davidwort

mmm, a lot of disks come with a protective oil film so the whole thing needs thoroughly cleaning both sides even if they look clean or you'll contaminate your pads badly, brake cleaner or meths OK.

you can use a spark plug type socket if you can't get hold of the proper tool, as long as you have a deep hex key socket or good quality allen key for the centre, the spark plug sockets often have a hex around the top which you can just hold still/turn with a spanner. With the koni style tops, a thin 9mm socket and extension/screwdriver handle type thing for the socket can be used to go down inside the spark plug socket.

must be my lack of general co-ordination, i tried this years ago with the info from the C Club of America and never managed to get it to work, just assumed the early 16v's didn't have the function :lol: mind you, things I did on my corrado 10 years ago have now left my brain 'homer style' as new things have had to go in :cuckoo: it doesn't on an early 16v :lol: you need to replace relay no 19 with 91 from a later car, then it's the delay between switching the intermittent off then on again that sets the time delay, seems to work from about one second up to about 20.

VW seem a bit lost at the mo, the Toureg and Phaeton must have cost a shed load to develop and don't seem to have done very well sales/profits wise, the new beetle is proving hard to shift and the golfs are very expensive compared to the competition. To make things worse, most manufacturers seem to have caught up with small diesel technology. My mates Mazda 6 is a bargain compared to a passat 2.0 TDI, VW seem intent on pricing themselves out of some segments - 1.9TDI golf match 16 grand for example At the sports end, the mk5 GTI and R32 are competent but don't seem outstanding (I do like the MK5 GTI look myself though, grown on me a lot). The EOS, well, some seem to like it, but it does look very bland to me, less distinctive than some of the other hard top cabrios around. I guess a lot of manufacturers are are struggling profits wise globally (look at Ford) which doesn't bode well for experimentation or daring design making it into production. Ramble over.

Did it up with a torque wrench to 45NM :shock:

They all vary a bit, age and make of radiator and the mix of coolant (water/antifreeze) can make a difference, as can the grade of oil. I'd only be concerned if the water sat regularly well above the mid point when warmed up or the oil was showing approaching 120 in normal driving. The 16v was designed to run fairly hot and is more efficient like that. Next time you go for an MOT, see if they have an oil temp probe or an infra-red temp sensor, they're pretty accurate and will give you an idea how accurate your oil gauge(MFA) and sender are. David.

you need to loosen the mounting bolts for the front PS pump bracket (so the pump can swing - 2 13mm bolts inside the alloy bracket that go through into the back of the body of the pump) and then remove the adjuster bolt between the pump and the smaller bracket on the side of the engine, you won't get enough adjustment if you just try to turn it. Then you can swing the pump towards the back of the engine as far as it will go i.e. pushing the two pulleys together, ps pump one and crank end one. The PS belt will then come off, giving you access to the alternator one. David.

Pretty sure the BAM bottom end has different pistons, rods and crank from the other 1.8T's.

no, in fact a lot of this sort of service part VW seem to be reducing prices on, I was amazed when I got an AUX belt pulley with a sealed bearing for my mk4 and it was only 20 odd quid, was expecting at least 50 from VW.

# no idea, but the 2L metering head does have the extra sensor on the wing side and the differential pressure regulator on the other side that the 1.8 doesn't

that draper one is cheap for a low range wrench, wonder how accurate they are? I use a cheepo one for wheel bolts but then a few NM either way isn't too critical there.

many early 16v's (and a lot of passats of the same era) have dealer fitted windows which are just permanently live and don't use a control box, much easier than retro fitting all the looms needed for the factory setup. The switches are visually OEM VW but have an extra feed to each of them, try hunting down passats in a scrappy, if they have switches that have soldered wires straight to the backs and not plug in cable connectors they're the ones you want, it won't give you one touch opening or closing though. David.

Most of the 16v fuel unions use a light alloy washer and just need nipping up, in the past when I've fitted new washers re-assembling the system or re-used them (perhaps not the best idea) I've done exactly as you say and just nipped them up a bit more if they seep fuel, always been OK for me, always go back and re-check any fuel unions once the system is pressured up on the ignition and then when the car is started though!

think the konis have a small 8-10mm hex on the top that you'll need to hold with a small ring spanner. No allen head as the adjustment thingy sits in that position. few swan neck ring spanners will fit into the recess on the top though which is why people make up tools, or VW had a special tool...£££

there is a cover specifically for the 1.8 16v metering head, VW may be able to order one for you. part no 051 133 399 the 2L 16v one is the same part number but with an 'F' suffix

yeah-but, the passat one is designed to clip to the front of the sunroof motor cover, which is the same part on the Passat and C, so it clips on quite neatly, the one on my mk4 golf is totally different as the roof lining and motor cover are a different design.

I've never quite understood the comments about them running on the bumpstops, I've had them off loads of times with different shocks on the car, and fitted new cut down stops to run with the 40mm lower springs I have on the car. I can't see what is meant by them running on them?? The car rides on the springs, and the spring top plate sits against the rubber mount not the bump stop. Only if the spring is compressed a long way will the stop hit the bottom spring plate, the idea of the stop is to prevent the spring from compressing totally and a pot hole taking out the top of your suspension turret! - at least that's how it looks to work to me :? If you leave full length stops on the car with lowering springs, it will hit the stops all the time and they'll get smashed apart very quickly, seen loads of cars like that. I guess you could run without them, I'd have thought you risk damage to the car though if you hit a big pot hole or something.

yeah, really wierd, especially watching the first run. The things he said before he made the runs as well!

have a look at this, went to replace mancorr's timing tensionner today, couldn't understand why the torque wrench wasn't reaching it's limit and then discovered this. the face of the bearing casing crushed under just a few NM when tightening, another reason for going VAG on important parts me thinks...

I'd have thought for availability, cost and power potential the 1.8T (in one form or another) would be your best bet, even the 150hp versions are good for 185bhp with just a re-chip.

I've put my old one back on and what a difference it's lovely and smooth and quiet again! http://www.vwspares.co.uk/corrado_other.php is what you want, same price as GSF but FEBI parts, which are pretty much as good as OEM in my experience, Crasher also uses these I believe and said they work fine. I haven't actually ordered one yet as I need a load of other parts too and am getting a big list together for them, free p&p over 50 quid ;) David.

various, usually the higher spec ones, both 1988-92 and the later facelifted ones up to the new model in 1996. It's generally the later 93-95 cars I've seen them on though. VW were still selling them up to a few years ago for about 13 quid, but I believe someone mentioned they are now discontinued.

SEAT leon? Octavia VRS? IMO: Golfs are over priced for what they are, seem to be plenty of faults with them too. A3s are way over priced but slightly better screwed together Bora is the best buy of the 3 (car for the money) but still another small saloon which nobody is really good at styling. of course if you want something really reliable then go Japanese...

From my experience they can also make a car more likely to suddenly break away in the wet or when really pushed as you get less of the progressive 'lean' and compliance in the suspension, but I've always liked the improvement in steering response on any cars I've uprated the rear bar on.

providing you get a pump with the same offset from the body then it should work fine, some do have a different angle of return hose from the reservoir too. I've noticed a lot of VW's and SEATs use the same pump (even some pug 306s!) but some of the mk3 golfs use a different shaft length/offset so measure carefully! The exchange pump I got from GSF has worked perfectly for over six years and the shaft still has no play, whereas most of the S/hand ones seem to have play in now. I did find that it's actually often the valve inside the pump body which is at fault and I fixed mine by replacing with a valve from a s/hand passat pump. They basically just unscrew from under the pressure hose union if you remove the pressure hose first. The pump is obviously driven all the time by the belt, and this valve only provides pressure to the rack when the rack valves are opened by turning the wheel, for some reason the valve in the pump can get stuck, causing the pump to pump hard and whine away all the time, this in turn puts pressure on the main hose to the rack and they often start to leak at the flex pipe joint to the rigid pipe near the rack union. David.