Ady_G

Cheers jimsG60, I always wished I had an aqua blue pearl Corrado, but now Im pleased with the pearl green. I like the way it varies in the different light. As far as I know the headlights are original apart from a new off side lense, the silver was coming off the back reflectors a bit so Im not sure why they look so good in the photos. Cheers Ady

Finally got round to taking some photos of the motor after it was repaired. Some one crashed into the front wing and bumper when it was parked, fortunatley they were honest and paid up with no problems. While it was in the garage I decided to sort out 12 years and 121k miles worth of stone chips to the bonnet and other front wing. As a result for the first time in 2 and a half years of ownership I now have a nice clean shiney car free of stone chips and thought it was worth posting a couple of pics. The car is totally standard apart from Lupo wipers and a K&N Induction filter and will be remaining stardard for a bit anyway. Cheers Ady

Yeah, I also considered a 2.2 VTEC as a Corrado VR6 alternative as well, I think they looks wise they are good but not as good as a C, (obviously). A bloke at work had one, and although the handling and build quality are good, there is no low down torque from the engine, you got to rev it loads to get anywhere quickly. The thing that put me off was when his clutch failed and his 4 wheel steering all packed up, think it cost over 2 grand to sort out on a car that was worth about 3 grand. Also in magazine reviews of the time, Revs did one, so did one of the what car style magazines the VR6 always beats the 2.2 VTEC overall, I think normally on engine and steering feel. Cheers Ady P.S Forgot to mention, I was refering to the J to M reg shape, think they look loads cooler than the new R reg shape which apparently are really hard to sell cos no one likes the looks of them.

I got a set of 205/50/15 Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD2s on standard VR6 speedlines and I am pretty happy with them, excellent dry grip and pretty good in the wet too. I even saved £120 by jimsG60's post telling of a good tyre shop in Coventry. Cheers Ady

Cheers mate, I got a thermostat switch for the rad today, not got a big enough spanner to fit it though cos it looks like about 28mm diameter. But when I fit that I will see if the fans still play up, if so I will change the after run circuit relay. Cheers Ady

Think I'm going with the £290 quote, I just spoke to the mate of the bloke who scraped my car, and he has taken his motor to the same place for work and agrees that it's worth doing properly. Both the body shops I went to were recomended by Lion Garage in Leicester VW Audi indepentant specialists so if they use them they should be ok, if a little pricey. I have got a few stone chips on the bonnet as well that need doing, so I might get the whole lot done at once. Cheers Ady

After 2 years of nothing but a stone chip on my car, a mate of one of the neighbours has scraped my front bumper and wing. He did own up and offer to pay for the damage which made me think there are a few honest people about after all. I got a couple of quotes today though, one was £290, and one was £408, both of which I thought were a bit steep. What do people think, is this the going rate for body work these days? Cheers Ady

The car got a bit hot whilst caught in traffic, the fans kept the water at a safe level in the traffic jam though. But when I parked the car up the fans must have stayed on for about an hour! As a result the battery went down to 9 volts and wont start, so it's being charged up. Last time this happened the battery went down to 2 volts and took about 24 hours the charge it up. It's only happened twice, only when the car gets stuck in traffic just before my house. I was thinking it was a fault in the fan switch, I've had problems with other cars and fans not coming on, so I've replaced the thermostat switch in the radiator which solved the problem. Anyone had any similar problems with those big twin VR6 fans? Cheers Ady P.S On the bright side the flat battery means I don't have to take my girlfriend to Ikea tonight :)

Thats exactly what happened to mine recently. There were 2 very small cracks in 2 HT leads just above the metal casing that fits on the plug, you could only see the holes in the rubber on very close inspection. But my car drove fine for a bit, then died, so I called out recovery. But no faults showed up on the computer in the garage so it took them 2 days to find the fault, and the leads were only 2 years old with 12k on them, so I assumed the leads were ok to start with. It would be worth checking them, I never assumed a car could grind to a halt from 2 one milimetre holes in the leads. Hope you sort it Ady

I have been getting routine servicing done at Lion garage on Jarvis Street, I think they also have branches in Hinckley, Northampton and Loughborough. But for more complicated VR6 work I might try Stealth because I live only 2 miles form the M69 M1 junction so Warwick isn't too far. I was put off Reg Vardys after there inability to even order the simpliest parts, not too mention my Dads problems with them and his Audi A4 and A6, My Mums problems with her Fiat Punto, the list goes on, in fact I've never heard from a satisfied RV customer. Cheers Ady

The car came back from the garage today with a new set of HT leads on it, they gave me back the old ones, 2 of which had failed with splits in the insulation around the plug end. I just driven it and it seems fine, in fact fantastic after driving a Rover 214 for 2 days. But the HT leads were standard replacement items from Eurocar Parts and had only covered about 12k miles over 2 years. That seems a bit of a short life for a set of leads. Cheers Ady

Thats the sort of thing I bet the garage wont bother checking either, they will be messing round checking sensors and don't bother checking for a blocked exhaust. I hope it is something that simple. Cheers Ady

The garage it's at is a VW Audi specialist with all the kit so I'm not quite sure why they haven't located the problem. A few other people have suggested the cat, or a blocked fuel filter. I would have thought any faults like that would show up if they are plugging it in to the VAG-COM thing. When my dads Audi A4s cat went it wouldn't accelerate above 3000 rpm, when mine loses power it wont go above tick over. Cheers Ady

Where do people take their Corrados, VR6s especially. I been going to the Lion Garage, but cant face going to the main dealer, Reg Vardys. If anyone has a good expert garage or mechanic in the Leicester area I would love to know. Cheers Ady

The car ground to a halt on Saturday and had to be towed home. The distributer and rotar arm where replaced but same problem. When accelerating even very gently there is no power and the car wont move, it's more likely to happen when the engines warmed up, but it's not like an electrical missfire as the engine still runs, it just wont pull. The bloke who recovered it reckoned it was ignition related, the garage isn't sure whats wrong with it and at the moment aren't sure what to do. I'm having to drive the girlfriend's Rover 214 and it isn't much fun as you can imagine. Depressed and going to the fridge for beer, Ady

I just been out for a test drive this evening and it seemed ok, but the cap and rotor arm don't look in the best of condition so I will change them anyway I reckon. I could believe it would be something like an HT lead not connected on properly as it was serviced very recently and I'm still waiting for a rear number plate bulb cover that the garage some how managed to lose, so their apprentice probably didn't do a very good job else where. Think I need a new garage! Cheers Ady

Yeah I will check all the connections. I might take it back to my local independant specialist and get them to plug it into the computer and see if they come up with anything. It's one of those annoying intermitant things though, let my dad have a go in it to see what he thought, and it was ok then. Cheers Ady

My 92 VR6 has started suffering from an intermitant misfire and loss of power. It's only started doing it today, but on steady acceleration it sometimes splutters losing revs, and on one occasion caused to car to grind to a halt with total lack of power. It was like a negative power thing where pressing down on the accelerator actually caused the car to slow down. Experience with previous other cars (Vauxhall SRis etc) makes me think that it's distributer and rotor arm related, the HT leads were replaced last year with standard ones and the spark plugs were replaced in the 12 month service 2 weeks ago. Anyone else had similar problems, or got any easy tests to isolate the problem? Cheers Ady

My choice would be a Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evolution, or an old 911. Neither are very practical but I go to work on a mountain bike so It would still be a weekend toy. Ady

The VR6 passed the MOT straight through first time with no work. Had the car exactly 2 years now and it's the 2nd MOT I've taken it to where it passed straight away. This is an all time record for me, I've never had a car do this before, they have always needed some work. So I'm pretty chuffed Ady

My 92 VR6 oils up on plugs 1 and 6 after about 5000 miles on the same plugs, it's done 120k but very rarely smokes and I have been recomended a head rebuild by Stealth by other forum members. But like I said in previous posts, the car runs fine and does everything it should, performance and mpg wise, so I'm not really into spending loads of cash at the moment till it gets worse. Cheers Ady

DEL VR6, your based in Oadby Leicestershire aren't you? I was going to take my old speedlines to http://www.perfectionalloys.co.uk who I think are based in Wigston, (not 100% sure but are in the yellow pages under 'tyre fitters'). I was recomended to them by a mate, but I got some new speedlines instead so I didn't go. Might be worth having a talk to them anyway. Ady

I might look into that sometime in the next year, I've only noticed the very occaisonal puff of greyish smoke though. The car runs fine otherwise though, so I'm a bit reluctant to fork out £1300 plus vat untill it gets worse. You will need to let us know what it's like after a rebuilt head, I might be interested if the car feels loads quicker. Cheers Ady

It uses about a litre every 750 miles, which is a very rough estimate, but it's about what the handbook says which I think is 1 litre per 1000km. I originally used Castrol GTX Magnatec, but it drank that so the Synta stuff is better. I might give the Shell Helix a go though. I was assuming I had worn valve stem seals on cylinder 1 and oil was eventually fouling up the plug, but I was going to wait till it gets worse before I have the head rebuilt. Ady