Alexander

Excellent, just been checking and my local college (York) do a basic auto maintenance course! Apparently it covers all the usual servicing bits and pieces, with some theory and all that. Sounds perfect, and starts next month! Bit pricey tho - £222 for an 18 week course but if I can save that in garage bills it'll have paid for itself. Might go for that! :D

I've been thinking, I'd quite like to learn a bit more about car mechanics, mainly so I feel more confident doing maintenance on my Corrado - simple stuff like oil changes, brake discs/pads, you know the kind of stuff. Has anyone done a night course at a local tech etc, or have any experience of this? What do you think of it as an idea? I know some of you will say the best way to learn is just to do it, but my C is my daily driver so I can't really take any risks on messing anything up that will take it off the road. Plus, although I have a garage it's too small to really work in. I just think it would be nice to have some professional guidance on how to do things properly and learn a bit more about how engines work etc. Any input gratefully received!

Did the Corrados come as standard with a rubber cover for the loud pedal?

Thanks for the reply dude (actually just been reading your G-Werkz thread about your satin silver - good reading!) Interesting you should mention the V-belt as it's just had a brand new one, although it was making the noise before and after it was fitted. It's a puzzler! I just kind of assumed that old oil wasn't getting up to the pressure it should on WOT, causing one of the (possibly old and on-its-way-out) pressure senders to complain. I'm pretty sure it will come back, and if I get a definitive answer I'll post it up!

I've got a Momo Corse wheel and it's got a yellow horn push in the middle that's never worked, despite my mechanic chum renewing the earth!

OK thought I'd update this thread in case anyone finds it in a search for a similar problem: In a nutshell, gave the car an oil change and the problem has gone! The car had a new oil pump in 2004 so I kind of ruled that out, and oil pressure was actually OK (settling down to 2 bar under load, just above zero at idle once the engine got up to temp). So I'm putting it down to old oil. Be interesting to see if it starts doing it again when this lot of oil gets near changing time.

Cheers dude - I'll try and get it as tight as I can round the clips/door handle screw holes etc. I had to re-fix the ones in my old mk2 golf a few times so I have an idea what's involved... :D

Yeah as soon as I posted that I realised it was a bit ass-backwards. Now all I need is a dry spell and some you know, daylight. However as I get up in the dark, get home in the dark, and it's rained perpetually for about six years, this may not be amazingly easy. Corrado is going in the garage tonight though and staying there when not in use until I sort it. Girlfriend's polo can have some of the weather for a while instead.

Cleaned mine, then discovered my latest mod - a swimming pool in the rear passenger footwell. Tremendous!

Well I know for a fact I don't actually have any door membranes! This is on my to-do list, bought some rubble sacks last weekend for this job. However, it's definitely damp in the passenger footwell (you can kind of track it down to behind the back seats) so I'm suspecting the blower vent - this will get investigated as soon as poss! Been searching the forum this evening and it looks like a *very* common problem this time of year - just glad it's not my heater matrix! (touches wood)

Did you get this sorted in the end? Just discovered today I have exactly the same problem - rear passenger footwell was swimming, front footwells were bone dry.

Thanks guys, going to give the car a thorough wash, wax and check over today - I don't really know how tough these old VWs are, maybe I'm babying it a little bit (I cringe every time I mince gingerly over a speedbump). I'm pretty sure it was totally my fault for mis-reading the cones, but if I can do it at 30mph while concentrating, I bet some people hooning it down there on autopilot must have done it as well. And thanks for the nice comments Craigowl! Wish I could say they were all good gigs, and it's absolutely not as glamourous as I'd like it to be, but it's a fun life being in a band!

OK it's not a major tragedy but I'm pretty shaken up and I feel pretty stupid; Driving back from Leeds tonight in the pitch black and rain/fog after playing a (good) gig, coming out of leeds they're doing some kind of roadworks involving coning off certain lanes and guiding you all over the place. I hate driving in and out of Leeds at the best of times so I was going steady and concentrating, but somehow the cones managed to guide me over the central reservation (about 2 inch high raised area, no barriers on it thank god) and onto oncoming traffic. Quickly slowed and steered back over the reservation again and me and my synth player were OK. Now I realise this is totally driver error, but it was sickening the bangs from the wheels and something hitting the deck on the way back over (sump or wishbones I expect) - I could have cried, I totally love my C and hate the thought of damaging it. I spend a fortune and a lot of my free time keeping it just right and well loved and when something like this happens I feel like a total knob. Carried on driving and luckily the car seems fine - still drives/stops in a straight line, no odd noises or play in the steering - could it be I've got away without causing any damage??? I guess if I wake up tomorrow and the oil is all over the deck I'll know if I've knackered the sump, and if my tyres are flat I'll know I've dented my alloys (no visible damage to the outside of the rim). Pretty sure the tracking has to be out now, at the very least. So yeah. Totally gutted and I just hope it's alright. I'm going to buy her some new floor mats to say sorry. :(

Nope, I bought the outside stuff and used it on the outside before I realised they did one for the inside as well - got some of that and tried it and it did nowt! The outside stuff (rain repellant) is great, the inside stuff (Anti-Fog) I've never had any luck with at all.

Have you really had success with the RainX stuff? I tried it and it did absolutely nothing!

Yeah asked the gf to get me some rubble sacks at the supermarket this weekend, she came back with 3 packs of them! I said I only actually need 2. Bless her! :D

My Corrado has a pretty annoying condensation problem (which from reading old posts on here isn't uncommon) so I'm going through the obvious bits first. I noticed the other week when I had my door cards off that there were NO door membranes whatsoever, which I'm thinking isn't quite right! So I'm going to get some good thick waterproof stuff and make my own - has anyone done this, and if so where did you get the sheet plastic stuff from? Also what's the best way of fixing it to the door?

Ulp... Well I'm not going to get wound up, it doesn't sound like exactly the same symptoms you have (buzzer goes off at high RPM/high boost, with no warning light - pressure looks normal at mid-revs) but I'll whip it into my mechanic to see what he thinks. Going to be a bit nervous about driving it in the meantime mind you, so I'll try not to until I get the problem fixed. Cheers for your help!

Cheers fella. It is at just over 2 bar at 2000rpm, just when at idle it's very low. I'll search out that other thread and start worrying in case it's something more serious!

Right, well that's good to know. So it's most likely the oil pump on it's way out, I guess? Looks like the C's off to car hospital again. :(

OK an interesting development: I was sat in traffic stop-start for about an hour tonight on the way home, and when I finally cleared it and could speed up a bit, the oil pressure beeper came on (beep, beep, beep) and the light in the dash flashed for about 6 seconds. So the light works! And this beep was definitely from the binnacle rather than the high squealing/beeping noise I reported at the top of this thread, which seems to come from the engine bay. I looked up and the car had a new oil pump in 2004, could it be knackered again? Also, what sort of oil pressure should I be seeing? I've got an oil pressure guage in my center console, when I was sat in traffic it was just above zero, when I'm driving it's usually about 2 - 2.5 bar(?)

The ultimate street sleeper! :D

First thing I did when I bought my G60 was change the German plates for new, banded GB ones. I think they look just as good and I can't be doing with the hassle of driving around sweating every time I see a police car. Sorry to hear about your fine tho! :(

Yep, I got an underbonnet kit from NoiseKiller for my G60 and it was too big. To be honest, I saw it as them giving you more than enough material to do the job, and that they're expecting you to do a bit of trimming rather than it being a straight fit. Good stuff it is.

Thanks guys, shame it won't stay like that for long! Looked out the window this morning and the poor old girl's covered in snow! :?