dr_mat

Hi all, Got a bit of a dilemma here, wondered if there's anyone can answer a few questions for me. Hypothetically speaking (if anyone is watching ;) ), imagine if someone were to drive into the back of your car, causing no visible damage, but shoving the car forward a foot or so as a result of the impact. On inspection imagine it appeared that the car behind had hit the towing eye mostly, and taken the brunt of the impact itself in the middle of it's front number plate. This type of thing, of course, makes you wonder if there's any structural damage underneath, so the idea of NOT getting the car checked out is simply not acceptable. And the car that hit you is a company car (or even better a car that was hired from e.g. AVIS *by* a company). So. What to do? I know a good mechanic who could check the car out structurally. But here's the tricky bit... Would we: a) let OUR insurance company deal with it b) call HIS insurance company and let them deal with it c) call the guy who hit you and ask him to pay directly We don't like the idea of a) because wouldn't this affect our claims record, even if all costs are recovered from the 3rd party? b) we don't know what impact this would have on our own insurance record, either...! Presumably we'd still have to report the accident at renewal time? And what about c). What's the excess like on hire cars? His company would pay anyway, presumably, so what's the deal here? Anyone have experience of this?

The biggest problem with the Corrado's ride is not so much the transmission of movement to the cabin, it's the flex and twist of the whole car and the way the interior reacts to it. Ever been in a Civic T-R? Suspension is rock hard, and yet it feels much more compliant on the sharp bumps than even a standard-sprung Corrado does. The Corrado is an old design. The shell twists, all the car's internal plastics have to flex, and they creak and rattle because of this.

Yeah, I think I avoided explaining why VW say it shouldn't be touched because I can't think of a reason why VW say that. But then, I can't think of a reason anyone would call a car "Towrag" either, so I guess that means I don't get that job in VW after all .. :)

Basically it works like this.. when you start the car up, it sets the engine to 100% ignition advance. It almost always detects knock as a result of this, so it backs off the advance a few degrees at a time till it goes away. Then it advances again a degree at a time till you get knock. Then it retards again .. And it stays in this loop at all times. So if your fuel is good enough to have zero knock at 100% advance (i.e. it's running to-specification at 98 octane), then the ECU does not ever retard. Cheaper/poorer fuel results in extra retard (the VR can do up to 11 degrees of retard and controls it per-cylinder, iirc), but better fuel can't make it advance any further than 100%. All engines work like this. Therefore the only way you will get benefit from 100+ Octane is if your engine's idea of 100% advance requires 100+ Octane. Most don't, they're tuned to run their best on 98. A lot of small engines are tuned to run their best on 95, so those don't even benefit from 98, let alone 100+..

In an ideal world, where cars don't hit potholes and bend track rods, racks, wishbones etc etc, there should be basically no need to ever ever adjust the tracking. None whatsoever. So if you do have to adjust it, it's cos you bent something (or some other idiot adjusted it wrong). Therefore, in the ideal world, the car leaves the factory with perfect tracking and a level steering wheel and it never changes, and the steering wheel never gets out of whack.

Possibly. But then, you'd have seen the oil pressure warning light on. Either way, you don't wanna drive it, do ya?

Almost all modern cars have a timing advance limit. It's only things like Imprezza turbos have enough timing advance leeway to take real advantage of 100+ octane fuels. Everything else gets their best out of 98 octane and anything else is pointless.

IIRC the intermediate shaft drives the oil pump. I never understood why it has to be setup right though, can't quite see how that makes a difference.

Sounds expensive. I wouldn't drive it till you can get a professional to take a look, frankly. Could be something simple, but it could also be that your rattly timing chains made it slip a tooth on the cam timing (rare but not impossible), or one of the chain guides just snapped. How many miles on the engine?

Guess the original owner of mine must have then, because I've had very few problems in 10 years of ownership. You mean apart from the month when it wouldn't start? And the tons of trips in and out of garages when they couldn't work out why? ;) People get rose tinted glasses about their Corrados, I swear... :)

Only if you have a bent chassis .. Anyway, in your particular case it's obvious that they should have taken the wheel off and set the wheel central rather than trying to move the track rods, but that shouldn't happen. What *should* happen is the car is set-up right at the factory, then the steering wheel is never removed, and the one track rod is never changed. Any minor variances in rack length due to expansion or slight bending of the track rods should be accomodated on the other track rod. But there's no reason why they shouldn't adjust both sides, assuming you're talking about a small adjustment. Reality is it's easier than taking the steering wheel off..

Someone probably fitted 195s because they're cheaper or easier to come by. But the correct size is 205/50/15, and you're probably sacrificing a little grip without the extra cm of width.

Forty five quid for a clamp that locks the two parts of your seatbelt together?

"What options does the Corrado come with?". Sadly very few people ticked the "reliability" box on the order sheet...

You *can* adjust both track rods, no reason you can't. The only drawback is the wheel then needs to be adjusted. Avoiding exactly this is the only reason for never touching the LH track rod.

VAG don't make *any* parts that are Corrado specific any more. They are running down the stock levels, because they're past their required 10 years limit. Once something runs out, that's it it's gone. Most fundamentals are available, but there's a lot of trim that's no longer available now (mainly because VW trim appears to be absolutely rubbish). Parts that are early-model-specific, too, will be hard to come by (concave bonnets, for example).

I think this is so out of date it's not worth chasing. Dealers will very rarely honour this anyway.

Lose the badges, if you want to go for the up-close paintwork look, you don't have to have a badge in it at all. Use a different detail off a car maybe (something that's not obviously recognisable), but surely the point is to advertise your company, not the car..?

No2 is the best composition, imho (that bright glint is in just the right spot in that part of the frame) but you'd really have to clone out your ass from the background ... (Having looked again I can see how #1 would work well, too.) It's hard to take pro-looking pictures. You have to control not only the item you're photographing, but in the this case the objects around it too because it's reflective. Ideally you'd have no object reflections whatsoever, in a white room with even lighting (to avoid showing up any spots of dust that might be there). But of course, all this costs time and money... Do the owners of the cars in question know you're using their cars in your promo material? You will need their permission, I'd say ..

If it sounds like it's misfiring, it's easy to find out .. A competent garage will be able to tell you if you have good spark on all six in ten minutes flat, and then you'll know, won't you..! You can even buy spark testers at halfords et al. (Or just take the plugs out and look for spark yourself, if you know what you're doing.)

It counts as barely circumstantial evidence, unfortunately. It's not corroborated in any way, and it's not signed by the original poster. He could quite easily claim he never wrote any of that... Or that he was lying.. and so on. Anyway, all this fuss about insurance going up because of people like him .. well since he has no insurance, and he can't claim for the damage to the car anyway .. it seems unlikely that insurance rates would go up as a result .. ;)

Misfiring on two cylinders, if that's what it's *actually* doing, points very squarely to the coil pack.

Sounds more like a slight misfire at idle to me. The revs shouldn't change when you add electrical load, in fact the fact that they *don't* is testament to the ISV working properly. Small engines have to work harder to counteract the extra force required to turn the alternator. The VR6 barely notices.

Did it take you long to paint all those leaves red?

Call the taxi company first. You wouldn't want to lose *your* livelihood just because of a little thing like this. Obviously you point out to him that if they won't pay up the amicable route, you only need to call your insurance company who will call the police and arrest him for failing to report a road traffic accident. Simple logic will prevail ..