skinnyman9000

Well i no longer think its an airleak. It really struggled to start this morning, took a good few attempts, then when it did fire up there was a strong smell of petrol. Now it doesnt just judder when i pull off. If im on half throttle its not too bad, then if i put my foot down it judders and struggles, and it often sounded like it was dropping onto 3 cylinders. Basically its completely undriveable now. Do these symptoms point towards one thing? Or am i better off giving it to my local specialist and letting them get on with it? It needs the calipers adjusting and a wheel bearing for its MOT anyway.

I've just driven home without any issues at all. Is it still likely to point to an air leak? I had a quick look before leaving work and I couldn't find anything, I had the engine revving and it didn't have any issues. Am I likely to be looking at something like a sticking choke?

Driving to work this morning, sat in traffic, went to move off, and nothing happened. I put my foot down, the revs dropped and the car tried to stall, then all of a sudden it kicked into life again. This happened 3/4 times. It was ok once it got going, although that wasn't much poke. I'm gonng cross my fingers and say it's a simple air leak between the airbox and throttle housing. Does this sound about right?

Ive got an R8 day that im going on over the summer, thats with driversdreamdays.co.uk, well looking forward to it! A chap at work has done a few now. You're right about some places holding you back though, he did one in a Ferrari and and once he reached 3rd gear the instructor flicked a lock type thing onto the gear lever to stop him from dropping it down a gear, basically 3rd was the lowest gear he could get. It was to stop him from nailing the car out the corners, as a result it struggled out of some of the tighter bends. Some places also run the cars in limp mode, so you dont get the full 500bhp+ of the engine. Its just a case of research really, some places are like that, whereas some places are top notch.

Welcome to my world

I was talking to my mate about this dilemma today and he sent me this text: "Dont sell that car, it looked so nice when you drove away, it made everyone turn and look". Says it all really :grin:

Sooooooo, im just going to leave the matrix in there and replace it if/when it dies. Ive just given the system a considerable clearout whilst sorting this, so im sure it'll be fine for quite a while. Cheers for the heads up though, i'll keep an eye on it all

Sorted!! I started by replacing the bypass valves with hoses and it seems to have fixed it. I thought the valves were working, but would seem they werent. i now have lovely warm air, and the coolant system is behaving alot better.] just want to say thankyou to everyone in this thread for your help :clap:

Is there a guide for this? Ive got to replace my heater matrix over the weekend and could do with a guide. Although ive heard that you can replace the matrix without removal the dash completely, any guides on how to do this?!?

GSF only had the feed pipe available for some reason, oh well. But i'll have the feed pipe and matrix tomorrow, and i'll nip to VW to get the other pipe.

Anyone know the gsf part numbers for the pipes I need to replace the bypass valves?

Well the paintwork is knackered, but mechanically ive spent a fair whack on it. Rebuild engine Starter motor Alternator Recent battery Throttle cable Ignition switch Wheel bearings etc etc So i'd hope to see around £700. Plus i'd strip the aftermarket bits off it, i spent £700 on stainless eibach coilovers, then there's the wheels which i couldnt really put a price too, and the sound system, all that kinda stuff would raise me a few bob. Either way its not going anywhere just yet, its MOT time in March, fingers crossed it just needs one wheel bearing to pass that.

Right then men, replacement rado matrix, or a TT matrix? Also, roughly how much is this likely to set me back by? I cant seem to find the heater matrix on ETKA.

I'll go with the new pipes then and just removed the bypass valves, then onto the matrix if the problem remains. Ive spent £25 on coolant so far, so i'll be saving as much as i can when i remove the valves. Thank god i have access to another car otherwise i'd be fubared in this weather! Thanks ever so much for the help chaps, really no idea what i'd do without this place :notworthy:

Well im 99% sure that the way in which i did it was correct. I removed the bottom radiator pipe to remove all the coolant. I then filled the system with water and coolant flush and performed the flush. Removed the bottom rad pipe again to empty the system, and ran through with water until it was running clear. I then reattached all the hoses. At this point i removed the top radiator hose and filled the system with 40% coolant 60% water. I filled until the coolant was to the top of the hose, i then reattached this and filled the rest into the expansion tank. Once it was full i started the engine, with the blowers set to full. I now had the expansion tank cap off and i began to squeeze every pipe i could get it. After 5-6 mins the lower rad pipe began to warm up, indicating the stat opening. I continued to squeeze every pipe and slowly filled the coolant up as required. Once the coolant began to boil i turned the engine off. I then allowed it to cool, topped the coolant up and attached the expansion tank lid. I then ran the engine until the fan cut in and out twice. At this point i turned the engine off, allowed it all to cool, and then topped up the coolant again. Im pretty sure thats a solid method, and im still getting cold air. Surely it all points to the matrix now?

Well i did the coolant bleed as per the guide on E38, but i must admit i didnt go to the lengths as described above, hmmm, wonder if its worth doing that. But the air im getting out isnt even slightly warm, its stone cold.

Well, ive been out today and had another crack at everything. I flushed then reverse flushed the matrix, some gunk came out, but not much, so i then decided to flush all the coolant again, stuck some coolant flush in there and made sure the whole system was nice and clean, filled her back up and bled the system. AND Im still getting the same cold air through the blowers. Im guessing its heater matrix time? Now is it worth getting a quote from a specialist for this? Or will they just have my pants down? If i do need a new matrix i think i'll be going with the TT option so i can replace the bypass valves for bog standard hoses.

Well i took her out for a little run this morning to give it the chance to work any air bubbles out the system. I got cold air the entire journey, apart from a 30sec stint where i had luke warm air accompanied by a burning smell :scratch: Its footy this afto so i'll have to have a crack at flushing the matrix 2moz morning. Beyond that i dont really know what else i can do on the driveway without spending some dollarz. Although this morning when i was tinkering i did notice something. Ive read guides that says the pipe leading from the bottom of the radiator should remain cold until the temp gauge hits half way, at which point it should become warm as the stat opens. Now, when i first start the car up this pipe does remain cold, but only for say 5 mins, then as soon as the temp needle moves a touch it starts to warm up. So the temp gauge has only just touched 70C when this pipe starts to heat up. Sounds to me like everything is broken :lol:

Well its the money side, but also the convenience. Like my heaters throw out cold air, which in this weather makes my car a pretty driveway ornament. And there are umpteen things that could be causing it, and if it ends up being something like the matrix then its 1-2 days of being stuck outside taking the dashboard apart, again in this weather thats just not summert i wanna be doing.

Well cars like mine are a prime example. I could spend £xxxx getting mine up to scratch, or i could buy one already done (like some of the 1.8T for sale) and then sell mine, but with the issues with it the car would be worth more broken for spares. Its basically the money

.......attempting to move away from corrado ownership? Im moving into my own place within in the next 1-2 months, and various people in my life are trying to convince me to sell the corrado, they make the fair point that trying to stick to a tight budget AND run a corrado is just asking for trouble, and that being a corrado it'll throw a big repair bill in my face when i have the least amount of money. Im under no illusions as to the condition of the car. The sunroof is broken, the spoiler doesnt work, the paint is beyond help, and i currently have no warm air coming out of the heaters, but mechanically its sound. Ive owned it for 3yrs now, and its had things like full engine rebuild, new starter motor, new ignition switch, new throttle cable, new alternator, just had a new battery, its running on stainless Eibach coilovers, etc etc. So IF i were to sell it i'd take all the aftermarket gadgets off and sell the car as standard, probably for around £500-£600, which is upsetting when i look back at the thousands ive spent on the bloody thing. Then i would end up in something Japanese no doubt, due to the reliability factor. Now, is attempting to do this just pointless? Am i really going to get away from owning one of these things? Ive tried several times to convince myself to sell and i never do. The way i see it there are 3 options. 1) Break and sell my rado, buy summert boring, and then buy another rado in VGC in 1-2years time, when money is better and hopefully i'll have more time for it. 2) Treat my rado as what it is (a 20yr old car worth sod all) and have some fun in it instead of fighting the losing battle of maintaining it, then sell it for peanuts when im done and buy one in VGC in a few years, same as above. 3) Attempt to move away from corrado ownership altogether, and dip my hand in my pocket for something along the lines of Honda S2000/Integra etc. Some people on here will know that i tend to have a thread like this once a year, but my situation is changing this time and im struggling to decide the best course of action. Thoughts?

Im gonna try everything under the sun before i revert to taking the dash out! The last time i did a major job on the rado i replaced the sunroof, and i really dont fancy doing anything similar anytime soon. To make matters worse the sunroof still doesnt work :mad2:

Something else I forgot to mention..... Before all this I had other issues with the heater. It would kick out hot air which would get colder as the water temp got hotter. Is that connected to what's happening now?

Well I'll flush the matrix 2nite and rebleed the system. If this does nothing then I guess it needs a TT matrix and pipes as opposed to the bypass valves. Yet more spare parts needed! It's a gearbox away from being a full resto!

So if i disconnect the valves again and then flush/reverse flush the matrix by running water through each of the pipes that connect into the bulkhead? And then obviously correctly bleed the system again once i put the coolant back in?