dr_mat

The battery warning light is an LED - *surely* the alternator will still charge if it's gone? (And when do LEDs ever go? - when you put 18v through them no doubt.)

Dead On Arrival..

Smells like a DOA alternator to me...

Kev. A 21-year old student runs a Corrado VR6 describing *classic* engine wear symptoms, and registers with the forum on the VERY MORNING of 1st April 2004? Sounds like bait to me! ;)

Bigger drive shafts, innit? Bigger wheel bearings, bigger disks. Suppose they decided the spacing between the studs for 4-stud wheels would be too much.

Hi Holly. Are you real? It *is* april the 1st, and a 21 year old with a Corrado VR6? How's the insurance!!! ;) If you are real, the prognosis sounds iffy - using that much oil and dumping oil on the plugs is Bad with a capital B. I'm sure other people here with more experience will confirm... Matt.

Spares don't work, they're either broken or about to break it honestly doesn't seem worth paying someone £20-30 for a handle that's gonna break in 6 months instead of paying £50 for a brand new one that you *should* have a year or two on. And the people talking had better not mention to my boss that I spend all my life putting comments on this da*mn forum! ;)

Sounds like it's on the way... :( Lube it though, definitely. It can't be adjusted.

Well I'm local enough to get there in under an hour, but I'd hardly say I'd be dropping in for lunch!

Saw no less than FOUR Corrados today. It must be national "haul the buggers out the garage and see if they start" day or somethin.

Hmm, it may be worth giving him a call..! He might even have worked on my car too, so maybe he knows something about it! What's the business go by the name of?

Good call - well worth checking out. It's quite possible adjusting the column at the top simply moves the load that's applied to the joints at the bottom. Clearly VW didn't envisage anyone ever replacing the upper steering column parts, at £537.49 a pop..! By the way, where did you go to find someone knowledgable enough to not just suggest replacing the whole damn car to fix this? And how do you get access to those joints?

I suppose it depends on what it has been set to for the majority of it's life. If it's badly worn in one position, it's not necessarily going to be as worn in another.

Yup, these things run phenomenally rich for two-three minutes on cold starts. 6MPG is not unusual!! It's only once it's up to temp that you can tell.

Soot usually means running rich, doesn't it? Do you do a lot of short journeys?

Shite.. :(

It will - the automatic version will have an interlock in it for the ignition barrel to lock the key in unless the gearbox is in park. It won't make a *huge* difference to the price though, granted..

I suspect the £75 bit was #1 above - the plain old original column, not that adjustable one.

ETKA shows an exploded "steering column" and a single-piece "adjustable steering column". I suspect the latter is only available as a single assembly (and a mega-assembly it is too). Maybe someone can call their friendly local VW place and find out what the status is on that? It's weird that ETKA doesn't list sub-parts for the adjustable column. part number is 535 419 503 E = steering column for height-adjustable steering column It's not clear from the diagram whether this might just be a column, or a whole assembly..

More likely is the rest of your paint is faded/matted and the new stuff is showing it up. Get the rest of the car machine polished to bring it up to the same standards.

Yeah it could cost you a fortune, but TBH so could a "good" one. The big test is: how does it drive? If it feels loose, steers badly, pulls to one side, drags it's brakes, engine sounds course or rattly or is producing smoke, or any of the usual problems, walk away, it'll be expensive. But if it feels tight, quiet, refined, powerful, all the gadgets work properly, all the electrics work, and so on, it might be worth a £2k punt. Best bet is to get it checked out by the AA/RAC or even a local friendly garage. Pay 'em half an hour to crawl over it and make sure it's mechanically all it's supposed to be. If well maintained, there's no reason why these cars can't do 250k miles, and even if not well treated, the basic components are strong, so they *can* be repaired (admittedly at some cost).

In reading...

Funnily enough I had a conversation with a fella who was running Corrado Speedlines on a beemer, so maybe there's some BMW models that *do* share the same fittings. Possibly earlier shape cars only though, it wouldn't surprise me if the newer ones had bigger wheel bolts, just to be awkward.

Particularly as you're only down the road from me... :)

Send it to Kev, not me.. He put me onto that one, tho I'd been steadily coming to the same conclusion... :-\ Yes - the question is - what next? Until I have a better idea about what's involved (parts and labour) for repairing/replacing, I'm just living with the weirdness factor.. Too many repairs coming in in a very short time - timing chains, shocks and Shrek all in one month? No more, thanks!