jonrb

Ah, I see. Fortunately I have the luxury of one or two other cars to use if I render the Corrado undriveable, although it is a total pain in the arse to get it to a garage if the car is undriveable and unfixable by myself, as I found with that non-starting engine problem I had last year that you helped me out with if you recall. I feel quite confident about disconnecting & reconnecting hoses, especially if they can be clamped off first (assuming the hoses can take being clamped without splitting) and it looks fairly straightforward but it would be good to hear from someone who had done it.

Matt, if you got yours done at a garage then that's good enough for me - I won't even try to do it myself. :)

"Haynes: Three spanner rating (intermediate). Translation: Make sure you won’t need your car for a couple of days and that your AA cover includes Home Start." Seriously though, it looks like a case removing the HT-guide panels, clamping off the hoses to minimise coolant loss and reduce airlocks, removing the hoses and electrical connector, removing the aux pump, replacing with the new pump and re-assembly. Or am I missing half a world of pain and suffering there? :)

You may be right. I just couldn't work out if the cause of leakage was part of the pump assembly or the hose assembly. Kind of makes a difference which you replace really. ;) Or, to put it another way, I wasn't sure if the plastic housing the hoses are attached to was part of the pump or the hose kit. If it is the former then, yes, I appear to need a new pump. Is this one of those parts you should buy genuine VW on or is it a GSF / ECP / GPC purchase? Dou you reckon I can do it myself given I managed to replace an ISV myself?

Oh. I completely buggered the ones on the ISV when I changed it and used jubiliee clips instead. :oops: You think it's the pump and not the hoses / connector then?

...by about 6 weeks.

You beat me to it Matt - I was just writing a reply when yours came in. :) When I got home this evening I removed the plastic HT-lead guards and had a good look at the upper hose. It is indeed sound, and by that I mean it looks fresh, firm, black and remarkably new-looking for its age. There is no crusting, deposits or signs of wear or leakage. The hose leading into the aux water pump, on the other hand, looks pretty tired and ropey. The hose clip is crusted and possibly corroded (hard to say). It is indeed wet and there are wisps of steam coming off it even with the engine having been off for 30-odd minutes. [pic here] What I think I may do is take the Chimaera to work tomorrow (shame :)) and then tomorrow evening, when everything is nice and cold, I'll remove the hose clip, bind the end of the hose up with self-amalgamating tape and hose repair tape and then put a proper jubilee clip on it and see if that helps. If it doesn't then I'll replace the hose obviously. (Edit: Having said that, looking at the pic I've just posted does make me now wonder if binding it up will do anything). The aux pump itself seems fine. With the ignition on and the engine off it whirrs away quite noisily, but it is definitely doing something. When I start the engine up the coolant in the header tank starts bubbling so there is air getting into the system and coolant getting out.

I think I may have the same problem as the poster on this thread - my aux water pump and hose are heavily crusted with coolant evaporation products.

I think this is where mine is leaking too (see this thread) [Edit: and pic here] Is it fairly straighforward to fix?

Or a #6 Allen key, if I remember correctly. :D I'll have to limp the car home and check that tonight, though, as I have neither with me. Incidentally, when I wrote 'appears sound' I meant no obvious evaporation products, unlike on the aux water pump. However, I accept what you're saying and will have a proper look tonight. Cheers! Jon

My Corrado is 9 years old and to my knowledge has never had any of its mounts changed. I have noticed lots of oil around the place, but I put that down to the fact that I know my mechanic who looks after both my Corrado and Chimaera is into Waxoyl in a big way and regularly Waxoyls the Chimaera. I just assumed he'd Waxoyled the Corrado too. I guess it was maybe a bad assumption in the light of what you're saying. ;) I've just popped out and checked the hose that you mention. There are two hoses that pass through the bulkhead. One goes to the top rear of the engine under the plastic guard that routes the HT leads. I'm guessing that this is the one you mean? This one appears sound. The other one has a ribbed aluminium sleeve on it and it goes down to the lower part of the engine and then up into a metal cylinder marked Bosch, near the coil pack. This is heavily crusted in white evaporation products and is down near all the other hoses I mentioned, so looks like a prime candidate. There is a plastic collar that secures the hose to the Bosch cylinder and this looks quite loose. I didn't want to disturb it too much as the car has to get me home tonight. Incidentally the header tank is completely dry, despite me putting about 1.5L of solution before leaving the house this morning. Looks like it has been leaking sat in the car park. Fortunately I have about 3 litres of made-up coolant with me so I'll refill it before I journey home tonight.

Check my engine mounts? How come? (confused) Could you expand on the hose you're referring to Matt? Sounds like something I might conceivably be able to handle but I'm not sure I know which bit you're referring to.

Hi guys I've got a major coolant leak at the moment to the extent that I'm putting over a litre of coolant mix into the header tank a day to keep the car running (which I know is less than ideal). When I was in my local VW dealer recently buying yet another couple of bottles of G12+ I got chatting to the guy on the parts desk who was really helpful and called up Ekta and pointed out a complicated looking plastic assembly that looks like it bolts to the engine block on the same side as the header tank and told me that was a common failure point. I checked the car when hot and sure enough I have wetness / steam / slight spitting in that area so he could well be right. The area has several coolant hoses and seems to be the point of entry into the engine to my untrained eye. The question is, how difficult is that to change? I'm no mechanic, but I'm competent enough to have changed the ISV in the past and also the engine speed sensor, although I acknowledge that neither of those are difficult jobs. Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give Jon

Thanks Riley. I never thought of that so didn't start the job in the end on the grounds that I couldn't work out where either end terminated or how to thread the pipe through where it disappears into the bodywork 3/4 of the way down the car heading towards the engine. :( So if anyone else can give me some further ideas then that would be great and I may attempt the job next weekend if I feel confident.

Hi folks I need to replace the return fuel line - this is the long blue flexible pipe that runs the length of the car and passes near the O/S/R wheel and near the fuel pump. I have the genuine VAG replacement part (£23-odd from my local friendly dealer) and am ready to start the job but I have never messed with the fuel system before. Is there some kind of fuel shut-off valve or do I just have to clamp the feed line to prevent fuel from pissing everywhere whilst I do the job? I was planning on doing the job today, so if someone could let me know then I'd be really grateful. :) Are there any other handy hints anyone can give me (apart from obvious stuff like not smoking whilst working on the fuel system, of course) Thanks in advance Jon

I popped in to my local dealer on the way home from work and they pulled up EKTA for me and we had a good look. From the diagrams it would seem that the feed is connected to the fuel pump and the return is not. The line that is damaged on my Corrado is not connected to the fuel pump, so I guess it must be the return despite what I posted originally. I just hope it is the right part as I had to order it specially and they have a "no returns" policy on specially-ordered parts. If anyone has EKTA it is illustration 68 60. I really should get round to acquiring a copy of EKTA. I mean, I've only owned my Corrado for 9 years FFS.

Following on from this thread I need a replacement fuel line. It is a blue flexible hose that runs round past the o/s/r wheel under the car. I think it may be a feed as if I clamp it to the rear of the damage the fuel leak stops - presumably if it were a return then the reverse would be true. Does anyone know the part number and description of it please?

Well, I went back to the road in question this evening, parked up in a nearby lay-by, and went and had a good look at the area. I feel slightly vindicated. The road in question is a medium right-hander, a short straight which from the roadside is pretty damn straight but from the driver's eye (I drove it as well) might be construed to bear ever so slightly to the right, followed by another right-hander further up. So you could almost call it a very long double-apex right with a straight between the apexes. The skid marks on the road clearly show that the entirety of my incident took place on that straight between the apexes. I've also ascertained that the handy entrance I ended up in is the locked, gated entrance to some water works thing. That would explain why it was asphalted yet not a lay-by or side road. The skid marks and gouges in the N/S verge show that I mounted the kerb and cut the corner into this entrance which is where I sustained the damage to the fuel line. The gouge marks are from the underside of the car near the o/s/r wheel and correspond to scrape marks under the car and are right where the fuel line is. So given all this I can only surmise two theories now: 1) Problems in the braking system (ABS, front-rear bias, binding calliper, etc. as already put forward by various people both on-line and off-line) or 2) I instinctively swerved away from the other driver and managed to put either or both o/s wheels onto the grass central reservation (or crud just before it) and therefore lost grip and spun. I feel slightly vindicated inasmuch as I didn't pass on a bend, but that doesn't help that much and still doesn't alter the fact that I had already observed that the driver was erratic and had poor lane discipline yet still chose to pass him. With hindsight I should have either sounded my horn before passing to make sure he knew I was there or, indeed, not passed him at all on account of the fact he clearly couldn't be trusted not to run me off the road. Ho hum. :)

The ABS sensor problem is well-known on the Corrado and Golf. It causes the ABS warning light to come on but doesn't necessarily compromise the ABS system. I replaced the N/S/F ABS sensor earlier in the year but the fault has come back, suggesting it could be the O/S/F although VAG-COM isn't telling me what the fault is at the moment. I may check it tonight in the light of this discussion.

you what??You don't use the leptar as a unit of measurement of speed then? :) Generally not a good idea to work in mph on a public forum, hence slight obfuscation. If you think about the national speed limit and the fact that I was travelling at or near it, then I'm sure you can work out what 0.8 leptars is. :D

Yes, as soon as the fuel line is replaced and the car can be driven again, I'll have a fuel geometry check and have the brakes looked at too. I still can't work out how this happened, to be honest. I really wasn't pressing on; 0.80 leptars at the very most, good surface, dry conditions. When the car is reversed at manoeuvring speeds I do sometimes get a slight groan which could possibly be a binding rear calliper or a wheel bearing, but this is clutching at straws really.

I'm pretty sure I locked up. I don't recall any ABS pulsing. I do have the famous intermittent ABS warning light issue due to a faulty sensor at the moment, so it could have confused the ABS system I suppose.

Exactly. So on a right-hander you would expect oversteer and clockwise spin (ie. the n/s/r steps out). The opposite happened to me - the o/s/r stepped out and I spun anticlockwise.

I understand the physics of the situation (I actually have a degree in Physics), but what confuses me is why it snapped out to the right on a right-hander. Let's see, the n/s/f would become loaded and the o/s/r would become unloaded. The n/s/r would have more loading than the o/s/r but not as much as the n/s/f. At this point my brain is starting to shut down and I can't work out in which direction you would then expect a resulting loss of traction and spin. Can someone help me out? Incidentally, it was an easy right-hander. It's not like the tyres were really loaded up. Speed was 70mph or thereabouts - nothing hugely excessive.

Had a bit of an upset in the Corrado on Friday. I was overtaking someone on a two-lane dual carriageway on a slight right-hander in dry sunny conditions and he wandered into my lane and caused me to brake very heavily. The back snapped out to the right and I span about 200 degrees ending up off the road on the nearside. It was a miracle that I didn’t hit anything and ended up in a small lay-by rather than the tree-lined ditch. :shock: Anyway, this isn’t a sympathy thread and I’m not really interested in discussing the driving aspect of it. What I want to know is why the back snapped out so suddenly under heavy braking. The car has Koni Sport top-adjustable oil-filled dampers and H&R sports springs. Both were fitted in December 2000 and have since done about 48k miles. The rear axle bushes, bump stops and top mounts were replaced in May, less than 1k miles ago. The front discs and pads were replaced at the same time. I checked the tyres pressures 2 days before the incident. The car is off the road at the moment as I did suffer slight damage – a split fuel hose that I currently have clamped off either side of the damage. I have a mate coming sometime to help me replace it then I can drive it somewhere to get the car inspected. So what caused the massive instability in braking? :scratch: