jonrb

I think I paid around £100 + shipping, which is somewhat of a bargain as it has never been fitted and is essentially new. Shame about the bumper being needed to be cut though - kind of defeats the point of it being removable. :(

Yes, it is the VAG one as far as I am aware. :( How much of the bumper needs to be cut then, do you know? Edit: Maybe that's why he never got round to fitting it. :)

Sorry to an old thread, but I bought a genuine removable tow bar off another Corrado owner last year. He'd had it years, from brand new, and never fitted it. It had been sitting in his garage for all that time. It's been sitting in mine for a while now, but the time has come for me to either fit it or sell the Corrado. Since I'd rather stuff live wasps up my arse than do the latter, I'm going to have to do the former. :D One of the things that has put me off so far is the thought that I'd have to cut the bumper. But a search of various threads on here (including this thread) suggests that maybe the bumper doesn't have to be cut. Does anyone have any experience with the genuine removable bar specifically?

Someone who used their C as a daily driver and didn't want to put a load of crap into it for tip runs / DIY runs, perhaps? :)

You'd think so, but I just can't bear to let the old girl go. :) I got the Halfords Calcium battery in the end, mainly because Halfords are closer and I didn't want to spend valuable billable time driving all the way over to Reading. Besides, the last one lasted for 6 years so they can't be too bad. :) Cost £75. I suspect the Bosch Silver at Costco might have been cheaper (they were a stunningly good price compared to retail last time I looked) but if you factor billable time in then the saving is reduced. I'll fit it this evening and see how we go.

I have. But then again, I have had the car since it was only 6 months old. :) (I've lost the spark plug tool that clips to the bonnet stay though)

BTW, according to my records I last changed the battery in March 2000. That's pretty good going, especially for a £55 Halfords battery. Looking at Halfords' Store Locator there's a branch just up the road in Winnersh. Maybe I'll call in there on the way to Costco and perhaps buy another Halfords battery or go on to Costco depending on how I feel. (You've got to admit that 'Bosch' looks better in the engine bay than 'Halfords' though :))

Thanks Matt - that's encouraging. I'll probably be OK in that case. :)

That's the trouble - I'm in the TVR today and I want to get it at lunchtime. Makes it a bit difficult to check the existing battery. ;) I think I'll just cross my fingers and hope that the Corrado is listed on the booklet there that helps you choose the right battery. Risky, but unless someone can help before lunchtime today then it could be my best bet. (I've tried a google search but haven't come up with anything yet. :()

I think I may pop up to CostCo at lunchtime and get a Bosch Silver as a replacement battery - the car is due a new battery anyway and the Halfords battery (I know, I know) that is on there has done 5 or 6 years which is pretty good really. Does anyone have the exact specs of battery to get to hand please?

Yes, I've been thinking it may be the battery too - I suspected that the alarm going off was due to voltage drop but I did wonder whether the voltage drop was due to a problem in the starter motor. Lets hope not. It was a 16A fast charge I gave the car last week before it went in to The Phirm and that was only for a few hours. Maybe, as you say Matt, an overnight 2A trickle charge / deep cycle recharge may be in order especially as the battery was pretty damn flat when I started charging. I'll also get the voltmeter on it as suggested. Good point - it was sitting in a sorry state for a month or so whilst I decided what to do about the various issuse with the car. (I blame my current client being only 20mins away meaning I drive the TVR to work too much ;))

Hi guys After 9 years or so of virtually trouble-free Corrado ownership I think the old girl is starting to play up on me. :( Just got her back from The Phirm freshly serviced and with the major coolant leak I had sorted and now only 3 days later I think the starter motor is playing up. For the past two days there has been a worrying graunching sound when I start the car that stops a few seconds after the engine has fired, which would be consistent with the time it takes for the starter motor to disengage. Then this morning I got into the car to go to work, turned the key, and instead of starting the alarm immediately went off. I reset everything and tried again and the same thing happened at which point I took the TVR to work instead (which is ironic given the reputation of TVRs for unreliability ;)) Before I took the car to The Phirm it had a totally flat battery as it had been sat unused for about a month, but I charged the battery before use. It is possible that the battery is on the way out, I guess, but I'm still confused as to why the alarm would choose to go off like that. So, does anyone have an ideas, suggestions or could point me at any existing threads that might be helpful? Thanks in advance Jon

No worries. I'm just not going to be able to use them as regularly as I wanted, that's all. :( I think I'm going to have to try the place over in Fleet for routine stuff and reserve using The Phirm for more major stuff / upgrades / fettling, etc. It's just not feasible to travel 45 mins each way for minor stuff. :( It's a real pity as they are indeed top chaps down there and I'm happy with the work they've done (and the price they charged!) :)

BTW, it was the thermostat housing in the end. Got it replaced by The Phirm on the weekend along with a new thermostat.

I went to The Phirm in the end and was very happy with them. Just one thing though - "only 25mins extra" and "near Farnham" my arse! They're in Churt and it took me 45 mins each way. Wife not very impressed as I got her to give me a lift on both the drop-off and pick-up.

I thought that since the seller's id was antera309 it might actually be the same one. :D

It's such a shame that Schrick decided to move away from the OE look of the VSR and also decided to remove the holes for accessing the spark plugs. I reckon that had they addressed those two issues then the original VSR wouldn't be the Holy Grail that it currently is. :(

Is this the VSR that is currently up for sale on eBay at http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 4627701333 then?

Tell me more about the Phirm. Their website doesn't really say much with regards to VWs (or, indeed, anything :))

Hi folks Does anyone have any experience (good or bad) of VW Autos in Fleet, Hampshire? I'm looking for a VW specialist local to me (Sandhurst / Blackwater / Fleet / Camberley area) and was wondering if they would fit the bill. Cheers Jon

I recently replaced the aux water pump. Doesn't sound like much, but that's advanced stuff for a mechanical ignoramus like me. :D

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but what was the name and number of the VW garage in Sandhurst, please? That's not far from where I live and I need some work done on my Corrado VR6.

Well, I changed the pump today. It was actually fairly easy. The worst part was getting the coolant hoses off - those hose clips are a bugger and the hoses had almost welded themselves onto the pump, but I got there in the end. The whole thing took around 1.5 hours to do. I ran the car up to temperature and was a little concerned to see steam escaping from an unknown area. Sure enough, when I switched off hot coolant started pissing out of somewhere. As far as I can make out it is somewhere in the plastic housing where the main coolant hoses enter and exit the block, as suggested by the bloke in the Parts Dept. of VW (see my earlier post). Really rather gutted as I really need the car back on the road this weekend as the exhaust on my wife's car fell off today and Seat can't source a replacement until Tuesday (and according to Kwik Fit, Seat are the only people who can get them). Typical. Not having a very good time of it with cars at the moment. :(

Cheers Roger. I'm pretty sure I've ordered the right one as I got the part number from Etka for the model year of my car and ordered from GPC by part number. Charlie has also confirmed that he only has one part number for the 1995 VR6 and that's what he's ordered for me. So fingers crossed, eh? :)

True, but most local specialists I know have a 2-3 week lead time in their calenders and I could do with having the car back on the road quicker than that. So what we're saying is that apart from the hassle of getting it off, it all boils down (no pun intended) to disconnect hoses & connectors, get the old one off, put new one on, reconnected hoses & connectors, top up coolant, run aux pump for a while to bubble out any air and then watch for airlocks for a while. Sounds like an afternoon's work on the basis that a pro can do it in an hour or so. ;)