Rams

Right, my new obd2 loom arrived today and I can confirm that the engine multi plug, right hand section of it has a red/black wire and mine doesn't! It would appear that red/black wire is missing from my engine plug. It's there on the other side of the plug ie left hand section from the engine harness. So now I'm left with the decision of will it work with these spare wires or are some looms different or do I need to start again? I still haven't got that yellow plug connected or soldered to other wires as others have done so I'm still not sure if that's the issue or the multiplug? The new loom looks really clean, the chap cleaned it all before he sent it and came really well packaged and grateful to him for it. This is my loom plug 1st pic The new loom 2nd pic 3rd pic shows the black red wire in better detail on the new loom. 4th shows new engine harness but that all checks out with my existing one. But newer one looks cleaner. Mmm

Indeed, thanks for the comments. I will post up pictures when the new bits arrive but Gaz were very helpful this time so I feel much better. Looking forward to getting the suspension setup correctly and hoping I will notice a difference. Rams

Good morning, moving house is not fun ey! So thanks for your input.... I used the obd2 everything, engine harness the lot.... I've found the 2 wires on the multi plug on the engine bay side of things that you told me to check but cant see the corresponding wires on the other side of the multi plug and wonder if this is why I'm having issues? I've bought the engine bay harness again from a seller breaking a golf Highline and after this arrived I asked him if he had the other end which he kindly removed from the fuse box and has sent out so can double check if I'm missing wires to this plug? The various wires that are not connected, since playing with these yesterday its noted the black/yellow wire with the yellow plug, I've tried attaching a wire to that and the fan controls module started making a loud noise. I then tried another wire and earthed it out and the fuse blew on the fan module. Will replace this today, it was the 5 amp one. The brown/white wire in yellow plug by the fuse board, if I link a wire to this and earth of the door hinge the stage 2 fans come on. Think its stage 2 anyway. Once the fans come on, I can't hear or feel the aux pump working though. A very decent forum member like yourself is going to drop his fuse board and take pictures for me so I can double check so I think I'm getting closer to solving these problems. So far I've chopped off a yellow plug from my original loom, i had kept it all just incase which connects to my yellow plug by the fuse board and I've tried linking the other ends to the spare wire plugs and trying lots of different combinations. Just last straws really before I give up. Maybe when I see the pictures it will all make sense and then I may have a spare obd2 engine harness and loom spare. I'm still not convinced the engine bay plug has all the wires in the one I bought from the doner golf back when I did the conversion so when the new one comes, I can double check it. If that doesn't work and if my mechanic can't figure it out then maybe I need to take a drive out to Stealth or someone that knows what they are doing. If anyone wants to do it for me, happy to pay and happy for you to take my charged VR for a good drive - if your insured! In the mean time I've been training my dog to guard the Rado and bark if she hears anything... Lol

What do you hear when the car is locking and unlocking? Is there any louder vacuum sounds? First things I would be looking for is the vacuum line, sometimes they pop off. There's the pump in the boot, right hand side of boot behind carpet in a black soft padded box. Check this first and then check under the fuse tray, high up will be the orange vac line and see if this t connection is all connected and then finally, remove the door card and check the plug switch and wiring to the actuator. Have you tried turning the key in the door and seeing if it works or do you use a remote to control the central locking?

Good morning Had a reply from Gaz below Ramsay, Let us have your full address I will send you a new top collet & a different spacer that fits into the counterbore on the bearing, this will then stop the bearing falling down to far on the piston rod & support it when you do up the top nut as at the moment you will be crushing the bearing when doing this. Regards, Gaz Fingers crossed that's it

Hey I've been playing again and trying my best to sort the aux pump before my mechanic takes a look next Monday. I went to the old loom and found 2 yellow plugs and chopped them off. I connected that to the yellow double plug and set about trying some of the red and black wire single plugs and the red wire single plug and earth the other wire to the door hinge and the fans came on! Still no aux pump unless engine needs to get hot first before it runs? So maybe my stage 2 fan doesn't work as it seemed to be a middle speed when the fans were running. When I turned ignition on the fans stopped. Will have one more attempt and if I still can't solve it my guy hopefully will. Dave sent me some wiring diagrams but need to check it on my laptop as too big to down load on my iPad. Rams

I've called Gaz this morning, sent them 5 emails with a good description and he said we will get to the bottom of this. Just waiting for the technical guy to come in and they should be calling me back later. Will update. Rams ---------- Post added at 10:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:01 AM ---------- Howdy Once that washer is fitted on top of the spring cap, when the bearing and nut washer/mount are fitted its squashing the bearing in order to get it tight otherwise it's just moving around. That's what damaged my threads on the struts. So after it was re threaded and the washer removed if would tighten up fine and not squash the bearing. I can't think of another place the washer goes for it to work? Plus the tech guy back then said you only use it if you need to then he said it was for a mk4? Lets see what Gaz come back with..... Did your kit come with the same washer as mine did?

Your efforts are paying off, well done and all credit to you

I went down to my lock up and found what I think is my original suspension, not sure if it was part of the mk3 VR stuff I bought when taking the obd2 bits of if they are johns spares from 94 VR.... Those standard plates are there, very rusty as you can see... When those thick washers were fitted the stuts looked as they should from the engine bay but steering wasn't right. I will call GAZ Tom and see what they say. I can send them pictures again but I did fit them when on the phone to GAZ last time and he confirmed, spring plate, bearing mount. No mention of retaining the old spring plate but this hat on the original looks talker than the GAZ one so I'm thinking your right and they could be related to my fitment problems. There was no other way that thick washer GAZ supplied would fit, except on top of the GAZ spring cover cap. But after experiences issues with heavy steering / movement due to not being able to tighten the washer not down and when you did it would squash the bearing causing the poor steering etc. Also its started to wear on the GAZ cover plate which really meant it wasn't supposed to be there. My top collars look fine and of the late type. I'm trying to be patient with it but recently a few things seem to be wearing on me. All this work / time/money and I can't get my front suspension fitted properly. Lol Kev mentioned the top hats and GAZ making them for mk2's but haven't heard of others having issues. Thanks for persevering!

Thanks for input guys, I remember now how I fitted them. The spring over strut, GAZ spring cap, bearing, mount, into housing with nut washer, top collar and lock nut. Originally, we had that washer on top of the GAZ spring cap, then bearing and mount but when the nut tightened down it was squashing the bearing so it turned move freely. So is the jackpot that I haven't used my original spring plate cap?? What s seen in the pics and what I've described above would indicate the original cover spring cap is missing. Is that a definite on a late vr6 that you need to use the original cover plates? So should it be GAZ spring cover, bearing, original plate, top mount, nut washer, then collar and lock nut. Or GAZ spring cover, bearing, top mount, then original cover and then nut washer and collar / lock nut? This would take some of the height away! What are your thoughts? Think there would be a notable handling difference once they are fitted correctly? Cheers Rams

Your struts are definitely lower than mine but your gap between mount and housing looks bigger? Could this be where I'm going wrong?

Mount and spring cap

This is the washer that we removed, you can see the spring cap has a shiny ring of metal where it was pressing on it. This is the spring cap used.... Does that look correct?

I don't have part number 9 but I believe these are for the older Corrado? Could some confirm? You would need the special tool to tighten them up with little lugs. My mk2 golf coilovers used to have them from memory. Long time ago now!

Top mount and bearings are there.... It's been bugging me for a while and not sure what to do? I was sure that the threads shouldn't be that high but when the washers were fitted the steering was heavy and didn't feel right. As soon as we removed those washers the steering was much better and felt more correct. The steering wheel wobble is just at higher speeds, I've had tyre balanced and 4 wheel alignment done and wonder now if my symptoms are to do with these being fitted incorrectly. When the washers were there you couldn't tighten them down properly and once you did you could see the bearing was being squashed so we replaced the mounts and new bearings and now the bearings don't get squashed but that movement before cause the thread to be damaged so we removed struts, fixed thread and were able to tighten them so not moving but outcome was what you see.... Has anyone got pictures of what I need to have from when you put the spring on, cap, bearing and mount and top nut. GAZ were useless but I might try them again. He said the washer was for a mk4 and not required. First of all he said you use it if you need to? Which didn't fill me with confidence.

Hey I've been having problems ever since I installed this coilover kit. Think its my own fault but something is not correct. I did have heavy steering and issues with the bearings getting damaged and this was due to someone tightening the strut nuts with a torque gun and we found when we removed the struts that there was a big washer than we thought didn't need to be there. Called GAZ and they said you don't use this washer and sent them a picture... Still confused why they sent it out in the first place. Anyway, since removing the washer the steering feels great and everything fine but the struts really stick out of the housing. See pictures. At present the wheels are turned to lock on the picture. I do feel a bit of wheel wobble at certain speeds and not sure if this is the rack or if its something to do with the suspension. Before I removed this washer the thread on the strut was damaged where is wasn't doing up tight enough and causing movement so replaced mounts and bearings and had the thread fixed and now as I say it feels fine but I've never seen so much thread showing up through the mounts.... Can anyone help or confirm it looks wrong? Cheers Rams

Yes there is a clip, it happened to me before, try TPS for the clip. Is the black plastic part broken also? Thats the shroud that goes over the shaft.

Cheers, the question was from a friend of mine, I didn't think so but can now confirm Ta

Quick question.... I know that a lot of mk2 golf stuff and corrado items are interchangeable but are the electric window regulators interchangeable? Cheers Rams

Hi, it's [email protected] I've got it all here to send buddy, sorry for delay.

Had another look at the wiring and unplugged the engine bay harness and with a sparky friend of mine we did some testing and it looks like I have the wire from the aux pump going to the engine side hardness but the plug doesn't have a wire coming out the other side? We tested the spare plugs and identified some are earth and some are live and one is live with ignition which was the black and yellow wire. So wondering now if I can take a feed from the fan control module or the temp sensor to bridge it and then work out if that makes the pump work. Stumped as to why I have a wire missing from the plug if that's why it's not working? I could really do with some more wiring diagrams if anyone has one that would cover the pump and fans etc?

Result! And hopefully some good sunshine for the bank holiday weekend. It's nice to have a break from your car from time to time, makes you appreciate it all the more. Especially when its been improved Happy for you

Get them swapped buddy, I did wonder if customer services would be the ones to say yes. That's good news. I'm a firm believer of decent all matching tyres, it comes from a crash I had once in Corrado vr6 number 2, had one tyre rear nr side with a different profile as my girlfriend had crashed the car 3 weeks before and just had it all repaired, it was Ramg60 when I used to be on here. I was joining a dual carriage way from a sweeping slip road and flying round, the rear tyre blew out and caused me to spin and my rear end swung out all the way to the outside lane of the dual carriage way, luckily missed the oncoming traffic and ended up just a few inches away from the barrier that starts low and reaches a bridge to the left of the inside lane and if we had been a few more inches to the right, we would have driven up the sloped barrier and probably rolled back on the dual carriage way! Not a mark on us and I didn't have my seat belt on but my passenger, a big doorman at the time, used his arm to pin me back! Probably better than any seatbelt! No whip lash he just pinned me! The newspaper even got involved but said it was a Sirocco! Lol Anyway that's why I always think tyres are so important! It was me that was the fool in this case as the garage just put a tyre on that they had to get me on the ramp etc. totally forgot about it being different! The tyre shred all the way round the outside of the tyre wall. This is obviously dramatic but if your mind doesn't need to think about these little niggles when your driving then its nice to have a clear head. If they weren't going to offer the replacement then I was going to say it's no biggy as what you have means its safe but you may as well. At least you've used some rubber and maybe a few nice wheel spins on the way up there!

First things first, I would call the branch that fitted them and explain to them what's happened, be cool with them and just say you have only noticed now and you don't feel confident having been sold different tyres per axel. If you have your receipt you could always go into your nearest branch and perhaps get them to call the other branch and see what they can offer? Or call their customer services department and make a complaint. Hope they sort it for you and good lesson learnt

Oh.... Mine doesn't align with the fixing points? Will double check in a bit Cheers