dr_mat

No. Unless you've slipped a tooth on the belt, in which case it would potentially effect everything...

Assuming the fuse board didn't stop you first! I've heard a few people say they have VRs with 75A alternators (kev?), but ETKA lists the VR's as being a 90A part. Air-con equipped cars may have 120A ones.

Were you parked on a slope?!

"looks a bit slack"? Can you define that? It should be taut and there shouldn't be much movement with the "thumb test" either.

I know, I'm under no illusions. That's why I also have a feck-off great big wheel lock too.. :) Not that that does anything other than force them to tow the thing away.. (Which is hard in my street!)

I have two immobilisers...

There's two on a VR. One on the front and one on the back of the block. I couldn't tell you exactly, but there's no likely to be any other bits with wires coming from them at that point..

But how is replacing the ignition switch going to help someone who's trying to hotwire your car? Any decently-fitted alarm system will cut circuits buried deep behind the dashboard, it will have little or nothing to do with the ignition switch..

Not sure, I just know that an old Jetta had the same problem (huge pools of water in the rear footwells) and it was the sunroof leaking big style.

Sunroof.

You're lucky. Mine went on xmas eve with a car full of crap, just ready to drive away for the holidays...

A head gasket so soon after your rebuild, henny? OT I know, but what happened there? Back OnT Phat I think that given the amount of money you've spent on upgrading your C you should be able to do ALL of the options above in the same weekend... ;)

Praise for Cavaliers: all except the engine and the handling... Which are pretty much the only reasons I keep my Corrado... ;)

Ok, me personally you're right - one in X years, but then you don't know for sure how old your "old" handles are either, neither do I. But going by the number of people around here who've reported it: I was speaking statistically. As people have said to me in the past, they can't all be wrong... Meanwhile, I can tell that my passenger door handle is pretty close to breaking point now too, plus my mechanic had replaced "a significant number of these" over the years. You're confusing, kev. One minute it's "VWs are great", then it's "VT bushes are great" and then it's "Corrados are the worst-built VW". None of these things are strictly mutually exclusive, but it does get a bit tricky to keep up with... ;) Anyway, we're turning into the Kev-and-Matt show again. All we need now is Phat to turn up and tell us how much money he saved by doing it himself.. :roll: ;)

Would that that were true - it's not. These things bend and snap with *normal* use on completely original, unadjusted, unmolested cars. That part is too weak - plain and simple. You've not had any break yet... You're probably blissfully ignorant of how different a new and an old door handle feel!! LOL :)

The basic problem with the handle design is not the design - it's the choice of materials. The small striker lever which carries the full force of the handle's operation is a casting which bends and ultimately snaps. It would have been better if it had been made out of some good quality plastic even! And the headlight switch is the same - the weak point has a poorly chosen material used for it, they would last much longer if the plastic wasn't so brittle (OR if the weak point wasn't so lamely designed). Anyway, it's not something you can just "replace and forget". I replaced the driver's handle last year, and the headlight switch. There's no guarantee I won't be replacing either of them again next year! But I know it happens, and I can curse the fools at VW that didn't test this crap enough, but ultimately it won't change anything, so I don't worry about it. But it would still be better if it had never happened...

I wouldn't have thought so, Kev, the run-on timer should have killed the power to the fan thermo switch circuit before that could happen. From what I hear about the weirdness of symptoms of dodgy ignition switches this symptom wouldn't surprise me at ALL...

Pain in the butt, if you ask me. I mean, it's not *hard*, just fiddly. There's a couple of threads on changing it, so best bet is to "use the search, luke"..

I've replaced one door handle, and one headlight switch. My heater controls haven't worked since I got the car, and I can't be arsed to fix them, tbh. But you know what I mean - I object to having to think twice about HOW to operate a door handle, just in case I break it! And I think you'll find that no matter how gentle you are with the handles and how much you grease them, they will, one day, break!! :(

Hmm. Begins to sound like the ignition switch, doesn't it?

Do you operate your door handles and heater air controls very hard too? What about your headlight switch? I doubt it. I would agree with you - on the whole, Corrados are strong mechanically, but the unforgiveable aspect of ownership is all these little things that cost an arm and a leg to fix and happen so regularly that it's worth stockpiling the parts! A company the size of VW with it's development budget should NOT have released the car with this little testing of such things as door handles (basic safety equipment in other words).

There's a timer circuit that controls the run-on. There's also a relay (I'm sure I've read this) - it's the big block with fuses in it under the bonnet on the right hand side in a VR. This relay should prevent any run-on functions occurring more than 15 minutes after the ignition was last switched off. You *could* also have a faulty ignition switch, keeping some circuits on while the main engine supply goes off. I dunno, I'm not that hot on car electronics!! :| BTW if you have a very dark coloured car it's quite possible that with the car sitting in the sun the water temp can remain high for some time, but it should cool well below the 86-odd degrees required to switch the fans on pretty quickly once the engine isn't running.

What, a digicam? Nah. A Corrado tho? Yeah! ;)

Yeah, I dislike the pull-to-switch nature of the headlights too. Plus the fact that it's too easy to forget to reset the headlight beam back to "normal" when flashing someone during the daytime.. Plus the fact that the stupid LEDs on the dash all look like they're lit up when you get sunlight shining on them!

You mean when you re-start the car or it just spontaneously come on for no apparent reason??