davidwort

Totally unprompted I might add, my 5 yr old did some kind of roll play at school apparently, he came home on Friday with this, chip off the old block :lol: Abcd0012.jpg[/attachment:3bddr4x7] (homework will mainly consist of spelling this week though)

A Valeo matrix made in 2007 should be a mk3 part, which don't need the recall matrix bypass valves as they are stronger, so bin the valves.

nope :lol: it's just a little electro-magnet, if you take it off the car and short it to the battery it should click shut with 12V applied, but that doesn't mean it isn't sticking in normal operation a bit. When mine went dodgy it would tend to hang on to revs a bit high when idling in traffic, sometimes a blip of the throttle would bring it back to 1K, they do eventually go beyond cleaning it seems. At the moment I have a mk3 one on there, not quite the right fit for the pipework on the KR 1.8, but close enough and it controls the idle just fine.

yup, it's thermostat time definitely, in this weather it will be closing up when you're on the move as the air is chilling that engine down pretty quickly, once you stop or slow the temp will pick up and the stat opens more fully again, so it will be moving open and shut (or partially) a fair bit in this weather and if it's not quite operating right then your symptoms would be worse with the symptoms you've had before and what's going on now, it must be the stat, but 118 oil isn't a big problem, don't forget the manual says back off when it reaches 145 :lol:

yeah, you should be able to swap early braided mk2 style ones onto a 1.8 KR Corrado with the rigid metal pipe lines, but not a 2L 9A, I'm pretty sure it was done to prevent confusion as the 9A runs at different pressures.

it shouldn't idle at 1500 when cold and only drop to 1K when warm, it should pretty much idle at 1K all the time if everything is in order, perhaps someting else is dodgy, thermotime switch, warm up regulator etc. I can't remember off the top of my head, but the golf and passat haynes manual that covers the 16v engines describes the basic checks for these components.

I thought the KR was a M12 1.5mm thread and the 9A an M10 1mm? (injector onto line)

there's a 'Laser' tool that is mentioned here for them old thread or similar from GSF? or a pair of mole grips, although they have a habit of slipping out of the jaws, especially in tight spaces

you should be able to rule that in or out by, coasting with the clutch depressed or in neutral and using 4th and 5th to see if it's speed or gear/engine speed related, Whines from the gearbox and wheel bearing noise are usually fairly distinctive, but without actually hearing it, it's a bit hard to say! A whine from the box shouldn't change as you turn the car though?

a front bearing will tend to fade in and out as you corner and load it up, a rear will usually be there all the time

not really possible to check play in a front bearing as the steering, top mounts, bushings etc can all move, like I said before, you'll only know the bearing is shot for sure when you have the driveshaft out and can spin the hub with no brakes or driveshaft on/in it. rears are totally different, they should have a small amount of movement as the bearings should not be tight,but not too much.

an 8v should be a very sound car, they should start an run cleanly, smoothly and quietly, strong old engine. Just the usual stuff really, leaks, nasty noises, make sure it drives straight, the gearbox is quiet and a reasonable change, but most of all check the body is straight, you can always source a mk3 8v engine for 100 quid, but bodywork repairs or putting right bad repairs could be very very costly. Some of the worst things I've seen are rear arch damage that then gets corrosion, and corrosion around the windscreen as a result of poor screen fitting/damage.

depends what's wrong with the rack, is the problem properly diagnosed? Does it leak PAS fluid? If so, where from? - a number of things can be related to the rack but not actually be the rack, like a worn steering column UJ, or steering height adjuster joint, an inner track rod joint or one of the rigid fluid lines bolted across the rack. If the rack assists more one way than the other or has leaked fluid into the steering rack boots then it's likely that an inner seal has gone which can be bought as a repair kit from VW.

ideally you want an engine support beam or crane as you need to drop the subframe somewhat so you can get the rack out/in and both rear engine mountings are in the subframe, I've done the job before but only on a garage lift and although I'm sure it's do-able on a drive or garage floor with the engine in the car, it's not going to be the most fun job.

they can sieze, hopefully you've been lucky and not bent any valves if the belt has just slipped on the siezed tensioner and not actually jumped any teeth on the pulleys, need to have a look at the timing marks on the pulleys.

I've got mk3 rears on mine, direct swap for the original mk2 style ones, only the handbrake mechanism design changed slightly, but same fitment to cables. In fact didn't the facelift Corrados all come with mk3 style calipers anyway?

yeah, they did change to the 288s around 1995, but there's a lot of mk3 VR6 16v and 8v GTI's about with 280s on them prior to that, and can often be had for a lot less than a corrado set second hand, because of the included Corrado part-tax :)

quite funny watching an RX8 try to make it's way up an icy road near my home yesterday, when my father in law had his MR2 he ended up leaving it at the bottom of the hill and walking home one evening :lol: no such drama in the C, FWD with the engine weight over the wheels can be quite useful sometimes! As a pretty mediocre driver I don't think I could ever trust myself in a vaguely powerful RWD car unless the electronics drove it for me, but I did enjoy driving a friends Boxter for a bit in the summer, I can see RWD could be very rewarding if your skills are up to it.

unclip a hacksaw blade from it's handle, pass through the middle of the bush, then reconnect to handle, carefully cut a slot in the bush outer metal sleeve until you're not quite down to the beam metal itself, then cut another parallel slot a few mm away from the first, remove the hacksaw blade and prise the section between the slots/grooves you've cut out with a screwdriver, you'll then find it easy to tap the rest out with a hammer and punch. just take it carefully and you won't damage the beam end.

VDO/VAG senders use a soft washer to seal, generally you get away with reusing them too, so it's not the thread or PTFE tape that seals them. A 0-10 bar gauge needs a 0-10 bar sender VW part no. 535 919 561B, this is a single connector sender and may require a 't' piece to fit along with one of the original pressure warning senders fitted to the car. if you fit an early style round 52mm pressure gauge, these are often 0-5 bar and require a 0-5 bar sender no. 035 919 561A, the latter commonly used on Audi sports/coupe's/100's, porker 924's even some volvos and saabs I think. There is an alternative part to this, possibly a 'B' suffix which is still 0-5 bar but relaces the other value warning sender, so either will do. This sender has two connections, one for the gauge(variable) and one fixed value, so the sender is used to replace one of the existing warning switches, the values are stamped on each so check which one to replace by unscrewing one and look underneath.

I guess being a 2L 16v it has the fan relay control pack nr the washer fluid tank, perhaps a relay got stuck? If the fan overrun switch on the front left of the head (think the 2L has one of these as mr Toad says) shorted out the fan would run, but not if the wire broke off it as they usually do. If it does it again I'd suggest pulling the single connector off that small sensor(the wire is always live regardless of ignition) and if it still runs then you've discounted that, do the same with the 3 pin switch at the bottom of the radiator.

heart says no, head says probably yes. A 20yr old VW is going to cost to keep on the road, particularly if you haven't got the opportunity to do a lot of work yourself. If you can work on it yourself then things change quite a bit, second hand parts like engines and subframes can be got pretty cheaply now and a heater matrix is mostly time. The main worry is rot in the body. It depends how much a modern car would affect your driving, if you do a lot of commuting then air con, comfy suspension light controls a few xtras and a quiet cabin can make life a lot more pleasant. But don't expect it to be any cheaper, factor in depreciation(really bad at the moment) and the cost of some servicing like cam belts on TDI's and you can end up with a pretty hefty overall cost, and then you pray nothing like a dual mass flywheel needs replacing. Whenever the weather is dry and I take the back roads home it reminds me why I'll keep putting money into the C though.

it's not the most fun job, I reckon the loom connectors were put on after assembly in the factory, they were the worst job, on an early door I somehow managed to get all of the loom and connectors out of the double skinned round hole at the front of the door, a very tight fit though. window regulators are always a PITA but otherwise it's not too bad, just a lot of cable clips, the loom to the door lock was a fiddle too IIRC. Think it took me about 2 hours to do the swap first time, a lot quicker after that. That's swapping everything apart from the regulator itself, I did exchange the outer handles, door catch, loom, etc..

I don't think you'll get a clunk from a bearing, they'd literally have to break up and they make loads of noise well before that happens, probably for thousands of miles. I have recently done both front bearings, they were still quite tight when the hubs were removed from the car, no play in the bearing I could feel, but they did make quite a roar when you spun them by hand. Unfortunately the only way to tell is to remove the brakes and driveshaft from the hub and spin the outer part of the hub. A worn bearing will start to make itself known by a droning noise, usually worse at about 60mph on a smooth winding road surface. They can be totally quiet on the straight but get quite loud when loaded up on a bend. Eventually the noise will get worse and be there all the time. I guess a very badly worn CV can make other noises, but they generally wear a groove in the bearing races and when you put the car on full lock and drive slowly the bearings jump in and out of the grooves making that clunk.

does sound like cv, I used to get that occasionally reversing off the drive when the car was cold on a coldish day with a fair bit of lock on, removed, cleaned and repacked all four CV joints with fresh grease and seems fine now, the grease does go off over years of use, even if the boots stay intact, the bearings and races were polished and marked from wear but not grooved or scored so I didn't replace any.