pete_griff

wow - i log back onto the forum after quite sometime away and you've bloody sold up!!! certainly didn't see that one coming matey... hope all is well with you as always buddy. as an aside - my M5 has literally just gone up for sale if you're still car hunting... ;) ---------- Post added at 11:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:02 PM ---------- wow - i log back onto the forum after quite sometime away and you've bloody sold up!!! certainly didn't see that one coming matey... hope all is well with you as always buddy. as an aside - my M5 has literally just gone up for sale if you're still car hunting... ;) (oh and by the way - to echo the comments of others; thanks VERY much for all the time and effort you've gone to with documenting everything on here - ome great descisions on my corrado wouldn't have been made without your input at the time :) )

i have a RWD V8 that is now for sale if you're interested?!?... (i'd check to see if you can insure it first though!) sorry to see you're moving on chap - best of luck :-)

if you give Graham at DG Autotech a ring (just google "DG Autotech") he should be able to supply you with a very nice set of stainless shields designed specifically for the application and also a set of braided hoses as well. Can't remember the cost off the top of my head, but it will come as a complete kit, all you need to do is fit it!

hey buddy hows it going? sorry i've not had any time to ring you back recently - away with work at the moment and i won't be back until the end of april. glad to hear things are still going well - golf looks lovely having never seen it until now! the mk5's are soooooo much better than their previous iterations aren't they... (and yeah, the gti's are fun!) hope all is well anyway buddy - i'll have to nip down to see you when i get back :)

also glad to hear the beastie is behaving itself again, real shame for you about the timing of it all, but hey ho; there's always next time! also, i wouldn't be too concerned about the coolant flush. if your car fails once you've done the flush then you can guarantee that it was on it's way out anyway. it's only a chemical flush and should do far more good than harm. if you find your head gasket blows shortly after doing it, then yes, it will undoubtedly have accelerated the failure, but if a bit of chemical cleaner in the cooling system can cause that, then as mentioned above, it was defo on it's last legs anyway. i wouldn't be scared of doing it, just make sure you give the system a good flush afterwards in order to remove as much of the flush (and unwanted old coolant/crap) as possible and then fill it up with some correctly mixed fresh stuff. if you're really feeling extravagent then fill it with the mixed new stuff, then drain and re-fill it again after that to make sure you've got the correct mixture and no excess water running through the system after you've flushed it all.

many thanks to Jim for organising this and also to Wendy for tending the BBQ all morning. as always, a great day out and great to meet some new people and catch up with some more familiar faces. very slightly disappointed with my figures; 374bhp and 380lb/ft. was hoping to be a bit nearer to the magical 400. there's a very slight wiggle in my graphs right at the very end of the rev range though which is a possible culprit, so i'm going to look into that a little futher. be nice to try again and see the figures up there next time. cheers again :)

do you defo need confirmed numbers right now??? (also do you object to non-corrado owners?!?) i'd really like to come to this, however... it's my mates birthday that weekend; i'll be out on the razzle dazzle both fri and sat nights and as such i'm anticipating being VERY tender on the sunday! if i can make it the i defo will, but in all honesty i won't be able to let you know until a day or two before. if that's still ok then please PM me and i'll send you my mobile number so you can send me some abuse that way. plus i haven't seen the crazy one in ages and would really like to catch up (Dave if you're reading this then i'm guessing you changed your mobile number sometime ago as i've not been able to reach you on your old one in some time) cheers, Pete

AFAIK the golf item is totally different; the golf pump has a rear bias valve built into it and also has the ecu located with it. you're best off PM'ing "fishwick" on here to get a definite answer, but i'm fairly sure they're different...

from what i remember when i started digging it out with him was that the outline of an old shape hearth (resembling the big one his neighbours had and what you can see in the later photo) was fairly obvious. so we just started digging it out to see what we could find! to be honest i'm pretty jealous of your place Kip; i love DIY too. not sure how on earth you manage to find time to do the house, go to work and be a dad and a husband in the short few hours of the day though!!! hopefully down your neck of the woods the middle of the coming week, so expect a shout from me then :)

howdy again buddy, thanks v much for the explaination there - very informative and much apprecaited. funny you should mention the VANOS on my car as i was thining those pulleys looked fairly similar! also not selling the M5 buddy; i'm being greedy and keeping both the M5 and the bike, best of both worlds and all that. i'll be honest i've been umming and arrring about selling the 5 for a while now, but i've spent a fair bit of time, effort and cash getting it right and i just can't think of anything i'd really like to replace it with at the moment that doesn't cost £25k and over. anyhow, you'll hopefully see why i like it when you get up to the Stealth RR day; if you ask me really nicely i'll show you where the button for the traction control is! :twisted: (nice new avatar by the way)

hey bud, the bimmer is going well (touch wood) cheers. not i've given it a fairly good overhaul it's nice just to drive it and not have to worry too much about the rest of it as it's pretty much totally stock. i won't lie, i wish it was a bit faster, but then i've had it over 2.5 years now which is the longest i've ever kept a car. that says something about how i feel about it and also explains why it feels slow! that said, i've recently invested in a much maller steed with only 2 wheels and that one does 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, so hopefully that will keep the addiction at bay for a while! totally understand your feelings on working on cars over the cold, dark winter days; it's just depressing isn't it. still you're pretty much there now, so quit whining and finish it off! that's cool about the valve timing too - i was under the impression that the tensioner between the two cams was how the variable timing was controlled and that the amount of advance/retard applied by the tensioner was controlled by oil pressure dictated by the two oil solenoids that sit in the side of the head below it; am i totally barking up the wrong tree with that one? agree with you on the throttle mapping as well. when i had mine remapped, the guy also revised the throttle map so it wasn't as snappy. it would still spin like a bitch if i wasn't delicate with the throttle though, even with the quaife. you coming to the stealth RR day for a chinwag? there's a ticket for a drive in the BM tucked behind my ear for you if you do! ;)

howdy Karl, glad to hear the rado is still putting a smile on your face. got many up-coming plans for it as yet?... it's looking nice anyway pal, glad to hear you're happy to be back in the fold. are you going to the stealth RR day? i know your opinions on stealth, just wondering if you were going for the social at all... if you are then i'll catch you there, you can have a go in a BMW V8 with a proper gearbox if you ask me nicely ;)

can't remember where it was for the life of me now (might have been in the OLD OLD wiki...), but there was a guide to re-tumbling corrado locks on here a while back. if you still have problems then it's got to be worth a look

howdy Jim are there any spaces left on this?... provided Vince doesn't mind running a rear-driver, i might bring the beastie back up there and actually take the ABS fuses out this time to get a proper dyno run instead of disappointing everyone (and myself!) again by not being able to get a proper run due to electrical constraints

cheese-fish! how are you doing buddy, been a while since i poked my nose around here. have to say the install is looking tasty, very neatly done as per usual. did you wrap up the manifolds/downpipes with the inlet hose going round there and/or is there any more "heath-robinson" heatshielding?!? interested to see how you get on with that funky intake tract... also surpised your battery migrated back up front, but i guess if you're going down the OEM+ route then i can understand it. did you get anywhere with looking at your Mk3 ABS system conversion in the end, also same question for any reinforcing of the bulkhead to reduce flex when pressing the pedals? i'm also very interested to see how you get on with the DTA when you get it mapped to see what sort of power you're making. unfortunately i never got my R32 on the rollers to see what sort of power it was making, but from the "bum-dyno" it felt pretty rapid. it was defo a fair chunk faster in a straight line than the evo 6 i had immediately afterwards and it really felt ballsy off the mark due to all the low-end torque. if i had to guess i would say mine was around the 280 mark, maybe a little more but who knows. ah the memories! i reckon you'll do pretty well with the DTA on there and none of the gubbins that the OEM ECU is lumbered with. is it difficult to set up the variable cam timing using the DTA, i mean i know it's just a servo moving a tensioner on the chain between the cams, just wondering if it was difficult to get it right. also does the variable inlet tract of the r32 manifold have a massive onward effect on the cam timing and fuelling? nice to see you're just about there anyway - really looking forward to hearing the usual 12 page glossary write-up once you've got it somewhere near daily use again... (right before you undoubtedly find some excuse to rip it to bits again ;) )

you're quite right that the master cyclinder has now been super-seeded (thanks for that one VW!!!). the solution is to get the new part that has replaced it along with a new pedal inside the car. because the master cylinder is different it attaches to the pedal in a different way, meaning your existing pedal is now useless. you need to get hold of a pedal from a passat circa 1995ish (there may be other years and models with this same pedal, but i'm not enough of a geek to know what the details are - PM Supercharged!). your old pedal had a pin sticking out of it which went into the pivot for the original master; the new style masters have a plastic clip on them which clips into a retaining slot on the pedal. needless to say the newer design is flimsier and much more a pain in the arse to take apart. the good news is that the pedals aren't that difficult to swap, it's just a couple of circlips and a return spring from what i remember. the final piece in the puzzle is the line connecting the master to the slave; the existing old hard-line is the wrong shape and won't mate up to the new master when you try and fit it. the best solution to this (IMO) is just to replace the whole line (both solid and flexi parts) with a braided flexi line and then fix the new braided line to the bulkhead. i found no loss of pedal pressure with the braided line and it worked perfectly for me; the old rubber flexis have a habit of going porus over time anyway, so you're best off just replacing the lot. apologies again i can't give you part numbers, but speak to others on here and/or the dealers and you should get it sorted. once you've got the new master, pedal and flexi line, it's really not a difficult job. for the record, go for about 90-100cm of flexi, but if you want to be really refined then get some string and measure out exactly where you're going to route it and how you're going to fix it first before going to get a line made up. hope that helps

As above - is anyone going? I've got some tickets booked for the 12th of November at the NEC - would be good to touch base with anyone else who's going as well. I've never been to a show anything like this one so I'm actual quite excited about it! EDIT - if anyone is going and doesn't want to drive, I'm happy to collect people as long as the distance isn't ridiculous

it was ages ago now.... but i saw a corrado at J & R recovery (down past Cavanagh's bodyshop if you don't know) - if that's still there it's defo worth a look. you can get J & R on 01432 359908 alternatively there's always Ikey Morris up at City Spares (up Watery Lane off the straight mile, rotherwas). they're on 01432 268939. raven motors closed down a while ago now unfortunately. there's another massive scrappy near cheltenham which are your best bet in the hereford area if Ikey or J & R don't have anything. can't remember directions now as it's ages since i've been ther, but the number for the cheltenham scrappy is 01452 713259. those are defo your best bet locally. if not then it'll be an ebay job. best of luck!

hey buddy, very sorry to hear about your PAS pump issues - that really is crap luck if it has indeed failed. you should be alright to claim a new one under warranty though surely? especially seeing as Graham fitted it and you'll have proof that it was done by a professional (with a very good reputation to boot). this may cheer you up a little.... how would you like custody on my M5 for 4 months in the future?!? you're on about getting a 5-series, if you can afford to put fuel into it then i'll be in need of someone to run it round for me while i'm away. you can't really get a much better tester than owing a vehicle over an extended period. i'm on a 4-on, 4-off cycle right now; currently away so won't be back for a bit. but when i do get back, 4 months later i'll be off again and in need to someone to take tender loving car of my motor - fancy it? :) (and the answer to most others will be no i'm afraid! just pre-empting that one in case i get a load of "volunteers"!)

if you've had all that stuff replaced recently then i would be checking out the CV joints. do you gte more clicking.clanking when the car is on full steering lock one way or the other? that would be an easy way to check. it's certainly worth checking over all the other stuff just to make sure, but my guess would be one of the passenger CV joints...

i sold my impreza wr1 on pistonheads; advertised it on saturday night, then watched it drive away on sunday afternoon! the only thing i would say about advertising it there is that you'll probably get a lot of silly offers and people not knowing what they're buying etc etc. seeing as it's free though it's certainly worth a punt.

less likely, but it could also be the pistons themselves rusted into the calipers... seeing as you're doing the flexis and hoses anyway, i would get hold of a new set of seals from VW (they're pretty cheap iirc) and whip the pistons out at the same time just to inspect them. if the fluid is that old and water-contaminated that it's rotted the flexi-hoses then chances are that the pistons aren't fairing too well either. you'd be surprised just how nasty they can get under those seals without you ever seeing them or realising it.

just to echo the comments everyone else has made on here - hats off to you Tom. the workmanship and attention to detail you've put in is really first class and you've made yourself a truly lovely example there. mpg figures like that are just a distant dream to pretty much everyone on here! looks so good - hope you don't get too many teething problems to sort out and it's everything you hoped for :D

that's interesting cheers for that.just goes to show how useless and inappropriate the powers that be are today when it comes to this sort of thing. common sense seems totally absent. for the record by the way, i wasn't slating bikers - i love bikes and i've actually just passed my test!

for all those going to Elsecar from the West - it's worth a detour to enjoy the "Cat and Fiddle" road between Macclesfield and Buxton. The road is absolutely brilliant. the only snag now though is that the highway nazis have put average speed cameras on it so if you want to enjoy it properly then you'd better take some duct-tape with you and make a few "temporary repairs" to the front of your car before going on it (not that i'm suggesting you do anything illegal though obviously...) what's really annoying is that the cameras are only actually good at catching cars as bikes don't have front number plates. bikes are main the reason why the road was slammed with cameras as they were involved in by far the most accidents on the road. truly cracking bit of blacktop though - i was lucky enough to drive it in my corrado before the camera nazis got involved. hop you all have a good day by the way :)