davidwort

was going to say I'm sure VW's have this already, but the article refers to it, TDI's have had this for a while, didn't know it wasn't being used on petrols yet though, helps with the removal of turbo lag.

Bigger boot is one of the main things, pre facelift had an aweful boot and access to it, the petrol tank is behind the rear seat rather than under the rear floor, stupid. bonnet and grille look quite different too.

What you really need to do is systematically check through a bunch of things. firstly, the worst offenders are the vacuum pipes, they run from the manifold (right rear) to the ECU, dash(MPG), brake servo (big black one!) and then from under the throttle body to the air flap in the air box and to the auxiliary air valve (thing under inlet pipe from metering head to throttle body) the rubber connectors have a tendancy to perish and leak with age and people often get them connected up wrong. The air bleed screw (idle speed) on side of throttle body can get gummed up and needs removing and cleaning, likewise the idle stabalisation valve(make sure this buzzes with ignition on). The Warm up regs and metering heads are pretty reliable but can cause problems if water gets in the fuel. also check the microswitch on the throttle body operates with the throttle cable slack (closed). There's a lot of info on k-jet problems on the Club GTI forum too, worth a read. don't give up, it's probably nothing expensive and you can get most bits cheap second hand anyway. Does it pull OK through the rev range, i.e. is it an idle problem, are your plugs, leads, dizzy cap and rotor arm all OK? Timing is pretty easy to check, both ignition and engine. A timing light helps though. Make sure the rotor arm is aligned with the mark inside the dizzy (i.e no. 1 cyl.) and you can see the timing and TDC marks on the flywheel through the inspection cover on the top of the gearbox. The one marked '0' is TDC the notch/groove is 6 degrees adv. David.

I'm not totally sure, but the matrix bypass valves are there to prevent a matrix dumping hot water inside the car (if it gets blocked and then bursts), I can't see any reason whey you can't just remove the valves altogether, all they do is restrict the flow of water and reduce the heat available inside the car from my experience. Threy won't stop hot water if the matrix springs a leak anyway. My recall was done in 1996 and I immediately noticed the drop in temperature inside the car, it still gets hot in the vents just not as good as before. I never actually heard of the matrix bursting on anyone anyway??? If you're that worried then splash out on a new one, I guess it's just one of those potential hazard things that manufacturers need to cover themselves for if they know it could happen. David.

yeah, must be much safer to get thrown clear of the accident through the windscreen :roll:

Its cause they all are still under the impression that its cool to not wear seatbelts, or that you stand a higher chance of being injured wearing them. So cause they can't be trusted to use a little common sense, they have to have them forcibly applied ;) Wasn't that part of the reason for the yanks developing airbags originally, basically because they couldn't get people to wear seatbelts, the old yank airbags were designed differently with the aim of replacing and not working with seatbelts. Mind you after eating all those burgers I'd have thought most would have enough padding of their own :wink:

Wonder how long it took before they reaslised that that sounded cr@p! Q: what do you drive? A: Oh, an RV nope, your right that sounds like a crappy 4*4 with bikes strapped to the back :lol:

don't go driving through any deep water!

The Astra's not much better :)

Have to say I just love that shape, colour, wheels, ride height and overall balance, perfect for a C IMO :D David.

Don't do it! At least mothball the C and find a good mpg banger for a while. Everyone regrets selling their C's, at least keep it somewhere just to look at now and then until you are in a position to buy a more powerful one :) David.

technically the 4cyl Corrados are very similar to the mk2, but despite their additional weight (about 100kgs!) they always seem to get praised way beyond the mk2 in terms of handling. Again the mk3 golf is technically similar to the corrado and shares lots of bits esp. the VR6 C and the 16v and VR6 golfs, but the mk3 always seems to get criticised for it's bulk and sloppy handling - some of which may be down to the standard suspension setups. All I know is I love the handling of the corrado, providing all the bushes, shocks and mounts are in good nick. As far as a supercharged 16v goes, I'd probably go for a Vr6 or G60 myself and leave well alone with the 16v, not saying it can't be done but it's a lot of grief and cost from what I've learnt. Oh, and I'm sure you'll prefer the handling of any C over the mk4 :) David.

Evenness across all 4 cylinders is the most important, providing they're all at a reasonable level, don't expect 'as new' figures from a 100,000 mile engine though. Cost you about 20 quid for a guage, so you might as well ask an independant garage to do it for you, an hours labour shouldn't set you back much more than 35-40 quid (perhaps not in London). I'd imaging the G60 is a fair bit lower than the 170-190 listed on that web link, think the NA 4 cylinder cars are around 175 usually, not totally sure though. David.

I'd seriously consider the round gauges, not quite as nice looking but very easy to get second hand from audi sports for under 30 quid, including the senders, and it's pretty easy to make a two gauge panel for the cubby hole that looks good. The other units are going to set you back over 150 quid I reckon, that's if you can find one. David.

brake hoses, play in rear wheel bearings, wishbone and balljoint play, leaking shocks all seem quite common on these cars at this age, then there's the general tyre, brake pad and disk wear and leaking exhaust systems. 16v's can blow a lot of oil when the valve guides wear, usually at anything over 100,000 miles, but it has to be really bad to fail the emissions. Fortunately you don't have a CAT to worry about. All depends on how well they've been maintained at this age really. OK ignore most of the above, just seen you've covered most of it with new parts :) David.

brake hoses, play in rear wheel bearings, wishbone and balljoint play, leaking shocks all seem quite common on these cars at this age, then there's the general tyre, brake pad and disk wear and leaking exhaust systems. 16v's can blow a lot of oil when the valve guides wear, usually at anything over 100,000 miles, but it has to be really bad to fail the emissions. Fortunately you don't have a CAT to worry about. All depends on how well they've been maintained at this age really. David.

PS fluid is generally green when new and brown when old/rusty, it's much thinner than engine oil too, just keep an eye on your fluid levels till you get a good look under it. David.

Tesco 99 just cost me 89.9p/L plus 5p a litre off for a 50 quid shop :)

yep on Optimax, or now Tesco 99, mine flies at about 8 deg base advance, I think the flowed and polished head helps to avoid pinking too. Other tuned 2.0 16v's seem to be set up to about 8deg by Stealth too and providing the fuelling is adequate at the top end they all seem to run fine and get good power. David.

The 16v alternator diodes are inside the unit and nor really replacable, the voltage regulator and brush pack is the black 50p sized unit on the end of the alternator, held in with 2 phillips screws, as supercharged says, they are worth changing if the brushes are really worn down, but if you get less than 13.5V when the engine is running (no electrics on) then one or more of the diodes may be shot and it's time to get a whole exchange unit (you should be able to get a second hand one for around 15 quid, but they may go the same way soon!). You need to check the battery with a voltmeter, just to make sure it's not the little blue wire from the alternator to the dash that has a dodgy contact or broken wire as that controls the dash light, but from what you describe it seems more likely that the brushes, belt tension or diodes are getting a bit ropey. David.

You won't regret that mate, I've had my 6A block in for about 15,000 miles now (it was a new VAG unit) and after a recent set-up on Optimax at Stealth to maximise the ignition advance it's really going well. a while back I remember you modding your throttle body a bit, now I've never really heard this making any difference to a 16v, but I had a go the other weekend, was a bit scared to take too much metal out but it endend up OK, see picture. To my surprise, with the flowed head and manifolds it actually does make a difference, well at least I noticed it at 6000-7200 rpm, it flies round the revs now to the limiter, whereas before it was struggling a bit on the last 1000 revs. David.

model of C would help, but from your description you're talking about the power steering pipes, one is a feed to the rack the other is a feed from the reservoir to the pump, it's usually the one to the rack that goes at the joints to the unions on the ends, so it's possible the PS fluid is dribbling along the pipe to the lowest point, if it is a hose one off a passat (2nd hand) will fit so you don't need to pay VW new prices. It may however be another leak, e.g. oil pressure sensor on oil filter housing, leaking and dripping onto these pipes, but the pipes themselves are not connected to the engine oil in any way. I'd say give it all a wipe around and then investigate for fresh oil after a short drive. Has the PS fluid gone doen at all? David.

Flusted, do you have any torque or power graphs to compare the shape? The KR inlet cam gives a very distinctive power/torque plot on any capacity block it would be interesting to compare the shapes even if you ignore the actual figures, I've got both 1.8 and 2L plots with KR and 9A inlet cams, I just can't get my head around how a higher lift cam can give better torque low down. wcrado, there is a bit more to it than just the mm bore, the 50mm has a different 'plenum' or whatever it's called, after the throttle and before the four branches, the 42mm is much larger. David.

Same engine as the equivalent golf etc... should be pretty unburstable, often driven fairly sedately in the Audi's. Galvanised body, usual Audi build quality (much better on body and trim than VW IMO) Good workhorses basically, just make sure it passes an emissions test, worth getting it MOT'd before buying if the owner will oblige. Should give you a clue if any pump/injector problems are brewing. I'd make sure the mileage adds up, they wear so well it's easy to pass off a clocked one. Budget for a cam belt change if it's been a while, or there's no history. They're a bit wallowy for me on the handling but they do actually stick to the road pretty well. David.

Optimax in my 16v allowed it to be set to just over 8 degrees of advance at idle and increased the power by almost 10 bhp over it being set closer to the 6 degrees manufacturers setting, that was back to back on Stealths rollers a few weeks ago. I know that is on a simple KR ignition map with no knock sensores etc.. but that suggests to me that a car with an adaptive ECU or agressive advance map can make quite a bit more power on higher octane fuel. Not sure how the VR6 or Digifant systems cope with different fuel but I suspect they are mapped for a particular grade eg 98RON (with a bit of margin for safety) and then simply knock back the timing if the fuel grade is worse, i.e. without a remap you won't get the most from optimax but it should develop more power than filling with 95. David.