dr_mat

The only reason you might choose to use genuine leaded petrol is because you hate small babies and trees, and probably voted for George Dubyah, you evil person. ;)

Don't forget Henny, the US dollar is current worth about seven or eight pence...

What, of Jedi not buying drinks? Yes, I know, terrible isn't it! ;)

Oh and to follow on from this story, the ABS controller I purchased for £16 was fitted today (by me!), and lo and behold I found some green powdery substance bridging a couple of contacts in the corner of the big fat multiplug on the old one. Cleaned up the connector, reinstalled the h/w and lo and behold, no more ABS light. Will have to check in the longer term but hopeful for the time being... :)

If I read the above correctly, that is exactly what Stealth ARE charging for the VSR, cams, fitting and rechip.

The car will readapt ignition timing every time you start the ignition. The only long-term learned figures are for fuelling mostly, iirc. The ECU reset does not *fix* anything. If you have an array of sensors on the engine that all work, there is really no need to reset the ECU. Indeed the factory manuals all state that when replacing an ECU you should record the adaptation values in the old ones and reinstate them using VAG-COM or equivalent afterwards. It's one of those "voodoo" fixes that everyone thinks does magical things and it plain doesn't. The only possible benefits for performing the reset as described above (the full throttle for 3 seconds, part throttle in 4th etc etc) is to force the engine to adapt to either a new sensor or a new air flow characteristic more quickly, or to remove saved error codes more quickly. (I am led to believe that for example if you have a duff lambda, fitting a new one will require three engine start cycles and power-on-self-test passes before the new part gets fully trusted.) I know the microsoft world always tells you a reboot fixes everything (and bloody mobile phones are getting the same way now!!), but the VR6 car ECU is not that clever! My 2p. :-P

Hey - thought occurs to me Roger. Did they skim the head when it was off? Did they use a good quality head gasket? Increased compression might be a cause for pinking...

I don't think it's capable of much more than 155, but I have found a few references on the net to the fact that it *is* still restricted. I doubt it's going to do any more than 160 though, it's just not got that much juice. I'll bet if it was driven downhill it would still only do 155..

Don't put together a petition. All that's going to do is get VW to pre-order the right number of £300 MAFs, and bin the rest... BUT they have a requirement to provide parts for these cars under european law for another two years (the last Corrado was registered in 1996 ish so + 10 years), so any part that you find obsoleted and unavailable we should write a petition to them about, pointing out their legal obligations to Corrado owners.

The sumps should be identical between the AAA and ABV engines, yes. Certainly the sump gaskets are... Get the tyre place to rebalance your wheels. If there's still a problem, have a look for any run-out on the wheels themselves. If you've got a small buckle it can be masked by certain types of tyres, but it'll never really go away completely.

Mario_vr6 was ordering a reconditioned VR maf from the us for about £140 all in. But a new one is £300+ ... VW won't sell you a recon unit. Bosch will, however, but I'm not sure of the pricing.

It's a teaser, no question. And your engine is completely standard? There's nothing out of place in any of the figures you've quoted, nothing to indicate concern at least. Which makes it all the more weird that a completely standard engine is pinking at medium revs when the engine is warm. There's no reason to doubt the operation of the knock sensors though - the ECU retards the ignition each time the knock sensor hears that sound, and you should then notice the car feels a little less lively afterwards, but it can still pink after. Once the ECU reaches it's maximum retard (around 11 degrees, IIRC) that's yer lot. If it's still pinking it will still pink, nothing more the ECU can do about it. I don't think it's smart enough to increase fueling in to compensate. Maybe you should consider the possibility of an air leak around the inlet? Also worth looking for contamination from other sources. Would an iffy head gasket and water in the cylinder cause pinking? (This is pure speculation on my part I don't remember ever reading that this is the case..)

Can't believe the VW technical manuals don't tell you to pre-pressurise the chain tensioner before fitting!!

I did mine cos they were rattling like barstewards and were riding on the rivets. Sure, 150k is about the upper limit on this stuff. But if you do 10k a year and you're driving a 100k mile motor, you might well have another 5 years before you have to get that work done... Is all I'm saying.... So as you say, everyone can make their own minds up! I'd like to point out too, that I *did* say it was a good idea to inspect the chains. I kinda wish I'd done that earlier in my ownership, but there you go. My chains didn't slip, nor did they snap, and it was rattling for a good year before I finally got it fixed.

The computer can't show what's wrong in cases like this (the ECU doesn't give a monkeys about the reading on the temp gauge, it has it's own engine temp sensors). It's simply a job for a bored sunday and sitting there tracing all the wires through the loom using a multimeter to see what's going on. Or paying a shed load of cold hard cash to someone to do that for you. You should maybe sue the idiot who broke it in the first place...

This discussion can descend very easily into "thou shalt replace thy timing chains", and I think the risks of damage are overstated. How many VR6 engines are out there? And how often do you hear of chain *failure*? Very very infrequently. I've heard of a couple, out of thousands. It's true that there's also the risk of skipping a tooth on one of the cam wheels when the chains become very sloppy, but again - that doesn't happen very often... Of course, if it's rattling, you *know* it needs doing. But until it's really rattling, it's enough to just inspect and see.. AFAIK Inspection can be done through the top, looking down past the cam sprockets, but that means taking the rocker cover off.

*sigh*. The VR6 timing chain paranoia creeps ever onwards... Yes, *some* people have found they need chains at 90k. Some haven't. Mine went to 115k. Some have gone to 145k or more. If it doesn't rattle then the most you should consider is getting it inspected. I have to admit the whole "doing the clutch anyway" thing is a bit of a pain. There's around 3 hours labour in fitting the clutch alone. Once the clutch is off, the additional work for the chains is something like 5-7 hours, so I'd probably err on the side of caution and get the timing chain *inspected* before deciding whether it's worth potentially paying that 3 hours (for the clutch) twice in quick succession.

From reading of such problems on here I was under the impression that you'd know if the cam timing was out - as you say it'd idle a bit rough, it'd run a bit rough, and it'd probably not pull very well. What was your torque figure on Stealth's rollers btw? Tell us more about the pinking: does it only occur on full throttle or only on part throttle? Only in a particular rev range? Is there any suggestion that you're having MAF problems? (What's the MPG like?) Oh - and if anyone's going to double check the timing, surely it should be the people who did your top end rebuild first!

I think someone said you can buy them direct from Bosch for about £50 each? Still looking at £300 notes tho..

Ah, I know people like you... First out the taxi, last at the bar... :roll:

Ya nutter kev. 160+ on a public road?? :lol: And the beemer was limited to 155 surely?

The only thing most people get for free from VW dealerships clears up nicely with some liberally applied creams...

Wait and see..... Mine has weeks where it'll behave perfectly then the light will be on all the time.... PLUS you bid on the one I won the other week too, ya git. You cost me an extra six quid.. ;) I reckon that's two pints in ye olde Cambridge pubs. Mine's a Guinness!! :lol:

15/40 isn't it? or 15/50. Can't recall.

Unless there's a mm of play in the UJs, anyway...