dr_mat

That is so pants, isn't it? But it's perfectly normal on a Corrado! Allegedly you can do a straight swap for the window controller module from a Passat and it'll do both windows at the same time, but my guess is it's like this for a reason (wiring/fuses/whatever) so probably best to live with it.

Yours is a late VR? four-wire MAF? There's lots of dodgy MAFs out there, but that aren't dodgy enough to cause major problems.. Mine was running just fine for years, smooth and powerful, but with mpg down by just a few points.. turned out to be the MAF - swapped it and I instantly gained 3-4 mpg..

It's the VR6 subframes that are no longer avail..

Could indeed be a contributory factor. But the cause could also be when those pistons are slopping around when the engine is cold cos they plain don't FIT right and you're letting it idle, too! An oil cooler has to be a good idea of course, and no doubt it'll help in some respects, but I dunno whether you'll see much difference in engine wear in your own lifetime (but of course you'll definitely keep your oil in better shape for longer if you do a lot of high speed driving). I have to say I kinda feel like it's "plugging the dam"! :) ; There's plenty of reasons your VR6 will likely cost you a ton of cash, and if you fit an oil cooler there's a slim chance you'll make one or two of them less likely, but there's a strong chance that something else just as expensive will go wrong instead..! :)

I disagree, I think it's far more likely to be a hydraulic problem than the clutch itself.

Well .. it's either going to be the MAF, the ISV or the lambda, since that's the holy triumvirate that controls idle fuelling. My money is on the MAF, even though you've tried two and they were both the same..

It's because all men are autistic. Talking/thinking about cars sure beats communicating with *people*, right? ;) Seriously. If it wasn't cars it would be hifi, or computers, or fishing, or DIY. Anything to distract your mind from having to talk to those other carbon based life forms.

Hmm. I think you have a faulty ABS valve block, a faulty lambda and a perfectly normal alternator... What spec alternator do you have? If your accessories can pull the voltage down so much you might consider getting a higher rated part? When you say "accessories" do you just mean the stuff as supplied from the factory? TBH I can't say I've noticed that the voltage drops much when I let the VR6 idle, but I don't typically put that much electrical load on. Just the headlights if it's dark and that's it really. I can well imagine that if you put the heated seats on, the screen heater, the engine cooling fans, main beam headlights on .. that sort of thing, you're going to be pulling *comfortably* more than the standard 60A alternator can deliver, whatever the revs. AFAIK the ECU considers 8v to be it's threshold. If you're seeing dips into the 11v range, this is not going to phase the ECU.

You can't really tell the difference in damping rates off the car, not easily anyway. OE shocks don't cost much (certainly less than the labour to replace them), so I'd recommend you getting some new ones if you're unsure about your old ones. GSF sell 'em for ~£30 a corner, iirc.

Absolutely true, and I never said they weren't. But late VR6s have OBD2-style hot film MAF and a few other OBD2 features too.

The VR6 came shipped with four gas-over-oil SACHS/BOGE dampers. If your OE ones don't "spring" then they've failed, replace them.

So there are cars out there with coil packs and OBD1 (hot wire) MAFs then?

For a typical car battery to go from fully charged to flat in 3-4 days only requires 600mA current, so that's not hard to believe at all. (The side-lights will draw ~ 2000mA by comparison, so no, it's not something you'd notice at all.) You need to work out which circuit is pulling the current by working your way along the fusebox with a multimeter ..

Sounds more like it's the master or slave clutch cylinders to me. If the clutch had failed you'd either be slipping in-gear all the time or the release bearing would be making nasty noises.

I actually thought the coil pack VRs were much later than that, mid-94 onwards only .. but well I could be wrong.

Use the search luke, done to death ... e.g. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=50627

Yes, because Co2 doesn't cause global temperatures to rise. Co2 levels rise due to rises in global temperature during previous years! I won't be arguing this point with you Doctor as we would be here all week and it's a pointless argument. Oh dear. An armchair scientist.. ;) Well if you can't be persuaded by facts, I won't even bother trying! As it happens, yes, I am a doctor .. but it's really not that important.

It's funny, we have threads like this every year around spring time... I wonder if it's not just the enormous cold start enrichment required for a 6-pot 2.9 in temperatures right down near freezing? Stick the MFA in instantaneous mode (ignition on, press and hold button, ignition off, ignition on again, iirc) and see if it's *really* any different from normal once it's warmed up. The MFA's normal rolling average is taken over a long time, getting on to an hour or so. Also bear in mind that with cold dense air you're getting more performance out of it, and that means.. using more fuel..

Really? All of them? Just because they're eco cars? I don't think so. What you really mean is "I hate eco cars because they're all boring/ugly"... ;) And that thing certainly ticks the "ugly" box...

Not on the VR6, the MFA mpg is computed by the ECU based on injector timings and distance travelled. You either have a faulty ECU or a faulty gearbox sender unit. Does the speedo work?? Though confusingly, our OP's nickname says "VR6" but his signature says "1.8 16v" .. which is it man??!

Hmm, well the VR6 original gearbox mounts were *definitely* hydraulic because they bleed sticky black oil when they go.. A garage replaced mine with a non-hydraulic part without asking me which I preferred and I get noticeably more gearbox whine. Tossers.

The standard gearbox mount on the Corrado is oil filled, which gives it excellent noise damping properties. Even a solid rubber mount will sound louder than the VW one. As always, it's a personal preference - excess noise vs slightly sharper handling, and there's plenty of people here who will call you an idiot for claiming that one mount is "better" than another..

Actually it's a human perception thing - bass is something you feel as much as hear, and if you turn up the volume you *feel* it more, which reinforces your perception that you *hear* it more. So it's pretty automatic: you turn it up you feel that the bass is stronger than it was before relative to the rest of the sound - even though it's NOT actually any louder than the rest of the frequencies being produced. This is why amps often had "loudness" buttons that boosted the frequency extremes - you were meant to hit this button at low volumes to counteract the perceived drop in bass output at low volumes. Of course, people usually just hit the button an leave it on .. As for component priorities.. I can tell you that I was somewhat gobsmacked by how much better an £800 CD player was than a £300 one in my home hifi, so I'm *now* a firm believer in "source first".. I previously used to believe that only the high-current end of the chain needed serious electronics, surely the 200 mV output from a decent mid-range CD player is approximately perfect..!! But no!

Sounds like a fair price if it was done well, yes.

Sounds like weak spark .. typical distributor problem (and since it started happening when you changed distributor chances are that's not a coincidence..)