craigowl

Still smarting from breaking down yesterday in our High Street due to a 14-year old fuel pump failing without warning, I wondered what similar experiences - or technical knowledge - has taught you guys? What are the most important components you would replace - within reason - that could cause your engine to totally fail at an inconvenient or dangerous moment? 11-year old coilpack was thing I first thought of and replaced after testing and finding it had cracks. (2006) What about sensors, or other things?

The nightmare happened - conked out in the most congested bit of our High Street! :bad-words: People held up behind were tooting after 10 seconds - tw@ts!! Good thing was Britannia Rescue got there in 40 minutes. The guy (top man) diagnosed fuel pump after we turned over engine and no fuel came out of appropriate pipe. Taken on trailer to VAG specialist only about a mile away, where diagnosis was confirmed. Pride myself on hardly ever having breakdowns as I look over our cars a lot. With hindsight, I should have replaced this 14-year old component some time ago. It can let you down when you least need it. Could be a threat to you and yours' life and limb if, say, it happened on a windy rainy night on a tricky, busy fast road.

I bought one - nicely engineered and durable, but I had a lot of trouble fitting and did not know new VAG original plastcky ones were so cheap. Agree with earlier posters sentiments, to be frank. doh!

Diana Krall; Barbra Streisand :camp: 8)

Easy decision for me to skip Top Gear :| as Clint Eastwood's great films about Iwo Jimo were on Channel 4. Much more to get your teeth into and give food for thought. 8)

Volkswagen Colander. :ignore:

Vaseline! Blimey - I knew there was something I needed to get. :camp: I heard that the inventor of Vaseline/petroleum jelly, IIRC, used to scoff a tablespoonful of the stuff every day. :gag: Lived into his 90s (again, IIRC). Keep those tubes and pipes lubed up, guys! :lol:

There are so many points at which water can get into a car. In my experience it has taken hours - and many unintentional soakings from the hose - to locate leaks. Garages will usually return the leaky car (even two new ones - GM :censored: ) saying they have "fixed it", only for you to find they havent. I usually ended up searching myself - took hours over several days or even weeks, but I located the leaks and fixed them. Even if your car is "leakproof", if it is ungaraged In the winter, on clear, still nights, the laws of physics mean the vehicle's relatively thin roof - losing heat by radiation to space and insulated by the air beneath it - will become one of the coldest surfaces on your property or in your street (Sod's law :roll: ). The roof and sloping windscreen temperatures become much colder than the air or tarmac, usually ending up as cold as the grass on a lawn. Also, some hatchbacks let water into the boot when you open them in wet weather - all you need is a few dribbles to give you a misted up car next morning if the conditions are suitable. Consequently, condensation readily forms on the inside of the roof. I have seen water pouring out of the roof-mounted courtesy light of our Pg 205 as soon as we went down an incline on such a morning. Think of an inverted metal bucket or tin box lying on the grass overnight - lift it up next morning and see how wet the "roof" is. Garaging has a lot of advantages, but when I was commuting to the daily grind, I could not be bothered, preferring to leave the car outside, as I expect many of you choose, or have to do. Roll on summer - the great amount of solar heat coming into the car means all moisture will be vapourised and evacuated from the car, giving you weeks or months of clear windows.

Can confirm after 40 years of car ownership that a misted up car in the winter-half of the year has always been due to water ingress somewhere. Corrado is garaged, so I cannot comment on how bad this model is for the problem, but it certainly steams up more than any other car i have owned if you go for a drive after washing it.

Good work, pics and writeups, davidwort. :salute: I recognised that pic of grease splatter from burst CV boot on inside of wheel. Previous car did that once. Worth remembering that one if any of you wonder why the inside of the front wheel is filthy and greasy.

Thanks for this. I'll pass it on to her, I'm sure she will be sitting taking notes all the way through. I'm a bit pissed and hyper at the moment. Publisher replied to my synopsis and wants to see the manuscript of my whole novel, and they've only had it two weeks. Off to pour another malt and a bottle of Deuchars Hey! - Good luck with that, man! :salute:

You must be an automaton without a soul, :wink: John!

Hi, Wullie. It was "Alan Cumming's: The Real Cabaret" on Sunday. Cumming :camp: was the host and even got an interview with Liza Minelli and others about the making of the film. He visted parts of Berlin and interviewed a few other people and there were lots of stories about the characters and era with contemporary footage. A lot of the acts were Jewish and some of the ladies were, err...... :camp: ..of the gay persuasion. Apparently Berlin was THE place to visit in the 30s if you were in the money and the pursuit of fun, despite the swastika flags everywhere. Not for everyone, though, the writer of the book - Christopher Isherwood :camp: who lived in Berlin at that time said it was a "buG£ers paradise". :pukeright:

Thanks for that jazzdevil. Didnt see that prog - BBC4 are always repeating anyway so will catch it next time. Saw the ones about German post war progrock and the one about Kraftwerk. The documentary about the racy, decadent and hedonistic cabaret life in Berlin in the 1930s (as Europe spirals towards hell) was fascinating, too. "Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll".

You know it makes sense John :D[/quote:19vyv8ff] My God! Man cannot live without music, surely? Strange confession - "Are Friends Electric" is the only track on the radio that made me pull into a layby so I could hear it properly and get the name. Probably in August 1979. The sounds were so astonishingly original at that time.

I got that on vinyl - you old hippy! Good Hendrix-style by one of the bros. Summer Breeze, Who's that Lady?. Classics.

How far north are you, gogsboy? I know of two garages here in West Lothian that I trust with the Corrado.

Sorry to hear about your nightmare, Corrado_ Addict. You will know now, but for anyone else, I have found that being a member of a car recovery organisation in nearly 40 years of motoring is worth it. You have to be philosophical about it and not grimace too much when paying out each year. I always kept our cars well maintained and when annual payment time came, I sometimes felt I was subsidising motorists who were lax about that. Anyway, with a suddenly failing cylinder head gasket, we once had to use AA Relay to get home from the Isle of Arran to near Edinburgh! With two young kids as well, the system worked like a dream - the AA truck waiting at the pier on the mainland for us when we arrived. One of the other times we had an old Mk2 GTi which failed to start when my wife was shopping miles away. She was glad of being a member then, too. Currently we are with Brittania as it comes with a quid or twos discount for members of the civil service motoring association. I feel it was always a good investment even though we only have had 2nd hand cars in the last 12 years, or so.

Fcs I'm quite old, why can't I get over 34mpg very often. Could be because a lot of my long trips have to end up in slow traffic in the town before I get home. I can be getting 36/37 just near home then it drops by the time I have come through the town and up the steep hill to home.

34 mpg (VR6) Missus back today from weekend in north of Scotland with Yaris (1.4 D) 63mpg. :ignore:

At one time - about a generation ago - fussy motorists would not see past Michelins, they were THE tyre. I agree they were hard and could be made to scrabble for grip even in town. They were expensive, too. People (even most young ones) prized durability and economy over grip, etc. Now, looks like tyres made of Bluetac are a better idea for modern motoring, particularly if, like we two, no commuting is done to build up to 12k miles or more in a year. I once asked on the forum about the best quality tyre to buy for use by those doing low annual mileages. Ideally we want one that will not still have 6mm of tread after 5 years! Incidentally, checking the previous owner's invoices and my docs on purchasing Corrado in May 2002, I find the following, shock, horror, maybes aye maybes no! 1 - Two of tyres on car (Dunlop Sport) were bought at Kwikfit in May 1999 - he paid £254!!! including balancing & valve. 2 - Another tyre bought there November 2000. £126. 3 - Garage that sold car to me put on new one of same type (no charge of course) when preparing as "assured VAG group car" to be sold. This was in May 2002. Car passed MOT all clear in May 2009 by local very fussy garage. Reckon I will have to get on down and check its shoes, though. :)

The Michelins on my Pug 205 were lasting for ever so I had her crushed. :wink:

Coilpack.

chazrad said "I've even fallen behind and have a couple of month's worth of magazines sitting waiting to be opened - a sign that I've fallen out of love with Evo, at least for the moment. " Topic drift - apologies. Seen this develop in my lifetime. A real manifestation of the information overload in modern life. We used to have less money and material, but were able to relish and savour every favourite magazine or LP as it came out. How my three and you guys manage to work and devote quality time to enjoy your interests looks to me impossible today.

Thanks, guys. I will not be doing it myself - beyond me now. Have another couple of quotes to come, so your reactions are well worthwhile so far. :salute: I think this (independant) garage charges about £40/hour labour and 2 or 3 techs are VAG trained. Have had a few things done to various cars in family and results OK. Perhaps people who have paid for labour recently may be able to comment. As I say, I have to pay someone to do this now.