mbaker8v

My car needs a head rebuild, so before i took the plunge of a standard re-build, wanted to talk to someone about the possibilities of a bit of head work. So who is good on 8valve engines. not looking for a race set up, just more efficiency and response but keeping the fuel consumption? Cheers, Mark

Sony car stereo stuff is generally poor, personally I like Pioneer or JVC but its very much personal preference. As for other equipment it very much depends what you want as the final result. For pure sound quality most people use high quality 2 or 3 way front components and one 10 or 12 inch sub. The old addage is 10% equipment 90% installation, so lots of care, lots of sound deadening etc. If you looking for street bass i.e. lots of bass, lots of volume, then the sky is the limit on amp ower and subs, depending really on how much space you want to use up. Most people dont use 6x9's apart from the Genesis subs which are niche market. If you have a sub in the boot, the bass from the sub will distort / interfere wit hthe 6x9 in the parcel shelf. The majority of the sound off competition cars do not use any rear fill speakers at all, but it doesnt hurt to leave them connected to the head unit for your passengers if you want to and your not competing. The biggest improvements are through sound deadening, sealing and good installation of front speakers though, and correctly designed and built sub boxes. Mark

Other option is take the header tank off the car, put a bit of water in the botto madn a hand full of gravel, swirl around liberally for a few mins , empty, flush and refit clean header....

correct.. :)

OK, hope this makes sense. Front two channels of the amp go to the corssovers for the Genny components, then you wire each Genny speaker to the right part of hte crossovers. For the subs, you wire the +ve coonection for rear left of the amp to the +ve on BOTH subs, then the -ve rear right channel on the amp to the -ve on BOTH subs. This bridges the amp ( only using one output from two amp channels, and puts the correct laod on the amp.

Just bear in mind the Genny subs are 8 ohm, so you will need t owire them in Paralell to show the amp a 4 ohm load, then bridge them over the rear channels of your amp so they get the full 280Watts up 'em.. :)

Ported tends to give a louder output at the expense of musicality, sealed tends to give a lower peak output but better spread of bass. Sound quality competition cars tend to go sealed, SPL comp cars always use ported. Question is do you want something that sounds good or that goes boom boom that can be heard half a mile away. From the sub makes you listed i would say in order of preference JL Audio, alpine, Infinity, JBL, vibe, fli, audiobahn. All that depends what model from each manufacturer as well... Deoending what you want, what size box you want in your car, how much amp power you have, what sound your after etc will effect which is best for you...

Leave the car with me in Lincs for the weekend and we can call it £150?? :)

No it doesnt, you will need a cabling kit..... If your only looking to use the single amp, i would get one of these.... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AUTOLEADS-PC4-60- ... dZViewItem or these http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/value-p ... p-204.html I would probably get the CAD one if your ordering hte rest of the kit from there.... You will also need a few metres extra speaker wire, you will need to measure up exactly how much you need but the kit will not have enough.... Also, you will need to make up a new parcel shelf out of MDF to mount the subs firmly too, so get some speaker box covering to trim it with so your not looking at bare MDF.

Headunits are different, you really need to go to a decent car hifi shop and listen to a few different ones through the same set of good components. My persoanl preference is for Pioneer, Alpine i dont like the sound of, they sound too harsh for me, and Kenwood I find hard to use as too many buttons.... JVC are also very good.

Genesis are the only people who make 6x9 subs AFAIK. They specifically designed them for people who do not want a huge bass build in the boot. Thye will not give you the level or depth of sound you would get from a boxed dedicated sub, but give good results from the guys I have spoken to who have tried them..... I really would not use large co-ax speakers. If you look at all the sound quality competition audio cars, they all use front 2 or 3 way component systems with rear bass. Good quality front components, well installed with a suitable amp will give you all the treble and soundstage you could ask for. By balancing the levels you get he bass output to blend wit hthe front soundstage how you like it. The rear subs WILL NOT overpower the front end in the system i suggested.

Easiest place for the amp is on the back of the rear seats.. Wiring is very easy... I would really really urge you to consider the system i suggested rather than go all cheap Infinity gear......

Its really not a lot of extra work to put components in instead of co-ax's in the front doors, the crossovers can very easily be hidden behind the trim... And the improvement in sound is out of this world. I wouldnt bother looking at rear speakers, get good components in the front doors, then a set of Genesis 6x9 subs in the rear parcel shelf with a decent 4 channel amp. subs http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/genesis ... -3015.html comps http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/genesis ... -3019.html and an amp http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/jbl-gto754-p-4140.html Thats £350 leaving you £150 for a head unit of your choice, though personally I would steer clear of Alpine as the ytend to sound a bit bright for my tastes, depends on your ears and what you like to listen to though.... Then you need to allow a bit for cabling and a MDF rear shelf.... Say another £50... That lot would give you a very nice sounding system with all your boot still available.

Can anyone tell me the internal dimensions of the corrado boot? Trying to work out what im going to need to false floor and retrim it while I am at work and havnt got the measurements.. Ta

The gear selection in my car has got very notchy and unspringy recently. Its not the gearbox as it still feels crap when the car is switched off and stationary. Are there any common wear parts in the linkage / gear lever mechanism that go and make the gearbox feel nasty? Cheers, Mark EDIT Just to make it a bit clearer, the gear selection itself is OK so I dont think its the circlip problem, the lever is very notchy / hesitant to go across the gate......

MB Quart will do you proud, other alternatives would be... http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/product ... 08d7937675 http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/product ... 08d7937675 The Boston recommends a very small sealed enclosure which is probably easiest if you want to make it yourself, again though it depends on what amp you are going to be using, what load you need for the amp, if your buying or making a box etc.... Alternatively you can buy second hand where you will get a lot more for your money ( I got 2 11inch Focal subs off Ebay for £125 delivered....)

Furk'z How much are you looking to spend? What do you want from a sub, are you looking for quality or maximum bass volume? Do you want to run sealed or ported? What amp are you going to run it off of? Do you want single or dual voice coils? What load do you want t oshow the amp.... Its not quite as simple as "are these 3 subs any good..." Dpends what you want / need

Just starting to get my monster ICE set up planned / bought for the Corrado. Need to know what size Alternator can be fitted as I dont think my standard one is going to be capable of running 1.8kW of amplifier power.... Do the 120Amp ones off Gold diesels fit? Are all VW alternator mounting brackets the same?? Cheers, Mark

Who fitted the coilovers? Did you do it yourself? Where htey properly aligned after fitting. If not then you need to get a decent 4 wheel alignment carried out to get all of hte car geometry set up right again. Any good garage or body shop should be able to do it, though a lot of people use Stealth or AmD also... If your going to get it done, make sure your happy wit hthe ride height first, as when you alter the ride height you have to get the geometry re-set.... Setting up the geometry is NOT something you can do yourself....

I checked the drain holes i nthe scuttle at teh weekend... Where does it leak around the fan inlet? Is it where the inlet assembly drops through the scuttle / bulkhead panel? Water cant run down the actual inside of the inlet can it as it would end up in the blwer and get sprayed out through the vents?? Cheers, Mark

Guys, seem to have water leaking into the passenger footwell from around the windscreen. Have taken the carpets out in passenger side and the water drips along the back of hte footwell right across the width of it. Took the trim off under the wipers along the bottom of the screen over the weekend and couldnt see anything wrong around that seal, i did apply plenty of sealant just i ncase but still has not fixed the problem... Where else do screens leak?? Its the original VW screen and has only just started to leak the last few weeks... Cheers, Mark

its true the back cant be adjusted, the point is though that if you only have the fronts done, the front wheels will be aligned correctly, but there is no way of knowing if the fronts and backs are both aligned to the same point, the two axle pairs may be aligned to a different place. I had my car front wheel aligned a couple of times before i got AmD to do a full 4 wheel alignment. Afterwards it was like having a new car!! Dont waste your time on front whel only, get the proper job done.... Any good crash repair centre should have a 4 wheel alignment system. The print outs i have from the 3 different alignments i have had done over the last 7 years each give the allowable range of the measurements so i am assuming they are referenced i nthe machine. If your still stuck i can dig out the numbers for you... Mark

Someone in the works car park has a black Nissan 350Z, lowered, tinted and on chrome alloys, it looks the absolute nuts, and i dont usually like jap cars...... Chrome alloys show off the gold / bronze brembo caplipers behind the wheels, and has a rorty exhaust on it too.... Not sure if u could get one for £15k, but i am tempted.....

I havnt had a bonnet earth strap for about two years now.. makes absolutely no difference at all to anything, wouldnt worry about it too much.....

Please excuse him, he only has the 8v corrado - it doesnt generate enough speed to create wiper lift lol :lol: joke btw Ohhh havnt heard that one before... LOL