dr_mat

Most likely it's the tappets or the timing chains.. If it gets worse when you hold the engine at 1200rpm, it's most likely the timing chains (for some resonance reason I presume), but if not, it's most likely the tappets. How bad is it? I mean, really bad tappets will start to cause misfires when cold and stuff. They are never silent, by the way...

I've had 130/135 ish out of my VR, and it showed plenty of signs that there was plenty to come (still accelerating strongly). I ran out of racetrack, however...

How many miles on it? Does the knocking change with revs? You've checked the belt then? You've checked your engine mounts?

Correct - the arm that is listed as "passenger side" won't lift correctly. Well, maybe it will clear the bonnet, but only if it's not lying flat across the bottom of the screen. The elbow at the base is much smaller, and as a result it is just slightly too close to the bonnet.. Don't forget, these cars are all hand built, it wouldn't surprise me if Chris Corrado's blades worked fine, maybe his wiper mounting points are in slightly different places? It'd only take a few mm, tbh. As far as I can tell, the best result would come from 2* driver's side ARMS, and 1 each of the BLADES. It's up to you... :)

Ah, ok. VAG-COM is the engine diagnostic software that can read out any error codes from the engine controller unit. The dealers will all have one (or equivalent), and VW specialists will most likely have one aswell. You can buy it yourself for not much cash (particularly given the exchange rate against the dollar now) - around £120 I think, but checking this is pretty much the first step with a VR6 engine that's not behaving right. If you've a dead sensor it'll show up.

Plug it into VAG-COM, or VAG 1551 diags. There could be a million things otherwise...

Yeah, it's part of it's normal self-test. It means it's working!! If it doesn't make this noise it's probably going to light that annoying orange lamp at some point, and you're probably going to have to fork out for some bits!!

Yeah, was gonna say, the ABS system does one final self-check of all the control valves at 7mph after the first turn of the wheels happens. This feels a bit funny on the pedals and through the car sometimes.

You won't have to pay again - they didn't do it right 1st time, surely! Castor angle out by 50% on one side?? Sort it out!

I think it's only the VR6 where you can move the bottom ball joint around, isn't it? Or is that coming right out my @r5e? The three screws there are your prime adjustment point for all but the toe angle.. I have heard that most earlier cars had the ball joint in a fixed position relative to the wishbone..

The only way to adjust the castor angle is to move the bottom ball joint fore and aft within it's housing, but there's really VERY little movement there, from what I can see. Camber is adjusted by moving the bottom ball joint in/out relative to the mounting holes in the wishbone. (And also to a lesser degree by the position of the strut bolts holding the bearing holder onto the bottom of the shock strut.) Once you've got this lot right, you should adjust the tracking (toe) using the track rod ends, remembering that the VW suspension is designed such that one track rod end is an exact, specific length, and only adjusting the other one. Hey, isn't it amazing what I learned from reading the Corrado Forum?? ;)

It's a later 12vvr6, phat. They all had single chains from about 1997 onwards, so I've been told.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1264409 Believe me, if you can't do it following this guide, you're a true muppet!! (Like me!)

More accurate to say "there's an RAC van behind every Corrado". They come as standard fit with VWs now. Even the sporty VWs have them, they just fit a 2.0 turbo diesel in the RAC van, and he follows you around the country at a discrete distance...

There's already an excellent step-by-step write up over on the vwvortex 12v VR6 forum. Ok, it was specifically for the late single chains, but it's still a brilliant write up. Wouldn't want you to spend a load of time reinventing the wheel, Phat..

Read the badge on the back - if it's been thrashed it'll say "Corrado"... Seriously though, you can only tell by driving it, and checking the usual things - listen to the engine, look for smoke (blue or black), feel the steering (is it nicely weighted and precise) etc etc. As a general rule, assume thrashage unless you can prove otherwise!

Yeah, the upper tensioner is tensioned by a hydraulic bolt, big fat bugger on the back of the tensioner housing. I'd guess it's quite feasible for it to become blocked and to fail to operate correctly, but I'd say if that's happening then it's a bad sign - what does that say about the state of the rest of the engine? I'm learning quickly that anything that goes on all Corrados will have gone on mine, no point in worrying about it, just fork out the dosh and pick it up when it's done...

I'm not sure, Kev. I talked to Vince about it, and he wasn't keen, cos he's never tried it before. He can't think of a reason why it *won't* work, but is a little reluctant to try it out. As pointed out, even fitting the original (stupid) tensioner will give ya another 80-120k miles of life before it needs doing again, and tbh I suspect the rest of the engine will be a gonner before that happens. You starting to wonder if your chains are "doing a corrado" then, kev? :(

We've heard about your "standard" 2.0 16v before, Chris. We've still not seen any pics of the "standard" 2.0 16v engine under that bonnet tho... ;)

Why should it hit the redline? A car only hits the redline in top gear if it's massively undergeared... (Or massively overpowered) (Or on a rolling road... Or going down a REALLY steep hill...)

No, *getting* a Corrado is the time at which point it is TOO LATE to START saving!!!

The estimate of 5-6 hours for timing chains is only applicable if you're talking to someone like stealth who know how to do it. The "book" figure from Bentley etc is 8.5 hours +, so expect a bill of around a grand if VW do it!! The later 12V vr6 engines definitely use a better designed upper tensioner - as Kev says, it's solid plastic and all reports I've heard are that it last much longer than the early design. (It's also spring-loaded, not oil pressure loaded, so that can be seen to be an advantage too - no cold starts with loose chains..). It's exactly the same size/shape as the earlier tensioner, so it should be interchangeable with the early design, even if you stick with the early dual-chain setup. That said, this is all academic, since you don't have a Corrado yet! :)

A "bit" of chain clatter can be interpreted as "start saving", a "lot" of chain clatter can be interpreted as "take out a loan and get it done NOW"..

Yep, the prices are out of date, and they cut the article down to fit the nanosecond they had left. Marvelous. Better than nuffink tho I suppose...

(I meant to say "yawn")