Bruno

did you do anything about this? I find it interesting that we all have a missing switch on the dash, right next to the fog switches.... could be useful to alter and run a heated screen. If you were to make enquiries I'd be up for this.

You need to look at this link. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=68720&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=cooling+the+definitive+thread If you still have problems then come back. Almost all VR6 owners are veterans at cooling problems with the VR.

Its been a slow process, but from what I can work out: 1. The only place for fitting the extra vacuum domes is behind the n/s wing. There seems to be a vent from the cockpit which allows those pipes to get through. 2. In 1995/6 quite a few Storms were issued complete with headlamp washers and cruise control. As far as I can see (from EKTA) their pedal assembly was the same as the Passat, but I cant be sure. 3. All Corrados (inc the Japanese ones) used a vacuum actuator system for the cruise control. US and other LHD Corrados had a simple, well designed accelerator pedal which came with an eye for the cruise control rod to be added so it could sense movement of the accelerator. However the baseline accelerator lever on a UK 'rado didnt come with the eye. I therefore wonder whether the final Storm versions (not all storms had them) used the 1993/4 Passat pedal. 4. Golfs in the UK (Mk III onwards) had a similar layout to 'rados except that their pedal assembly did provide the extra eye for the cruise control rod, but unfortunately it does not fit a 'rado. BigPants? You've probably seen lots of these. Suggestions?

Kev, I've found an easy, but not too expensive way of handling that. When I last changed my cables (oh isnt it fun!) I put some dielectric grease on the cogs, and sprayed silicon fluid on the pivots, then dried the interiors of the exchange housing up with a cloth so there wasnt any spillage to attack me on full blow. Its been stable for the last 104K miles. Just the switch on the heater control that goes, due to the switching current involved with an aircon I suppose.

I've seen that as well. Its really not. Cruise controls which are type approved are entirely legal. Whats important is that the insurance co knows, and that the idiot who thinks its an excuse for more premiums is read the riot act. The Mk4 and Mk5 are fly by wire based systems, essentially plug and play, not much needed in the way of skill to install. Surely someone has a Storm with the cruise system fitted. I've seen old threads of G60 owners with them fitted. Could someone help me out please?

I need information from someone who either knows how the cruise control system works on our cars, or who has a late Storm (with all the frills) or a G60 which had it fitted as an option. It was offered as an option in the UK, from 1991 at least. My first two 'rado's had a cruise system fitted. I'm trying to retrofit a cruise control unit into my third 'rado, a VR6, however I'm stumped on two things: 1. There is a vacuum actuator rod which supposedly bolts onto the top of the throttle pedal, but I cant work out where. The bentley pics are based upon a US layout - where it is meant to bolt into a dedicated eye thats provided at the top of the throttle pedal assembly. On UK cars the pedal doesnt control the throttle directly, instead a set of cantilevers transfer the hooking point of the throttle cable to a point closer to the centreline of the car. If you have a cruise control, where is your actuator fitted? 2. A vacuum line then runs from the actuation unit on the pedals into the wing. In the US its the drivers wing. But on looking there doesnt seem to be a port running between the o/S wing and the cockpit to allow cables and pipes to be routed through to there. So.... if you have a cruise control, does your vacuum pipe run to the nearside wing, or the offside wing?

I'm genuinely amazed. What was the year of the passat, and your 'rado? I actually tried this with a 95 Passat on my 94 'rado, and had to give up. The centre box was simply not transferrable, the controls fouled the tunnel. I had to give up.

Ok. I'll work on the idea in Feb and March and come back.

It can be done. Its much easier if you have a LHD Corrado, as the parts swap with a LHD Golf III is pretty straightforward in that version of the car- - If you do, then start with a wrecked Golf III that has climatronic with an unblemished behind-the-dash, rip out the centre air box, complete with its loom, the sensors, and control relays. Once the backroom stuff has been done, which takes a long weekend, in small steps to do, you need to get an alternative truly rectangular climatronic head to use instead of the curvy Golf III one. - If you have RHD, its pretty much the same job, make sure its a RHD Golf III but make sure you label everything as you take it off the old car. things route differently between the two cars. Make sure that its a late Golf III as the early ones had a hybrid of vacuum controls and electric controls. - The Passat main airbox is not the same, dont even try to scavenge it if you have a RHD car. if yours is LHD, it can be done after a lot of messing and modification. You also need to locate the light and temp sensors which are stuck at various points on the dash, and behind the airvents, and bring those across. It is a lot of work. Its been done 4 times that I know of, but nobody, sadly nobody has done it by leaving a step by step photographed record. If you do get anybody to document it, do let me know.

This is a punt for now. I have a late Corrado VR6 with the rotary type heater and blower controls, the ones which keep breaking down. I also have airconditioning, which places a huge load upon the loom, and the blower switch. So my switch breaks down more often than other corrados. Like most of us, I've had to replace my controls three times already; a new one now costs more than a hundred quid, second hand Passat ones are getting scarse, the SEAT one is more common but equally unreliable, the golf ones are designed for 3 speeds, not four. VW's prices for these largely plastic controls are outrageous. There could be a long term solution for us all which I am trying to sort out. I'd be interested to know if you want to be part of this. (1) I'm going to replace the UK Corrado layout with the US/European layout. Not as simple as it seems, cos longer control cables have to be installed, but for anybody who's had the dash off, its really not that difficult. We could, if we switched over, have access to the more widely used and cheaper for the LHD control system. (2) I have found a source a OEM originated, and just as reliable, LHD based heater controls. And I've found someone who can work with my source to offer produce an exchange service for the heater control assembly and switch. It may be around £60 for a fully repaired system (literally as good as new), maybe less. (3) I'm designing a relay cluster to fits on the metal plate at the bottom behind the centre dash unit (out of sight) and which will take over the task of handling the large currents used to manage the blower. By taking off the load from the switch, I reckon we could triple the lifespan of the controls, and double the lifespan of the blower resistor. I'm going to do this anyway for own car. Where (1) and (3) are concerned might prepare a guide to doing it if there is enough interest. However if lots are interested it might be worth try to arrange a bulk deal for (2) and (3) eg. for upto 50 cars at a time. Do let me know if you are interested, if I get the logistics sorted out, we may all benefit. I'll keep everybody posted.

Unless someone in the forum has an old one thats running spare, Diavia kits always were as rare as hens teeth. If you know someone who has a Golf III with aircon (RHD), it may be possible to shoehorn that one into a Corrado, I havent done it, but I know it has been done. Some say that a hybrid of Golf IV system has been tried. If Guy still has his 'Rado, he may be able to offer some suggestions. Whatever you do it takes research. Try Keith at ACE in Chertsey. His number can be found if you search this forum. Dont try and buy an american or European spec aircon unit and hope it will fit in a RHD drive car. It doesnt. Good luck.

There are three sensors in the thermostat housing (by the coil) which drive a lot of the cooling logic in the car. The rightmost sensor drives a relay which determines when the clutch kicks in. One way of testing whether the secondary relay works is to press the boost or Max button on your dash. If that fails then you need to trace the circuit in the engine bay (the Diavia relays should be near the fan relay, by the coolant bottle), check the fuses and make sure that each relay responds to its actuation signal appropriately. That means that your thermistor pack works (mostly). Use a multimeter to test the resistors on the thermistor pack for continuity. If one of them is open circuit, then you need to replace the relevant resistor. More likely is the case that the copper track resting point for speed 3 on your speed control unit is oxidised, or that the contacts for the loom plug in the back of the heater control unit at the dash is oxidised (the copper track gets very hot and can cook the plug and its poly socket. Stick some switch cleaner on it, it might help. Failing that, and as long as you are sure the resistor pack works, then you need to buy a new heater control unit, or get one second had (modified) from a Passat 35i. Keith in Chertsey, an aircon specialist, found that one of the VW vans had a blower that was almost the right size and would work. MPStorm You need to look through the forum threads on aircon, and you'll find his number. Do you live near London? If so, then save up about £200, contact Keith and get these final bits done. Dont forget to source a good second hand heater control unit. Good luck.

I presume this is the dash blower you are talking about, not the aircon pump in the engine bay. If so, the answer is no. The blower is part of the normal non-pressurised air circuit. - Remove the glove box; it makes sense later. - Remove the passenger shelf, - If needs be, remove the passenger seat (it gives you lots more room to manouvre). - unplug the power leads to the motor on the blower. - trace the self tapping screws that hold the "snail" housing with the motor to the dash airducting. - slowly and carefully remove the thing. DONT bend, dont break the fan itself. Test it on its own. Usually the bearings have gone. They cant be replaced without a complete motor swap. If its the italian one they have a web site, you can order one. If its the french one, then you have to get the motor from the Stealers. . The wheezing sound relates to two poss things (i) the dryer at the front of the condenser is knackered. If it was exposed to normal air during the plumbing it must be replaced. (ii) the thermostat (trace the bulb and copper tube) is stuck in a place which causes it to sense the carpet, not the heater exchange temp. In other words wheezing should have nothing to do with the blower. But taking out the parcel shelf and tracing pipes and cables will help to understand if the thermostat is sited in the wrong place. PM me if you need more data

Congrats Andy. I'd be interested to see how you got around the difference in shelf sizes between the o/s and n/s areas for routing the pipes. Mine were routed through the n/s shelf and it totally mucks up everything else. One thing, do make sure that the ABS pump cables go nowhere near the aicon rubber pipes. I've found after 5 years of it that the pipes chill the ABS wiring to the ABS brain so much that frost forms, condenses, runs as water along the ABS brain's cable by capillary action. Once the sheathing is soaking, it then acts as a water pump which then knackers the ABS brain.

I've lived with 4 now and owned 3, right across the range. My first two were the first UK 16v and the first UK G60, both had to be specifically ordered with the armrest. It was the same for all cars until 1993: the centre-rest was available as an option, not as a baseline package. However most dealers were advised by VAG to include it in their ready to drive cars sold from the showroom.

Andy, the Valeo one is an original VW housing, the SPAL one is much, much more powerful and breaks down in 5 years, and is the one that should come with the Diavia. A few people replace the SPAL head by removing the rivets on the SPAL housing clamp and screwing a motor for one of the vans (cant remember which, but I can supply the part no if necessary). The original corrado blower motor is too weeny to handle the aircon so forget that. If you have a VR6 engine dont bother about the idle speed reference, its a complete waste of time, however if you have a 4 cylinder thats very different. One needs to take a tap off the ECU. Its mentioned in the wiring diagram. By now you should have bolted down the condensor to the rad. Both pipes route round the n/s, go round the corner and run round the back of the cross member to either feed the pump (strapped to the cable harness plate thats next to the oil filter ( to stop it fouling the fan housing)0 or routed back, under the battery clamp extension plate (this overhangs on the front o/s part of the battery) runs under it back to the bulkhead. The a/c relay assy bolts to the side of the fan relay. And if you got all the bits you have to fit the a/c sensor to the third thermal sensor hole by the thermostat housing. Let me know how you get on. PM me if needed and I'll send you my home no.

Andy I've got a diavia set up on my VR6. I'm too busy with other chores to take photos of the bay (it involves removing the slam panel and rad to get the shots right, but if you em me, I can walk you through the layout that I've got and also altert you to some of the problems you may have.

It really is dead simple. There are three symptoms: 1. The pedal is soggy. This could however originate from anywhere in the system, and will not go away until the relevant device is sorted. Often its the master, but you need more information than just this. 2. The master cylinder reservoir has mucky fluid. This means that it has allowed rubbish to back up the system and thats a sure sign that the rubbers have gone. But its also a sure sign that rubbers elsewhere have gone too because the muck had to get in somewhere. 3. When you pump the pedal vigorously, you will see a small stream of bubbles come up the reservoir to the surface. Thats the final nail in the coffin. If you have ABS DO NOT change the master cylinder unless you have depressurised the car. ABS system pressures are phenomenal. Turn off ignition, disconnect battery and pump the pedal until it doesnt change anymore. This dissipates the energy.

Assuming you can clear all of the individual wheels, there is a problem that affects older corrados, and thats the loom getting wet, capillary action pulls water into the passenger compartment and then drips into the ABS brain which on a wet day, or when the engine compartment gets wet, shorts out, turns on the warning light and goes awol. How to check? Go to the passenger footwell, and remove the ABS brain cover. Its the large square lump at the bottom just by the door hinge. Two philips screws are removed, plus the finishing plug on the panel and the cover can be slid off with the shelf still in place. When u see the ABS brain, pop the plug and get a torch, shine it down. If you see green/white wet corrosion, spray the area with silicon oil, allow it to dry. Then go back to the ABS pump (engine bay, it has 6-8 brake pipes coming off it), find the other end of that cable, and spray WD40 over it. Let it dry, do it again 3-4 times over 2-3 days. Put everything back. Disconnect the battery and reconnect after 10 mins. Start the engine, warm it up, test the brakes with a stationary car and then carry on as normal. It may light up twice after this, but thats just old water evaporating, once thats gone you should be fine. All of this assumes that your other sensors were fine. Check them first.

Roger it depends on if you know someone who has access to a lathe. After listening to loads of silly ideas, an old geezer said "skim the discs flat". He put them on his lathe and we spun them up, I sat there for about an hour with wet'n'dry and a block, and slowly took off all the inner bumps, then matted it all up. Then replaced the pads again (else they would have created the same undulations within 3000 miles). No problems for 80K miles since then. Hope this helps.

Yes there is. Go to halfords. They do one, for less than £20. Its worth every penny and it saves oodles of time in changing pads. No butchering, no swearing, and its dead easy.

In theory according to the EKTA CD there is such a beast for the 'C', just like the one on the MK3. I've asked around tho and nobody owns up to having done it. If you do try it, you must also obtain the wiring loom from that MK3 - it should just link up to the Diavia spur - because Diavia's switch uses exactly the same spacing and sequence, even their plug fits correctly into the original VW switch. Unfortunately I had to make my plug up with lucar minatures all wired up, and then bonded them together - so that I could still unplug the switch, but prevent the odds of the wires getting confused if I took apart the dash. Each Diavia kit comes with a wiring diagram. Make sure they give it to you. It makes a helluva difference.

Diavia. I stopped them from fitting the standard Diavia switch and got them to use the switch that goes under the fan/heater controls, in a space just above the cigar lighter. That way nobody moved my original switches. It took some work but they eventually fitted it in and it looks fine. Part numbers are: 535 959 543 (correct aircon switch), 535 863 284B (replacement cover for the cigar lighter holder that enables the switch to be fitted. You may have to move your heater controls to the left hand drive version but frankly they are more reliable and fit better than the original RHD set, and the cover panel comes with the words "air condiitioned". The issue about where to put your controls does bear some thinking. The factory policy was: - headlamp switch and headlamp motor control unit by the drivers door, just under the edge vent; - on the other side- from top to bottom: ABS lamp; fog lamps switches; heated window/mirror switch; heated seats control. Now if all of that space was loaded with switches, the place for the aircon control switch is just above the cigar lighter (yep, pull its cover out and you'll see a hole- another switch fits in there!). The Diavia one is sort of OK - thats the one in the photo in this thread, but it breaks down after 2 years, ish... is a pain to replace, and only fits in the main switch holes. Make sure that the install the bridging lead to the engine brain so that the engine doesnt struggle everytime the aircon relay kicks in. Normally it doesnt, but when the lights are on, the wipers on, fogs, radio, and aircon the engine gets irritated that one might be having too easy a life.....

Consider this as a punt. One of the problems with the Gemini unit was their horn unit, which incidentally contains much of the arming logic. If it gets too wet (like after the coolant bottle had sprayed the hell out of it, then it decides to arm whenever it fancies, and it refuses to tell the brain that the car needs closing - hence the closure system fails. My suggestion. Use your maintenance key. Turn it off, open the horn pod, and look carefully at the circuit board. clean all the tracks, and remove all of the water. If you are really lucky it will be fine afterwards. If you arent, trash the thing and go for a Clifford which will stand the heat and moisture of a VR6 engine bay.

Its a very different setup to the UK system, hence the fault sequence is different. I'd go straight to the Passat's system. It really should be totally interchangeable. The key to your problem is in that hard pedal. The pressure is up but its not being gated. Hence could be the valves not sending their closure signal to the brain. Do ensure that before you move anything, please make sure that the pressure dome is allowed to empty out gently first..... thats if you prefer going thru life in 1 piece. Best of luck.