Mystic Rado

Might just be worn stuff in the steering department, but the Mk2's lighter and taller than a Corrado, which you can feel in strong sidewinds. My old Mk2 which was much lower than the current one and with polybushes all round handled like a go-kart, but was super harsh with it. The current one has a Koni STRT kit, which is a lot more comfortable. The one big mistake I made on the old one was polybushing the rear beam, which made the whole car feel really brutally hard. Standard bushes definitely the way to go there ime. A quick google, btw, suggests that the wheelbase of the Corrado is 1mm longer, though the VR6 is Widetrack which I guess might make some difference.

This isn't a bad basic buying guide btw: http://www.matey-matey.com/golf_buying_guide.shtml

I run a Mk 2 8v with a TSR motor as a daily alongside my Storm and I'd say it's quite different to a VR6. Feels rougher around the edges than the Corrado, a bit more visceral, a bit more primitive in a good way. I'm properly fond of the Mk2, but partly because I'd say it is quite a different driving experience and doesn't feel as special as the C, but it does have a bit of 'the same but different' going on. Stuff to look out for includes the panel around the fuel filler rusting from the inside out - it collects mud and gunk - ditto the blank for the passenger side wiper. The gear change often deteriorates and gets sloppy as the linkage bushes wear, but there's also a ball pivot directly under the gear lever that needs to be accessed from the underside of the car, rear calipers seize up, but you can replace them with Mk4 Golf ones. Mostly straightforward to work on and parts are a lot more affordable than Corrado bits with lots of pattern options. I don't know how a valver would compare btw. I've only had the one VR6, so that probably colours my take on it. HTH.

I think it's pretty straightforward, though I may need to do stuff to one of the pins in the connector block. It's been done before in the States and it's supposed to be not far off being plug and play. I hope... Guess I'll find out tomorrow, but even if it means a bit of messing about, it should be worth it. Retro looks, modern features, what's not to like eh. I've still got the original stereo from my Mk2 GTi which looks great, but is kind of limiting when you no longer own any cassettes. I wonder if they'll ever make a comeback... :confused:

Did some retail therapy for the Corrado and bought it a Volkswagen RMT200 head unit off e-bay. One of these, new, but a less than half the VW price, old stock from a dealer: http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/accessories/all/all/all/bluetooth/rmt200-radio-single-din/6Q0051228B/1#details [ATTACH=CONFIG]85510[/ATTACH] It's kind of retro-styled, but with USB, CD player, aux input and bluetooth phone connection. Never liked the Sony head-unit that's in there at the moment, just looks wrong and out of keeping with the rest of the dash. Reckon it should look spot on :-)

That might do it. I had a similar issue with a scratched passenger side window caused by the trim scraping it and just bought some Cerium Oxide online and used it with a Dremel polishing pad. Works great. There's a slight distortion along the line of the scratching if you look hard for it, but otherwise it looks fine and I never notice it. I suspect that polishing kit has Cerium Oxide in anyway, it seems to be the default choice.

That's a shame. I'm not the most frequent poster to this forum, but I've been around on and off since about 2006 and always appreciated your contributions and sound advice. I look forward to your withdrawal symptoms followed by the inevitable purchase of another Corrado somewhere down the line :-) I get why you're selling, but I'm not sure I could do the same.

Car back yesterday after a night chilling out in the mechanic's workshop. Changing the sensors fixed it - fully functioning ABS, warning light comes on at start-up then goes out and stays out. The voltage supply error was cleared and didn't come back so probably down to the flat battery. Plan for today is to fit a CTEK Battery Sense thing. Connects across your battery terminals and Bluetooths to a smartphone app so you can monitor battery voltage and get an automatic warming if it drops below a certain level and either charge it up or go for a drive. This thing: http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/chargers/CTX%20BATTERY%20SENSE Also got the screen on my Mk2 GTi swapped after copping a massive stone-chip on the M1 near Leicester. Proper old school technology, screen pops out under pressure, new one goes back in with original rubber seal and some cord to locate the rubber. No bonding, no sealant, no flappy external windscreen trim. The Autoglass guy thought it might have been the original screen, which would explain why it was looking a little tired. Bodywork was totally mint under the seal, no rust or nasties. Result!

Yesterday... gave the car to my friendly local mechanic who works out of the light industrial estate behind our house along with front right and rear right ABS sensors in the hope that fitting them will stop the ABS warning light staying on so it can be MOT'd next Tuesday. Them's the codes that came up along with a voltage supply thing that I think was down to a flat battery a few months back. Fingers crossed that sorts it.

Mine had an issue with a Sony head unit - if you didn't turn it off completely, no stand-by light or owt, it killed the battery well dead. Same head unit in my Mk2 GTi, same problem. But as above, could be any number of things. Good luck sorting it out.

Cheers mate :-) Yeah, though it gets used mainly as a weekend car. The Mk2 does the practical stuff, partly because I properly hate leaving the Storm in any sort of public car park. The upside to that is that the Corrado still feels special when I do get out in it. Mostly I'm pretty happy with it the way it is, but in an ideal world I'd fit a Schrick,manifold, a 288mm brake upgrade and get hold of some spare headlights and retrofit some HID projectors into them. I love the way this place has everything through from bog-standard, through mildly modified to cars like yours with some proper serious changes. Always something to make you think. I really ought to fit those bloody Samco hoses though, I keep forgetting they exist...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]85059[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]85060[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]85061[/ATTACH] Just about time for my annual post - the car's looking good after a thorough wash and wax. The H&R coilover damper turned up a couple of weeks after ordering. Oh, and the Gruvenparts shifter link thing completely sorted the gear-change issues, not least because the original VW plastic part was pretty much in two pieces, ooops... Now nice and tight and precise. I also stuck some of those alloy billet replacement bushes on the shifter bracket mount - don't know if it made any difference at all, but it's dead easy to do, so what the hell. The Samco hoses are still sat in the cellar. And the red Mk2 is still the daily. Recently got a new Jetex backbox under warranty when the tailpipes fell off - what's amazing about that, is that I bought the system in 2002. Top service. Back in another six months or so...

Corrado spotting by proxy: the girlfriend was out running and got chatting with the owner of a black VR6 in New Mills - apparently in his 70s and owned the car from new. We've passed it a few times and it's looking a little sorry for itself, but now I know it has a broken sunroof, mildewed rear seat - the sunroof's leaking too I think - and a motor that's not running. Bodywork looks pretty good bar a few minor rust spots and some cobwebs in various bodywork crevices. Apparently he's going to sell it soon, but seems unlikely to be familiar with the interweb, though he's a CCGB member still. And by a weird coincidence, the one man band mechanic in the yard behind our house used to do the maintenance on it.

Yeah, I've gone for the full refurb with replacement stainless bore as I'd rather be without the car for a few weeks, but reduce the chances of it happening again in the future. I guess the ongoing problem with any car that's 20 years plus old is going to be stuff corroding and getting brittle through age. My Mk2's the same, but the popularity of them means that it's far easier to source replacement parts.

Is it supposed to? It doesn't on the Mk2 Golf. Don't know about the Corrado as I always use the alarm fob.

Cheers for the offer mate, I think I'm okay, but I'll shout if not.

Yes, that basically, prompted by the inability to get a decent pedal feel despite new pads and discs, new rear callipers, various bleeds etc. Cheers for the link, am I right in thinking that if they do the refurb, they re-line the cylinder with stainless steel as well as fitting the new seals? I'll probably go for that tbh, there's no real time pressure, but I guess I could get a used master cylinder and have that one done.

Found out it needed a new master cylinder. Banged head against wall. Predictably obsolete. Expensive rebuild looms. Gotta love Corrados, nothing's ever simple :-/

Just bought a CTEK Battery Sense thing - this: http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/chargers/CTX%20BATTERY%20SENSE - it's a bluetooth gizmo that you wire across the battery terminals and warns you if the battery voltage drops to an iffy level. You check the status with an app on your phone. I'm hoping it'll give sufficient warning to get a charger on it if voltage drops plus I'm going to stick a solar charger on it and see if that keeps things happy. Seems like a good idea in theory, will report back.

Don't know if it's much help to you, but I have a set of the monotube H&R coilovers on my VR6. They're definitely firmer than stock and better damped, but not super harsh if that makes sense. The Eibach spring / Koni sports I had on my old Mk2 GTi were crashy by comparison. The Koni STRT set up on my current Mk2 is a little softer. The H&Rs remind me of the ride on my mate's old BMW coupe. That said, I don't know how the twin-tube coilovers like the ones in your link compare. On the reliability front, they seem pretty good, though a rear damper blew a seal after about 12,000 miles of infrequent use. Worth knowing you can source the individual units and springs from H&R if necessary, though they can also be rebuilt. I think the twin-tube ones are based on custom Koni dampers, but I might be wrong, the info's somewhere one the H&R site. I'm happy with mine, but I don't have anything to compare with on the Corrado and there are plenty of other options out there which get good write-ups on here.

Finally, after getting a full respray and an MoT - delayed for about three months while I found out you can buy replacement H&R dampers as individual replacement units from H&R - leaving the C sat at my trusty garage doing nowt, drove it home on Thursday only to have it sit there with three inches of snow on top of it... Anyway, when I got the car back from the paint shop, the spoiler didn't work either on the switch or automatically. Crossed fingers they'd simply not re-engaged the manual switch thing, just popped the plastic cover off and yay, it was so. Pushed it back in and the spoiler now goes up and down as it should. Happy start to a snowy Sunday, for once something that was easy to fit with instant gratification :dance:

Cheers matey, seems like good value. I wonder if being sat inside the windscreen reduces the output. Hmmm... best do some digging I reckon.

Been looking at that for my VR. Are you connecting the solar charger direct to the battery or via the cigarette lighter? And how's the sunshine doing where you are - my past experience with solar is that it works fine if it gets plenty of direct rays, less so if it's overcast, though I guess that depends a bit on individual solar panels and how efficient they are and what their output is. Which charger did you get btw?

I haven't used them, but these guys: http://www.dual-metallising.co.uk/gallery-reflectors/ seem to have the capability to do it. No idea if it would be viable for a small order though.

I run a Mk2 alongside my Corrado and I'd second Club GTi's website as a good resource, but also have a look at the buying guide at www.matey-matey.com/golf_buying_guide.shtml. It's getting quite hard to find sound, near original Mk2s these days at any sort of affordable price and quite a few have been modified in a nasty way. Stuff that's worth checking on the bodywork side of things includes the blank on the passenger side at the front where a LHD would have had a windscreen wiper - it collects water and rusts - another classic rot spot is around the petrol filler, mud and stuff collects on the inside and rots it outwards, you can get repair panels for the area, but it's worth avoiding if you can, check the rear hatch too and on the underside where people jack them in the wrong place, crack the underseal on the sills and they rot from there. I think maybe the later ones are less rust prone based on my experiences with my old '88 which died eventually from corrosion and my current '90 which seems more resistant, touch wood. Other stuff: the gear linkage can get very loose and imprecise, but it's relatively easy to rebuild with new bushes and to add a weighted shift rod, the hoses under the bonnet are getting old now unless they've been changed and can perish and leak plus basically implode under a vacuum blocking them and causing running issues, the headlights are rubbish unless you fit an uprated wiring loom taking power direct from the battery, the black plastics fade badly over time, but I've found Forever Black works brilliantly and durably, heater matrixes can blow, just like the Corrado and are a pain in the butt to replace, check for wet carpets... the other cause of those are leaks through the door membranes and/or air intake under the scuttle panel and/or blocked drain pipes from the sun-roof if there is one. Great cars if you can find a good one. Less polished and more direct than a Corrado, easy to work on, good fuel economy compared to a Corrado, though not a modern equivalent. But as above, check everything as well as the known weak spots. Good luck finding one.