Anton Sobriquet

Thanks for that. I want to avoid taking my carriers off in advance of having the brake conversions done, because I need to use the car whilst BiggRed refurb and polymer coat the Mk4 stuff. Do you know which Mk3 rear caliper/carrier set corresponds with the standard Corrado VR6 ones? I just need to know whether they'd be Girling or Lucas ones. You see, BiggRed will do an exchange on rear carriers but they don't keep Corrado specific brake parts in stock for exchange and they don't currently have any Mk3 rear brakes in stock. They said they'd got an order going in for Mk2s' on Monday and they can add/amend it to include a pallet of Mk3s', but they need to know whether to order Girling or Lucas Mk3s'. I would have thought the carriers would have to be the same irrespective, but best to get it right just in case there is a difference. I suppose the simple solution would be to see which ones are fitted on the Corrado, ie Girling or Lucas, but I can't get to the car at the mo to check............ Can anyone help, please?

I'm just about to send some Mk4 brakes off to BiggRed to get them refurbed and polymer coated. I've got Golf 4Motion calipers and carriers going on the front, for a 312mm upgrade, and Golf 4 calipers going on the rear with the Eurospec 280mm rear upgrade kit. I'm a bit stuck on which rear carriers to use. I've read thro' the thread on the rear Mk 4 conversion but I'm still stuck:- Q1: Can I use Golf 4 rear carriers (which came with the calipers), or I should use the standard VR6 rear carriers with the 280mm upgrade kit? Q2: If I need to use the standard VR6 rear carriers, does anyone know which Mk3 Golf ones they correspond with, ie Girling or Lucas (so BiggRed can order some in for an exchange deal and save me having to take mine off the car in advance)? Cheers for help in advance.

Dieselgeeks have 9 of their short shift kits available, if anyone's interested. here's the link :- http://www.dieselgeek.com/servlet/Detail?no=473 Shipping is only $32. These kits will be the last ones made, so if you're interested you need to hurry.

That's very neat mod and not so difficult - just a bit of cutting and welding. Looks like Dieselgeeks don't make them anymore, so it's either the B & M or DIY. Where's my torch......?

Thanks for that Mystic Rado. I've emailed Dieselgeeks for one but there's only 2 kits shown on their website - Mk4 and 6 speed. Fingers crossed. Is there a Neumann one? I have one of those on my Mk2 and it works v.well.

Bigg Red specialise in refurbing brake calipers and you can buy all the parts you need from them over the 'phone. Slider pins would be no probs but you might need to buy a pair. Probably worthwhile if one has snapped. Take a look here : http://www.biggred.co.uk/ Edit Oh and make sure you refit the carriers with new bolts!

I've got the Gruvenparts alloy sideways short shift but haven't got around to fitting it yet. Hope to do that over the w/e maybe if I can sneak out undetected. There's a B & M kit. Haven't tried it, tho'. I think Jabba have them. Have a look : http://www.jabbasport.com/product_detail.asp?CategoryID=49 If anyone's got one on their Corrado, I'd be interested in their feedback on it.

Interesting.......... Assumed something had been connected into the loom there but wasn't sure what it might have been. Makes sense. I managed to get a look on ETKA at the rubber boot between scuttle (plenum chamber?) and connector and there's defo a bit missing from mine. I was worried that moisture might penetrate, not so much into the connector/ECU but into the wires in the loom where they are exposed, especially where they've been spliced. I can probably remedy that with some hose and tape until I can replace it. I take the point about trapping moisture if the whole connector/ECU assembly is wrapped in plastic bags. Reassured that you think the ECU's OK, although I had managed to justify an OBDII conversion to myself on the strength of it having been messed about with :D .

I'll study your previous posts then. Must say I've always fancied AWD in the Corrado. As a matter of interest, in what way is the Haldex rear axle too wide (other than the obvious), ie what's the problem essentially in fitting it? Do you know if there's any technical or quasi-technical info anywhere about Haldex into Mk2/3? Can't seem to find anything much about this in the usual places.

OK. Found the Accel coils are just a substitute for the MSD coils. I still don't know whether I'd need to use a ballast resistor, though, but suspect I would, in whch case there'd be no real advantage over standard. Has anyone here tried the MSD or Accel coils with MSD's DIS4 controller? I'd be interested in giving it a go but would need help wiring everything up, I think.

Just back from the garage and was about to post the 'how to' of getting the connector off, but CrazyDave beat me to it. Thanks for that, as you say, dead simple when you can see what you're doing. Pulling the black plastic fastening clip towards you releases the connector. I took the ECU off, cleaned it and dried and tidied up the whole scuttle area, which was full of dead leaves and had been getting wet via a badly fitting scuttle cover (turned out to have been broken and glued back on) with the muck then presumably staying thoroughly damp all around the ECU. I dismantled the connector into its various parts and cleaned up all the contacts and reinsulated the green/black wire which had been stripped. I found a thick pale blue/red wire also had insulating tape around it, but in much better condition than the green/black, so I left it as is. I managed to stretch the rubber boot to cover most of the loom going into the connector (from the engine bay through the scuttle), but I'm pretty sure there's a gap right at the back on the tight curve/twist of the loom, and that the wires are exposed there. The problem with the connector seems to be that the rubber boot over the loom from the scuttle terminates in a circular style moulding, which doesn't look as though it was designed to fit the connector. It's possible it's broken and a piece is missing, but I don't have an illustration of how it should look. It does look very much as though there are parts from different cars cobbled together. If anyone has a pic or illustration of the VR6 ECU/connector assembly as it should be that they could post, it would be very much appreciated. I'll take some pics of mine tomorrow to post up and show you how it looks. Anyway I refitted everything, since it was getting dark and cold (and I needed a coffee and a fag) finishing with a new SWG scuttle cover (for which I'm going to need a couple of large rubber washers to seal around the wipers), which does seem to seal between scuttle and the base of the windscreen. Hopefully, the end of water and leaf ingress. And yes - she fired up straightaway no problem! Pending the arrival of an unmolested loom etc from KipVR in due course, or finding the correct or whole boot/connector, I'll open it up again tomorrow and put the whole ECU/connector assembly inside a few plastic bags to help keep everything clean & dry. I read somewhere recently that only the very late models' ECU has an immobiliser built in? Is this the case? I had an aftermarket alarm fitted (non-professionally by the look of it) when I bought the car, which I had removed when I thought it might be causing my occasional non-start if its immobiliser wasn't clearing. I'm starting to wonder if there's a connection (sorry pun unintended), and the non-start is actually being caused by an ECU immobiliser I didn't know about, so that she will crank but won't fire on the occasions she won't start (should check for spark when it happens, eh?). I'm also now wondering whether I need to renew my ignition switch, which I have heard causes problems with the immobiliser when it is faulty. Can anyone help explain, please? I'm very confused about immobiliser/alarms and how they work.

Yep. I'll take you up on that, thanks.

I have an intermittent non-start on my '94 VR6 (could be bad earths, and I'll clean those up asap), which led me to inspect the ECU with a view to insulating it inside a plastic bag. After unscrewing the nut from the bracket and pulling the unit out, I found to my horror that the large bunch of wires aren't really properly connected into the side of the ECU connector. It looks as though the wrong connector/seal has been used. Also a black/green wire has been stripped at some time and just has a tatty piece of insulating tape around it. Looks like I'll be spending some time with a soldering iron and some shrink wrap! Main problem I've got is I can't disconnect the connector/seal from the ECU unit so I can remove the latter and start to try to get to grips with the cables going into the connector. How do I do it? There's nothing much to get hold of with fingers. I looked carefully and poked about with a screwdriver but succeeded only in pulling the black plastic off the connector slightly on one side and can't work it out. Probably being dim. I've got the Corrado USA manual but it doesn't help at all (only has AAA engine with distributor). Can anyone help, please? And does anyone have a wiring diagram for the connector into the ECU?

Try cleaning up all the earth connections in the engine bay until they're all nice and clean and shiny. I had the same non-start problem on a MkII valver and it turned out to be just that. If the earths are dirty there'll be a voltage drop because of the increased resistance and not enough juice getting to the plugs to give a powerful spark. It's an inexpensive operation well worth performing before investing in replacement parts.

Thanks. Disappointed to hear that, thought I was on to something there.......... Kept finding posts extolling the MSD coils' virtues over standard. My problem is an occasional non-start and I thought this might be a cure and upgrade combined. There's nothing on Accel available at Vortex - the original thread(s) on the coilpack mod has been closed. I've now found your link to VW Fixx and am checking there.

Just arrived late into this thread and I've skipped quite a few pages, which I'll need to go back to and study. I bought my VR6 Corrado with a view to converting to turbo or s/c R32 with an AWD system. I would not want 350 bhp+ in a FWD car unless I particularly wanted to go sideways every time into the nearest wall in slippery conditions, as Saab did when they tried going racing with turbos and 2 wheel drive years ago. I would have thought anywhere above 220 something bhp in a Corrado would be a rather pointless waste with just FWD. Is there a straightforward route to AWD from a Haldex equipped 4-motion or TT? I'm wondering whether a more or less 'straight swap' out of a write-off is worth considering?

I know a few members have upgraded their stock coils with MSD 8224s. I've been reading up over at VW Vortex and in The Forced Induction VR6 thread but still can't work out whether I'll need to fit a ballast resistor or not. If so, which one and where do I get it? Later posts at Vortex say you don't need one, other than to verify the ICM is good, and it can be removed afterwards. Would anyone who has completed the mod let me know, please - KADVR6? cheesewire? Thanks in advance.

Would someone post up which Goodrich lines are required to do the conversion (safely!), please, or amend the wiki, which says to use the Goodrich Mk2 To Mk4 conversion lines, if appropriate? The Goodrich Mk2 to 4 conversion kit is designed for the rear, which can be confusing (me!). Can't you just use Mk4 front lines?

Much better to do this:- viewtopic.php?f=25&t=64299 8)

I've heard that the aluminium 20V Mk4s are the caliper of choice and can be had for about £40-50 from the scrappie. Apparently, they plug straight in using a Goodrich Mk2 to Mk4 conversion line kit. They're apparently the same as Mk3s, but they're aluminium not steel. I am hoping to run a GB on the forum here for a 280mm Rear Brake Upgrade Kit, subject to collective enthusiasm, which works with stock, Mk3 or Mk4 calipers fitted on all Corrado models. It also works on Mk2 and Mk3 Golfs and various others. Check it out here:- http://the-corrado.net/.archive/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=64299&st=0&sk=t&sd=a If enough people sign up to it (min 20), we can have the kit for £205 each, which represents a saving of about £100 on retail.

I'd also like to know - I'm about to tackle my rears and go 312 front, too. Sorry to hijack the thread but can anyone help?

Thanks for your help with this G60SC_Stoney - Very much appreciated.

Great. I'll get one off eBay then. Interestingly, I spotted Tayna in the eBay listing selling the D34 £32 cheaper than on their own site. Hmmm......... How did you extend the battery cables? Do you need to fit new, longer ones or can you extend the originals?

The current ebay listings are all for the 55Ah D34. The only 75Ah D31 I can find online is at Tayna at £218.

Need a new battery so I thought I may as well get one of these. Can anyone tell me which one I should get? D34 or D31 are 55Ah and 75Ah, respectively. Thought of getting the 75Ah D31 but I'm not sure whether it will fit OK. What sort of money will I be parting with? Any recommended suppliers? I found Tayna online @ http://www.tayna.co.uk/catalog/115/0/Optima-Batteries-Optima-Yellow-Top-Batteries-page1.html Has anyone experience with these and can point me in the right direction, please?