Petros

Thanks Kev. What's your stance on head re-build vs. replacement with new?

Yeah, deffo worth being sure before you potentially throw 100 bucks away. Have a look at the leads you've got on, there will be a VW & AUDI logo embossed in the metal plug end if they are genuine. You probably shouldn't be able to pull the lead off the plug without using the tool - if it does come off easily by hand, like mine did, it may be worth chaning them (or at least closing the ends a little with some pliers). And check the condition of the leads too, as any damage to the insulation could well cause problems (AFAIK). What kind of probs are you having that makes you think they need changed?

Yup, changing the leads seems to have fixed things. The OE leads are a much tighter fit over the plug ends than the aftermarket ones I had on. I guess they must be making a 'cleaner' spark; the old leads were so loose when I removed them it's a wonder some were sparking at all! The leads were about £98 from VW. The plugs were about £30 from an independant specialist. The TPS costs about £50 from VW. It is mounted on the throttle body, directly opposite where the throttle cable is attached. Look for a roughly rhombus-shaped black plastic thingy with wires plugged into the top of it. It only took 10 minutes to replace this. You'll probably need to disconnect the breather pipe from the cam-shaft cover to get at the bolts, but this is only held on with a hose clip. Also, the shape of the TPS has changed, and the original bolts are too long for the new one - you'll need 2x 15mm M4 bolts (IIRC) + washers. And, according to the KB article, you need to do an ECU reset+Basic Settings after replacing this.

Makes me wonder if I should start un-doing all the other mods the car's had :wink:

The low-speed/high-load struggling started to show up again with the new plugs. I replaced the plug leads with the genuine VW ones, and that seems to have cured the problems. The engine doesn't struggle at any speed/load, and the lost power at high rpms seems to have disappeared (although I've got a wobbly wheel bearing that needs sorted ASAP, so I haven't been really pushing the car). Idle seems smoother, and the engine pulls more readily at low speeds. And into the bargain the engine bay looks much cooler with bright red leads :smile: Hopefully that'll be the end of the problems for now. Thanks again to all those who helped!

The rear VR6 badge is stuck down, the grill one clips into place. I would imagine the rear Storm badge sticks down too. It's only, AFAIK, the Corrado script that is pinned in place.

I found one eventually on ebay, as part of a complete front grill, and paid way over the odds for it - about £40 in total IIRC. It took a while to find, but IMO well worth the wait and expense to get the car looking right again. As IceWhite said above, the best way seems to be watching out for the grill complete with badge as I didn't see a single badge sold separately the whole time I was looking.

I took the car to a garage this morning and let them have a look at it. They checked the plugs and found they were badly oiled up. Having replaced these, the problem has almost gone away. The engine isn't struggling and is running much, much smoother. However, at high engine speeds there is still a discernable, but not dramatic, loss of power. The engine note sounds slightly off, and there's a noticeable vibration that wasn't there before all this started. I also checked the engine's behaviour with the MAF disconnected (following the earlier TPS replacement). This remains the same, the engine will start and run with the throttle open, but will not idle; it just stalls as before. Does anyone have any ideas why the TPS still isn't recognising WOT? And next, is it time to start considering a(n) head/engine rebuid? (Or 24v conversion :-) ) I was also recomended to relace the HT leads - I'm running on non-std 'ones atm - with genuine VW parts. Obviously that won't help the oiling up, but might this help with the slight power drop/vibration at high rpms?

I thought about something like that a while back... but when I really thought about the question 'Can I be ars*d taking the the stereo out of the car* and hooking it up to the PC everytime I want some new tunes?' the only answer I could come up with was 'No'. Instead I bought an MP3 CD player. Its only a single slot, so you still need some CDs in the car, but I keep about 10 discs in the glove box, and thats enough to hold all the driving tunes I'm likely to need. No cables, no extra software, no lugigng bits of the stereo about - just burn some MP3s or WMAs onto a disc and you're away. Like Trig says, if it were WiFi and much more capacious, then I'd be sold too. * I know it's not the whole head unit that you remove, but you get my point.

I've now replaced the TPS, reset the ECU and run Basic Settings. The problem was still apparent during the first 15 minutes of driving after resetting the ECU, accelerating from 25mph in 4th gear caused a fair bit of engine judder until it reached about 30 mph. Then it got a whole lot worse. The engine is now struggling at all engine speeds under acceleration, at part and full throttle. During Basic Settings the O2 sensor was reading 0.8 - 0.9 at idle. The ignition timing was fluctuating between 4.5 and 6.8 degrees BTDC. Using the measuring blocks I checked the O2 value with the engine running at ~2000 rpms, and the reading was much nearer 1.0. From reading the KB article on resetting the ECU, it looks like these values are borderline and outwith the allowed ranges respectively. Checking the measuring blocks for the TPS show that it's still only reading 80 degrees at WOT. The progression from closed to open is much smoother though. Really not sure what to do/try next. I'm thinking it's time to get it into a garage.

Thanks for the info Mike. My engine does run without the MAF, but won't idle. It doesn't seem to abruptly stall or cut out - closing the throttle results in the engine speed dropping smoothly all the way to zero. This obviously isn't normal, could it relate to my faulty TPS? I'll check if this changes after the TPS is repaced, but if it doesn't then I guess I've got another problem to track down.

Thanks Doc, I've ordered one up from VW, should arrive saturday. Just wanted my diagnosis sanity checked really... while I knew it was faulty, I didn't know if it was faulty enough to cause these symptoms.

No, I'm sure it's not... but if the pics didn't have a girl in 'em, and the title didn't have 'NSFW', would we even be having this conversation? :lol:

Maybe if the young blokes included some scantily clad pictures of themselves draped over their C's, they might garner a little more interest... no? Or are the gays'n'gals too badly outnumbered? :roll: Anyhow, welcome to the forum!

Hi Folks, Having a problem with my VR running poorly just now. I've been through a load of other threads, but can't find one that exactly describes my problem. In the middle of a longish motorway cruise, the engine started struggling under load at low engine speeds. Accelerating from below 2000 rpm in any gear produces a very nasty judder and spluttering noise. The engine mostly pulls fine above 2-3000 rpm, but doesn't feel quite as smooth as usual. The only thing that has changed is the fuel, I normally run Optimax, but am running 97RON from Sainsburys (it was too cheap, leave me alone!). I'd been running on that for about 2 days before the problem surfaced. I've had someone follow me while its doing this, and they couldn't see any real signs of smoke or flames from the exhaust. Scanning for error codes with VAG COM showed an intermittent battery voltage > 16 volts fault. I cleared that and it hasn't returned in the several days since. I tried running without the MAF connected, the engine ran but wouldn't idle. With some perseverance I managed to do a proper road test in this state, and the problem was still there. (Should the engine idle without the MAF? is this another problem, or maybe related?) I know the Lamda probe is often blamed in situations like this, but mine was changed less than 1 year ago, so ought to be OK. No fault codes logged for it anyway. I checked the operation of the Throttle Position Sensor using VAG COM, and I suspect it may be faulty. When I open the throttle slowly & uniformly, as instructed in the Bentley manual, the TPS display jumps in increments of 5-10 degrees. I can force it to produce a continuous reading by opening the throttle ridiculously slowly - over 1 minute between closed & WOT - and smoothly, but I'm not convinced that was what the manual intended. At WOT the display reads between 78 and 84 degrees. I understand it should read over 94 when wide open. Could this be related or a red-herring? It kinda makes sense in my head; TPS looses accuracy, at low engine speeds ECU doesn't know how much air is getting in and hence gets the mixture wrong, and viola engine doesn't pull smoothly. Can anyone offer any suggestions on whether I'm on the right track with the TPS, or are there any other tests & checks I can try?

I've a mate who runs one as his weekend car, the 4.0 version. Only been in it as a passenger and, as bcstudent says, its very very quick and isn't short of grip either. Its also very thirsty and drinks oil almost as quickly as petrol. My mate loves his, and is currently getting it prepared to export to Oz when he moves out there next year. He normally keeps cars for about 6 months before he gets bored so, to me, that suggests the Chimy must be sommat special.

Makes all the hastle seem worthwhile, doesn't it? :-)

Oh yeah, don't beat yersel up over the Vx, we all know its a Lotus in all but name 8)

Er, I think you must have been to a hot hatch day rather than a Hot Marques or proper trackday event. The hot hatch days at Knockhill are entertaining to watch, but can be absolute carnage (i.e. you wouldn't want to be on track with some of those nutters). Your average Hot Marques event will feature 911 GT3s, Elises/Exiges, Imprezas and Evos, and none of these drivers wants to have an incident with anyone else. I've tracked my current car, and it's not cheap and nasty, even if it is a Vauxhall :wink: There are various trackdays where the standard of driving is a lot higher, but then they're more expensive - you get what you pay for! The SIDC days are extremely well-run, Knockhill are also now doing "street-legal" days, which you could get your Corrado on. Sadly I didn't manage to get my VR6 on track while I had it, but I've tracked the 3 cars I've owned since, and loved every minute - it's something you really have to try at some point :D Jamie You're spot on - the only days I've been at have been up at Knockhill. I wasn't convinced the C would meet the scrutineers approval for a Hot Marques day; I don't know about other tracks by at KH they state your car must be worth £10K+ and that seemed a bit of an optimistic valuation for my car. Do the street legal days attract a more mature crowd than the HH days? I'm desparate to try a track day, but having never done one, and not having any friends who have either, I didn't really know where to go, or what to try etc.

Likewise - in 5 months of ownership I've spent as much money on repairs and new parts as I did buying the car. Do I regret it? Every single minute that I'm not behind the wheel, and when I am it's all worthwhile 8) Ran a Mk4 Astra for 3 years before the C and spent a grand total of £450 on servicing and parts. Would I go back? WIF!

Hopefully a bomb :evil:

its been a while since i did my test but im sure their taught that now ,does seem obvious though There's still no motorway driving required on the DSA test, so unless your test area has a dual carrigeway with slip lanes, they might be taught it, but they'll never be assesed. Which goes someway toward explaining the fscking atrocious lane discipline we've come to expect in this country :x

If it torque steers, you weren't holding on tight enough :lol:

You should trade-mark that one Kev 8) Not that I mean to imply Kev, or anyone else on the form, uses their substantial displacement for money making purposes :oops:

sounds like a good idea ,points on your license ,i mean they are the rules of the road and their not following them,dont think the police would be tht intereste though ,doesn't make em enough cash . If you can't automate it, they won't care. :x