davidwort

I can see the negative camber from the pic of your car! Mine's a fraction over VW spec and it feels pretty good too. David.

http://www.awesome-gti.co.uk/vw%20corrado/exhausts.html I've got a Janspeed on mine, don't know if you can get them any more though, pre 92 cars have hook type hangars. David.

Phil, as you might remember I've just replaced my rears with OEM quality Febi bushes from GSF, after a week or so driving it on the new ones all I can say is that the car handles great now, it's running on new koni's with eibach springs and 195-50-15 tyres with slightly wider than standard 7" alloys. All the front bushes are new standard OEM too. The alignment and camber is spot on too, checked after doing the bushes. I can't speak from experience with any poly bushes, but the new OEM rubber is certainly spot on for me now, cornering is such a good feeling I've found myself throwing it about a bit more just 'cause it feels so accurate and responsive. Getting back into my mk4 golf really opens your eyes as to how good the Corrado was when it came out :) David.

As I said, my 16v Original Factory wishbones were fitted with adjustable ball joints. I can't believe these were both replaced in 1995 before I bought the car. David.

Is that VR6's you're referring to? My 16v very definitely has bolted adjustable ball joints in the wishbones and these were the original factory wishbones. David.

Cambelt and tensionner, it's often the tensionners that fail/sieze and then snap the belt. If there's no history showing it having been done then you could be risking a head rebuild every time you drive it. David.

yeah, OK, but my sarcastic point was the previous message was talking about MAF's sending data to an ECU blah, blah, blah and that K-jet or even KE-jet is not quite as clever, the post seemed to be describing a digifant or other fully electronic injection system, but I get your point, basically the 'MAP' is the shape of the cone etc... on the metering head. David.

yeah, but, a 16v don't have no MAF :scratch:

Depends very much on the engine, some 1.8 16v's pink like crazy at standard advance on regular unleaded, others are fine, I've never had pinking problems on mine, in fact I use tesco unleaded most of the time with 7.5 deg of advance, I have to say it feels a lot smoother on Optimax though. I really need to get it on the rolling road to get it spot on though. Admittedly my flowed, polished head probably reduces the chance of pinking. I've seen 16v's many-a-time with timing belts jumped a tooth too, often the result of a garage not paying attention when fitting a new belt, so it's worth checking the engine timing as well as the ignition timing. David.

Blimey :shock: your engine will be running backwards soon! VW spec is 6 deg +/- 1 degree advance at idle, in my experience a couple of degrees more is about optimum on good quality fuel. If you read the Club GTI forum that's about what the 180-200bhp 2.0 16v golf mk2's are running without V-Sam, K-star etc. I've also read on there that any more than about 8 degrees and although you might get a hp or two more at the top end, pinking will start to occur and you don't want holes burnt in the top of your pistons! GVK had his mk2 set up at Stealth I think with about 8 degrees, any more and there was pinking starting, he's got a non-cat 2.016v with a flowed head, very similar to the spec of my engine which I run at about 7.5deg. You will also make starting the car a struggle with too much advance. David.

Take it to an independant VW specialist like Stealth, even if you have to drive a long way you'll get a much lower labour rate and technicians who know the cars and engines well and will be able to give good honest advice about problem areas and what will need attention soon. Most VW dealerships rarely see cars over 3 years old and have extorsionate labour rates to help pay for the glossy sites that VAG want them to maintain. Any reasonably well read-up future buyer will value stamps from somewhere like Stealth more than VW dealer service stamps. David.

yep, they were actually pretty well bonded to the inner sleeve still, in fact the only way I could get it out was using the welding gear with a burner tip on the end and burning the rubber away :lol: Eventually I pulled it out with a pair of mole grips, but it didn't give up easily. The flared bit that does the work of the passive wheel steer (I guess) looked pretty knackered though. David.

Phil, my rear bushes were from GSF and OEM quality, only about a tenner a side. I stood my rear axle on a pair of axle stands to work on them, cutting out the rubber was fiddly I used all manner of screwdrivers and whacking them to poke all the rubber away, it helped to soften it with a gas torch, once you have nothing but the outer metal part of the old bush left in the axle you can then cut through the wall of it by inserting a hacksaw blade and then doing up the hacksaw, slowly cut through the bush until you are nearly at the axle metal and then chisel the edge of the bush by the cut so the metal peels back, once you've got half of the length of the bush part that's pressed into the axle chiselled back the whole thing pops out quite easily. You'd never pull the old bush out I don't reckon, it would just distort and jam, perhaps the proper VW tool helps with extracting the old ones, don't know. You need to be careful when pulling in the new bush to make sure it's orientation is correct (take a pic or leave one old one in place) and it pulls in straight at the start so you don't distort it, the metal is fairly soft. Make sure you clean up the axle first so no rust gets jammed in the hole as you're pulling in the new bush and don't pull the first one quite all the way in until you have the second one in and you have offered it up to the car again, I think it would be hard to pull them in too far but it's better to be safe than sorry. As I said before, plently of grease on the bush and in the axle helps when pulling it in. I thought it would be worse to do than it was, I just took my time and all seemed to go well. It was fiddly to make sure the new bush was pulled on the right point on it, I found that by putting some bits of metal packing about 2cm deep and 2 or 3 cm long on the lip of the outer part of the new bush just where it bends and flares out, I got enough purchase on a strong part of it to pull it straight. David.

I spent 2 days doing this! It needn't have taken longer than a 3 or 4 hours though, I didn't use the VW tool, so I removed the rear axle completely (2 bolts) and 2 bottom shock bolts and then undid the rear brake lines clamping the hoses on the car to prevent the fluid draining through from the reservoir. I also fitted new rear brake pipes while I was there. to remove the old bushes I cut/burnt out some of the rubber to extract the middle sleeve in the old bush and then used a hack saw to carefully slice through the outer wall of the bush to enable me to tap the bush out of the axle. Pushing in the new bush was not too difficult, I just used a long heavy bolt with some very strong large washers to pull the bush into the axle, plenty of grease too. I basically just wound it in with a spanner. You could probably use some kind of proper puller to do this other than the VAG tool, but my washer and bolt set-up with a few bits of metal packing to make sure the shoulders of the bush were being pushed on worked just fine. the car is definately better now, everything is tighter, I've used all standard OEM quality bushes all round. Anything tightening up the rear axle improves turn in response and the higher speed, higher stress manouvering feels much more controlled now. David.

My 16v one wasn't, just jacked the engine up a bit and removed the small alloy bracket on the box to get slightly better clearance to get the mount out of the sub-frame. Didn't really need doing to be honest, old one looked fine when I got it out and rubber still seemed pretty firm, that was at about 110,000 miles. David.

Car (1990 16v) was starting to feel a bit funny at high speed on bends etc... I've done all the front bushes and they weren't in bad nick really but these pics of the rear bushes show the state of the rubber, it had come away from the inner shaped metal part all together. Wasn't as bad a job to do as I thought, but it definitely helped having a 2 post ramp to take the beam off the car. David.

absolutely, and if you need fuel economy that much you won't be able to afford to maintain a Corrado anyway :lol: Seriously, my mate has a 2.0 16v TDI mk5, very quick but just not the same as red-lining a performance petrol engine somehow, he still prefers his wife's Ibiza 1.8T, and the smoke and smell is foul not to mention the plastic gloves you need to wear when filling up. David.

yep, for most corrado 1.8 16v's, changed at chassis No. 50-N-011487, but not shared with any other VW's AFAIK. David.

Not sure, but when fitting my new ball joints and bushes earlier this week it looked to me as if you can adjust the camber further by sliding the ball joint in or out in the wishbone, it has 3 bolts holding it in. with both my ball joints in about the middle position on the wishbone I was close to maximum negative camber I could achieve on the leg to hub bolts and my car's only on eibachs (25-30mm lower than standard), and that was only giving me about 1/2 degree negative camber. David.

1990 16v with golf 2 16v style pump and rack, I'm on the original rack and a new/recon pump from GSF which has done about 20,000 miles now. Last time I replaced the pump (the original VAG one at 100,000 miles) the system was pumping constantly back into the fluid reservoir and the resultant pressure made the pump-to-rack hose start to leak. I replaced the pump and the problem went away, I guessed it was a by-pass valve or something in the pump that had failed/stuck. The same symptom has reoccurred (20,000 miles later), this time I put a second hand pump on from a MK3 golf ryder, pump looks identical although has a VW part number no-where to be found on ETKA ??? But, the problem is still there, system groans away all the time and gets really bad when turning the wheel. the rack feels fine, car drives fine, both pumps have perfect bearings and no leaks, rack doesn't leak, could I just have another duff valve in the second hand pump? Or could the rack have a problem. Any suggestions welcome, before I get a new rack, I thought about just swapping out the pump valves as they just un-screw and trying a couple of others from similar passat or seat ones from the breakers? cheers, David.

Mine didn't have holes for circlip pliers, I guess you just need to pull them with grips, probably poking them with a screwdriver or something at the ends, looks like a right fiddle with them on the car. David.

have you checked the expansion tank/header tank cap seal is OK, sometimes the rubber o-ring inside can come adrift and the system will not be able to pressurise and will just boil over. Ther tank itself could also have a leak David.

OK, here's the best info I can get, you definately need to pressure bleed the system due to all the small valves inside the ABS units, they are really difficult to get bled if they have been completely drained of fluid (well I guess you know that already), and removing the units and shaking them from every angle etc.. it's still almost impossible to get air locks out, he did say that it is unlikely to be the unit itself that is damaged and if you follow the workshop manual to the letter (did VAG do this?) and pressure bleed, that's pretty much the only way. David.

I'm pretty sure that's the problem, I'll check with my Dad this evening, but I'm sure ABS pumps can be a real problem if the system has been completely drained, I think what they usually do is remove most of the reservoir's fluid by pipette and then fill it with fresh and bleed the system through but without ever fully draining the system, providing it's just a fluid replacement at a service. I'll try to find out but it's worth asking the dealer what the workshop manual says about fitting a new abs unit and how the system should be filled and bled afterwards. David.

jack it on the beam, put axle stands under the front edge of the mounting bracket for the beam (just in front of beam bushes) and remove the jack. scissor jacks are only safe for wheel changes IMO. David.