davidwort

1990 16v, early golf 2 style power steering pump. It's happened to me once before, I think the by-pass valve in the PS pump has stuck and so it's constantly pumping to the rack (fluid reservoir is bubbling like mad all the time), last time I just bought a new pump, even though the bearings were fine as it had done 100,000 miles. Question is, can it be freed off? This pump is only about 20,000 miles old and from what I remember the valve is down the side of the unit where the pressure hose to the rack connects. cheers, David.

I've always run my Corrado on the old blue stuff (it's designed for cast iron and alloy too) and have had no corrosion to the block, head, rads or heat exchanger, and thats over 8 years and 100,000 miles and inspection after engine re-builds. As far is I'm concerned you're just wasting money on G12+ as it's likely that the system will have to be drained again before the cheaper stuff starts to loose it's corrosion protection anyway, hoses/water pump replacement etc.. David.

High percentage of anti-freeze will probably run hotter than just water actually, I'd drain the system, fill with just tap water, run for a short while, allow to cool, re-drain and fill with 50/50 distilled water and regular quality blue coolant from GSF etc.. unless it has always been run on the red coolant from VW, some of the early versions of which cannot be mixed with blue coolant and run the risk of blocking water-ways by creating a gel. I just drain from the bottom rad hose, bleeding the air out on a re-fill can take a couple of runs in the car and a couple of top ups, but try to get at least four or five litres of coolant in before running the car. I've known people run a car with a garden hose attached to the system and the water just draining straight out, but you shouldn't let coolant just run into the water course. One plain eater re-fill and re-drain should get it pretty clean. David.

They do run fairly hot (16v's that is - don't know if your golf was 8 or 16v?), if you change the oil for some 10/40 semi-synthetic, coolant change and check the plugs aren't running too hot (visual inspection) I'd say everything is probably OK. thermostats can stick, and the radiator will be less efficient the older it gets (sludge and scale). Make sure you're running super unleaded fuel, optimax etc.. and not 95 octane or at least that the car is not pinking under heavy load on 95. In 8 years, and on 3 16v engines, 1.8 and 2 2.0's my normal running oil temp has been about 102-108 degrees, if your water is OK then that's another pointer to everything being alright as the heat exchanger (on top of the oil filter) will be cooling the oil with the water system. David.

I've done this several times at home in a double garage and on the drive, didn't remove the front panel but I can see clearance would be better without it, I just used a small crane and two of us to guide it into the engine bay. Saved loads of time taking all of the front of the car off, just need to be careful not to whack the rad with the swinging engine! Manifold nuts aren't that bad to do with a good selection of spanner sockets etc... David.

I've heard that the mk3 Golf ABF 2.016v box is the best for the 16v engine, better ratios than the Corrado boxes, possibly better suited to a 2.0 than a 1.8, only thing is they tend to be more expensive. David.

a second hand one should do the trick if it is faulty, golfs, passats and audi 80's used the same part, 2L cars are slightly different part number but it should work OK. Shouldn't be more than a couple of quid. I've got 2 spare if you think this is the problem. It's worth cleaning the ISV as well though! David.

I'd say so, I think the Haynes data sheets (were on the CCGB site I think) give a pressure value at 3000 rpm or something. The 4 pots should be pretty much what you've described on your VR and something like a min of 2 bar at 3000 rpm. The oil squirters for the underside of the pistons only open on a 16v at 3.5 bar, so I'd worry if my gauge never got to 4 bar, but I don't think VR's have those, I'd still expect the oil pressure is roughly the same though. David.

:pukeright: ...ok, unlikely in the UK, but there's always the risk :)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 42896&rd=1 apologies to anyone who owns this car or has one with the same trim, but I've never seen one this bad before. David.

keep an open mind and look for the tidiest car you can find, mechanicals are generally cheaper to fix than bodywork. All are fun to drive and much more involving than most other cars on the road, but the 1.8 16v will be the cheapest to run and insure, and the G60 and VR6 the quickest, like most cars the later ones are more likely to have faults ironed out by the manufacturers and be the least corroded and worn, don't expect there to be zero running costs from any of them in your first year of ownership though! David.

Valvers do have cam belts, and they use the same tensioner as the 8V engines too... dirt cheap and a doddle to fit. ... All the NA 8v's I've seen have a narrower tensionner and timing belt than the 16v's, don't know about G60 engines though. David.

I guess you've got all the extra usual electrics these days, lots of additional courtesy lights, electric motors in all the air-con system (climatronic), multi-speaker stereos, extra 12v power outlets and the potential for DVD/playstations etc. in the head rests and so on... My polo had a 45Amp, but then most of those didn't even have a giggy lighter! David.

The rears are 6*4's but there's not much room for a decent sized magnet, you'll probably have to cut the mounting frame a bit. Make sure any speakers you get also clear the suspension turret! I went for 4" rounds in the back rather than 6*4's as you have much more choice and generally better speakers for the same money. My Infinity components up front, were a bit of a fiddle to fit in the door pockets, a bit of trimming of the door card was needed and I put the tweeters in the dash. David.

performance - it will slow you down, as it could sap more power from the engine and is heavier! battery charging - won't make any difference, unless you have 10 electric windows all working at once and ICE that fills your entire boot. :) Seriously though, there's not much point in fitting a bigger alternator unless you have a current drain that needs it, my old 65amp one was fine with all electrics on, 100W headlights on full and a stereo and 100W per channel amp thumping away, I only changed to a Passat 90Amp as it was all I could find at the time (and BTW the Passat had the Bosch 90amp on the 1.8 16v KR engine). David.

http://www.volkswagenspares.com/volks-apart.htm :) David. beaten by 1 minute :lol:

I think the 225's have two charge coolers one on the left and one on the right, the lower power ones only have one on the right (drivers side). If I'm reading ETKA right the 225's have the engine codes APX or BAM, the other possible TT engines are AJQ AUQ APP ARY and AUM, AUM and AUQ are used on the mk4 golf so I reckon are the 150 and 180bhp ones. Not sure where the codes are on the car, I'd imagine cam cover and boot sticker like other VAG cars. David.

You should be able to get one from a passat, that's where mine came from, shouldn't be difficult to find at a breakers, just make sure the passat has the same type of gearbox selector mechanism (i.e. with the shift weight) as your Corrado and the PS pipe should be identical. Best to compare the Corrado one side by side with the Passat one you find, but I just ordered one by phone from volks-apart in London and it fitted fine. BTW, make sure the pump's by-pass valve hasn't stuck (usually makes pump ,very noisy all the time), that's how my pump-to-rack hose went, too much constant pressure from the pump and it started to leak fluid. David.

You'll really notice the difference of a 2.0 block with a 1.8 head and standard cams, definitely worth doing for all the extra torque if you can get it fitted cheaply, from experience I'd say consider getting your head ported and gas flowed with the standard cams and then do the 2.0 bottom end, don't waste your money on expensive cam kits on an otherwise unmodded 1.8 16v you'll only get a few bhp at the top end and loose low end tractability, not want you want on a 1.8 16v. Standard 1.8 inlet cam is a good compromise between smooth power delivery, good top end and good spread of torque IMO and works well on flowed heads and 2.0 bottom ends too. The Glub GTI forum is a good source of info on 16v tuning, I'd say cams are one of the last things to change when you are after peak hp on a highly tuned 16v and better suited to the lighter golf where the trade off in torque is not as noticeable, as a minimum you really need a flowed head to take advantage of them anyway. David.

my last one (1990 16v so early style) was 110 quid from VAG dealer a couple of years back(same price as GPC at the time) , the one before that was 175 quid about 6 years ago, I found out shortly after I bought the last one that if you can get parts club discount (which the CCGB would have got me at the time, doh!) the early complete lights were about 65 quid from a dealer! even if you have a late car, the reflector is the same just swap over your lense and trim, the late style ones were much more expensive last ime I checked. David.

My 1.6 16v mk4 is nice enough, quality is OK although some areas are a bit ropey, never had any major problems in 30,000 miles apart from a dead coil pack but got that paid for by VW as they were known to be problematic in 2000-ish It's very wallowy though, the damping isn't good enough as standard and the tyres are geared very much to comfort, it's just not even close to an old shape focus on ride and handling as standard but it's predictable and safe and the 1.6 16v lump is not bad considering the car is heavier than my corrado, it's a bit harsh at higher revs though. Oh - get the cambelt done on time, the tension rollers self destruct, I nearly destroyed my head when it started making a noise from the pulleys, fortunately I stopped the car just in time. I think VW have changed the design of the parts several times. David.

The MFA is quite simple in that it's not measuring your fuel usage at all, only inlet manifold pressure and road speed, there's plenty of margin for error, even tyre tread depth on the correct wheels and tyres for the model will affect it, I've found they all over estimate, my mk 4 golf is the same. Best used as a guide only. My 16v is usually about 2-3 mpg higher than actual tank to tank, they seem to get more optimistic in the winter - not exactly sure why? - perhaps down to more rich running in the cold start-ups. You could have a slight leak on the vacuum pipe/sensor to the speedo too. David.

don't think so, there are loads of different part numbers for racks and I think most of the golfs will have different ratio's to the Corrado, don't think any of the passats have the same ones either, you need to make sure you have the same suffix letter(s) on the part number as yours. David.

check the mk 2 golf wishbone on ETKA, the sleeve is listed as 191 407 190 A, looks like it might do the job? think they're less than a quid each from VAG. Can't remember, think I re-used the sleeve on mine the other month when I did my wishbones (16v) David.

All Corrado front panels can have longer rads fitted, you can see by the mounting holes pressed into the front panels, I believe the 16v/G60 air con rad is 675mm, the Vr6 one is only 630mm, the problem is getting hoses to fit the vr6 one to a 4 cylinder engine even if it will fit in the 16v front panel locating holes (you may need a vr6 front panel). But as I said, I can't see you are going to get any improvement anyway, all you'll do is add more weight to the front of your car. David.