craigowl

It is rotten luck. Insurance loss adjusters (if involved) may be reluctant to pay out, as original state of ancient building does not look as if it was in great, well-maintained condition. (Not wishing to be negative - only commenting on what happens from my experience of working with weather related losses. Be sure you guys bear this in mind when thinking about your own treasured possessions in this era of climate change paranoia.)

If coilpack is original, it will be shot. This results in arcing and misfiring in damp conditions or if coilpack gets splashed.

No 2. More subtlety and taste than the too fussy No. 1 IMO.

I only found that the aux pump was seized when I found its 5 amp fuse was blown. Anyone know how you would you know otherwise? Car ran great with no overheating, funny noises, etc.

Dirty brown - is it oily? Can you see globules floating on top of the coolant? Hope its not a blown cylinder head gasket. When you take off the oil filler cap on top of the engine when it is cold , are their mayonnaise-like yellow or yellowish brown deposits on it?

Our council (West Lothian) came out top for state of roads in a survey, so I can guess how bad all the others must be. I reported large, widening, crumbling cracks with weeds growing in them in our and our neighbour's 30 year old tarmac pavement. Have you seen some of these council guys doing repairs? Fling in some coarse tarred gravel, tamp it down and pi$$ off real smart. They left loose aggregate lying all over the pavement, the cracks were not filled neatly and weeds will be growing again soon and pushing out and crumbling their puny "repairs". No pride whatsoever in what they were doing and a complete waste of time resources and money. We are all paying a high council tax to keep these guys in a job. :mad:

5A is linked to aux pump. Dont know what 20A is for. Was sound when I looked so did not research what it was for.

Sorry, S'charged - did not know about heater matrix aspect. All I know is that my VR6 had been running for an unknown period of time with seized aux pump and I had experienced no problems whatsoever.

CazzaVR. IMO VR6 seems to run OK with seized aux pump (dedicated 5 amp fuse blows then). Mostly we will not know pump/fuse has failed. I think it is merely a belt and braces thing to prevent head warping due to hot spots at certain times. I wouldnt run over 5000 rpm that way, though. 8)

IMO, mostly the splines will be OK, unless you are in the very naughty habit of switching on the wipers when they are frosted to the windscreen. :nono: Fingers crossed for you.

New tyres? Are they the same brand as what you had on before? Having driven for over 40 years, I have noticed that when you become familiar with any car you drive, you hear slightly different sounds right away. Always trust your own senses about differences in your car's behaviour. A garage man I knew confirmed that the owner of a car would, indeed, hear and feel unusual sounds and handling before he would, as mechanics drive so many different vehicles, they have no "normal" behaviour to compare with. Different tyres (in my case a pair of Uniroyal after years of Michelin) made the Peugeot sound different. However, when I ran over stretches of different, smoother road surface, the noise disappeared and I then realised that the road noise from the new tyres was the different sound I was hearing. If not tyres, could be wheel bearing. I had to take a car to my garage twice insisting that a slight rumbly noise had developed - I could hear it, they could not. Second time, mechanic suspected wheel bearing, they were changed and the noise had disappeared!

They have put this down - I am sure I was quoted about £230 including VAT about 2 or 3 years ago. AVS - seems best, as suggested by Dogzyboy.

If its the original coilpack from 1995 (same as mine) it is bound to be about to fail or is already failing. I would replace it anyway, even tho it may not be the cause of the problem. (Unlikely to be the sole cause of your problem if when you went out in it the weather was dry. If it was wet, though......) Put coilpack and arcing in "search" to find loads written about VR6 coilpack. VAG prices are over £200 IIRC. Get one from Eurocarparts or similar - much cheaper.

Personally, I would seriously consider coilpack as a problem. My car was running fine with original at 10 years old when I bought it, but I am almost never out in it in damp or wet weather. I read about coil pack problems on forums. (Due to great heat from engine block onto which coilpack is bolted, plastic part(s) eventually crack. It can then behave just as a cracked bakelite distributor cover used to - arcing, missing etc.) I sprayed pack with mister and engine started to falter. Took coilpack off and on VERY CLOSE examination you could see a few hairline cracks in the plastic. I am certain the original component will not be 100% sound on your 1996 Corrado, but could not guarantee that this is definitely the one and only problem with your car. I have replaced, or attended to, a few parts on the C that are regarded as likely weak spots after 10 years. Apart from coil pack, typically they are: top hose (I replaced most hoses with Samcos) driver door handle (had to when it failed! - they all seem to) headlight switch (when it failed - extremely common - feel the heat in it when you have had lights on for a few minutes - pathetic design IMO) serpentine belt heater matrix flexible brake hoses some brake pipes (at an MOT) fuel filter (has yours ever been done? - sometimes left out of services) auxiliary water pump Oh, and original solitude alloys had to be refurbished as they were oozing air at tyre rims. Annoying, very slow leaks eliminated. Have not done timing chains and a few other things peeps on here likely to include.

Yeah, our Pug 205 diesel has no power steering. My wife luvs car and that is only thing she doesnt like about it. I dont mind it. When some joints in front end were going last year, steering effort got harder and harder at parking speeds. What a change when they were renewed. We have so-called "GLD" version :roll: and it has neither power steering nor an intermittent setting for windscreen wipers, what a bl00dy cheek our cheese eating friends have!

Oops - forgot. Chrome paint. Do not get Simoniz "chrome paint" - I tried it on a small item a few months ago - it dont look like chrome and it cost £7.99! :mad: Also, the guy in the shop told me the chrome effect weathers and you have to respray from time to time. Learn from my mistake 3corsameal.

Re twin colour badges. Good tips, coolrado. :king: I have not tried that one - dont mess about with latex much these days! I tried to make a replica or two of the red/black "Storm" badge a year or two ago. Keeping the black edges and the red face separate was a pain and cost me a lot of materials. I eventually got a couple of replicas by hand painting them. They are not perfect close up but are OK on the car from more than a couple of feet distance, which is all you need really for most days out. As a penshner , I had intended to make a good few and sell them on here, but could not get a high enough standard and they took many hours of time.

Badge grommets! if you'll pardon the expression. From Eurocarparts (black) - part no. 855440450 37p + vat each From VAG (blue) - called a "clip" - part no. 191853615A 36p +vat. NB - I am only 90% sure of VAG part no. - ask dealer to confirm it is, indeed, the blue badge grommet. I am referring to an invoice of 24/4/06 and bought a few small items at that time, including the grommets. Both types look exactly the same apart from the colour. Buy a few extra! If you take badges off later for some reason it is easy to drop one or two down into cavities from which you cannot recover 'em.

Something not right. Sounds like it is faltering. Cold and warm idles should be smooth IMO. Mine idles perfectly smoothly at about 750-780rpm when warmed up and with no vibration. One of my favourites for missing VR6s - How old is coil pack?

In fairness, I expect some of the cars mentioned were cr^p because the suspension/bushes/steering etc were shot. Peugeor 205, e.g. which has always been regarded as having good handling. Worst handling car I drove was my father in law's Morris Marina automatic. What a flabby wallower even when new. Exciting, tho, ending up facing oncoming traffic after you had negotiated a bend. One of Britain's finest - when we were kings.......not. Our car industry was going down the pan fast due to the greed of our car workers who were led like sheep by bolshy shop stewards - often Scots, I am ashamed to say. Underpowered cars are frustrating and can give you a feeling of vulnerability and insecurity among brisk moving commuters and modern trucks. Fiat Cinquecento courtesy car (hahaha) and our own Citroen Dyane with 602cc spring to mind. The Citroen still remains a favourite, though, for its radical talents driving more modern designs doesnt offer. Honest. :wink:

Price is more of an issue with me now, too. Do we not replace components like plug leads a bit too soon in the belief that a new set must improve things? My 1995 VR6 is still on original leads and I see no reason to replace them as there are no misfires or faltering and fuel consumption is good. Have read various pseudo scientific babble about copper breaking down in leads, etc, etc. Probably spread around by manufactures? Any informed views on this? Coil packs do deteriorate by 10 years at least and I have certainly renewed that as you could actually see with your own eyes why the thing was not working as it should have been.

Thanks, dood. I am just back indoors after putting it all back together again. I cleaned the rotating knob bit and the circuit board with a few squirts of "Clean tronic" and now the fan works! Worst bit was getting the heater control panel out of the dashboard - i think you are supposed to remove most of the fascia and possibly the steering wheel! - and then putting everything back together again. I applied a bit of leverage to plastic here and there, unscrewed about 16 screws and managed to prise the thing out a few inches enuf to spray it. Heating system works but disappointing to have 3 screws left for trim - bl00dy French! If nothing rattles I wont bother tracking dowmn where they go - this car doesnt owe us anything.

:lol: Dont tempt me - have spent £600 on it since October! Determined to keep it as our daily runabout - still viewing it as an economical proposition. You would not believe its great general condition. No rust whatsoever, uncomplicated 1.8 non turbo diesel engine, etc.

On my 16 year old 205 diesel (1990) heater fan stopped operating. -got fan out and put 12v to it - it goes OK - no bad noises. -trying to get heater control panel (3 knobs) out today. As is often the case, Haynes ain't too helpful for me here. Question 1 - you dont have to get whole fascia off do you? Question 2 - which bit of the heater control panel will need to be replaced (local garage says you cant repair it - get new unit). Fan is not like polo with, say, 4 speeds but is variable speed from standstill to full on. Thanks in advance, guys, for any advice.

Not really needing anything at the moment (fingers crossed) but found this when browsing. Based in Dagenham. Do not know if they are any good, though? http://www.breakeryard.com/