dr_mat

Yeah, "rubber belt" type, was what I was referring to. Though they tend to use steel belts to transmit the torque properly.

Big question. Some points: Bike engines are small, have low mass pistons, less inertia in the metal parts that are oscillating. Also they simply don't need to generate big torque, so they don't need long throw or overly strong cranks. They just need power, which is easiest obtained by spinning it fast. Petrol engines have the ability to control ignition timing, which allows them to fire the spark well before the piston actually reaches TDC. This means that the (comparatively slow) flame front will meet the piston crown *as* it reaches TDC. Can't do this on a diesel, you have to wait for TDC (or thereabouts) before ignition takes place, and so at very high revs the piston is already moving away from the flame front before it can get there and actually PUSH the piston down, thereby wasting the energy, if you see what I mean ..? They are working on increasing the rev limits on diesels by doing clever things with the injectors, getting it to ignite before TDC to improve matters. But let's face it diesels were designed to be extremely efficient running at a single RPM, to be used for generators, boats, etc etc. The fundamental design is very good, but it's being applied to something it's not suited to. Whack a continuously variable transmission on one though, and it'd be perfect. (Whatever happened to them??)

Ok British! :)

Not that this is relevant to this discussion at all, but since you brought it up.. Actually Stealth fitted some *used* track rods, that turned up already fitted on the steering rack they got from GSF, whose inbound BJs turned out to have seized BEFORE they ever went on my car. When I discovered the fault (by driving away from Stealth when I picked the car up) it was too late to swap them the same day, so I had to drive home on them. Vince reckoned they might loosen up (still under the impression they were new) .. They never did, so eventually he agreed to swap 'em, at which point we found out where they'd come from.. We had an honest misunderstanding about the track rods, I'd never actually specified VW ones, but Vince thought I had (I had specified VW *ends*, which I supplied). Then he thought they'd ordered GSF ones, and they hadn't... It's a long and complex story ... Anyway, it may well have been your track rods causing your clunks, I dunno. But as we've seen so many times in the past, what's the cause of problems on one car doesn't necessarily help other cars. All I was helpfully pointing out is that my car has been through three sets of track rods and ends and the clunking has not changed one jot.

Jeezus, listen to yourselves! Get over it! This is the Corrado forum. It's full of people who believe VW are gods. You're never going to get an unbiased response round here ... :) And as for predicting residuals on cars that are barely six months old, that's madness. No-one ever bought one car in preference to another in the sports hatch market because of how much it's likely to be worth in three years time ..... And anyway, they're all just sports hatches. We're english dammit, we want a COUPE!! :)

That's gonna be *loud*! The hangers look like later, bar-type, so it might fit a VR, but I'm not sure.

It's kinda tricky to measure leakage, but in principle you just need to get a multimeter, put it in "10A" DC current mode, and place it in series with one of the battery connectors. Sorta: Battery - Meter - Normal battery lead.. If this reads more than 100mA then you have a problem. From here on in it's a case of pulling fuses until you find which circuit is causing the majority of the drain. I would say that it's not unusual for Corrados to have minor current leaks, and even brand new fully charged batteries won't keep a Corrado alive for more than a couple of weeks without the engine being run. Also good advice above on testing the alt, there the meter should be on the 20V DC scale though, obviously... ;) Don't, whatever you do, accidentally leave your meter in 10A current mode and put it across the battery. You'll be holding a charred piece of melted plastic before you can say "I'm off to maplins to buy a new one"...

Society is strange. In the world of cars, your average punter pushes for ever-better construction quality. Heavier cars, more power, more reliability. And yet in all other consumer goods, the average punter just wants it *cheap*, which manufacturers have responded to by making DVD players that work for ten minutes but are so cheap they're disposable, by selling washing machines that don't last, and so on .. A ford Focus ST is probably just as, if not MORE reliable than any VW shipped in the last ten years, yet people still have this idea that VWs are more reliable.. time after time surveys have proved they aren't, but society is slow to catch on to stuff like this, it seems ..

I've had GSF rtack rods, VW track rods, more VW track rods, and it's not changed the clunking one bit. Bear in mind that Kev also changed the entire front hub assembly, wheel bearings, and so on at the same time as he changed the track rods, so in truth it could be any of those components that was actually causing his problems....

Modifications to run on other fuels usually involves injector differences, iirc. In principle, *petrol* that was 109 RON should work ok (though the ECU might be a little bit out of range with it's fuelling calculations), but something vastly different from the physical properties of petrol might not atomise correctly or flow correctly through the injectors, so at the very least you would need a remap doing, at the most you'd need a whole new fuelling system installed. Can't be more specific, cos I've not looked at the details...

Get it on VAGCOM when it happens - but make sure you LEAVE THE ENGINE RUNNING - whatever you do don't turn it off before scanning for errors. Once the engine stops turning you will lose any error codes that might be important. I had exactly this symptom and it was the dastek/unichip going dead - it was obviously wigging out and passing bollocks to the ECU instead of a sensible crank position signal... Also replace that ECU relay!

Heh. It may be simply that my mate's one was a bit iffy. This was not the only thing he complained of with it. (He said it would pull inconsistently on part throttle and various other little weirdnesses that couldn't be explained.) But audi had pored over the car at great length and had declared it 100% healthy, despite his concerns. So he wasn't happy...

Yes, it was me! But that's not the point! It ignored the first one!

Like it ignores the throttle position if you're tickling the brakes at the same time (cos it'd be stupid to do both, right?). I mean, an engine that *ignores* the driver input? Not that that's uncommon these days, just a little bit annoying that you're losing control.

Mate of mine had one for a while. Mixed experience, apparently. The engine is too smart for it's own good, he says he wished it had a carburettor... But overall it was fast, grippy and pretty reliable.

You can invert the phase by switching the wires on the back of the tweeter. The important thing is to make sure that the sound that reaches your ear from all the relevant speakers is in the *same* phase. It doesn't have to be "right", just consistent. Swapping overall phase appears to me to be one of those snake-oil things. I've never tried it seriously, but have never noticed a good difference when fiddling about with it ..

carbon build up can be caused by injector issues, iirc. Does the car seem to be using too much fuel?

See, this Corrado has a front subframe cross brace. No stupid "suspension hanging off the front of the subframe unsupported" stuff there! Oh and they appear to have made a right mess of those brakes!! Five holes into four does not go! ;)

Hold both ends, you can tell whether they're firmly connected or not.. erm ..

Sounds like it's time to write a "you and your car battery" wiki entry ...

But hey, it's a VW. There is a reason they are consistently bottom of the JD power reliability surveys.

Some road surface following is normal for a car, particularly a front wheel driver under extreme conditions (heavy braking or acceleration). As for how much .. well.. Personally I'm considering getting whole new VW wishbones fitted, which afaik come complete with BJs and all bushes (apart from ARB drop link). Oh and tightening up the bolts.. :)

Then put the new engine number in the logbook then!

The bulbs go.

Did you mean "nearly stranded" or "nearly as many times" .. ;) Car reliability is inversely proportional to how interesting they are. Some examples: [ . Car . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Interest level . . . . . . . . Reliability . ] 3yr old cavalier 1.8 GL . . . sub-basement . . . . . penthouse suite 10yr old Lambo Diablo . . . penthouse suite . . . . sub-basement 10yr old Corrado . . . . . . . 15th floor . . . . . . . . mezzanine level brand new toyota corolla . . 20,000 leagues . . . . 20,000 feet 20 yr old toyota corolla . . . 20,000 leagues . . . . the moon See?