plenty else to check :) feeling a bit more helpful this time - obvious things are split cv boots, wishbone bushes and ball joints lights, incl rear fog, and warning bulb for fog switch on dash washer jets and wipers, cracks on windscreen, headlight alignment/beam height leaking/bouncy shocks, badly corroded brake pipes and perished flexi hoses, siezed rear compensator blowing exhausts high emissions and braking efficiency/evenness excessive play in anything like steering, ball joints, wheel bearings, top mounts excessive oil leaks, any fuel leaks :eek: bald tyres :)

not bizarre at all, if the valving in the rack is shot you're not getting proper assistance when you turn one direction, like Kev said, re-con of the rack is needed, or new.

nope

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