Rpmayne

Yer, makes sence. Will probably get the lifters, just underestimated how much money I've had to spend. On a related note, removing the slam panel to take the radiator out to gain access... has anyone found that some of the self tapping screws used to hold it on have been onvertightened and so damaged the flimsy threads in the wings etc. Most are just about gripping, but when I do the head I can't see them holding again. They need repairing and the only thing I can think of using are the sort of metal fixings that come with speakers (the bent pieces of metal which has a clearance hole one side and a slit/hole for the thread the other). Any ideas on where to get some bigger ones? Or an alternative? Cheers.

Had my VR6 running on 5 cylinders this week, removed the plugs and no.6 was soaked in oil. Valve stem seals look the likely cause, compression was good and power was at 194bhp when rolling roaded 6 months back. Has done 83,000mls so seems abit early, but these aren't the most reliable engine VW ever built from what I hear. Also keeps stalling now and sounded rattly, bump start it regularly and now I think the belt tensioner is feeling it. (Know I shouldn't but getting a little pissed off with it. Should I have stuck with golfs??!) Basically I wanted to check what bits I need to get: - Head gasket set from VW inc. valve stem seals etc.. - Chain tensioner I was going to leave the hydraulic lifters as they don't sound noisy yet (won't be too bad to change later on). Also hoping the guides aren't worn. Are there any other bits I need to do, such as a new chain? Money is non-existent so it's gotta be the absolute essentials. Hence DIY :( Ta

Would I be right in thinking then that as standard cars the VR6 is the better, faster and the more refined car? Just wondering as most of the comparisons seem to be a standard VR6 compared to a heavily modified G60. This leads me to think that the G60 needs these mods to stand a chance. :lol: Surely these G60 mods do have down sides such as reduced engine life, reliability, increased noise, less than honest insurance cover etc.. There will always be these types of argument, 8v vs 16v as mentioned earlier, SNES vs Megadrive, who gives a fcuk as long as your having a laugh. PS. 8v golf, SNES and VR6 corrado are winners for me. :)

Yoko A539's, £253.00 delivered for 4 from Extreme in Harlow. (205 50 VR15's). Excellent tyres.

True, forgot about the dremel. Bloody handy little tools, rusty exhaust clamps no problem, rounded allen key bolts can be made to fit a flat blade screwdriver. Got me out of a few little problems over the years.

When the corrado club website was available there was a document about modifying the original windscreen wipers so they put more pressure onto the windscreen and so actually move some water. I did this mod at the weekend, and with the shi*e weather we've been having it's a massive improvement. If you take the windscreen wipers off the car the spring at the hinge pulls them flat. If you hinge the wiper arms up there are 2 stops cast into the base part which limit how far the arm can travel towards the windscreen. On mine i could see casting lines half way down the stops. Using a dremel I ground these stops down to the lines so the arm could travel further, then covered the bare metal with grease to stop rust. I recon they are now as good as any other car I've had, and all it took was abit of time and no money. Sorted. 8)

I thought the holes on vented disks were supposed to dissipate the heat better, more surface area for air to cool etc. That's a performance benefit to reduce brake fade isn't it? Don't think I would be brave enough to DIY it though.

Thanks for the reply Henny. Sorry, reading back myself and not so clear... The motor can slide the sunroof open but can't close it again. I then have to manually close it using the allen key, which felt quite free to me. What sort of grease is best to use, LM, graphited, copper? I'll check the 12v tonight to make sure.

The sunroof is playing about again. It will tilt open and closed, will slide open but won't slide back. The cars a '93 will the later style sunroof motor with the allen key to manually operate it if you take the roof light assembly out. Any ideas why it won't slide back? Seems free enough when manually closing it. How does the motor know the sunroof is closed? The motor seems to de-activate when its closed to stop the motor burning, thinking maybe this is the fault. Cheers.

The A539's are the best for the money I recon (still on standard 205 50 R15's on a VR6), asked the local mechanic who has had experience doing track days etc and he rated them better than the Toyos. Have had A510's, A520's and A539's on golfs, all well good. The A539's are probably better in the wet (don't push it so much now after an extremely lucky escape) but I thought the A520's were better in the dry and looked better aswell. I don't think you can buy them now though.

Other than the reduced oil temperature, do you notice any performance, oil consumption or any other differences?

I can't see mileage as being a particularly good thing to go by to be honest. Mine had done 77,000 when I bought it and the valve stem seals need doing, had FSH aswell. Thought this sort of problem starts about 100,000 onwards but the heat seems to accelerate the failure on these bits. See how it drives and get someone to follow you to watch for smoke. You could get one on 20,000 miles which has been red-lined from cold every day of its hard life.

Don't know then mate, although I thought the K-jetronic system was mechanical. Do you have five fuel pipes going to the top of the air box? If so its mechanical fuel injection, there is an air flow 'flap' in the lid of the box which changes the fuelling to the injectors depending on the air flow. I also had a '89 mk2 16v golf with the K-jetronic. The only pumps I remember (stripped the car after writing it off) are the in-tank one and I think there was one with the fuel filter on the rear drivers side of the car.

Does the car still turn over? Does the buzzing sound like the normal fuel pump prime of about 5 seconds? Are the corrado 16v's electronic fuel injection? I had a Digifant ECU go on my old mk2 8v golf. The symptoms included the fuel pump continuously running (like the prime sound but didn't stop) and the injectors staying open, resulting in the filling with fuel and the engine locking up. :shock: Not exactly a safe state if the ECU does fail! Only cure was a new ECU. If yours is Digifant controlled, make sure all the earth straps are in top condition. If the starter motor can't earth through the chassis, it earths through the ECU and that's game over. Found that out changing a gearbox and not tightening the strap up properly! :oops:

I've just gone for some Gmax suspension which I have used on previous mk2 golfs and i'm very happy with them, £220 DIY fitment. When buying them I was advised that coilover shocks are generally harder than sports kits, I like a firm ride but prefer not to hear the chassis creaking over every bump in the road. Also although they are adjustible, its only the recoil or rebound which is adjustible (can't remember which), not both. This is apparently what limits the adjustment as the other is a fixed rate. Another interesting point about poly bushes and uprated suspension, although the grip can be increased, the difference between grip and slide becommes smaller and smaller, especially in the wet. The mechanic who fitted the rear bushes for me told me this, i listened but took no notice. A few months later I spun the golf in the wet and wrote it off on a few trees. Have tried to learn from this and prefer abit of warning, so i'd leave the bushes alone. I've found Proven-products.co.uk are very helpful for any advice.

I bought a '93 VR6 with 77,000mls a few months ago, and have been very pleased with it on the whole. Just a few niggles such as coolant leaks and oil usage. Get a mate to follow you driving the car from stand still to see whether there are any signs of smoke. 80,000mls doesn't sound like alot by mine puffs when changing gear and momentarily when going full throttle. This is most likely to be the valve stem seals and guides. Ask how much they top the oil up, mines using 1 litre / 1000mls at worst, which is still within VW recomendation. I wouldn't worry about the reverse, the forward gears are more important, especially 2-3 is apparently the first to go. Acceleration, the big old VR doesn't really get going til 4k.

Its a VR6, found it was the thermostat housing in the end. The inside plastic lip which meets the head had just perished and rubber seal was is several bits. Will get on to the stealer on monday for a new bit, just glad the head gasket ok for a bit longer. Thanks for all the help, just got to get used to the little querks of these cars. I've been spending more time fixing it than driving it recently, was just loosing the plot abit. Always the same though, once I take it out for a drive everything is forgiven. Wicked fun!

Mines doing the same, just got the bentley CD-ROM to find out how to do this. It says they can be changed with the head on if the cylinders and pressurised to hold the valves up. Would the valve guides be worn at 83,000 past the 1mm play do you recon?

Nice one mate, didn't think it was those ones cos it also carried the front engine mount. Did what you said with an axle stand under the cross member just incase and all good. After taking all this apart I got a bit of better look at the leak and it appears to be coming from the front right hand side of the head gasket. Is this likely? I keep wiping it dry and the water seems to form there, although I can't really feel above and maybe its flowing down from soemwhere else. It's a constant drip which doesn't seem to get any worse with heat / pressure. It looses about an inch in the header tank every day. I must say that the reliability of these cars it not what I have been used to with golfs. Don't get me wrong, bloody excellent to drive and looks wicked, just crap sunroofs, rattly doors, intermittent stalling and burning oil (think the valve stem seals are worn at 83,000mls) are getting me down.

Bloody cars, what happened to the joy of working on a mk2 golf. I have a water leak coming from the front of the engine block somewhere but need a closer look. This requires removing the entire front of the car. :x I'm stuck trying to get the bumper off. Apparently there are 4 17mm bolts but I can't find them. Does anyone know where they are or any other things holding it on, like the wings need to come off aswell or something. Cheers

Yer Rams, sounds like the koni's are the business so will probably go with that. Do you know what sort of adjustment they are capable of?

I'm thinking of getting either Koni coilovers or the FK konigsport kits for my VR6, just after some advice from anyone who has already fitted these kits. What is the limits of the adjustment on the rideheight and damping? Can they be adjusted so they give the standard setup, or even on the limit of adjustment is the car lowered and stiffer? If so, roughly how much? I've lowered golfs with advice from the suppliers before assuring me I won't get any rubbing (Gmax and jamex kits), both times ending in having to roll the front arches (only running 15" 195 50 R15's) :x Don't want to wreck this car. Has anyone had any reliability problems with either of these kits? Apparently the only difference between the two are the springs as the shocks are both made by koni. The FK's come with a lifetime warranty where as the Koni's come with 3 years, and the FK's are about £100 cheaper, so thinking the FK's are probably the way to go... :?: Thanks.

I have never managed over about 28, usual driving gives about 22mpg. Money wise that gives me about £45.00 per 300 miles. Don't think I give it a massively hard time either, the fun and noise starts at about 4krpm. :twisted:

I find cars with firm suspension hard to check with the old push test, 1.5 rebound stuff. I had a golf which seemed ok by that but one of the rear shocks had blown. I confirmed this by driving it around and seeing whether the roll was even on left and right hand corners, and went over a few speed bumps to see whether the rebound seemed even. The most noticeable thing was wild oversteer if I was anywhere near late on the brakes going into a corner. :shock:

I've had g-max suspension on a mk2 golf and was pretty pleased with it. Pretty sure that g-max kits are rebagded jamex stuff though, jamex of which was good but I had 2 separate failures with the rear shocks. Abit scary when cornering and all of a sudden the stearing completely changes. Soon learn't how to change them, warranty didn't cover fitting.