mikkijayne

This is a rear one I trust? This has happened to me a few times, although not on coilovers. What usually happens on mine is that little round-section circlip shears in half so the washer that the spring platform sits on can no longer hold the damper rod and it punches through the top. It'll still be driveable, although I wouldn't push it because that corner is now totally undamped and the handling will be a little 'unpredictable' on rough surfaces :gag: I would take the shelf support off on that side though, because the top mount will likely smash it to bits if you drive it like that.

The Bentley says it does have a wider rear track Track is taken from the vertical centre of the wheel rim, so different offset wheels on the same mounting faces give a different track, as does different widths. Someone did some sums on Vortex in the very same discussion and it acutually worked out spot on to the Bentley numbers. Plus Kyle (piercedwinky on here, burninator on vortex) actually measured both beams and they were exactly the same :wink: :cat:

Although there are detail differences in brackets n bits the beams themselves are all the same width, as are the stub axles and discs. The difference in rear track comes from the difference in width and offset of the VR6 vs 16v / G60 stock wheels. :cat:

Hi everyone, Well I'm surprised how few threads on syncro conversions the search returns :shrug: Anyway, I'm looking for first-hand info from anyone who has cut the floor out of a mk2 syncro and grafted in to the Corrado please. I've seen the Passat donor thread on CCC, and also PhatVR6s thread using a new floor, but I can't find anything about using a 2nd hand mk2 floor. The specific problem seems to be that the Corrado rear chassis legs are closer together than the Golf ones, so the extracted floor panel won't fit in the space :confused4: Is there something obvious I'm missing, or something extra that needs to be cut off the donor? Thanks :cat:

If its a US VR6 it will be the ZF rack. You can spot the ZF from the aluminium body with the 'waffle' pattern, whereas the TRW is smooth and black. All UK cars are TRW, as are US G60s. :cat:

I've got one with poly, and one without. The differences between the two are quite interesting... The poly bush one actually rides quite reasonably considering, and feels utterly solid and confident. The steering response is great - very quick turn in, and really responsive. It can change direction like nothing else I've ever driven. The rubber bush one does ride noticably nicer, but doesn't feel as planted. Turn in isn't quite so sharp, but get it in a really fast corner and you can feel the rear steering. It feels like its slightly loose at the back compared to the poly one, and the butt dyno says its actually faster overall on the twisty bits so I think it definitely works. What I would like to do at some stage is get the R32 bushes in the front and see if it sharpens up the turn-in compared to the poly. That sounds like the best of both worlds. :cat:

Get a tie rod flip kit that lets them bolt in from the bottom instead. It will drop them about 2", reduce bump steer, and give you some more clearance to the body :) There's a thread about them here: http://the-corrado.net/.archive/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=88393 There was someone selling them on ebay a bit back, but I can't find the listing now. Blackforest Industries and SCCH in the US sell them though, and shipping should be cheap enough. :cat:

Bear in mind some insurance companies can be a bit funny about roll cages though. They get the impression you're going to drive like a lunatic and hike the premium up :bad-words: I'd check before you fit anything. :cat:

Thats your rear axle beam. Nothing to worry about :)

I've never run in a head gasket - only rings that have to bed in to the cylinder walls. A head gasket is either sealed or it isn't - just boot it! :D

I'll second this. I'm running KU31s on 17s on my valver and they rock 8) They are easily a match for my previous favourite tyre - the Eagle F1, and for £50 a corner they are outstanding value. I wouldn't be disappointed if I'd paid double that for them in terms of performance. Its looking like they'll last about 13K on the front, so not quite up there with the premium tyres, but I do drive it quite hard. I've always found you get what you pay for when it comes to tire life, so these are about right. Oh, and regarding tyre sizes, the speedo in mine is spot on with the GPS now I have 205 40 17, so I don't think 205 or 195 50 15 is really going to matter :wink:

All my early ones had full size spares. I've swapped them out for space savers from mk3s, using the mk3 flat boot carpet as well. With a little trim its almost a perfect fit in the 'rado :)

They don't fit the Corrado properly. As has been mentioned the Corrado subframe has the little horseshoe shapes in the rear bush section to hold the bush in place. That type of poly bush is a complete arse to fit in the space, as it doesn't have room to clear the horseshoes, so you either have to just ram it in, or trim it to size. If you are going to fit them its very important to make sure the sleeve in the centre of the bush is the same diameter as the OE Corrado ones, otherwise they will move around in the subframe. The thin spring-sleeve in the picture is only for the mk2, and not needed for the Corrado because of the afoermentioned horseshoe bits. :cat:

Given that you can buy a running VR6 for £200 or so I'd say by any normal standards its toast. The only way I would consider this worth rebuilding is if you were planning on keeping the car forever and wanted to invest in a 'new' engine, by which I mean replace everything including honing the block, new rings, etc. Or, use it as a donor to build a mad turbo motor :D For a normal runabout / weekend car I doubt it would be worth the cost. :cat:

Journals are the machined parts of the crank that the bearings run on, so you have two sorts - one for the main bearings in the block, and one for the connecting rods. The oil is fed from the pump down drilled galleries in the block to each main bearing. The groove in the shell allows oil to flow around the bearing and in to a drilling in the crank which then feeds the oil to the conrod bearings. Here's a rather handy pic that Google found for me: The red arrow is pointing to a conrod journal. If you look at the two main journals on the left you can see the oil drillings there, and also on the two rod journals in the middle. Looking at the angles of the holes it seems that each main feeds the rod to its right in that picture. Tracking down a failure on a single bearing is tricky, especially if all the rod bearings are still good. It could simply be that the oil pressure was low and that bearing got picked up and spun around the crank, but the others just managed to hang in until it stopped. I'd have a good look at the oil pump to make sure that is still intact and within tolerances, and also blow all the oil galleries out with an air line to make sure there aren't any blockages anywhere.

Not being rude, but are you sure its the power steering pump? I had a mk3 in last week that was leaking from the water pump, and the hot water was dribbling down the power steering pump and washing the muck off to leave an oily patch on the floor! Took a while to track that one down :brickwall:

Any engine reconditioners near you? Have a look in the Yellow Pages :) They are the same on the G60 as on any of the 1.6-2.0 petrol engines so they should be easy enough to get hold of from an engine specialist. They're only £4-ish a shell from VW though so for £40 or so I'd probably buy genuine - 034 104 701. :cat:

Torque specs for con rod and main cap bolts are all torque plus angle which means they are stretched on first installation - mains by 180* and rods by 90*, plus VW says to renew them. I would renew them myself for peace of mind. Mains for an ABV are N903 658 01 and are only £1 each from VW. Rod bolts (077 107 425B) are rather more at £8 each :pale: You might be able to get them from an engine builder though if you ring around. Not sure if you could replace the main bearings on a VR without removing the crank completely? You certainly could on a 4-cylinder, but then if it were me I'd want to inspect and probably renew the rod bearings as well anyway after a failure like that. :cat:

Are they all trashed or just #2? It looks like it has lost oil pressure for whatever reason, and that journal has overheated and picked up the bearing shells. I would look carefully at the cams and the other bearings and see if there is any more damage, as its likely whatever has caused the loss of oil pressure has had some other effects as well. Check the oil pump, oil cooler, etc. It could be that it spun that bearing first and that was the cause of the loss of oil pressure. I have heard of VR6s spinning bearings, but I don't know why they would do that in the first place without some other cause. Hello from Crediton :wave:

Who's the white H-plate valver that I met on the M5 between Bristol and Weston yesterday? :wave:

I meant an aftermarket relay. The window control module is connected to the central locking on the 'lock' wire, so if you hold power on that (like holding the key in the 'lock' position) then the module will close the windows for you automatically. If memory serves the Rightclick box has a negative output for the windows, so what you do is connect the positive supply to one side of the relay coil and one side of the contacts. You then connect the Rightclick output to the other side of the coil (so the box exergises the relay) and the 'lock' wire to the other side of the contacts. That way you effectively invert the signal from the Rightclick box and the window control module does the rest for you. On the 93> cars the sunroof is also connected to the window control module and so that does both systems. The way to tell which motor you have is if you have a separate switch in the overhead trim you have the early one (no auto close). If you have the sunroof switch in the courtesy light you have the later one which will close with the windows. :cat:

Total closure is easy - just power a relay from the window output on the RightClick box and use it to switch the 'lock' circuit for 20 seconds. If you have a late-interior model (93>) then the sunroof is connected to the total closure wire already. If you have a pre-93 then the sunroof motor doesn't support it, and the later motor won't fit the early roof. You need to swap in a later roof mechanism, motor, switch and wiring if its that important (or fit a Passat moonroof with a mk3 motor and wiring).

Which remote locking kit is it? If its the RightClick one then you can do it from the base of the driver's A-pillar and don't need to go in the door. The central locking on the Corrado is controlled entirely by the switches in the door handles. There is a red wire feeding power to the switch and a red/black and red/yellow which are pulsed with power to lock and unlock. You just need to hook the remote locking module up to those, and they can be found on a 3-way white connector on the base of the pillar near the bonnet handle. You're right about the old alarm using solenoids, probably because the original fitter didn't understand how the Corrado's factory locking works. As far as the door handle goes its likely that the striker has fallen off. There are loads of threads on that kicking about. You can buy the repair kit on ebay for about £30, and you need to pull the handle from the door to fit it. There is a single screw at the back of the door. Remove that and the handle slides forward and then swings out. You will need to release the central locking switch cable inside the door first though. :cat:

If you're going to fit the VR6 top mounts to a 16V or G60 you must also fit the VR6 or mk3 top spring platform as is different. The bearing in the VR6 top mount doesn't work with the 16V or G60 top spring platform.

VR6 CV joints are often loctited in place, so you may find there is some left over in the splines in the hub making it hard to slide the joint in. Try cleaning the inside of the hub splines with a wire brush or a sharp screwdriver :cat: