dr_mat

Plastic engine?? Ah well, that's gonna be a flash in the pan, ain't it? Just like the porcelain engine! (No need for a coolant system..) And yes, the low torque improvement you mention for the Golf TB is lost higher up the rev range, of course. The 2.8, Golf VR6 produces what 176bhp and 175lbft, whereas the 2.9 VR6 (which is only 0.06 litres larger) produces an extra 14bhp.. That has to come from somewhere!! It certainly doesn't come from 0.06 litres of cubic capacity. Clearly it comes from engine tune at high revs.

I did some back-of-an-envelope maths a while back that said you needed to get wheels that were around (old diameter) / (new diameter) lighter in order to NOT feel a drop in acceleration from the car. I can't comment on handling and ride, cos I've never fiddled about with it, but most people find the ride is rougher, and the handling is not so "well balanced" either. YMMV. If performance is your aim, use the smallest wheels you can get your brake disks/calipers into, is the best advice. Stock VR6/G60 brakes that means 15". All that said, 16" isn't much of a difference from 15", so you might not notice. See if you can find someone with similar and try it out! :) My 2p. ;)

Plastic??? The big question I suppose, is does it do the 2-path system that the VSR does? I've heard you can take an off the shelf early Golf VR6 manifold and fit it on the corrado. That, along with the golf throttle body gives you the torquey, but relatively lower-powered feel of that engine. But critically it's not a VSR - it's a fixed manifold, giving improvements only at a single rev range... Interesting concept tho..

I like the phrase "+ fitting" above. Particularly in cases like the head gasket the + fitting should be listed first... It's all great to say "do it yourself". I'd love to.. But then I'd have to rent a garage. Which is at least £35 a week round here (car repairs on the street?). Then I'd have to buy all those tools I don't have. Then I'd have to learn all those things I don't know... Could take some time!! When I have a house big enough to at least have a driveway I'm prepared to get my hands dirty...

Mine sits at 95-105 mostly. 112 on motorways. I'll let you know what it reaches on a trackday! :)

That fuel thing's interesting - didn't know that. Cheers! :)

By the way - in Japan it's not difficult to get hold of 102 octane fuel.. Many of the japanese "supercars" require it...

Yes, like I say, UK spec fuel is either 95 or 98 octane. There's NOTHING lower than this. The 2.9 VR6 handbook says you *should* use 98, but that it will run "ok" on 95. It's "not recommended" however, and you're strongly advised to use at least 25% 98 octane... So - you'd probably find it's ok, just about, on 94 octane, but you might find that you get pretty crap performance and bad pinking unless you add some octane booster all the time.

The UK-spec 2.9 litre VR engine: a) would never meet US emissions regs (at the time, so now it would be much worse) and b) would never run without pinking to death on US low octane-rated fuels (the "good stuff" is often only 92 Octane in smaller towns - the 2.8 runs best on 95 and can run on lower Octanes acceptably)... Hence the difference, as far as I can see.

Same here. But it used to be on the front wheel, and it was noticeable then, believe me. Also, in fact, it takes a while before the tyre takes the shape when you fit new tyres.. I swapped front rear a while ago, at the same time as getting new tyres (now on the rear wheels). Next new tyres will go on the fronts.

Meanwhile my central locking doesn't, if I use the internal driver's door "button" to lock it. The guidebook says it should, and I'm sure it used to before I had the handle replaced... Sorry, that's no help for you, but.. One thing that I have heard, however, is that the central locking can get "out of sync". Have a dig around on the forum about this, I can't remember any details.

I seem to remember saying exactly the same thing in my posting to http://www.peachorlemon.co.uk!! Oi, I copyrighted that!! ;)

Reason I mention it is I have a dented wheel, which was killing the high speed handling (it's only a tiny tiny dent- the rim deflects by less than 3mm when you spin the wheel!!). I'm waiting for Rams to flog me his spare speedline!!!

According to the VW booklet with my car, the VR6 weighs 1210 kg. Which is only 35 kg more than the 2.0 16v... i.e. half a tank of petrol difference, or the weight of a small person... If the above figure is correct, the VR is exacly 50kg heavier than the G60. So a six-pot and 30bhp seems to be quite a trade-off for 50kg... :) In my experience the VR only feels nose-heavy when under deceleration. If you're using the huge torque of the engine to pull the thing round a corner it feels anything *but* nose heavy. Of course, if you're on the brakes or completely off the throttle there's no disguising the fact that there's about 750kg on the front axle...

Having just checked more closely the engine, I'm confident that the oil *isn't* coming from the head gasket. Yes the head gasket appears to be seeping slightly, but the oil resiude from that doesn't extend very far up or down the engine block. Certainly there doesn't appear to be anything *like* enough oil there to make the mess that's underneath. Which brings me back to earth. (Don't wanna have to take the head off!! £££££££ :? ) So I'll go back to plan a - pressure wash the rear engine mount and the sump area and make see if I can find out roughly where it's coming from. Cheers all! Matt.

Well as much as I can without being able to get under the car and look around the damn thing, yes... I'll drag it into a local garage soon. Might blast the lower bits with a pressure wash this weekend if I get chance. At least that way I'll see any fresh stuff, and maybe where it's come from.

There's an idea... I'm generally nervous about spraying high pressure water at electronically subtle components, but since the engine bay survived a hose burst a while back I'm sure it'll be on this time too... I kinda wish I had a coupla ramps and a driveway... Can't get my head under the fecking car cos it's so low... (And it's not lowered either...) Cheers all! :)

Hmm. Ok. I dunno what it is, honestly. I mean there's only a few places it *could* come from. Engine mounts, OR engine!! The engine oil level isn't going down noticeably (except when I cane it.. ;) ) and there's too much "wet" oil down there to be oil that came out when they did the service, so it must be fresh. And yet, it's quite dark oil, looks very old, so that seems to rule out the engine oil, but... I'm confused!!! Where the h@ll is it coming from??!! :? :?: :!: :?:

One possibility that has been pointed out to me is the engine mount contributing to this mess. Can anyone remember if the rear engine mount on the VR has oil-filled ..er.. mounts..? The whole mount running across the car has oily residues on it, along with the anti-roll bar behind it, and the transmission axle slightly above it. There's obviously "wet" oil along the back lower edge of the mount, and this appears to be where the oil drips from onto the ground occasionally. I can believe that the sump gasket might have simply "wicked" (as in candle) this oil around to the front of the engine too by capillary action..!! I was going to call my local VW specialist and have a natter about this, but it seems they've closed down for the week!!

Got any buckled/dented wheels? Have you had them balanced recently? This can also make nasty nasty things happen when you're braking, including causing uneven wear to your brake disks, resulting in even more excessive vibration.

And anyone who's ever driven a nice smooth V6 will tell you it's not so much about the power, it's the sheer class.. :) None of that nasty four-pot vibration and noise!! ;) I'd never deny that it's cheaper to get more power from a G60 than to get more power from a VR6.. But since I'm not going down that route anyway, I really don't care too much.

There is no schedule for timing chain replacement. The only people who have it done, do it for their own peace of mind, or because that end of the engine is coming off anyway, so they may as well get those bits replaced at the same time.

I would second the above. I spend what I consider to be a small fortune on my VR6. I'm not sure that I've been terribly unlucky, compared to some stories you see on here, but I'm spending upwards of £1000 a year maintaining this car. I have to pay garages to do everything too, which means it costs me more than some people on here, but it's still worth it, when it's all going well... :) When it's not you get an almighty sinking feeling in your stomach, wondering just how much it's going to cost this time.... :(

Oil pumps very rarely pack up. Almost never. You'd know about it if the oil pump packed up... You could have a *water* pump problem tho.. Or a loose spark plug. That happened to me once. Still, I'd get it checked ASAP.

Hi, On my weekly pilgrimage under the bonnet of the VR6 tonight, I took a closer look at the bottom end of the engine, cos I've noticed for a while now that there seems to be quite a bit of oil residue, and it's permanently "wet" oil down there too. I dunno if my eyes are deceiving me, but it certainly looks as if the sump gasket is seeping, pretty much all around the engine. I'm not overly worried about the oil consumption on the car, so it's not a big deal, I don't think, but I was hoping to get a few opinions on whether it's something to worry about - i.e. will it be okay for a while, or does it potentially mean I have more serious problems I don't yet know about? Just checked on GSF and a sump gasket is only £16, but I'm betting it's not trivial to fit, so it's gonna be a bar steward, just like everything else on the VR6 engine.. :( Any opinions on this appreciated. Is it unusual? The engine has 113k on it.. What's the gasket made out of? I presume it's not under pressure..? Is it worth getting anything else sorted out at the same time if I'm gonna get it replaced? And the big question: how many more bits do I have to replace on this car??? Answers on a postcard please.... ;) Cheers, Matt.