Roger Blassberg

You will have servo brakes, but not power steering, alternator or most importantly the main water pump. As said above it is a simple job to replace; you need an M8 bolt to release the tensioner and the correct belt, either with or without airconditioning. Its much easier if you take the airbox and associated ducting off. Best wishes RB

It's worth fitting new top and bottom injector seals and making sure that the injector ports in the lower part of the inlet manifold are scrupulously clean; otherwise you may get an air leak. Injector clips, yes I did exactly the same thing; pushed the rail on, fitted the top half of the inlet, turned the key and fuel everywhere. We learn by what we do, not by what we read or what we hear. Best wishes RB

One month later and the problem has gone away, so the relayed direct feed was doing something to the load reduction circuitry (home made loom, but, in all modesty, a proper job.....). RB

I think Daves16v on here makes and sells repair kits. You might want to send him a private message. Best wishes RB

There is a spring in there as well I think, enough to keep the chain on the chain wheel at cranking speed. It's sudden engine speed changes at relatively high revs which cause the chain potentially go sufficiently slack to jump. One long cranking session with the plugs out, until the oil pressure warning light goes out, and all will be well. Best wishes RB

Try Martin on 07518 667474. He always has a good stock of spares, from Corrados he breaks. He's in Buckingham. Best wishes RB

Hasan, I don't think the bearings would need re-greasing - there's nowhere for the grease to go unless the rear seal has failed, which would show up as a dirty mess all over the back of the brake, and in my experience when changing bearings the grease looks quite fresh (unless the bearing has been overtightened and the bearing has over-heated). You should be able to check for slack in the rear bearings just by rocking the roadwheel top/bottom and side/side with it jacked up, but a very small amount of slack, just enough to feel, is good (unlike what over-zealous MOT testers might tell you). On the issue of loaning some wheels, I assume that 15" wheels and 205/50 tyres will fit the back of yours. Mine drones a bit, but I put it down to the chunky tyres I use. The bearings are ok. The front ones needed replacing after it sat immobile for about 18months, and the noise was typical, as described earlier.

It will be quite a job I think. You will need to provide for the sensors on each wheel, at least backplates, maybe bearing carriers with the sensor holes, slotted rings on each hub, extensive hydraulic pipe re-routing, installation of ABS hydraulic unit (pump and valve block), ABS ECU and associated electrical installation. Best wishes RB

Hasan, droning can often be caused by tyre noise, particularly from the rear wheels. Are you running some tyres which may be old, past their best or are a particularly open block tread pattern such as all weather tyres? Have you got a spare pair of wheels you can try temporarily to see if that changes things? In fact I have a pair of Uniroyal Rainsports on spare wheels, which are just about legal, which you are welcome to borrow if you want to collect them from the office one day Front wheel bearing groaning will increase in pitch as speed increases and will vary in volume, from very loud to almost silent, dependent upon whether you are going around a curve or are driving in a straight line. In extremis you will feel a roughness through the steering. Best wishes RB

Hope all you like, but expect disappointment....that is to say, "Standard Corrado Job Plan". Best wishes RB

Sounds like you know what you are doing. Next time you see me in my Dragon Green VR6 on the M25, wave anyway even if you are in your red A4. Best wishes RB

Does it get noisier when going round a curve one way and less noisy when going round the other way? If so, definitely a wheel bearing. It will survive for a long time from when the noise first becomes apparent, I would leave it until after your trip unless you are contemplating some track day heroics. You will need a press to get the bearing out of/in to the hub. Bashing the new one in will wreck it. Probably a 2 hour job if all goes well and you have the right equipment. You might upset the camber setting a fraction because of taking off the hub carrier from the strut. Good luck RB

Yes, certainly the ABF uses a duplex transfer chain and it only drives one of the camshafts, albeit with 8 double springs to compress at quite high revs. RB

Most unlikely that the camshaft has been bent; I would think that any damage from uneven tightening/untightening just might be to the soft metal in the camshaft bearings, but you would have to be fairly brutal for this to happen. To bend the camshaft beyond its elastic limit (so that it does not recover when the stress is relaxed) would require a much greater force than the valve springs could impose. Best wishes RB

There will be wiring issues to serve the engine management/fuel injection system, but it should be something someone can help you with (not me..). The ABF block is taller than the 9A by 15mm. so you may need to modify your bonnet to suit By the way if you want a gearbox with low 1st, 2nd, 3rd gears, I have one from an ABF engined B4 Passat cluttering the garage. Code CTM I seem to remember. I don't think you need to swap the beam, simply swap the 5 stud rear discs onto the stub axles. The front will be a bit more complicated because the hub/disc/caliper carrier/ drive shaft will have to be swapped. I don't know the complexities of wide/narrow track subframes, but the 288mm 5 stud setup is so-called Plus suspension more common on VR6 cars. Best wishes RB

I don't think the simplex/duplex change was anything to do with engine power; the chains drive the valve gear so there is no direct correlation with horsepower, only with valve gear resistance (spring rates and camshaft profiles) and engine speed so perhaps an indirect influence. My understanding was that all ABV engines had a duplex top chain with the rivetted tensioner blade, all AAA had simplex with the later ones getting the solid pad and an improved hydraulic tensioner. A change from duplex to simplex top chain would presumably need different intermediate and camshaft sprockets if you'll excuse a statement of the bl££din' obvious. Best wishes RB

Probably me on my way from St Albans to Leatherhead ---------- Post added at 10:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:19 AM ---------- Probably me. I remember a red A4. I was in the middle lane, (not hogging).

You have a common law right to have your car restored to its pre-accident condition, but you would have to sue them in the County Court (or Small Claims Court). And you will have a hell of a job getting your /their insurer to accept that this is the case. I would have thought that, as the 3rd party is one of your company's suppliers they would be falling over themselves to make you a settlement that you are happy with. In the grand scheme of things this is not a big claim. Good luck RB

I was about to write, "Halfords", but I don't suppose there's a branch in Rome.......I expect your VAG Partner will be happy to oblige, at a ridiculous price no doubt. Or maybe he'll try to sell you a complete new wiring loom. Best wishes RB

X-relief relay cuts out various heavy demand circuits such as headlights, wipers, heater blower, indicators, abs, when cranking the engine to give maximum current to the starter motor. Nr 18 relay, position 4 on the relay/fuse board. For information, I have now deleted the non-standard headlight relay and loom in the hope that this will get rid of the problem originally described. Out of interest I checked the voltage at the headlights with and without the direct feed. 14.24V against 13.87V, representing a 5% reduction in power (proportional to square of voltage). Not sure how actual light energy relates to the power reaching the bulbs, but the Osram Nightbreaker Plus bulbs are certainly much better than the original specification and I'll live with the slight reduction for the time being. Best wishes and thanks for all contributions RB

If it turns out not to be the relays themselves, look at the ignition switch (which sends power to the whole electrical system including those relays). Best wishes RB

Oh !! The embarrassment!!! It turned out to be the Nr. 11 fuse. I had visually inspected it and it LOOKED ok to the Mk.1 eyeball, but on replacing it everything came back to life. It had gone awol within the plastic case of the fuse, not an obvious burn-out rather maybe old age/corrosion. I'll wait to see if this was an intermittent fault giving the X-relief the runaround. So far so good. Moral; always do a proper electrical continuity check on blade fuses - they can be bad even if they look good. Thanks to all who got involved. RB

Thanks Henny and Supercharged. I have looked at the wiring diagrams in Bentley ( up until the wee small hours) and it looks fairly straightforward. Famous last words. The one-on one-off problem is probably either a dodgy feed to the headlight unit, or perhaps the internal wiring in the headlight itself, from the plug/socket to the bulbholder. And yes, time to change the ignition switch in the hope of banishing x-relief misery. Best wishes RB

To resurrect this. I now have the situation where when switching to main beam or using the headlight flasher, ONLY offside headlight works. Nearside does not illuminate either inner or outer lamp. And the blue main beam warning light does not come on. All fuses are present and correct. I have swapped back to the original headlight switch, having been using one of the "new improved" ones from here. The bulbs themselves are ok. The wiring to the main beam circuit is NOT via a relayed loom but is the original. Looks like a bad main beam wire on one side. Dipped beam works on both sides. Comments please.

It is one of the ones on the fuseboard, but I can't remeber which one offhand. I'll confirm later. It's not expensive, a fairly standard relay. RB