dr_mat

What are you talking about, Haywire? Surely your car picks up at what *would be* 3k rpm, if you weren't running a shorter diff .. ??! The diff itself can't alter the torque curve mate, unless I missed a lesson on physics back at school!

If you have any fuelling problems, surely the lambda has to be the first potential culprit??

There's no thermostatic control of the oil heat exchanger, afaik. It just cools, relative to the water system. 140 deg oil is not that unusual..... if you happen to have been doing 130 mph for an hour or so in hot weather .. ! What's the water temp like while the oil is reading 140? Any evidence of oil/water mix?

Nice carpet ...

Transmission loss is one factor. The biggest one is more likely to be wind resistance, and the shape of the car, imho. Once you get up to a reasonable speed the difference in power becomes less pronounced than the difference in drag factor. It requires twice as much power to increase your top speed by 10mph, for example.

Yeah, it's weird. Bolt one end down and make the other end flexi bushed ...

Kev has a brand new rack already ... And didn't you fit new poly rack bushes?

I've never had a faulty valve, but I guess it's possible. What makes you think it's not a puncture though?

I have seen a few people running both, and from what I hear, it's still worthwhile (it still evens out the torque curve), but the charger bumps up the low rev torque enough to make the Schrick a "maybe" rather than a "must have", from wat I've seen.

Sounds like an iffy power steering rack to me ....

B+Q? ;) I'll get me coat..

I'll concede your argument, since I've never tried to start a 16v by hand ... But in general, the bigger the engine the higher the amperage required to start it. You maybe also have earthing issues that make it worse. Check the resistance between the engine block and the battery for a pointer on that.

Three years warranty on Bosch car batteries from GSF, you say? So the fact that I *actually* fitted it in August 2002 means I'm screwed, you would say? :( Having found the receipt it's been on the car slightly longer than I thought. Damn, that means I've had the car slightly longer than I thought, too..!

Yeah but you got it off ebay ... chances of stumbling on another one at that price are pretty slim! Even with employee discount from ZF you're looking at £300 for a brand new rack.

The part costs virtually nothing, but the labour to strip and remove the dash is quite pricey .. :(

Yes, that was going to be my next query. Has anyone looked at the area where the ARB mounts to the subframe..?

Check the documentation you got from the service. If it mentions "lifetime warranty" anywhere then tell AmD they should honour it. If it explicitly excludes labour then you might need to threaten trading standards... Obviously you'd probably be better off not being too threatening at first. See if they'll just offer something in response to a letter. [best not to mention Stealth again though ... it's the best way to put someone's back up is mentioning what the competition will do .. :) ] I'd just write a letter to AmD stating that clearly the goods were not of merchantable quality, and that you are entitled to a replacement product, free of charge. Remind them that since AmD supplied and fitted the parts, your warranty contract is with them, not with their supplier.

Hang on, who supplied the parts? If AMD supplied and fitted, then you tell them they are replacing them under warranty, or you're going to trading standards. (Damper failure inside 12 months is definitely "not of merchantable quality", and since they are the people you bought them from they are the people who honour the warranty....) If you supplied them yourself you've no leg (or strut) to stand on, as it were...

Based purely on the above specifications, if you rarely use your car, YT is better. If you use the car regularly, RT is better.

I've got dealer-supply tie rods on mine, and my suspension is at the normal height...

Did anyone replace the ARB drop links? Are the bushes for the links available separately?

Dunno. There's a figure on the top of the battery that says "640 amps", but I don't know how that's measured, or under what temperature etc conditions. It could even be a notional "10*capacity" figure that they stamp on there without actually measuring it at all. A higher max rating doesn't really mean much, it's how that current drops as the battery charge decreases that's important. Once it drops below about 200 amps, you're going to struggle to start a VR6. The smaller engines it might require less... BTW. Think my Bosch is definitely defunct. It's down to 12.2v today, compared to 12.4 yesterday. Clearly not holding charge - and considering I've driven it for getting on for 50 minutes yesterday, and that's using two starts, I think it should be fully charged.

You'd better buy two then ... Seriously. These batteries are just like other batteries, capacity-wise, you're paying for bullet-proof build quality (in fact, 55Ah is 9 less than the Bosch Silver fitted to my VR). If your car, like most other Corrados, sits there draining 200mA while it's switched off, then you battery will be flat in 10 days. No way out of that ... IF, however, you buy a deep-cycle battery, then it will go flat ... and you can recharge it ... and it won't suffer long term from that treatment. (A normal "starter" battery won't recover well if left flat.)

I would go down there in person as a first contact, rather than by letter. The letter can back-up your conversation and serve as "legal notification" for later consideration by your legal team if it gets messy..

The starter connection is a big FAT cable, which looks like it's connected ok there. Sorry, my bad - if you'd said "clicks once" I would have added that it could be the starter... Trace the big fat cable down to the starter solenoid (smallish black cylindrical object), you should see below it a thick copper cable running to another, black cylindrical object (the motor itself). See if that link cable is intact.