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hi the guy at autosprint (who ground my cams from vw originals) assured me that they would last fine and its true ive done 50k miles on them and no wear at all maybe its because vw cams are particulary hard wearing! unlike for example vauxhall cams which appear to be made from some sort of cheese! i changed an old 8v at the weekend and it had at least a 1mm wear lip on the lobes!! the followers were concave!! at around 120k miles so there might be some truth in the regrinds wearing quickly i guess it depends on the manufacturer and how deep the case hardening is and the strength of the original material!

hi try autosprint (google it for more info) hes near birmingham he will grind you a pair of cams no probs price is competive as long as you supply the original (very high quality) vw cams he can do a variety of profiles for you and is a proper bloke who knows what hes doing give him a bell! andy

hi im a fully qualified mechanic with 20 yrs experience in the trade the pay isnt great but at least its cheap to fix my car... oh and i do my hobby for a living so its all good! anybody need anything fixing send me a pm andy

hi still better than a spacesaver! andy

hi guys well my wife has a new job so it means we cant share transport any more and lets face it the vr6 is going to cost me a fortune in fuel with a round trip of 50miles a day so im looking for something a little more econo0mical but still "stylish" thats a vw or audi and im thinking mk3 cabrio or and audi 80 cabrio but the audi is out as my little 18mth old boy might suffer abit in a rollover as the audi only has the winscreen pillars for safety whereas the golf has an ugly roll hoop making that little bit safer so whats the economy like on these golf things basically? im thinking smallest motor 1.8 90bhp unless anybody else can think of something similar for around 500 quid? plan is to put the old corrado on a classic car policy garaged etc as cheap as chips and use the cabbie every day i aint sellin the corrado ever! only car i ever really wanted to own!!! cheers for the help andy

hi i didnt adjust anything at all as i figured the ecu is designed to adapt to keep a constant idle speed and its usually thidle control valve that causes the idle issues when its clogged up etc rather than the ecu and as id disconnected the ecu i knew it was going to have to learn everything again dont know why you would need to manually adjust the idle speed as the ecu will automatically do it for you (im assuming its a vr6?) just leave the electronics alone and they should sort themselves out as long as they are all working as they should hope this helps andy

hi mine did that too when i put a chip in it! took a couple of days for the ecu to relearn the idle settings drove great but the idle was allover the place i put it down to disconnecting the battery and ecu andy

hi soft sidewalls and corners cause tyres to wear like that! t1rs ride down the road nicely because they have soft and squidgy sidewalls causing them to squeal like stuck pigs when pushed hard and the tyre deforms and rolls under the car causing the outer shoulder to wear quickly get some w rated at the very least and seek out uber stiff sidewall tyres (bridgestones usually) or run a silly amount of negative camber to offset the tyre deforming which will cause the inner shoulder to wear quickly and cause allsorts of other problems if it drives nicely with no pulling or twitchyness then the geometry is probably fine its usually the nsf that wears like this the worst due to islands! get some stiff tyres and see what difference it makes to the handling you wont be disappointed! andy

hi i tracked my fault down to the wiring for my alpine head unit it was live all the time! i have to add that i didnt wire it in i just plugged the iso leads into the existing wiring loom that was fitted to the car! so even with the face off it was draining the battery! i cant remember the exact details but i had to swap 2 wires over so that the colours didnt match i used a mutimeter to check which wire was ign live and which was permanent live on the car and swapped the headunit wiring accordingly so if your headunit works without the key in the ign thats going to be the fault hope that helps andy

hi guys does anybody know the casting numbers for 312mm caliper carriers so that they are easier to locate in breakers yards as the part number isnt stamped on them many thanks andy

hi guys does anybody know if the carriers etc off a mk5 golf gti with the 312mm discs will fit a vr6 (ie are they the same as the mk4 carriers) the calipers look different but will they fit using the mk5 discs? anybody tried before? andy

hi im feeling a bit daft, full of joy with the purchase of my new vag com i increased the screen size to the maximum size and now i cannot see anything and i cant manipulate the screen so that i can see the buttons to reduce it anybody know if its possible to reduce the screen size? any help gratefully recieved andy

hi guys ive just washed my corrado and ive noticed some very small paint blisters around the corrado badge at the rear..........i find this very annoying as there is no other rust anywhere! is this a common problem and has anybody managed to cure it totally as there is no paint damage please tell me its not coming through from the interior of the panel its kind of between the corrado badge and the vw badge on the rear panel any help or suggestions gratefully accepted!! andy

hi ive treid the hankook rs2 and i was very happy as they werent too shabby in the wet and lasted a long time! wear rating 200 or 180 i think! but recently im using federal 595 rsr and im happy with them also just avoid standing water!! when theyre a bit worn as they are wearing quite quickly witha wear rating of 140!i havent tried the r888s as i feel theyre a bit expensive the federals have very stiff sidewalls and im allready looking forward to new set!! great tyre! defo worth a look!! only downside with these semislicks is that they only come with 6 to 6.5mm of tread to start with! hope this helps andy

hi heel and toe (or diagonal wear) is normal (according to continental) on undriven axles most front drive cars exhibit this tendancy on the rear tyres so its nothing to worry about (geometry wise etc) your right about the noise too ive had this loads of times (not on corrados or my own cars) where the customer has complained of a wheelbearing type drone from the rear and ive also failed loads at mot time due to the uneven wear meaning every 3rd block is lower than 1.6 just remember that the tyre Isnt out of shape or failing, its just a wear characteristic! theres nothing you can do other than try to wear them out before they get like this! hope this helps andy

hi im now a technician working on smart cars (dont laugh it pays the bills!) and it would seem that the plug lead removal tool is the same as the volkswagen metal type ive used it with no probs on my vr6! i had a look on ebay and there is the vw one at £18 or the smart one at £10 i know which one id be buying hope this helps somebody andy

hi i have to agree with the haters of p6000 truly awfull tyre the wear rating is surprisingly low i think its only 180 (i might be wrong as its from memory) so the compound is actually rather soft in order to achieve any grip at all! lets face it the tyre was designed in the early 90s things have moved on quite alot!! i wouldnt fit them to a wheelbarrow, theyre expensive too!! there are good tyres and expensive tyres the two arnt allways the same! tyres are important theyres plenty of reviews on the internet for various tyres so have a bit of a research before deciding what rubber to get........not just which makes your local fitter the most bonus!! oh and it was raining heavily recently and the federals are pretty worn now so standing water is getting a bit of a no-no still a great tyre as a compromise between trackday grip and road use though just no good at deep puddles!!! i will be getting another set! andy

hi the price of the r888 is what put me off abit as well i dont like paying more than £60 for a tyre in 205 50 15 im in the trade so the federals cost me £56inc vat thats also why i dont mid getting through them so fast! also r888s are abit compromised for wet use, try the federals if you can get them, we use bmtr and thats the only 205 50 15 they supply thats w rated! i find that v rated tyres are a bit soft in the sidewall im sure camskill list the toyo r1r in 205 50 15 allthough they dont give a price andy

hi has anybody tried the new toyo r1r tyre yet? looks pretty trick but not quite as extreme as the r888 good compromise tyre im currently running federal 595 rsr and i have to report that the grip is amazing in the dry and im yet to have any trouble at all in the wet, which frankly came as a bit of a surprise! superb tyre and not too expensive (very very stiff sidewalls possibly even stiffer than bridgestones so the feel is superb!) down side is wear! 50% worn after 3 months of use!!! they do have a hard life though thats approx 1000 miles :shock: oh and the best tyre for the money at the moment has to be the hankook ventus v12 evo just a superb tyre no problems at all, better than the ku31 even?!! will be trying the federals at curborough for the first club afternoon on saturday so that should shorten the life somewhat!! andy

hi strewth that cat looks pretty crummy (im hoping its a libary picture) erm id try and source a used genuine article if i were you ....i paid £25 for mine off ebay!! theyre far better than that and will bolt right onto your magnex system (assuming the system hasnt been altered anyway) your car will not pass an mot without a cat (unless you know a dodgy ahem frendly tester) who obviously passed it last time unless the previous owner fitted the cat for the mot really he should have supplied the cat with the car and told you to fit it pre mot that woukld have been the decent thing to do anyway.... headlight performance is upto the opinion of the tester ...is 1 light really worse than the other? if so try a new brighter bulb try the 90% brighter jobbies from halfords that should brighten it up but try not to make the "good" one look alot dimmer frankly for me to issue a fall on poor light output it would have to be pretty bad as an mot is a minimum standard and not a service!! surely somebody somewhere has a cat lying around you can use or buy local to you!! guys?! hope this helps! andy

hi looks runflat to me, or run very soft anyway! when you remove the tyre from the rim have a look inside....bet theyres bits of rubber!

hi best bodyshop ive used is shorade in cannock absolutely spotless inside and they have the contract for alumininum bodies from audi too! painted the bumper on our bora and absolutly flawless finish!!! costly though!!

i popped the upper half of the inlet manifold off too just to give a bit more room as i didnt fancy damaging my shiny new rad andy

hi happens on a pretty regular basis to ford fiestas kas escorts etc with the duratec (crossflow to our older readers!) using tapered plugs try an easyout but for gods sake dont break it off as then your in a world of trouble my favoured approach is to whack a torx bit into it so that it cuts into the remaining metal then just turn it out! oh and 1/2 inch drive helps!along with lots of worth rost off which is similar to wd40 but unbeliveably better! again youve nothing to loose it has to come out somehow!even if you take the head off its still got to come out! andy

hi strewth that was a while back!! didnt realise id had my car that long....kepp thinking its time to change but struggle to find anything that will do the same job....audi coupe quattro possibly or alfa gtv or celica gt4 who knows! anyway the control module does come apart its a bit fiddly, you have to remove the sealant stuff with a knife of some sort and carefully pop the plastic cover off the pcb with the electrikery bits attached the doidey capacitor bits that have come unsoldered and fallen out due to getting too hot then just need resoldering back onto the board easy really! i cant remember which way around they go .....i think i guessed (either that or it doesnt matter) anyway if i remember correctly it cured the aux pump problem!! and i havent had any issues since! except that i got the new stat from vw on monday after this incident ,fitted it and that failed too! allbeit 2 years later! im currently using a spurious stat that only allows the coolant to reach 80 deg too low i know but im not taking it all apart again unless i have to!! hope this helps and any more problems feel free to ask as just like most people on here ,there isnt much on my car that i havent taken apart at some point!!! andy