dr_mat

There is an "uninsured loss" system in place, but to be perfectly honest I know almost nothing about how it works. There's more and more of this kind of stuff going on now, I think. My car was smacked up pretty hard in my street one weekend. No sign of a note, or anything left on the vehicle. :( I too decided to pay rather than take the hit on insurance. :( :( As pointed out above, there's a curious little law in the UK that makes it a crime to NOT stop and report an accident. In no other circumstances is it a legal requirement to incriminate yourself in this way. For example, it's not a crime to fail to report killing someone, but it *is* a crime to fail to report denting a car in a car park. (Clearly the killing someone bit *is* a crime, but you get my point..) Strange but true. The big problem here is no doubt if you did catch up with the other driver he'd probably have been drunk (and therefore by implication uninsured), or the car had been stolen (same situation). There's too many people on the roads with no insurance... :(

Jeez, it must have taken you a while to get down to the point from which you could take that picture... My bad, I was under the impression the oil/spring tensioning was the other way around. Still, on the whole they're very reliable. (Says Matt crossing his fingers..) :)

Totally agree. The majority of cabin vibration comes from the rear end of an average Corrado. It's not worth making that end any stiffer.. My OE bushes were replaced after 110k miles, so it's not like you'll be doing then every other year.. It's not worth skimping on suspension components on a car that handles this well in it's basic form. (Ref my earlier comment about cheap petrol!) If you're not lowering it, get OE suspension. The labour far outweighs the cost of the parts anyway. :)

Big difference.. The VR6 would have been much longer lived with a VSR - it wouldn't encourage you to rev it so much. Most Vauxhall engines don't encourage revving, and are much more torquey low down, so you just don't have to... AND the VR6 has to deal with just ridiculous amounts of heat dissipation, under that small bonnet.. That said, there's a lot of people here who tend to rebuild their engines when 90% of people either wouldn't notice, or wouldn't bother, even if they knew. My 150k mile Cavalier used to burn a little bit of oil, and used to produce a tiny bit of dirty smoke on heavy acceleration, but I never even considered the concept of getting the head rebuilt. It was a disposable car, so the thought of pulling the head apart is just ridiculous. Your VR6 is not so disposable - it's worth a lot more, for a start. I hope this post makes SOME sense at all, cos I don't think it does.. Anyway, Onwards and upwards..

Hi all, I think I have the archetypal VR6 belt tensioner failing. It was making an almighty racket the other day, I tell you...! :( Anyway, anyone know what these cost new or even better if someone has a low mileage example kicking about unwanted...? Is it easy to fit? Cheers, Matt.

That's not a Corrado. It's "some other car". ;)

It almost prevents me from being constantly pi*ssed off with the repair bills, reading something like that... :? This week's several hundred quid will be rear caliper replacement and tracking adjustment. Again. Anyone have any clues why the tracking might go out once every three months?? :( Next week it'll be the exhaust. :shock: :shock:

Wait till the repair bills start stacking up. You'll have no time or money left for breaking the speed limit... ;)

Personally I'd like an overdrive in my VR. I don't think I'd want to stretch the lower ratios any further, but I'd like a ratio that drops me to below 3k rpm at 90 for cruising in... :) Lets face it, if the VR had been the car the designers intended, it would have shipped with a VSR, and you'd only need 2nd and 5th, due to the torque band being wider than a opera singer's a*** after a week on the cream buns. ****edit****swearing-vr6storm :wink:

Actually I believe the cam chain tensioners are oil-pressure driven (or at least, the lower chain tensioners are). This way when the engine is ticking over and you have low oil pressure, the chain is slack, and when the engine is under load the chain is held tightly in place due to the higher oil pressure. Abuse of the engine with cold, thick oil will prematurely wear these things, the oil pressures can get VERY high when cold. But the general consensus on the cam chains is don't change them unless you're certain there's a problem, OR you're having that end of the engine (actually the gearbox) off for some other reason, in which case the extra parts + labour to do the chains isn't much. Apparently... :)

It's cos they're hand-made, and were designed with limited budget for a short production run. That's life. Try running a "proper" sports car, it's much worse... LOTUS = Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious TVR = Terribly Variable Reliability The water leak sounds a bit worrying. Tho if you think it *is* the gasket, you can always get it done at the same time as the valve stem seals etc etc.

Grrr batteries grrr... How come it took me two HOURS to find replacement batteries??! On finding a multimeter (ok, buying one), it seems my old battery pack was pushing 4.8V. It's supposed to be 7.2V :!: :!: Replaced it, finally, and bingo, it works fine! :) Thank god my employer doesn't penalise me for crap like this. Off to work we go!! Just the three hours late.. Cheers, M.

Yes, it ANNOYS me on a regular basis. I mean, it's not like I treat it rough or anything... :? Still can't find any bloody batteries... :( M.

Of course the car won't unlock this morning. That would be too much to ask. Now, I'm going on a mission to try and find a replacement battery for the remote, but in the meantime, does anyone have a clue where the receiver and aerial are for the stock late model Corrado ('95) VW alarm/immobiliser system? (Or at least that's what I *think* it's got.) Maybe if I can get close enough..... :!: Irritation factor extreme. At least I don't live in the middle of nowhere...! TIA, Matt.

But you'll get £30 back when you return your old one, it's a surcharge. They recondition your old one and sell it on. M. :)

Hi! The starter motor will set you back, dunno how much from VW, but you can get a recon unit from GSF (http://www.gsfcarparts.com) for around £100. And that's for a Bosch, so it's OEM and good quality. Not sure about the other problem, it could be one of millions of things. Some kind of engine sensor, dodgy vacuum hoses, electrical problems, the works. Cheers, Matt.

That's why I bought a set of tinted lights and kept my originals, just in case. I'm crossing my fingers that they're not too red, but I can swap to the originals in 5 minutes for the MOT as necessary. ;)

I got some off ebay. Very happy with the look. No sign of adverse plod attention just yet. We'll see tho... :)

The joy of owning a VR6 is you'd need to be a bloody contortionist to be able to smack the starter motor with a hammer in the first place!!! ;)

You should take it to a garage. Even if they don't actually *do* anything to it, all Corrados respond well to being looked at by a mechanic. Mine always purrs sweetly and drives like a dream on the way to/from the garage. It's only a week or two later it starts to feel like it's back to it's old self... ;) ;)

FWIW (I always like closure when I start a story), an update: I hauled the beast into the garage today, and the problem has been traced to: the oil cooler seals. Hey ho, notch up another one to the "common corrado problems" list. I also discovered I need TWO new rear calipers due to the infamous sticky handbrake mechanism design. And I definitely need a new exhaust. Both these I already knew... :( Time to start saving...! :shock:

If Corrados didn't exist.... ... I'd have a new hifi, TV and possibly a sofa by now...! Or a boring Alfa 147 GTA. :) :)

Like what? Any ideas what symptoms we should look out for?

You wouldn't buy a £10k hifi and play the new Westlife CD would ya???? So don't put crap petrol in your sports car!!! ;)

Also note that (on mine at least) the gauge is VERY dependant on whether you're facing uphill or downhill. In fact it tends to plummet when accelerating and fill up again when braking.