davidwort

early 4cyl cars always seem to sit lower than later ones and it's not just sagging/broken springs :lol: so I'd say there is a couple of cm in it. dunno if this helps at all: climatronic wiring-Golf from May 01.pdfrear_springs.gif[/attachment:rxqi0op8] 2.8l 24v Climatronic system.pdfearly_front_springs_etka.gif[/attachment:rxqi0op8] late_front_springs_etka.gif[/attachment:rxqi0op8]

looks to me like the rear beam bushings have torn away from the inner sleeves, they usually get failed on an MOT well before they get that bad, you need to disconnect the rear brake lines and handbrake cables and drop the beam, the old bushes can be cut out but the new ones are tricky to pull in without the proper tool as they are curved/shaped on the ends, it is possible with a bit of inginuity see this thread

the idler pulley on the waterpump on a KR (up to early 1991 chassis no. 50-M-009000) is unique to the 1.8 KR and is needed becasue the alternator drive belt needs to be deflected around the waterpump. The late KR blocks (1991 cars) have the same setup as the 9A, where the PAS pulley is driven by a belt dedicated to the PAS and doesn't drive the waterpump as on the earlier design, this means one belt can drive the alternator and waterpump without the need for an idler pulley. It's not as easy as just swapping a couple of pulleys though, the 9A engine has a crank pulley for the PAS which is different and a PAS pump with a longer driveshaft (distance from pump body to pulley). If the KR idler pulley is worn it tends to chatter at idle and the outer part is quite wobbly. The slip surface/bearing thing tends to break up into pieces. I've seen a few welded up as Toad says, and I guess it doesn't generally cause much of a problem, although I'd imagine the belt would wear quicker as it'll have to slip on the pulleys a small amount.

bummer, I bet you're sick and tired of draining coolant, I don't know what it is with old valver cooling systems, I changed bally's stat to a VAG one and even though it opened and closed almost identically with the new pattern one he had fitted(heating in a pan of water), there was a noticable change in the engine temp when we put the VAG one in. I don't think the wiring and dash clusters help, they seem to contribute to some funny gauge behaviour when they get old too, possibly the voltage regulator on the dash.

you'll find a fair few of the mk3 golfs have the same tank, although some engines don't have the level sensor. Passats of the same era should have the same tank too, trouble is, at that age most are at best cloudy and often the plastic is going brittle and crumbly especially where the expansion hose connects.

there was a complete undertray for both the mk2 and mk3 golf diesels, fitment to the inner wings and subframe should be similar, only the front fixing might need something making up for the Corrado.

a snap off raid steering wheel boss always seemed like a pretty good defence, but you need big pockets for your wheel.

It's not so much the quality or longevity of the GSF rads that worried me, I had one which didn't have the same problems as others have found, it was more the fact that it's not a 16V radiator at all, it has fewer and different shaped cross tubes and is not as efficient at cooling as a proper VW one, you'll be OK in the UK weather generally but if your car is tuned, cams etc it's not worth the risk of cooking it. It's really a 1.6 carb mk2 golf part, just happens to be 430mm long.

mk2 16v Golf or Jetta have the same rad, a genuine one will have a Denso Marsden label with the part number with an 'L' suffix on the top under the plastic safety cover. A passat 16v one will also fit, but it's a longer radiator so you'd need the top and bottom radiator hoses with it. VAG want about 120 quid for a new one.

couple of figures for 4 cylinder 15" wheels: the old Sebring 6.5J x 15 with Michelin MXV2 195-50-15 16.2kg Borbet 'C' 7J x 15 with Goodyear Eagle F1 195-50-15 16.6kg

Phillips extreme 80% are about 20 quid a pair from ECP, I paid about 18 quid plus vat trade, about half the price of halfords.

just been reading through some more of this thread, where do you get the time to document everything you do! great reading though and some funny comments from some of the usual suspects :) seeing what you did to the top caps on your front suspension with a dremel though, WTF! why didn't you just drill into the side of the nut and split the nut? - I've done that a few times, if you're careful (and you need to reuse them) you won't damage the threads on the damper . I'm still taking my time over doing my front bearings, driveshafts and painting stuff up, always gives me more enthusiasm seeing how much work you're putting in :salute:

that's not what I've always understood, it's not so much to shield things from the CAT as to shield the CAT from 'things', specifically water, the CAT gets vey hot in operation and spraying it with large amounts of water, say when hitting a large puddle would rapidly cool it and potentially cause damage or at the very least drop it below operating temp.

I hate getting that o-ring and the stat back into the pump with the plastic flange back on all upside down, it's so much easier to fix it onto the pump off the car, that way gravity helps rather than hinders :) you'll need a second o-ring though for the pump to block if you do that.

as said above, that's too much trouble to go to to just be a jealousy attack, someone's gone out of their way to buy paint and paint stripper and spread it over every panel, my bet is he's upset someone too.

yep sort of what I did, I figured I might as well cut into the VAG loom and simply used a matching set of connectors (male and female) at the cut, so I could remove one or more of the relays temporarily from the circuit if needed and still power that light, say if a relay stuck or a fuse blew, until I could get a new one. As an aside, I'd imagine the longevity of my original headlight switch and main beam column stalk have something to do with the fact they have only been taking a switching feed for the best part of 10 years instead of all the current needed to run the lights.

which ones? H4 main headlight unit H3 spot and fog

I've been thinking about the possibility of using a mk3 rear beam and brackets, the main reason being they are cheap, easy to come by and in fairly good nick (most of the ones I've seen in scrappies) the axle bushes and brackets are different parts to the 4 cyl corrados (which are mk2 parts) but I reckon a 4 stud Golf mk3 estate should have a nice beefy built in ARB. Failing that a mk3 GTI 8v/16v or VR6 beam would probably do and would have a good ARB, fitting my 4 stud hubs onto it.

only joking really, but your brackets don't look in that bad nick, just surface rust isn't it? I'm pretty sure the 9A KE-jet system runs at a different pressure, slightly higher, that's why the pump is a different part number.

blimey, you guys are pretty obsessive, those are pretty tough brackets, just give them a wire brush and coat of hammerite :) Kip, are you expecting bomb check style under car mirror inspections for next years concours, how much do you get marked down for non-VAG paint on an axle bracket? :wave: boost monkey, I'd be more worried about your fuel filter/accumulator pipes! - BTW mine look much the same :lol:

not sure of the ratings on VAG relays, but maplins basic 30A relays were very cheap when I bought mine, best ones for the job are probably the Hella ones (or similar) with the built in piggy back blade fuses.

like most VAG 4cyl engines it has an oil/water heat exchanger mounted immediately above the oil filter, two hoses from the water system connect to it. If this perforates inside you somtimes get symptom similar to a head gasket failure, oil in water etc. The oil system is pretty straightforward, oil pump driven by intermediate shaft, pickup filter in bottom of sump can get blocked in badly maintained engines, generally a very reliable system.

will that be a 2GHz or 3.2GHz version :)

I have heard recently that some of these 30/50/80% higher light output H4's don't maintain their brightness for long, far worse than an ordinary 55/60W Halogen bulb, of course this isn't picked up in magazine tests. If this is the case then sticking to a set of new 80/100W bulbs may be better for me as my old ones have lasted for years with consistently good output. The main reason for a change is one of my 80/100s popped after 5 or so years use and I'm running a 55/60W I had knocking around in one headlight at the mo. Anyone have any long term experience of the Halfords or Phillips higher light output bulbs?

I've been running a 4 relay setup for my dip and main beam left/right separate relays for over 8 years now with 80/100W conventional bulbs in the main headlight unit, standard H3's in the spots. Although I've probably only done about 45K miles in that time and not a great amount of that with the main beam switched on, I also fitted brand new headlights around the same time so I think it's a fair test of what the reflectors can withstand. They still look like new after 8 years and when you consider the original reflectors only lasted 10 years on standard 55/60W bulbs I don't think you're going to have much trouble as long as you don't go above 100W mains. If you think about it, when you have main beam on you are generally travelling at a reasonable speed so the lights get cooled by airflow, so with 80W dips you're only going to be putting out a little more heat than standard. I have to say, even with ageing bulbs at the moment, my relay setup with 80/100W mains is excellent, enough to make anyone who fails to dip their mains coming towards me to regret it!