Funkster

My credit card is wilting just at the very thought of it ) Thanks, -- Olly

Not at all! All advice is gladly received. Any idea what resistance the HT leads should have? I'll measure them this evening and see if one is wildly different, but if they're all quite similar they could all be performing poorly with only one being bad enough to miss. Someone wise once told me a good range of resistances for plug leads, and I foolishly didn't write it down anywhere :-/ Thanks again, -- Olly

Humph. Results so far are inconclusive. I got the 'scope out and started poking around, and couldn't find any HT output that was consistantly weaker than any of the others. However, I did see quite a lot of variation on each plug between bangs. That said, here's a bang from plug #1: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/oliver.stephenson/p1.png and another from plug #4: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/oliver.stephenson/p4.png Plug 4's HT current is only 1/5 of the plug 1 current on this bang, but I'm sure I saw healthy currents in that lead at other times and weak currents in #1 sometimes also. Waggling the HT leads around seemed to make a bit of difference, but that might well have been a placebo effect - me trying to decide that the leads are faulty rather than the coil ) Ho hum... I guess I'll get the analogue 'scope on it tomorrow and see if that turns up anything interesting, and maybe try the strobe too. I tried spraying water on the leads, and didn't see owt. Can anyone lend me a set of HT leads? :oD Cheers, -- Olly

Right you are. Just had a fantastic idea - I shall break out the HT current clamp and my picoscope, and measure the current in each of the HT leads. That should tell me what's up - I've used this trick before with my MGB GTS which has home-made coil amps and it's very revealing. What I need to know though, is which wires are which on the LT side of the coil? Any chance of a wiring diagram ahead of my manual arriving? Beer tokens available if someone can do me a scan of the relevant page! Thanks, -- Olly

I heard tell (and this may well be heresay) that it the diesel VR6 was thought of well after they had started making the petrol one, and that the reasons they couldn't do it were: - weak bottom end (teeny main bearings, skinny crank webs) - wedge caused by angled pistons resulted in poor swirl, which is critical on diesels. also the angled pistons would need the ring pack to be further down to avoid chewing the rings up at the highest point - thus reducing the compression ratio and making an even less effective diesel. like I say, might be heresay (or heresy!) so please take with a pinch of salt. Cheers, -- Olly

Oh, yes as you mentioned it - I know there aren't any coilpack fault codes... I was just wanting to check that it wasn't something else. Would be painful to shell out for the coil pack and then discover that it's a sensor! Thanks, -- Olly

Indeed, good old wasted spark eh? Tricky to prove for sure though as it's just by feel and I'm more used to 4s and 8s. Maybe someone kind will lend me a known good coil pack for a few hours to try it out :oD Bentley book on the way btw, but from the states - so please expect a few dumb questions before it arrives ) Cheers, -- Olly

Hi All, My 'rado developed a misfire just before christmas. I was out driving in it and it was behaving itself, and then all of a sudden 2 cylinders dropped out. If I let it rev quite high with minimal throttle, I think all 6 are firing, but as soon as I plant the pedal it goes back to running on 4. There are times, I think, when 5 can be felt running but it's light throttle and at some mid-point in RPM before all 6 light up. Research on here has shown that the coil pack is a likely suspect, and mine has a crack next to one of the mounting bolts, but given the price I'd like to know for sure before replacing it. Has anyone local to me (leamington spa, warwickshire) got vag-com? I don't fancy driving it with the misfire, and anyway Stealth (10 miles away) are shut when I'm at work ( The reason I'm only posting now is that it took this long to get an HT lead removal tool. Changed the plugs today too see if that made any difference (it didn't) and the old plugs looked pretty good, if a bit tired. Many thanks in advance for any hints/advice/help! -- Olly

I don't intend to change anything about mine except fitting Lupo wipers - I can't cope with the regular ones for a whole winter! However, I can't leave the car alone - I keep having to take it out for a drive! I do have other 'project' cars though - which is why I'm as skint as those who haven't finished their Corrados yet! Tidy. -- Olly

Didn't get quite to 100 in traffic earlier, but then again I wasn't stuck big time. I'm pretty sure the fans were on slow, so I think I'll probably bodge in a switch to let me turn the fast fans on manually until I can drain the coolant and fit a new switch. Cheers! -- Olly

Wotcha. The cooling fans have slow and fast speeds, and are controlled by a thermal switch in the rad side-tank. There's 4 pins in the connector on this switch, and bridging between diagonally opposite pins make the fans come on. One diagonal pair is slow, the other is fast. Bridging them checks whether the fan controller and so on is working. Mine is, I checked it before I had the 'stat replaced. However, from reading on here it seems the thermal switch itself is quite a common failure, and I don't think I've heard stage 2 kick in (it's noisy!). Not sure what temperature it's supposed to happen at though! Yarr, -- Olly

Wotcha, Just got my 'rado back from the garage, and it's had the stat, housing and the long plastic pipe with the drain plug in it replaced. It now sits rock steady at 80°C on the motorway. Still gets hot in traffic, but that doesn't seem to be abnormal although I might investigate if the 2nd stage fans are working at some point. Just wanted to say thanks to those who advised! (in this thread) Cheers, -- Olly

Hokay, thanks for that - at least I'm not hurting anything in traffic. However, I'm pretty sure that the fans didn't come on while I was stationary - I turned the heater off and opened the window and I couldn't hear them. Presumably they'd be up to full blowing power by 100 degrees? Oil reached 114 at 85mph cruise today, just for reference. Cheers again, -- Olly

*sigh* Just picked the car up, the garage having said that they'd sorted the leak with a new jubilee clip and it was now holding steady on the 'stat with fans coming on and the aux. pump running. Went out on the dual carriageway and got it up to cruising speed, and sure as eggs is eggs it gradually crept up to just under 100. Got stuck in a queue getting off the dual carriageway and it was edging its way over 100 before I shut it down and let the heater take some energy out of the coolant. Once moving again, it dropped its temp almost straight away, to about 85, and then got back to 90 by the time I was home. Opened the bonnet and there's more pressure in the system now, and the bottom hose was at least warm (but not as hot as the top hose, which itself I could touch without major discomfort). And, IT'S STILL LEAKING! Not as much as before, but it seems to be seeping out from the hose that connects to the outlet of the aux. pump - where there's a join in the hose. Also, the aux does NOT seem to be running - unless they're so very quiet that I'll never be able to hear it? Are they really silent? I squeezed some hoses and couldn't feel or hear any coolant rushing round either. This is with the ignition on. I'll take it back first thing in the morning and give them another chance to sort it. Are thermostats readily available? I'm not too far from Stealth, will they have one in? p*ssed off, -- Olly

B** HNQ (dark colour, didn't see badges) spotted joining the A46 from the warwick junction - I was the VR6 in front of you. Anyone here? -- Olly

I work in Bilton industrial estate on Humber Road, so we probably won't pass each other unless it's on the A46. If you've seen a manky red LHD MGB roadster being thrashed along there, then you've already seen me! Nice to know they're about the place though - and now I know it's okay to wave! Yarr, -- Olly

Jim, just as well it's not his then I guess ) This one has been very well cared for - full service history, mostly VW, not a mark on the interior, a couple of tiny stone chips, and even the sunroof works! Galactic mileage, but it seems to carry it very well - just can't wait to get it back from the garage once they've fixed the thermostat/coolant leak. I work in Coventry, so maybe our paths will cross. Do corrado owners wave/flash their lights at each other like us MG owners do? Cheers, -- Olly

'lo again! Seems like my reputation preceeds me... I'm Funkster on b3ta too, but I don't post to the board much. We were dead chuffed to get featured in the newsletter ) The MG ZT-T is the 765 horsepower RWD bonneville land speed record car - I was out there in 2003 and saw it go over the line at 225 mph - quite impressive! Also the guys from So Cal speed shop (who prepared the car) are a very nice bunch. Another impressive vehicle was this truck: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/oliver.stephenson/bt1.jpg http://homepage.ntlworld.com/oliver.stephenson/bt2.jpg V16, 71 cubic inches per cylinder, four huge turbos, two 8-71 roots blowers, and a shed load of nitrous... 278 mph! It's the size of my house! And finally... yes it came from near Coventry. Was your friend's name Simon, and did he treat my car well? :oD Thanks for the warm welcome, -- Olly

It will be free! Only just bought the car, and they said they'd sorted out all the cooling problems when I picked it up. Turned out not to be so! Not a VW dealer btw, just a general second hand car dealer. I probably wasn't very clear on that, sorry. If I was paying, I would certainly do it myself. Cheers, -- Olly

:oD Seems you're right on the money with the stat - I just drove it back to the dealer and the bottom rad hose was stone cold when I got there. Now I feel a bit daft for not checking it before, but never mind. The leak has also worsened, as it now seems to be coming out of the stat housing as well. Anyway, it's back with them now and they said they'd sort it out. Thanks for the advice and support! Cheers, -- Olly

Interesting. The user manual has a line on the drawing showing 'normal' to be 90 so I assumed that that was the stat temperature. The top hose certainly gets hot, and when I tested the fans yesterday warm air was blown out despite the fact that I had allowed the car to cool down quite a lot. But if fans are never needed on the motorway then it certainly sounds like it's not opening fully. It's a shame there's no temp. gauge in the lower rad hose! I'll get the garage to change it anyway. Thanks, -- Olly

Is the coolant special? Due to the leak I've been topping up with 40/60 halfords antifreeze/water, which appears to be the same colour as what was in there before - blue. Have the garage used the wrong stuff? Muchas gracias, -- Olly

Hi everyone, bit of a ramble here, sorry... I'm having a bit of trouble with the cooling system on my '95M Corrado VR6. It warms up normally (at a guess, anyway) from cold and when it gets to 90°C it hangs there for a while. However, after driving a bit it will gently creep up to 95-100, even when just motoring along at 70 on the motorway, with 10°C ambient. Oil temp reads about 120 on the motorway so I don't think it's just a bad gauge. I haven't heard the cooling fans running yet, which is probably a big clue, but should the fans really be needed when cruising at 70? I did some searching on here (thanks to people who have posted about this in the past) and as a result tested out the fans - when bridging the wires in the radiator fan switch connector the fans come on at both speeds. So, this hints at a bad thermostat switch in the rad which seems like a great explanation - shouldn't be hard to get it sorted. However, I also bridged the wires in the yellow temp. sender connector with the ignition off, which caused the fans to come on at the slower speed - shouldn't this have happened when the coolant temp. got to 100? Surely both switches can't be broken? ) Finally, my auxiliary coolant pump seems to be both broken and leaking: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/oliver.stephenson/auxpump.jpg Is it possible to be leaking from the wet black bit in the photo? Apologies for poor focus. It doesn't make any noise with ignition on or with the yellow connector bridged (fan unplugged so I should've been able to hear it) and it seems to be dumping coolant out onto the mounts: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/oliver.stephenson/wetpatch1.jpg http://homepage.ntlworld.com/oliver.stephenson/wetpatch2.jpg So, I guess my question is am I just looking at several little niggly problems or is there something more fundamentally wrong here? Sorry about the huge post, normally I would lurk longer on a new forum before asking stuff like this, but I don't want to hurt the motor if it's a really serious problem, and I want to take the car back to the dealer tomorrow to get them to fix it - and make sure they fix the right bits! They replaced the radiator prior to my picking the car up 'cos they thought that was where the leak was. Many thanks for any advice, and my apologies if I've missed something identical in the search! -- Olly

Thanks for the welcome! My car's actually blue, but it's hard to tell from that photo. Not sure what the colour's called, but I get the feeling that it's going to look stunning in good sunlight - such a shame that I have to wait a few months before we'll get any of that ) Yarr, -- Olly

Hi all, I'm new to the forum and also new to Corrados - got my '95 VR6 on Saturday! http://homepage.ntlworld.com/oliver.stephenson/corrado.jpg Absolutely loving it so far but have a few cooling system problems. I'm currently trawling the old threads which is throwing up plenty of stuff for me to investigate - what a great resource! Just wanted to say hello & that. Cheers, -- Olly