davidwort

Yeah I have mk4 16" wheels on my golf, 205 55 16 and they are huge (diameter) compared to the 50 15's on the corrado

More standing on your head

Just to clarify, I'd recommend a genuine vag switch, but a pattern lock barrel should be fine, if a little rough compared to a vag one. It's the switches that are usually the problem as wear results in poor or no contact and hence no starting. the lock barrel is essentially just a rod that turns the switch, the pattern one of these I have seems fine. The lock barrels are very expensive from vw, but the switches aren't too bad, so of the sake of 10-20 quid more for the switch I'd recommend a vag switch every time.

Well I did it with the dash in and it wasn't that bad, removing the dash would have meant taking a lot more of the car apart Which ever way you do it make sure the studs/bolts that go through the bulkhead have free nuts in the engine bay before ripping everything out inside the car

Is it a genuine vw switch? Just wondering as I know the pattern ones can have issues. It's most likely the barrel though, like the others have said

It's a while since I was under there but don't the mounting rubbers (rectangular things) have a metal clip around them, once the nut is off they can be unhooked or bent back to remove? I was told they break off often so bought all replacement mountings for mine (think there's a wiki article listing parts?) but mine were actually not that bad.

or another way of looking at it, people who work with machinery, construction, vehicles etc now have training, safety equipment, safety standards and inspections, rented houses have to have annual gas and electrical tests, etc... alternatively, you could take your chances on Indian roads or construct high rise buildings on bamboo scaffolding in China? it might not be common opinion, but the EU has actually improved safety for all of us in many areas with a lot of safety legislation, plenty home grown too, and most of it is pretty sensible stuff. a few 'car' examples: catalytic convertors indicator side repeaters steadily improving emissions and particulates limits forthcoming ABS and ESP requirements

I've just read it myself and agree totally, it's all about improving the standards and frequency of vehicle MOT's, test centres and inspections across europe, nothing to do with banning car modifications, as far as I can see the UK MOT system meets or exceeds all this anyway. I think there's a lot of scaremongering going on here.

that's why there's a warning label on the header tank side cover :) if the system is up to temp and pressurised, even if there isn't quite the right amount of coolant, it will boil over if the car has just been running when you unscrew the cap.

more likely to be a completely rusted through fuel pipe or union, they do go a bit nasty on the 16v's I wouldn't recommend petrol to clean a tarmac drive, my mk1 did this on my dad's drive and he was left with a pit of gravel rather than tarmac :)

Coolant should not overflow when running if it's at the max mark on the header tank when cold, it will only expel from the tank overflow when there is too much coolant, the cap seal is faulty, a leaking HG pressurises the coolant or it over pressurises from over heating, possibly from a stuck shut stat or a blocked or partially blocked rad.

You need to remove one of the water hoses to the exchanger and look inside the short pipe sticking out of the unit, you might see a bit of dried coolant that has leaked around the hose but you won't see corrosion from the coolant until the hose is off. Just because a car is high mileage doesn't mean the exchanger will be corroded though, it depends on how frequently the old blue coolant (G11) was changed and/or the mix and if it's been run on the right mix of G12/G12+ etc for the last maybe 10 years, the G12(+) stuff should be better because as long as it's mixed correctly it gives better long term corrosion protection.

why would you need to uprate 6 little 10/11mm bolts that torque to 20Nm :scratch:

HGs tend to go between cylinders or from an oil or water gallery to a cylinder, so if it's a HG failure from a water gallery to a cylinder you should see the problem on a spark plug, and before the performance starts dropping off noticeably. It's possible but more unlikely that the HG has rotted from a water to an oil gallery. If there's just a pin hole inside the heat exchanger then it will be hard to test off the car I think, but the condition of the hose connections to the exchanger will give you a clue, if there's corrosion on the ends the inside will be bad too, I've seen exchangers with holes right through the sides of the water hose connection ends.

and... 6000 posts, phew, that's a lot of inane car chat :)

well one of mine doesn't and bald tyres are better for braking 4 reasons I can think of for bigger brakes so far: 1) faster car, needs to shed all of that kinetic energy to stop, bigger disk and pad needed to shed all that heat 2) heavier car, a 4wd R32 weighs a lot more than even a VR Corrado 3) you drive so hard that smaller brakes have no chance to cool and you get brake fade 4) they look nicer behind big wheels and 4 reasons not to fit bigger brakes 1) they are heavier and create more rotating mass and suspension (unsprung?) weight 2) your existing brakes work fine, don't fade etc in your normal driving conditions 3) smaller disks and pads may actually brake better in day to day driving where you need quick biting, brakes that over-cool are as bad as over heating brakes 4) they cost more

Seriously, this sounds worse and worse, replacement bay windows without correct support, wiring, heating, rendered walls which could be hiding anything and long term require maintenance that other walls just don't. A seller that is threatening WTF?! I wouldn't be happy without a full boroscope investigation of the cavities either. It's really not stacking up well???

if only the same could be said about corrados :)

Based on my experience of buying houses and issues my family have had, if there's this much flagged up already then you've got to be pretty sure you want this property at this location. Sounds like the current owners have had all sorts of illegal potentially dodgy work done, could cost thousands to rectify and then there's structural issues. you'll have a job ever claiming for susbsidence etc on future insurance if this has already been flagged! Problem is, house buying is a very emotional thing, and it's easy to fall in love with a place and hard to be objective. Getting permission for 'invasive' surveys to check wall ties etc., is going to be very costly and time consuming to arrange and complete, I've seen it done here at work on a 1970's building, which they ended up demolishing and rebuilding! Having said all that, as some of the other's have said, it shouldn't cost much if anything to get a builder or two to give you a worst case scenario, then use that as a bargaining tool. One thing's for sure, it demonstrates that home seller packs are a complete waste of time and money!

do you mean the six 12 point bolts that hold the clutch pressure plate to the flywheel? they're just multi-point bolts, nothing special. undo and retighten opposite bolts and tighten to 20Nm. There shouldn't be 'spline bolts' in there, like the ones used for driveshaft joints where a multi spline tool is inserted into the centre of the bolt head.

Somewhere I've posted the parts diagrams of the two front suspension types, essentially you need everything other than the damper itself, coilovers really just replace the damper/strut so the same applies. Iirc there are several parts you need, the later spring top plates are needed to work with the two piece mountings/bearings and then there's a couple of nuts etc that go with them, the top hats (the bit you see in the engine bay) are different too. Not sue about the bump stops and dust covers as these fit the conventional strut/ damper so may not be relevant for a coilovers.

:lol: they are huge, it would be like fitting a RR grille on a mini I saw a Corrado with mk4 headlights once, great bit of bodywork and obvioulsy took some skill, but it didn't 'do' anything for the corrado. I do sometimes wish VW made the corrado front more aggressive looking, the facelift cars with the higher bonnet and thinner spoiler in particular can look pretty gormless.

If both tyres are wearing on the inside you either have mega negative camber on both sides (unlikely) or the wheels are toe-ing out (i.e. not parallel) and track rods need adjusting. Toe out will cause feathering of the rubber rather than just wear as the rubber is essentially being ripped away at an angle rather than just taking more weight Camber is more of a preference thing, but like VR6Joni says 1 degree negative is about right for most wheels and tyres on the Corrado and parallel (zero) toe or very very slightly toe-ing in as FWD cars tend to toe out slightly more under acceleration completely vertical wheels |---| (zero camber), or even worse positive camber \---/ will feel horrible on corners as the tyre face will loose some contact or pressure on the ground and the Mcpherson strut on the corrado doesn't keep the wheel upright like a double wishbone setup would.

you can get a gasket set and headbolts for the 1.8 for about 30 quid, the rest is labour (+ coolant) you're probably looking at 3 hours labour, you might need new nuts for the manifold to downpipe (my preferred method for removing the head rather than attempting to remove exhaust manifold from the head) This is assuming the head hasn't warped, but what is more likely is what I've just had on the 8v, and the HG has just rotted away over the years enough to cause a minor water leak It's not a massively difficult job to do at home and the head can be lifted off the block by one person, but you would need a jack and stands to get under the car to remove the manifold from the downpipe, long extension bars for sockets, and a spline bit and torque wrench for the headbolts. If you pay a garage it could cost anything from 200-600 quid depending on what needs to be done and the hourly rate. but like the guys have said, go over all the other cheaper to fix things first, wullie is right, the plastic water pipe flanges to the head are notorious for leaking when old.

do you have red/purple coolant additive (G12+ etc) this leaves a nice easily identifiable red crust as water dries where it leaks, you don't say which engine but generally look at all the hose joins for residue and the radiator seams. The heater matrix is just a mini radiator too, but unfortunately you can't visually inspect it without removing the whole air distribution unit from behind the dash, so look for any signs of damp on the carpets under the dash or smells of coolant insode the car, windows will start to mist up too. do you have any 'mayo' on the dipstick? if water is leaking from the headgasket into the oil chambers or from holes inside the oil/water cooler then you'll get creamy emulsified oil in the sump eventually, more than just the tiny amounts you sometimes get under the oil filler cap. water leaking from the HG into the cylinders will eventually appear as white smoke, or rather water vapour, from the exhaust, but that's only when it gets really bad. Also check around the base and sides of the header tank, sometimes the seal on the cap can fail and water escapes from the tank overflow.