dr_mat

Try another ECU. It has an output trigger which goes directly to the coilpack to fire that coil - if that dies you will get no spark.

That really sounds like it's water coming out. That definitely doesn't imply a fuelling problem, so tbh I'd be inclined to get it out on the road and see what happens. If it's using butt loads of water you've clearly got a leak somewhere (usually the HG, but could be elsewhere too), but it's also possible it's just burning off and it will dissipate after a while. I've heard that Victor Reinz HGs are the same ones VW use, so I would say poor components is unlikely to be a problem.

Yes it could well be the MAF, but try another one, there's usually a couple up on ebay for not too much. More likely is an air leak post-MAF, pre-lambda, causing the lamdba to read low and the ECU pumps more fuel in. You could also have a stuck/faulty injector or a bad ECU. (Does only one cylinder overfuel?) Bear in mind it's normal for a VR6 to stink and run rich for the first few minutes on a cold start. You need to wait till it's been running for a good ten minutes and the idle has dropped right down to ~650 rpm before making any decisions about how well it's running.

Hmm. Best to keep a little perspective here.. No matter what you do to the suspension and engine on your Corrado, it's still a 15-20 year old chassis design. It's still going to ride poorly and flex like a russian gymnast round the bends..

Yeah, I've been on the track with Civic Type Rs and sure they're a little faster in a straight line when they get spooled up (though the VR eats them for lunch when they're off-cam), and the suspension is a lot tighter and they have SLIGHTLY more grip, but it's not exactly night and day. There's a LOT of sloppy Corrados out there. Mine was one of them, and there's lots of people around here complaining of imperfect steering feel and sloppiness.. They certainly won't compete with that "new car" feel. And TBH even when you renew ALL the suspension components you wind up with a tidy handling car with great steering feel, but the chassis is still nowhere near as rigid as a modern "fast car" - that's where modern cars get their excellent ride and road holding from.

Hmm. £100 for a plastic tube is probably an even worse rip-off than £150 for a carbon fibre one..

Yep, don't kid yourself. The Corrado VR6 is far from the fastest car on the road these days. But that's not the point. People here go on about "soul".. personally I think it's just because the Corrado is a) different enough you don't bump into one every day, and b) it's not SO different that it's impossible to maintain and get bits for.. And it happens to be pretty decent in the performance and handling stakes, even by modern standards. And of course, you can buy one outright for the depreciation cost in the first year of ANY of the cars you mention as alternatives.. ;)

.. a flat battery is almost never a dead battery .. A flat battery that won't charge or that charges but won't hold it is a dead battery .. !

Thank you! :) No idea, I don't know that VW do a lot of business in that part of the world.

Aagh! To make a noun plural you just ADD AN S. No apostrophe please! It makes my brain crawl out through my ears every time I read it! :-\ Corrados get everywhere. US spec Corrado bumpers have lights in the side that look silly..

Yep, min to max on the dipstick is about 1 litre (it says so in the manual.. ;) ). Most VRs get progressively noisier when the oil level drops. You'd tell.

Were you parked on a slope? ;)

Yeah, the ABS rotor is now clearing the sensor and so far staying clear. It does feel good now, and you're right, maybe I won't have to replace any suspension for a year or two .. ;) Re: the steering column - I swear there was play in the top UJ (where the adjustable column tilts). You couldn't detect any of course, off the car, but the feel was drastically improved by replacing it. Of course overall it still wasn't consistent because of the second fault.. but I didn't have that "steering wheel not connected to the suspension" feeling any more.. (which is very different from the lightness and vagueness the bearings caused..)

FWIW all my steering feel/handling issues came down to two problems. One was the bearings, the other was play in the steering column. Everything else I've had replaced over the years was pretty much a waste of cash.

- have vague steering? - seem to have steering that ranges between really light and quite unstable feeling and very heavy and positive? - change it's steering weight based on whether you just accelerated or braked? - always seem to be dragging a bit on the front brakes when you're driving along? - have brakes that scrape more when you're going round corners? - feel like you're steering by committee when you're putting a lot of power down - you're just hanging on and hoping rather than actively directing the car? - weave and bob under heavy braking on uneven surfaces? - occasionally make scraping noises from the front wheels that go away when you take the next corner? - have an ABS rotor that scrapes against the sensor .. but not all the time? - always seems to have better steering feel after the car has been worked on (jacked up)? Having had everything replaced, and I do mean everything, and still having these problems I finally bit the bullet and had the front wheel bearings replaced. Well, wish I'd done it four years ago now when these symptoms first started to show up. Garages have recommended everything from ball joints to tyres to steering rack to track rods, and it's all been replaced, and it did sharpen things up a little, or it stopped some clunking in some circumstances, but nothing fixed the VARIABILITY of the feel to the steering until changing the wheel bearings. It seems they were worn for a long time, but it wasn't really until I started noticing the ABS rotor moving around relative to the strut that I came to the conclusion that there MUST have been play in the bearing. As the only possible explanation I'm relieved to find I was right! (Note that if you have any vagueness and light steering and wandering but it NEVER goes away chances are you have a different problem, or even a simple alignment problem. The bearings moving in and out will cause handling changes but it will constantly vary depending on the forces applied to the wheel, and the moving of the bearings modifies the steering feel a lot because you're changing the wheel offset, effectively.)

Rears are easier to diagnose as being failed.. and I would say dodgy rear bearings feels very different from the subtle and twisted ways in which front bearings can be "failed" .. well .. "worn" would be a better word. Mine never actually failed, but the handling is finally "fixed" having had them replaced.

Everyone on this thread: change your wheel bearings. :)

I ain't a mechanic, my opinion doesn't count so the fact that I've never heard of bearings failing that fast doesn't mean diddly squat. I imagine, however, that's it's possible that there was a manufacturing flaw that caused it to throw the bearing almost immediately, and perhaps it got so hot doing it that it burned out all the grease? I dunno, since I'm not even a trained engineer, this is clearly guesswork. ;) And of course I'd be annoyed if it was my car. That wouldn't make me right tho! :) If you can prove negligence, then I'm 100% behind you forcing the garage to pay for all the repairs, EVEN if they didn't source the parts themselves, but if you can't it's your word against theirs and that's never going to go anywhere is it?

See, this is why so many garages are now refusing to fit parts supplied by the customer! Regardless of the circumstantial evidence suggesting improper installation, it is just that - circumstantial. Reality is there COULD have been a fault in the component you supplied that caused this, but just as they can't prove they fitted it correctly, you can't prove there wasn't a fault in the bearing you supplied in the first place. If, however, you can prove the bearing wasn't greased feel free to explain how.. :) I think you're asking a lot to expect them to cover the whole cost of the stub axles too. Get a used stub axle and ask them to fit it, with a new bearing, for free. I think that's about the most you should expect given that you took the risk of supplying the parts. /me dons flame suit..

You are lucky. My local dealership really couldn't give a crap about parts supply. They seem to only do it because they are required to do so by the franchise agreement. Absolutely strictly no discounts, always pay in advance, they rarely get the order right, and rarely get the bits in on the day they say they will and they NEVER call to let you know ...

You sure there's not two inside the one assembly? That's what I heard. Doesn't matter anyway - that's the reality of it - the pump sits inside a bucket of fuel.

The VR pump is in a bucket.... the 16v is different. Why does everyone forget the proper corrados???? ;) I was talking about the proper 'Rado!! All the others were just to whet your appetite till the VR6 came out! ;)

The main pump actually sits inside a plastic "bucket" which is filled by a small lift pump (though they're both in the same assembly). The small pump is happy to cope with the fuel level outside dropping right down and running dry, that's what it's designed for, at least for short periods of time. The main pump therefore sits in about 1 litre of fuel at ALL TIMES, no matter what the fuel level in your tank. Running the car with low fuel does nothing but risk you running out somewhere embarrassing, on the whole ..

You clearly have not been trying hard enough, seriously. ;) Pile into a corner, do something stupid like stamp on the brakes, and you'll be piling on opposite lock. I've run out of steering rack before now.. Easy to provoke.

You want oversteer? Put nearly bald tyres on the back, go round roundabouts in the wet.. job done.. ;)