adamukcorrado

thats the strange thing, the hole is only about 5mm deep and there are no sharp edges or clean edges indicating a bolt or plug has sheared off. it also seems far too tight to the pully wheel to fit anything like a bolthead on the outside. Any ideas??

car's been off the road for about 8 months and trying to get her going again. have found a major oil leak. it's coming from a round hole about half way up the drivers side of of my vr engine block just below the top wheel of the alternator belt. when engine's running oil literally runs out of hole, but stops when you turn engine off. i need to know what the hole is and why its leaking so badly. IT'S NOW LOOKING LIKE A 'CORE PLUG'(?) ANYONE KNOW HOW TO FIX IT??

just been and bought some kilrock from B&Q, just under £5 so well worth a try.

Thanks alot nick, thats exactly the type of info i was after!!! i will be investing in some this afternoon! Thanks for your help.

it's not garaged unfortunately, just covered.

My beloved corrado has been taken off the road for about 6 months due to lack of funds and not needed as every day car. It is covered with a tyvek car cover (amazingly breatheable and water proof), the interior has no apparent leaks -all carpets are nice and dry etc, but i'm starting to get mould appearing on seats and head lining- obviously it needs airing more often but being based in rainy manchester there hasn't been many dry days over winter!!! are there any products to stop the mould forming? and also remove when it has? would having sunroof left tilted under the cover make any difference?

thanks kev, have used the search :oops: and found all the info in need, definately going to do it myself as want to learn and can't afford another major garage bill! thanks for your help. :salute:

yes it seems to be from behind the altenator, both the altenator and belt are soaked, as is the CDA. so it's possible to lift the head without affecting the chains? or this it that the chains aren't a big problem to set up etc?

mine seems to be more of an occasional blast of oil considering the amount of smoke that comes from under the bonnet and the residue thats left everywhere!! only does it occasionally tho and still runs smoothly

obviously they are all new VAG studs that where used, but is there a chance that a head stud isn't tight enough? as i've had alot of trouble with bolts not being tightened enough elsewhere on the car. or would this cause more serious symtoms such as not running properly?

excellent thanks for that stan, i'll give them a call when the time comes to spend some more money on it!

thats a very interesting point kev, how much of a job is it to lift head off? i enjoy working on the car and will attempt most things but have been afraid of affecting timing and other such issues i thought would arise from taking head off?

''I suspect the gasket didn't seal especially well there. I know that some VW engines (especially the VR) seep oil there aswell because there's no head bolt in that area, so the clamping force is slightly reduced at that point.'' thats a very interesting point kev, how much of a job is it to lift head off? i enjoy working on the car and will attempt most things but have been afraid of affecting timing and other such issues i thought would arise from taking head off?

thats the problem, i've just moved to manchester and always have used JMR in the past. he still has it for major works (500 mile round trip!!) and don't know any garages up this way yet. where would oil be coming out of if a blocked breather? my alternator is now soaked with oil along with the BMC, so going on the location of the oil i took it to be coming from the location photo'ed

i had the head replaced to cure blue smoke on over run, had all valves and tappets etc replaced with new, could of (probably should of) put the old head back on, but at the time a head was avaliable so i had it reconditioned for a straight swap to reduce garage time. i've never had any other head gasket problems, even now runs perfectly and uses no coolant, doesn't even use much oil considering it's decided to coat the engine bay with it!!

ok, on investigating my mystery smoke problem i have found that the engine is blowing oil out behind the belt and altenator. i have cleaned up the area (and taken some pics below) there is no clear flaw in the gasket or head (what you can see at least) the head was put on fully reconditioned (looked really good condition)about 6 months ago which obviously included a new VAG gasket, is there any way of telling between head and gasket without opening it all up again? if the head was cracked would it be visible? and is removing the head to explore a job only to be attemped by serious mechanic or could i do it?? i'm really considering cutting my losses and breaking it up and so i'm reluctant to run up another big bill just diagnoising the fault.

i always used to use super market 'super' unleaded until i was shown the shocking state of my injectors and valves, really clogged up and shitty, got them fully cleaned and sorted and only run mine vr6 on BP ultimate now, supermarkets are cheaper but don't contain the detergents and additives to keep things performing well. i also find i get noticibly better fuel comsumption using ultimate over 95oct.

further to my previous post a month or so ago about random clouds of smoke coming from drivers wing for no apparent reason.... the problem has developed and now it is clear that the engine is blowing oil out from behind the altenator, (all over BMC and belt etc), apart from this it is running beautifully, uses no water and (i thought) no oil. i guess i'm looking at a dead head gasket?? really frustrated as it's the second time the gasket has been replaced in the last year!!!! (previously when chains were done and when re-con head was fitted) i've had the car 18 months spent around £6K on it only ever using genuine VAG bits and it still breaks down on a monthly basis!

further to my previous post a month or so ago about random clouds of smoke coming from drivers wing for no apparent reason.... the problem has developed and now it is clear that the engine is blowing oil out from behind the altenator, (all over BMC and belt etc), apart from this it is running beautifully, uses no water and (i thought) no oil. i guess i'm looking at a dead head gasket?? really frustrated as it's the second time the gasket has been replaced in the last year!!!! (previously when chains were done and when re-con head was fitted) i've had the car 18 months spent around £6K on it only ever using genuine VAG bits and it still breaks down on a monthly basis! :(

i'm also going to tidy up the wiring just in case as there are several areas looking really scabby and will be better to sort now then when problems start occuring, where can i get more of the fabric tape the loom is wrapped in? VW or somewhere like halfords? (my local branch doesn't stock it)

i've had a good look again, and one of the branches of the manifold is speckled and the inlet breather above is leaking oil, how much oil should there be? is it best to simply seal the breather better to prevent leakage, or to try and reduce the amount of oil within it? can't be ideal to have that oil going in through the inlet manifold etc- specially when you consider the efforts and expense to ensure cold clean air is sucked in!

thats a beast of a system! and amazing that they could free up an extra 25 ponies from a ferrari- you'd expect it to be pretty much as good as you can get as standard!

could a leaky water pump be causing steam/ smoke issues?? (see other thread) it's the only part of my cooling system that isn't brand new.

i'm running a raceland 6-2-1 manifold with a miltek system and cat by pass pipe. sounds great and performs really well. i bought it new off ebay from tuningleaderuk for about £175 and the quality is excellent and i've had no problems.

Ok, here is a puzzler for you! it first happened about 4 months ago, pulled up at roundabout and noticed steam (or smoke?) coming from drivers side front corner of bonnet/wing, thought rad or hose had gone but all seemed ok so put it down to a puddle splashing on the hot engine. has happened 4-5 times since, in completely dry conditions so is definatley coming from car. i have since fitted all brand new hoses and new radiator (all VAG). it's running perfectly, uses no coolant at all. all electrics seem fine and has no evidence of it when bonnet is up. can smell a bit exhausty in car when accerating hard. Any ideas?? would like to find what it is before it develops into smothing more serious!