Skimask

Best Cheese and Ham is....A toastie from cafe del Opera on Las Ramblas in Barcelona - They call it a Bikini, there is nothing like it in the world!! Had a few a couple of weekend's ago.

I have a 1.8 16 valve and a VR6 On the same journey in a week the valver uses £30 fuel and the VR uses £50. That's about the difference in fuel. The performance is slightly different. Yes the VR is quicker - though not a lot of difference up to 60. Once beyond 60 the VR comes in to its own. For instance accelarating down a slip road until the end - on a VR it will reach 115- 120 On the valver It will reach 110. Handling is another issue - the valver is always much better - Some people on here go on about the VR having a wider track to compensate for the weight on the engine on the front wheels - nevertheless the 16v is so much better. The VR wins on Engine noise - It is brilliant!

Get a cardboard box flatten it, when you park up at night - slide it under your engine and have a look in the morning. If there are any leaks you should see the marks on the box. Its an old trick but works a treat.

Hi Mate, I'm still arguing the price of a K reg VR6. 1st offer was 1000 - and they stated it is in the terms of the insurance that they go by Glass's guide. After I rejected that offer and sent them prices of current cars on Pistonheads of 3000 to 4000 and that they issued the insurance based on my valuation of 3500. They upped it to the highest price on Glass's guide which is 1600. I've rejected that and currently trying to get it repaired - which i haven't heard from them for a few weeks! Best of luck......but unless there is an agreed valuation before taking out insurance - there is little that can be done - I think!

Then again - people and insurance companies use Glass's guide for car prices - and a K reg VR6 at the top end is worth £1600. As I found out when I had to make a claim. It's a bit of a warning really - make sure when you take out insurance - you have an agreed price for the value of the car - otherwise the insurance company will stick to the value in Glass's guide.

Highly unlikely its the pump mate....do a search for ABS errors. There are a lot of things to check first -wheel sensors, relays, fuses - ABS controller - wiring. Most errors are a faulty wheel sensor - check each one first. save youself some dosh eliminate everything else first.

Check that you are getting power to the ABS pump - its a 4 connection multiplug on the end of the ABS pump. Check continuity from the 4 in plug back to the relays. Also check the ABS controller - make sure it isn't water damaged.

How do youknow the wheel sensors are OK? If the resistance on each one is not 1.2KOhms then it is suspect. Also there are 2 electrical connectors to the ABS pump - clean up the terminals on both. Sounds like a dodgy wheel sensor.

Been through all that just a short while ago. the engine would only run on 5 cylinders because No 6 was fouled with oil. Stripped the engine, had the head skimmed - and the valves re-ground. The exhaust ones were very pitted. The engineering shop took £1.50 per valve to regrind/recut the seats. I also removed No6 piston just to put my mind at rest - but the rings were OK, and because I had disturbed them , replaced the big end bearings and bolts. The bores were very good with just a wee bit of wear - much less than expected for a 150K engine. Replaced the chains, adjusters and guides. A new head gasket set, The engine sitting there waiting to go into a car!

There are 2 multiplugs on your ABS pump - Disconnect them, have a look at the terminals and if needed clean them up. It sounds like a voltage drop triggering a fault code.

I'm driving a courtesy car at the moment, an MX5 and I really do like it - especially when the sun is out and the top down. It's not until I get back into the VR6 - you really feel at home. It feels so much comfier almost welcoming, and the effortless driving. Since driving the MX5 I've wondered why I still want to spend so much time and money on the Corrado. Until You get back into the driving seat of the VR6 and start her up - all the doubts disappear.

First port of call is get a multimeter and check the resistance of the sensors - don't need VAG-COM for that! It sounds like one of the sensors is faulty. Try a search on the forum it's covered loads of times.

Bought a cheap ebay USB lead and it does work! Although at first VAG-COM couldn't detect the cable - I turned down the COM port settings on the laptop. Go to Hardware - Device manager - Ports (COM&LPT) and Properties of Communication port (USB) usually Com4 and in the advanced settings turn down the 'Latency timer' to 5 - it worked for me. It depends what COM port you have the connection configured for in VAG-COM, my one only worked on COM4.

I'm sure there is a thread somewhere - not on this site, where one guy replaced the internals from a new £40 MAF and put it in a VR6 one. Apparently the internal components had the same part number but different housings between them. Can't find the thread though, sure it was on Vortex.

Irwin bolt drips matey, got me out of a lot of trouble with corroded hex bolts on the Corrado. If they don't work, then out with the drill!

No i'm not knocking Ford reliability at all. They aren't built to last. The mechanics on Fords have always been good, parts are cheap as chips - hell I just went to Ford for a VR6 oil seal yesterday, it was less then half the price of a VW one. They just rust quicker than most cars, and are not 'built to last'. I am impressed by Seat and Skoda though, once VW took them over they produced cars that were a million times better than the originals. Open your eyes - dubs aren't the only well made cars around any more.[/quote:99c64] No again, I didn't say that dubs were the only well made cars around - you should read the post before making assumptions!

Quiz, I'm sure a few people on here have already rebored their engines. The engineering shops you've visited could be a lot more helpful with information. I think it's standard practice to buy the pistons and rings for the engine, unless you have an account with them. As always try the search on the forum, the info will be there it's just a case of finding it.

You'd better ask the advice of the engineering shop that is doing the job. I'm not sure about the ABV engine, I don't think it has a liner and the most you can take out is .10 oversize - I'm not too sure on that though! Best bet would be to take the block to the engineering shop, they'll be able to advise you better.

No i'm not knocking Ford reliability at all. They aren't built to last. The mechanics on Fords have always been good, parts are cheap as chips - hell I just went to Ford for a VR6 oil seal yesterday, it was less then half the price of a VW one. They just rust quicker than most cars, and are not 'built to last'. I am impressed by Seat and Skoda though, once VW took them over they produced cars that were a million times better than the originals.

Oh get with the times mate. Don't tell me, prefabricated factory-built houses are sh*t too? Things change. Historical views/reputations are hard to change. But I reckon you'll find modern fiats are built as good as most other modern cars. Just wait and see.....they'll fall to bits in a few years...he...he It's like Ford 'Built to last' yes, but they forgot to tag '5 years' on the end of it. They aren't in the business to make cars with a long life span....but no car manufacturers are, it's just some are designed with a longer lifespan than others.

Yes Stu it still is rear wheel drive. I reckon it's slightly better than a Corrado 16V, a bit torquier than the valver and would have the edge in 4th, it seems to like that gear! The steering is very light and there isn't a great deal of feedback, it does have torque steer though - put the foot down in 4th and it lurches to the right, lift off and it goes back to centreline. It's very much like torque steer on a VR. This really surprised me, as I thought torque steer was a factor of FWD cars, but this one does it!

Check the top hose to the radiator, feel it - if it's brick hard, then it could be the headgasket has gone and is pressurising the cooling system.

Nice pic Sonic very nice indeed.

FIAT = Fix It again Tony.... It'll be like all fiats, turn to rust in a couple of years. My mate had an original one, and it was tremendous fun, but probably a death trap, there wasn't anything to them at all. if i remember correctly it had a 500cc or 750cc engine in them? It was a very cheeky car though and great fun! Essentially a city car, the top speed was abysmal.

Reminds me of the new wheels and tyres I put on the car, I had only covered 10 miles and hit the apex of a corner, couldn't avoid the rock sitting just at the side of the road and it took out 2 tyres and dented the rims. The thing is I knew I had hit the rock, but didn't really notice any difference for a couple of miles and thought I had a slow puncture. The rock split the sidewalls for a couple of centimetres. I was very impressed by the Kumho tyres running flat and used them ever since.