Purple Tom

Really sad news and I send my condolences to his family and friends. I never met him (I don't think) but I certainly benefited from his knowledge and experience when searching the forum for bits and bobs over the years.

Payment sent, cheers!

Jim - Yeah, the mk4 is a pretty heavy car and its not particularly aerodynamic either. I think the V5 was built to satisfy foreign markets more than the UK but it sold reasonably well here. I get 30ish mpg to a tankful which isn't too bad really - a remap would see closer to 190bhp and a slight increase in economy too so if I keep the car then I'll probably go down that route to be honest. maff - I'd wanted the E46 for quite a while prior to getting it and I scraped together every spare penny that I could in order to buy it. It was a lovely car and drove nicely but I think it was almost too good for my liking. It didn't really have much character and while it was very competent I just found it a bit boring. I put a turbo on it and did all the other necessaries (swirl flaps, EGR clean etc), full service etc but I didn't really bond with it. It scratched the itch that I'd had for one and to be honest I don't think I'd have another one - never say never though! Thanks for the comments :-)

If you'll meet in the middle at £45 posted I'll take them off your hands :-) Cheers Tom

Onto the third and final V5. This belonged to a friend of mine who bought it as a cheap daily runaround. It had lots of history and had had plenty spent on it but it was an auto. It did however have the benefit of a full heated black leather Recaro interior....when he came to sell it about 2 months ago he only wanted cheap money for the car so I made him an offer and ended up buying it. I only really wanted it for the interior but it also came with a set of Montreal II's with good winter tyres on. I got the car home and set about removing the interior and loom for the heated seats. All I'll say is if you ever think about removing the heated seat loom from a mk4 Golf - DON'T! I'm used to Corrado's where the loom is a completely seperate item that comes out relatively easily. On a Mk4 its not, its fully integrated with the main loom for the car and took almost a day to remove. At several points I nearly gave up but I finally managed to get it out. What a job though, at one point the car looked like this: Anyway, I finally got the loom out and got the interior refitted. I fitted the wheels and tyres off the black V5 to the blue one (all with good tread and the wheels in great condition). I also fitted the cloth interior from the black V5, including the door cards so I ended up with a full Recaro leather interior with loom and some 16" winter wheels sat on the garage floor waiting to go into my car. I then gave the blue one a good clean and got it some pictures taken ready to advertise it for sale as I had no use for it. It's a really nice car and had been looked after by my mate, all it needed was a new home: This was all just before Christmas and over the holiday I set about fitting the interior to my car. That was all done but I decided to get a new seat base fitted to the drivers seat as it was a bit saggy. No pictures of the completed interior yet although I'm sure you all know what one looks like, here's the seat base anyway: I got all of that fitted and done, including customising the heated seat wiring loom to make it a lot easier to remove and refit should the need ever arise! As you can imagine, I got it all done just in time for the cold weather to come. When the snow arrived I had much fun playing with my winter tyres and a nice warm bum :-) Here's a picture of the red one next to the blue one which had been stood for a couple of weeks and covered in snow - barely recognisable! I then sold the blue one and broke the black one for parts. I managed to sell a lot of parts to a lad doing a V5 conversion on a 1.4 mk4 Golf – I was lucky to find him as he ended up having lots of parts that I never dreamed of getting off the car! Incidentally the head gasket on the black one was fine, I sold the head to the lad mentioned above so I suspect that the oil cooler may well have gone porous. I carried on driving the Golf and generally had lots of fun with the winter tyres on. Then about a month ago I noticed a bit of coolant dripping on the floor. I'm fairly used to coolant leaks but up until then the car had been leak free so I couldn't be doing with anything dropping out of it...some peering under the bonnet later and I had eliminated the crack pipe, coolant hoses and radiator as the culprit which left only really the thermostat housing as the potential leaky item. So, off it came: The source of the leak. This is the where the thermostat housing bolts onto the block and you can see how the housing has deteriorated and disintegrated over time in this picture: If you can't see what I mean, here's a picture of the new replacement from VW: While I was at it I decided to do the themostat as well, so the following bits got fitted. About £60 from VW all in so not too bad really. Thought about replacing the green temperature sensor but decided not to, its not too hard to get at should it start being an arse: Following getting it back together it stopped leaking and all was good. Then it snowed. And snowed. And snowed a bit more and I had lots of fun with it up in the Peak District on the winter tyres. However I didn't wash it for about a month as the weather just wasn't conducive for it. But yesterday the sun finally came out and I decided that winter had pretty much ended. So, out came the cleaning stuff and on went the 'summer wheels'. I'm still not sure about them and would like some opinions please. They're 17x7 BBS VZ, fully refurbed and I got them at a good price a couple of months ago. I wasn't sure about them when I bought them and photoshop didn't really help, but I *think* I like them now they're on the car. It definitely needs to go down 20mm or so - I'm not into big lowering as it needs to be a practical daily with plenty of potholed and rutted roads round here but I think 20mm would just see it about right. Here's some pics: Also, just for the record...a shiny clean engine bay and a gratuitous shot of the Recaros :-) The seats really make the car a nice place to be and I’ve done a couple of other upgrades in the form of Bora/R32 vents and a Passat W8 interior light which just help to make it a bit better. In terms of driving dyamics the mk4 in standard form is never going to set the world on fire. It doesn’t turn in like a Corrado and it wallows about quite a bit but its still fun and the engine is a peach. It doesn’t feel like 170bhp and doesn’t set any records in terms of performance but it sounds lovely and does give you a decent enough shove in the back when you hit the go pedal. It’s also getting a consistent 30mpg which is pretty good for a 2.3 5 cylinder lump (in a heavy, not very aerodynamic car). Thanks for reading...if you’ve made it this far! It seems nothing is simple when it comes to me and car ownership! Incidentally, I’m keeping my eye out for another Corrado VR6, if I can afford to run a mk4 V5 then a VR6 shouldn’t be an issue, in fact I think I got better economy from my Corrado! Tom

Hey, It’s been almost a year since I sold the Corrado TDi so I thought I’d keep you guys up to date with my latest daily driver and the complicated story about how I ended up in it… I sold the TDi in May 2012 then purchased a 2004 BMW 330Cd. A complete change from anything I'd owned before but I liked the idea of diesel economy coupled with RWD handling and the creature comforts of a modern car. It was lovely, in Imola Red however it wasn't without its share of problems and I ended up putting a turbo on it and doing some other mechanical work in order to keep it happy. It looked good though J In August 2012 I got offered a new job and got told that I was going to have to work in the city centre where car parking wasn't great. I decided to sell the BMW on as it was so tidy in the bodywork department that I didn't want it to deteriorate in my ownership. In mid-august I was simultaneously getting a new job and changing the turbo on the BMW. It was a saturday afternoon and I got a text on my phone from a number I didn't recognise. It said..."would you still be interested in buying my Golf?". I didn't have a clue what it was about so I rang it back and realised it related to a rather sad looking Golf V5 that I'd left a note on back at the start of the year. It had been parked under some trees for a little while and I'd driven past it every day for a few weeks. I decided to be cheeky, put a note on it saying I’d be interested if they decided to sell and then promptly forgot all about it. It was a 2001 '51' V5 170, in metallic black and I ended up buying it. No tax or MOT but in running order and with 165k on the clock. The reason for the purchase was twofold. Firstly, I wanted a project and secondly I wanted a bit of a nail that I could drive to work in and not really worry too much about - this car fitted the bill perfectly and I decided that with a bit of work it'd probably come up pretty nicely. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a minter, but I paid a very reasonable price for the car so I wasn't complaining. It was so cheap in fact that I wasn't bothered by the increase in fuel consumption from the 40mpg that I got from the BMW to the 30mpg that I reckoned I'd get from the Golf. I think it's picture time, so here is the Golf as I picked it up: As you can see, it wasn't great, but wasn't awful either. Luckily I know a few people who have plenty of mk4 parts lying around so I was able to get it straight into the garage and lay into it: After a few hours in the garage I came up with a list of things that it needed, chief amongst which was a good wash and general tidy up. It also needed a fair bit of mechanical work but I thought I'd give it a gentle spruce up and the minimum of work and then take it for an MOT and see what happened. So, I spent most of the night in the garage working on it, gave it a clean in the morning and then took it for an MOT: It came up rather well, the bodywork was pretty straight with no corrosion and everything seemed to work on it, even the A/C. And it passed the MOT with flying colours.......on everything except the emissions. I was partly expecting this because it had flagged up a lambda sensor fault on Vagcom when I plugged it in however I'd cleared it and hoped it wouldn't come back. Unfortunately it did and the emissions were a bit all over the place. Then, to make matters worse, I dipped the oil at the garage and found it to be very creamy. I had noticed that before but hoped it was just moisture and condensation but I suspected a head gasket problem. "Never mind" I thought, it's still a cheap car, lets find another engine, get it changed and then go from there. Excitedly I went off to eBay and happened to find a 75k V5 engine in Derby, about 10 miles away, at a good price from someone that I happened to know. Result! I bought it, picked it up then set about stripping the Golf down: I made a list of all of the parts that I needed in order to get the car back up to 100% working order again and I set myself a budget of £1000 to get the car back on the road. I should mention that that budget included the purchase price of the car, the engine, all of the parts necessary to get it sorted and 6 months RFL - you get some idea of how little I paid for the car now ;-) Amongst the parts I bought were new front wheel bearings, discs and pads all round, R32 wishbone bushes, new ARB bushes and drop links, new front top mounts, new lower ball-joints, new trackrod ends, a new pre-cat lambda sensor and all the bits needed for a service - fluids, filters etc. They all duly arrived from the supplier and that’s where things get a bit more complicated. I was still driving the BMW, it was now September 2012 and I was getting ready to start my new job. I was in training for it and putting lots of hours in to get up to speed before starting properly. As a result my time in the garage was becoming more limited. I also quite suddenly had to move house due to some landlord issues and three weeks passed without me so much as touching the Golf. I quickly realised that I just wasn't going to have time to get it on the road before starting my new job. So, I put the BMW up for sale within a week it had gone, leaving me with quite a bit of cash burning a hole in my pocket. I paid some debts off, sorted a few things out with the house and ended up with about £2k surplus to play with. I had a little Polo TDi (another long story) so I wasn't in a massive hurry to get another car but I decided that if I wasn't going to get the black V5 on the road for a bit then I might as well see what this V5 thing is all about and buy another one. Bear in mind that I'd only driven the black one to the MOT station and back, about half a mile, and it wasn't exactly in the best of health. I kept an eye on Autotrader and within a week one popped up that caught my eye. It wasn't far away, in Lincoln, so I headed up to look at it. I was immediately taken with it - it was a 52 plate manual 170 with full VW service history, just over 100k on the clock, 2 owners from new, had only been used in the summer for the past 5 years and was in great condition. It had a decent spec (cruise, sunroof etc) and was in my new favourite colour - red. It was advertised at £2400 but I somehow managed to haggle the seller down to a much better figure. Cash exchanged hands and I drove the new purchase home on its 10th birthday to the day: I liked it straight away. Having owned a couple of VR6's and then made the move to diesel I had always missed the howl of the VR. The V5 makes a similar but at the same time different noise. I think because the Corrado was quite a basic 12V and the V5 is multi-valve with the variable camshaft timing etc it results in a different sound but the end result is the same - smiles behind the steering wheel :-) I have to admit that the handling was bit wooly but the brakes were excellent and overall the car felt good. I then had to make a decision about the black one. Was it ever going to see the road again or not?! I decided in the end that in all likelihood it probably wasn't. It had plenty going against it - the mileage, the HG issues, the amount of work to get it fully up and running again coupled with the lack of financial return if I were to sell it as a runner as I'd have to MOT it, tax it, etc etc. I decided in the end to leave it in the garage for a bit and just enjoy the red one for the time being. Of course, I had a load of parts lying around that I'd bought for the black one so I decided to do a bit of a refresh of the red one anyway. I fitted the majority of the parts that I had bought for the black one and basically gave it a good going over. Thanks to Laser Mark, Daves16V and their powdercoating skills I also managed to fit a couple of freshly powdercoated front end parts while I was at it. Not many pictures but here goes: (You can see the black one in the background) I got it all sorted and then proceeded to run about in it for a bit. Incidentally, the new job turned out to have a great car park around the back of the building so my worries there were unfounded! I'm glad because the bodywork on the red one is really good!

Simon, Would you take £40 posted? Cheers Tom

Good find :-) I had something similar (although not the same) happen a last week. Back before Christmas 2012 I bought a cheap VW Golf V5 because it had a heated Recaro interior. I promptly swapped the interior into my own V5, put the cloth interior from mine into the cheap V5 and sold it on eBay, to someone in Stockport, about 40 miles away. Last week my Mum was supposed to fly into EMA but instead got diverted to Manchester airport for some reason. Her car was at EMA so she asked me to go pick her up. Off I went and on the way back had to divert around the centre of Stockport because of an accident so ended up following my nose through some housing estates hoping that I wouldn't get lost. I took a wrong turn down a side street and ended up doing a three point turn in the road - a long straight road of semi detached houses with driveways. I picked a spot on the road to turn in and as I was halfway through the turn what should I see up the driveway opposite me...yep - the Golf V5 that I'd sold! It just seemed a massive co-incidence that I'd ended up diverting, getting a bit lost and then done a three pointer right in that place where the car was parked. It was bizarre seeing a car that I'd done work on, 40-odd miles from home, while sat in the seats that used to be in it, which were now in my car. I bought a lottery ticket that night. Didn't win though.

Think of it as a new challenge - you've cut your teeth with the rough one and now it's time to move onto the next one. Now you're a bit more aware of what to look for then you can crack on and get everything swapped. It'll be worth it in the end! Get some pics of the poorly one up as I think we'd all be interested to see quite how bad the corrosion/repairs are, and more details in this clean and straight shell please :-) Cheers Tom

Dan, I've got one mate, removed it from the VR6 that I broke. Not massively heavy and it's better off in your car than my garage - how does £20 posted sound? Cheers Tom

Its not straightforward but it's possible. There's a build thread on this forum which details the work needed pretty well. Tom

Hi, I've got a 2001 Mk4 Golf V5 that I'm breaking as unfortunately the HG has gone and its too much work to get it back on the road now. It has a very good condition dashboard (complete with clocks, switches etc) and also a full climatronic set up. Before I offer it on the mk4 Golf forums would anyone be interested in the parts on here for a potential dash/climatronic conversion? Really not looking for a lot for the whole lot tbh - I'd rather it went to someone who's going to make use of it and will take it all in one lump rather than selling things bit by bit and then chucking half of it away. £100 collected and you can come and and take all of it. Cheers Tom

Finally got some time off work to spend in the garage - I'll update this over the next couple of days for those who have asked recently! Tom

Simon - they won't fit the TDi as it's got 312mm brakes so they won't clear the calipers or discs. Nice to see you on the forum too :-) I'm also afraid to say that the wheels and tyres have now sold, have been picked up by the new owner and fitted to a mk4 TDi so this can now be closed, thanks!

That's not good Stonejag, could have been worse though! I've been out playing too, it's not a Corrado anymore but it's still a VR derivative and very capable with winter tyres fitted. Not exactly deep snow though although I managed to find some snowdrifts up on an exposed ridge nearby :-) I cannot recommend winter tyres enough, I've ran them for 3 winters now and they're just awesome!

Hi, I thought this might be a rather good time to offer these wheels and tyres for sale. They are a set of 4 Michelin Alpin 4 winter tyres in 195/65R15, fitted to a set of 5x100 15x6 alloy wheels. If you've never had winter tyres then you don't know what you're missing, but if you have and you've driven in snow or just on cold roads then you'll know how good they are. These are a particularly good tyre - review on tyretest.com here - and really are a revelation in the snow. Also, winter tyres are suitable for temperatures of 7 degrees C or below so they can be used all winter. I really can't stress just how good they are when it comes to make safe progress on the slippery stuff. The tyres have covered about 4000 miles. 2 of them have 8.5mm tread and 2 of them have 7.5mm tread so there is LOADS of life left in them. The wheels are genuine VAG and would have originally been fitted to the 8L Audi A3. They're nice simple wheels and make for great winter wheels because they're a simple design and therefore easy to clean! They're also exceptionally light, I've never weighed them but compared to a set of 16" Montreal II wheels they weigh next to nothing. They are standard VAG fit...57.1mm CB, 5x100. I can confirm that they DO fit over 288mm brakes and they will also clear the larger 256mm vented rear discs as fitted to big power Mk4's, Leon's, A3's etc. The tyres are the right size for Mk4 platform vehicles although they will fit Corrado's and mk3's however they'll be a bit bigger than standard. If you need some wheels quickly though they'll do the job unless your motor is lowered more than 20mm or so. The wheels themselves are in pretty good condition and I've modified the centre caps so they've VW branded rather than Audi. A couple of the wheels have a bit of laquer peel but overall they're very presentable. They're inflated, balanced and ready to fit. The only reason for sale is because I no longer have a use for them. I had them on my mk4 Golf TDi last winter but now I have a mk4 Golf V5 and unfortunately these wheels won't fit over the 312mm front brakes so I've had to get some 16" winter tyres to go on it instead. Here's some pictures, including what they looked like fitted to my mk4 TDi just for reference: Collection from Derbyshire DE56 please, or I can deliver within 50 miles if you're struggling to travel due to the snow, just cover my fuel and sorted. Price - £200 collected, £225 delivered. No offers. Thanks Tom

It's most definitely NOT illegal for the Police to see whether the vehicle is insured or not. It is also most definitely not illegal for the Police to contact the Motor Insurers Bureau for more information if they feel it necessary, the MIB will hold more information about insurance than a standard PNC check. The Police are also quite within their rights to contact your insurance company if they feel it necessary to inform them about your modifications. A lot of it will come down to the knowledge of the officer who deals with you. Some officers don't care about traffic related offences at all but others are pretty hot on it and you'll generally find they will be the ones who will cause you to stop and will have a look around your car. Whether they'd be able to tell the difference between 280mm and 288mm brakes or standard compared to mk4 rear calipers or if you've got a Shrick fitted is another matter, but again it depends on the officer... All I can say is make sure your modifications are declared - as others have said repeatedly in this thread it's just not worth not doing it. The consequences of having an accident and causing life changing injuries/death to someone else in a vehicle that has undeclared modifications really are quite severe and it's worth thinking about that before you try to save 20 quid from your premium. Plus, its surprising how little the premium rises when you tell the insurance company about modifications and its satisfying (as Kev says) to have a 2 page A4 sheet listing all of the mods, no matter how small, giving you that added peace of mind when you're driving along :-)

I had exactly the same tyres on my winter mk4 Golf last year Jim, and I've used them again on another winter mk4 that I've bought for this year. In my opinion (and in 195/65x15 flavour) they are absolutely fantastic. I'll be interested to hear how you get on, but I'm sure you'll get on with them, even when it comes to normal driving without snow below 7 degrees.

Welcome, I'm near Derby too, currently Corrado-less but I'm hoping that will change at some point in the future! Happy ownership! Tom

I've actually got a set off being powdercoated now, they should be back fairly soon so once they are I'll get a pic up for you! Cheers Tom

16V alan - I'll double check on that door trim, I think I've got one! Off down the garage in a bit so I'll have a look :-) st4stokie - I don't have a grille but I do have a number plate plinth. It's in good condition, not perfect but I managed to remove it relatively intact. Will get some picture for you - open to offers on it. Cheers Tom

I fitted it to the TDi and if I'm honest it's not the most straightforward conversion, as in it's not 'plug and play' but neither is it amazingly complicated if you can read a wiring diagram, do some minor modifying to the ABS light, have the capability to make up new brake pipes as well as the know-how to remove the heater unit and majority of the interior to fit the wiring. The good thing about it is that you can remove the rear proportioning valve completely as it's not needed in the new system. Also, as Kev says, you lose the ABS position sensor which is good as it's one less (expensive) thing to go wrong. You'll need the rear ABS sensors from the Mk3 Golf (a late one) or alternatively sensors from a 6N2 Polo TDi/GTi/100bhp 16V (doesn't matter as long as it has rear discs) will fit and they are what I used. Other than that it's just a case of removing the interior and the original ABS system from your car, including all of the wiring and brake pipes. Make a good note of what wires go where in the fusebox as there are a few differences but its fairly straightforward to figure it all out. Then modify the ABS light to fit in the Corrado dash - luckily I used the same system but from a B4 Passat TDi which used a very similar ABS light to the Corrado so it was easy to make it work, I'm not sure about the Mk3 Golf system. Fit all of the hardware to the car then make up the new brake pipes - you'll need to do the whole car except for the small pipes on the rear beam, although if they're old then you might as well replace them too. It's worth upgrading to braided hoses if you haven't already done so and at the same time it'd be worth fitting Mk4 rear calipers and new handbrake cables, again if you haven't already done so. Once that's done, fit the new sensors (the original front sensors will work no problem), fill the system with fluid, bleed it, test that your wiring is all OK then put the interior back together. Job done :-)

I have one with the brackets which has just been blasted and powdercoated black. I'm located in Derbyshire, postcode DE56 2JQ. How does £60 for the lot sound?

Please see this thread for my explanation for not being online in such a long time... The engine and gearbox and inlet etc are all still available. Cheers Tom

Hi, I'd just like to apologise for not being online for the last 6 weeks or so. Firstly, just before August bank holiday weekend my internet stopped working and it took BT/Plusnet over a month to fix it! :-( Then on 21st September I started my new job properly which to be honest has taken so much time it's unreal. I've been using my days off to just catch up on some of the daily mundane elements of life, not leaving me much time to get into the garage. And to top it off last week I was served notice on my house so I need to find somewhere else to live. Luckily that is in hand (hopefully). As a result of all of that, today is the first time I've been able to get on the forum for any length of time. I've done a bit of catching up but some of the parts requests are so old that I don't know if people still want the bits or not. So - this thread is now officially re-opened as I still have loads of parts to sell - if anyone needs anything please ask and if I've got it then I'll sort out a price for you :-) Thanks for reading, and sorry again! Tom