storm_warning

Huh? What line? Sorry for being thick!

I tend to see other corrado's the most when I'm driving a different car. I wave frantically then realise they'll have no idea why and just come to the (damnit truthful) conclusion I'm an idiot. Best experience so far was when I was sitting in my car waiting for my son to finish eating his chocolate bar and the stunning blonde owner of the stunning nugget yellow g60 I'd parked next to got in her car, rolled down the window and asked if we could swap cars, or at least interiors! All I wanted to swap was phone numbers, but no... Made me laugh when she had to open the passenger side and lean across to open the drivers door. Ah, Corrado's and their many failings....

Okay, I see other Corrado's what, once a month? Sometimes less... But every time, without fail, I'm frantically waving and flashing lights at the other driver - sometimes to no response, sometimes to a bemused wave back, but never really to just as excited frantic waving back?! Am I the only one? What's wrong with me? :oops:

Think I'll wait 'till they're shot and shorten the replacements. The rear's not so bad, but the front's are a bugger to work on (the H&R's don't fit VW's spring compressor without a degree of fettling and luck!). Thanks for the sage advice, Mike.

Yes, I have. Is that bad?

I chickened out of putting the original springs back on, so I'm still on the H&R's! I figured, after what Mike said, I'd stick with better the devil you know. What I did have done, though, was a new hub carrier + bearing on the nearside and a new ball joint on the offside and my car's an animal again! Driving it today on a sweepy b road had me thinking most of the bounce I'm getting right now is from the rear, so I'm going to stiffen that up a bit and see if I can get away with softening the front a tad, may make the journey's a bit smoother. Fingers crossed! Now to get the ABS working again...

Short of going back to totally OE suspension, what's the cheapest route to getting a more comfortable ride? Ideally keeping the height away from VW's plus suspension ride height... I was kinda pinning my hopes on standard springs with the Koni's being The Answer!

Read this thread with interest since I'm just about to get rid of my H&R springs! Bought them about three years ago and put them on with the standard shocks. Loved the fact that the ride height looked much more like it should have from the factory and not that stupid plus suspesnsion ride height, but the shocks were no match for the stiffer springs and the car was way too bouncy. On recommendation from just about every Corrado owner I asked, I bought the top adjustable Koni shocks. This calmed it down no end, but I still find it too bouncy. If I adjust the shocks as hard as they'll go, it's too harsh a ride, if I soften them off, I feel like I'm going to get bounced off the road (I live out in the sticks where the roads are awful - as soon as I'm town driving, it's fine). So, in about an hour and a hlaf's time, I'm having the original springs put back on to see how they are with the Koni's. I'm hoping the shorter shocks will help keep the ride height down because I can't stand the thought of driving a tractor again and with any luck the softer springs will give me the comfort I'm after in he car (my driving style's calmed down these last couple of years anyway!). I'll let you lot know what difference it makes...

Ah, an actual place called Beckenham, not anything to do with Beckenham Palace, then... I'll go sit in the corner. :oops:

Many thanks for all your replies. I think I'll give the short term fix a miss and just go straight for a proper respray, if it comes in cheap enough. Was that whilst you were having other work already being done, or were you actually charged £160ish for the bonnet and wings? If I can find a price similar to that there's no reason to ever use a chips away company...

After lovingly cleaning and polishing my car, I can now clearly see a multitude of sins the dirt was hiding. My bonnet has about a millions stonechips and theres a fair few more on the bumper and leading edges of the front wings. I want to get these done, but there's a lot of them. Does anyone know if people like chips away charge per panel, or quote on the sheer ammount of work they have to do? Anyone here used a stone chip removal company on a car that could only be described as peppered? What were the results like?

Just noticed your profile says your location is Beckenham! Does that mean you're in Sawbridgeworth?

Wow. Just read this entire thread (well, I am at work - gotta kill the time somehow!!) and I am sooooooo impressed by the level of knowledge going on here. One thing no one seems to have mentioned so far is how much the full conversion has cost them? I know my engine's going to die at some stage, so I should be prepared for the costs of getting my baby back on the road if that happens! EDIT for attrocious spelllin arrors.

Wouldn't a schrick come into it's own if you also had higher lift cams installed? That way it'll tackle the loss of low end grunt with the cams and the cams give you the higher end grunt? Or am I barking up the wrong tree? Or am I just barking?! Answers on a postcard.

Ultima GTR. Someone that used to do work for the comapny I work for built himself one which was apparantly in the top ten fastest GTR's in the country when completed. He bought it up for me to see one day and took me out for a spin. Unfortunately it wasn't fuelling properly at the time, so he couldn't floor it, or take it above 4,500rmp - even so it was the fastest thing I've ever been in on four wheels!!! The acelleration was mind blowing. He's sold it now, so there's no chance of me experiencing the full effect. :( Harder getting in and out of that than an Elise!!

I don't think painting the front calipers is too bad a thing, but painting the rears a nice stand out red or yellow makes it really easy to see just how small the brakes are at the back. If you've done a bigger brake upgrade, then I'd say go for it - let everyone know, but if they're just standard... This is just my opinion, of course! I've done some pretty strange things to my cars in the past which I really liked, but others didn't, but I never let it bother me because I liked it!

It's alright, I'm just being an idiot. After I got the nipper off to bed I was able to have a much better look at what was going on and I've found that the wheel bearing has destroyed itself leaving tiny shards of metal sprayed around the inside of the wheel (easier to notice in the dark where the torch light reflects off the little shards). When I looked earlier and wobbled the wheel, I thought all the movement was coming from the steering aseembly, bot the wheel itself and panicked! New bearing already ordered.

Had a couple of moments on the road today where the car tried to go off in a surprising direction all of it's own and have been welcomed by a grinding sound when turning left. When I got home and jacked the car up, I found I have almost half an inch of freeplay in the steering and all the movement seems to come from the first joint behind all the whole carrier assemby (I'm sorry, I have no idea what these parts are called!). Does the bit I'm trying to explain sound like it could be the CV? Has anyone ever heard one when they're going wrong - would it make a grinding noise only when turning?

How's this for an idea? Put an in-line capacitor in the interior light wiring. It should release it's charge slowly enough to dim the light, I would have thought. Must be only a quid or so to buy from Maplins. No idea what rating you should use, though - any ideas, anyone? Might do this myself next time I get a day off work, which should be some time in February. If anyone does it before me, let me know how it went.

I was at the vw garage my brother works for at the weekend and guess what? They had a new beetle with a mouse problem! This one had got behind the dashboard and eat some of the loom and destroyed the ecu!!!! The entire dash had to be removed before they even knew what the cause was - the droppings gave it away! :D

The thing is, Optimax is just your standard fuel shipped in with the rest of the forecourts petrol and is pepped up when it's in the forcourts tanks. Whilst this isn't a problem itself, the octane rating will slip (if it was ever monitored) as it ages. Whilst the garage no doubt has a refill at least once a week, you really need to get that stuff in your tank shortly after they've put it in theirs and before you've got to the bottom of your tank, it will have degraded some anyway. This is what I've heard, anyway, from a very convincing post on another forum.

That is sooo cool! I know what I'll be doing over the Christmas break - changing the colour of the dash lights/glow and uprating my headlight loom! :D :D Let There Be Light! :D :D

Help - I'm still confused! I want the blue dials and red LCD's, but the reversed ones. Getting the dials looks dead simple, but I still don't understand how the LCD's work. How do you get just the digits to glow?

I think changing the film seems like the easiest way, then! I guess it's the same for the rest of the illuminated parts of the dash, like the switches and heater controls?

This is something I've been thinking about doing myself. I've not had anything apart yet to see what's inside to know what's involved. Maybe you can shed some light (pardon the unintended pun!). Does the green illumination come from green LED's or white LED's through green tinted dials? I'm hoping it's just green LED's so I can swap for blue. Also, is this the same rule for the MFA? Is this just a matter of swapping green LED's for red LED's to change the illumination? You can probably tell from my choice already, I'm after blue glowing dials and red glowing displays!