Lufbramatt

im running JOM spring caps on the passat as with 40mm springs on it all round it sat quite nose-high, the JOM lowering caps did exactly as they said on the tin and brought it back level, and im now really pleased with the way it sits. Ive got PI springs with the 92mm top coil on VR top mounts so needed the mk4 golf type spring caps. Handling is spot on, as proven recently when i was on holiday in wales for 2 weeks, epic amount of grip for a FWD estate! However, I think they bind on the top of the spring occasionally and they clunk when parking etc, every bolt on the suspension,steering and subframe is torqued up properly so can only assume theres something weird going on with the top mounts/spring caps (ran them with normal VW spring plates for a few months and they were fine).

afraid Bosch have never made any aftermarket HID kits, the ones that say Bosch on the are chinese fakes that are the same as the unbranded ones . . .

ive never doubted the quality of porsche wheels, my 928 7-slot porsche alloys, despite being quite a heavy looking design, are way lighter than both the oem VW 14" alloys that came on the passat, and my mates 16" alfa GTV wheels! shame we have to run adaptors that will negate any weight saving tho :(

not sure if its be any use but the part number for the steels ive got on the passat (5 stud, 6x15", ET35) is 3A0601027 Im running 288mm front brakes on the front of it and they fit fine under those wheels.

theres no way at all of adjusting castor angle on a corrado, the setting on the ball joint will allow the camber to be changed but not the castor. Only way that it could be wrong is that a rubber bush (wishbone or top mount) has failed or something is bent (subframe, wishbone or shell) camber can be adjusted with either the hub to strut bolts or the balljoint to wishbone setting. Do you definately mean castor? ie the angle between a straight line (through the ball joint and the top mount) and vertical, when veiwed from the side of the car? or camber- the amount the wheels lean inwards when veiwed from the front of the car?

ones off any 5x100 VW will fit, ie mk3,4 golf, etc will fit, the 4-stud ones are too small though. And you need the ones with the domed seat under the head, not the conical ones.

theyll be fine- rolling radius will actually be slightly smaller than the stock 205/50/15. You could get away with a 205/45/16 easily i wouldve thought.

as steelies go theyre really nice- IMO they look loads better with the flat centre caps though so you cant see the bolts: suprizing how well they suit the rado tho! i quite like them :)

there is a degree of adjustment on the rear axle, the mounts that bolt to the floorpan can be adjusted slightly. a mate of mine with a mk4 passat found he was getting bad rubbing on one side but not the other when he lowered it, turns out the axle was about 7mm off to one side when he measured it all up. sorted by adjusting the axle mounts, said it was a pig of a job though and uber fiddly.

id get a decent basic spanner set- from someone like teng or the halfords pro jobbies- something like a 10,11,12,13,16,17,19mm set is all you need, just for those bolts where theres not enough room to get a socket in there. adjustabes (unless theyre really expensive ones) are the devils work ;)

got one for £90 from ebay, went and collected it from the place in essex and saved the £30 delivery charge. Its unbranded but exactly the same as the sealey ones, used it the other day to get my new engine out of the van and it picked up the whole engine, gearbox, subframe, brakes and suspension as one lump with no probs. The legs fold up but its still quite bulky, and the best bit is that they hold their price really well on ebay so when ive finished with it i'll relist it and get a good chunk of my money back :)

sounds like the valve stem oil seals getting worn out- when the throttle butterfly is closed the vacuum created by the coasting engine sucks oil from the head via the stem seals.

pretty sure the 280 and 288mm discs have a different offset (bellhousing sticks out more on a 280mm disc) so the smaller disc wont line up with the 288 caliper.

yea the striker you replaced is on a captive nut that should allow a few mm of movement- certainley mine was in the passat, maybe just needs a tap with a hammer to free it off so you can adjust it? also does the corrado have little rubber mushrooms at the corners of the boot? they can be adjusted by loosening the grub screw inside with a 3mm allen key and pulling them out a bit, then retightening the grub screw. i find they get pushed in over time, and need pulling out again.

yep its digifant, so shouldnt be too hard (touch wood) although there are a couple of things im not sure about, like what to do with the charcoal canister and the valve? Im thinking just ditch it and blank off the hole in the throttle body, but will this register a fault code in the ECU if the valve isnt plugged in?

ahh yea i guess the mk4 passat is a bit heavier- its got all the side impact bars, abs, airbags etc. Book weight for a mk3 passat (which i have) is 1180kg, which i thought was about the same as a VR6 'rado. Once theyve been lowered and the shocks stiffened up a bit they handle really nicely- as they have widetrack suspension too. Im putting the whole front end of the mk4 on my mk3 so i can get the big brakes too :) and it came with 5-stud "g60" style steels which look 8) , another bonus of buying the whole donor car!

i agree with whats been said- and have undertaken 65mph numpties on the inside before- but after spending the last few days driving round in a transit, pleaase dont try undertaking van or lorries! they have a massive blind spot on the nearside and its really hrad to see whats going on back there, especially at night. and you cant just turn your head round and look out the rear windows, cos they arnt there! I had one occasion last night where i had overtaken a lorry and needed to get over to the indside to get in the filter lane to get off the A1 on to the M25, and some a-hole had come up the inside of both of us and i had no idea he was there, sitting right in my blind spot. So be careful guys and bear in mind that other drivers might not be able to see you!

im in the process of putting an ABF in my mk3 passat to replace the tired old PB lump (donor car was a mk4 passat), and the subframe is slightly different and the front engine mount is the later mk3 golf "swiss roll" style one, which sits lower than the old mushroom shape one. This means that the front engine support/crossmember beam is different as well to accomodate the engine mount. But thankfully you can swap the crossmembers as all the holes at the ends are the same. On the mk4 passat 16valvers, they shared all the front suspension and steering components with the mk3 golf VR6 so ive got a feeling it might use a VR6 subframe to get round the height issue. Also the gearbox mount is different, the ABF box doesnt have the long support bar that comes forwards over the top of the box to near the shift tower, just uses a bracket that comes off the back of the box. O and i drove the donor car before we took it to bits, and i have to say that the engine is fantastic, the passat weighs about the same as a corrado, and you really dont notice the extra weight (by todays standards theyre both light cars!) and it loves to rev and rev and rev! A £300 12 year old estate car had no right to be that quick hahaha Ive got the engine/box/subframe all as one bit still on my drive so ill get some piucs tonight before i split them.

A slightly mean Passat front end? think you need to have another look at a 1988-95 passat..........[/quote:fo764s24] my one: i think has a very slight air of 'rado about it . . .

cheers took it the the alloy wheel refub place near me, they didnt want to touch it, and showed the tyre fitters when i got the porsche size tyres taken off and they were of the opinion that "it would probably be ok but wouldnt like it on their car". So i have managed to find a single wheel on Edition38 (for £30, result!), will chemical metal the holes up and keep the damaged wheel as a spare with a cheapo tyre on :)

couldnt get to mine either - only way i could do it was take the whole ignition housing off as said previously. I needed a 3 leg puller to get the large spline steering wheel adaptor off, once thats out the way its just a case of undoing the clamp screws on the housing and tapping it off, make sure youve got the ignition on though to stop the steering lock coming on and holding it all together. once the ignition housing is off you can easy get a normal screwdriver in there and undo the screw :)

hi guys over the weekend I picked up a set of porsche 928 alloys, which looked to be in really good condistion, no kerbing or buckles and was chuffed to have found a whole set in 7" wide. However, Ive just got them out of the garage this morning as I want the porsche sized tyres taken off, and have noticed that on one of the wheels it looks like a locking wheel bolt has been removed with a drill, and the bolt seat has been drilled into a few times, tbh theyve made a bit of a mess of it. Im a bit concerned about it- should I look at having the wheel filled (alloy welding?), will it be ok to run as it is or is the wheel junk? :censored:

goodo let me know how you get on :)

sorry shouldve been clearer: (yay for paint :)) just need the width accross the front of the splitter, and the distance from the front corner to the wheel arch cheers

could someone measure how wide and deep (ie front to back) a corrado VR6 front splitter is? wondering if i could butcher one to fit on the passat now it has a mk4 passat front bumper, it needs something a bit deeper on it! The mk3 golf VR6 one can be made to fit but you need a filler bit in the middle, and a mk1 toledo will fit but i cant find one anywhere! just wondering if a rado one was wide enough . . . cheers guys :)