dr_mat

But it's not operating on it's own in this context, it's operating as part of the car to "flip" the air flow up at the rear and create turbulence behind the car (hence "spoiler"). This breaks up the stable flow and reduces the lift that the car generates as the air flows around it. You simply cannot consider the spoiler on it's own, because it doesn't act on it's own. If it did, it would be called a "wing".. But anyway ... anyone seen any snow yet? Anywhere?

Exactly my point. Gravity is the only downforce, so it has nothing whatsoever to do with the lift. And we're talking about lift! If it were a wing, and it produced downforce, which acts against lift, I would be happy to see it described as "increasing downforce", even if overall the car still had a tendency to lift. But it's not. It's a spoiler, it decreases lift, but does *not* generated downforce.

Of course it's wrong. The only downforce in action here is GRAVITY. All else is a reduction in lift. It's like saying that NOT punching someone is an increase in benevolence?!

IIRC the Calibra had a Cd of about 0.28. Not sure what the Corrado's was, but maybe it's crapness is one of the reasons VW never touted it in the advertising... The Corrado achieved high speed simply by brute force. That's one of the reasons it wasn't as fuel efficient as the Calibra. But it's a lot less GAY.

Not "poor terminology", just "utter bullshit". ;)

I beg to differ, Purple ones are clearly faster!!! In fact the fastest car would be one where incident light radiation was absorbed at the front of the car and bounced off at the rear of the car. So that means black front, white rear .... ;) And the Corrado is hardly known for it's aerodynamics. The Calibra pisses all over it from a great height for Coefficient of drag...

They moved to using plastic for a reason, it wasn't for cheapness sake .. That said, the metal ones will last a good length of time, assuming you keep the antifreeze (and anti-corrosion) up to strength.

I hear the 130 TDi has a bigger turbo - hence it's a little less responsive. Not driven either, but thought I'd mention it.

Budget restrictions isn't *usually* what makes you put the wrong size tyres on a car.. It might have saved a few pennies, but really .. 4 wheel alignment is something the dealers are required to be able to do, and maybe a few independants will have the correct equipment. If you ask for 4wheel align in the tyre/exhaust places they will jack the car up and run lasers along the side of the car - which tells you nothing about the rear wheel alignment at all. You want the full geometry cast+camber check.

Please also bear in mind that bulbs get slightly dimmer with age. You will always see an improvement when you replace them, unless you buy very crap replacements..

Huh? You have mismatched tyres? Well that's wrong for a start. I assume your rear tyre pressures are ok? The only thing I can suggest is getting a four wheel alignment done. And frankly, if the rear bushes are about to go you'd be much better off getting that done FIRST.

Who's VR have you been driving? The sound changes, but I wouldn't say there's a significant difference in sound *level* between full throttle @4k rpm and full throttle at 6k rpm. Certainly not with the windows closed. You generally know you're running out of revs more because the power output starts to tail off, frankly, or because you glimpse the needle hitting the end stop .. It's not something I've done often, but if you're not familiar with the car then yes, it's easy to not notice the redline approaching.

Only people who've never driven a VR don't see the point of shift lights. When you've bounced off the rev limiter because the engine simply doesn't get any louder after 2600 rpm, you start to think it might be a good idea .. :) But, having looked at the video, that is possibly the most pointless shift light in the universe. Well .. if you are already looking at the rev counter, duh .. !

Buy a Corrado. We don't care which one.

I would be surprised to see that much difference, cos after all the intake runs over the top of the engine anyway. It might cut down on direct transmission at the intake, but that's unlikely to be a significant change once you've been driving the thing for a while.

Ask for a VW one. Also ask for new window seals, because they are almost never re-usable.

If you're sitting in traffic a VR will sit at 100 degrees. If it goes OVER then you have a problem. The fans should come on at 92. If they don't then there's a problem, but even so it's not unusual to see 100 degrees if there's no air flow through the rad. In fact you really need ~30+ mph to prevent it from sitting at 100 deg. The fan stays on after parking up for as long as it takes for the water in the block to cool slightly. Which depends on how hot it was. And how hot the block was. The after-run circuit uses a different temp sensor compared to the ignition-on fan control circuit, so yes, it's normal for it to have a different state if you put the key in. In other words your car sounds perfectly normal...

Phew. If that mystery had hung around any longer, shaggy and scooby would have shown up ..

The light works by detecting a low water level in the expansion tank. If you don't have enough water, the light comes on. Put some more in .. Sure, you might well be losing it, but it could be coming from anywhere.. You'll just have to go take a look at all the hoses and everything when the system is up to pressure and hope you can see steam/water coming out somewhere ..

1.8kw is 150 amps. Good luck. Of course, your 1.8kw amp will rarely be running anywhere near that.

A 90 amp alternator? You've got to be very sure about what you're doing there ...

Well since a closed thermostat prevents water going round the radiator too, I would imagine the answer is "no". Apart from the obvious problem of your car overheating all the time, which can cause significant damage on it's own.

Check all the bulb mountings - it's easy to bend a pin and short across to one of the other circuits. I had this, turned out the indicators worked perfectly, as long as I wasn't on the brakes. Have you had the light clusters out recently? If so there's your culprit.

Did this problem exist BEFORE you had the thermostat replaced? Did they test it before they put it in? (Can you tell I troubleshoot for a living?!?!)

You have too many spare days...