Purple Tom

They'll both say '54' on them as that's the piston diameter in MM. Some of the 288 calipers were made by Lucas and some by Girling I believe, exactly the same as the earlier 256 and 280mm calipers. It'll be obvious whether you've got 288's or a smaller derivative by looking at them - can you get a pic up?

Yep, BMW 1M for me too - the RS3 just seems a little too soul-less, even with that awesome 5-pot. Plus, I actually loathe the standard 1-series in 'Coupe' form, yet I really like the 'Breadvan' version. However I think the 1M Coupe is fantastic with its big arches and wide wheels, couple that with how awesome they sound and you're onto a winner for me :)

I'll have a small please :)

That is definitely an air temperature sensor. It was in the heater inlet/ECU area of the Passat B4 TDi that I broke that was equipped with aircon. I've no idea why VW used a different sensor for the A/C, perhaps to discourage people from interchanging or maybe for some other purpose but I definitely removed a sensor identical to that from the Passat. It even clipped into a bracket near the ECU.

If there's any small's left I would love one of those please!

Looks fantastic so far :) Might also be worth considering that the SR has a large effect on torque steer too, as in the larger the SR the more of a tendency the wheel has to want to pivot towards the back of the car under power. Any slight difference in geometry from side to side (in particular castor) will increase the possibility of torque steer so I think its worth trying to maintain standard geometry as much as possible. I'm useless with CAD/computery stuff but spent quite a long time experimenting with suspension geometry on my Vauxhall-engined Mini and in the end after a lot of experimentation with different length top/bottom arms, KPA's, wheel offsets and castor angles I was able to get it to put 130bhp to the ground through 6x10" wheels without a hint of torque steer. However I didn't have to design anything as radical as a new hub as the Mini uses a proper dual wishbone setup on the front so adjustability was easy to build in - none of this Macpherson strut nonsense ;)

I've got one - £15 posted if you want it? It's in good condition, removed from a 1995 VR.

That's the hall sender. I'm not sure whether VR6 distributors are similar in design or even if the hall senders are interchangable, but years ago I wrote this little FAQ for a different forum on how to change a VW Polo hall sender - have a look if you like and it'll give you an idea of whats going on in there: Link to Hall Sender FAQ

Here you go

I've got a TDi 'box in my Corrado too - I'm bloody glad otherwise I don't think it'd do more than 60 ;) I fitted a diesel 'box to the 1.6 Vauxhall engine that I put in my Mini too, mostly to make up for the difference in diameter of the Mini's 10" wheels versus the donor car's 15" wheels - I've always thought that a TDi box would be the way to massively improve economy. The Mini would cruise at 70mph doing just 2200rpm, resulting in almost 50mpg on the drive over to the Nurburgring. It'd also do 0-60 in 6.5 seconds and on to a maximum speed of about 130mph which was more than enough...all down to the ratios of that diesel gearbox. Nice write up Dan :)

Well, thought I’d best make a start on this car, been as though it needs to be on the road next Tuesday (1st November). The tax on the Corrado runs out on the 31st so I really need the Golf to be up and running by then. I had a week off work last week, booked off specifically for me to make a start on the Golf, however, as usual things didn’t go to plan and I ended up working on the Mini until Friday night. As a result, the Golf has been untouched since the last update. The Mini is now done, all fully rebuilt and back on the road though, so I got the Golf in the garage and have made a start tonight. I don’t know if I mentioned, but the previous owner had spilt some diesel in the N/S/R footwell about 6 months ago. We have a wet and dry vacuum cleaner at work and he tried to use that to ‘hoover up’ the diesel. It didn’t really work, resulting in the vacuum cleaner stinking of diesel for about 3 months, and the Golf not really much better! When I drove it home and smelt of a mixture of diesel and vanilla magic tree….quite a heady combination! Soooo, the job for tonight was to get the carpet out so it could be cleaned. As well as the diesel, the carpet contains a mixture of carrot juice (he used to carry carrots in it…don’t ask), bodily fluids, bogies, grease, oil, fizzy drinks and pretty much every other fluid you can think of. I spent a little while removing the seats and interior trim and was left with a pretty bare Mk4 interior. Working on this car is a dream compared to working on the Mini; no “that’ll do” engineering – everything comes apart without breaking and its obviously designed to last! Compared to British Leyland engineering of the 1970’s its light-years ahead: I tell you what, I was surprised by the amount of money that makes its way into the interior trims of a car. I found three £1 coins, a 50p piece, a 10p piece, a 5p piece, a 2p piece and 3 pennies! That’s knocked a considerable amount of money off the purchase price and means I’ll be able to go upmarket and have posh sandwiches for dinner at work tomorrow J As well as that I found some other stuff hidden behind the trim, here’s a random selection: I got the carpet out of the car in about an hour…it’s nice how quickly things come to pieces, I’m really lucky to have a nice new car to work on compared to the Mini! Once the carpet was out, the diesel spill in the N/S/R footwell was easy to spot: With the soundproofing lifted up you could really see the extent of the diesel damage to the sticky sound insulation…you know how people who strip cars always say how much of a bugger it is to get off? Just soak it in diesel for 6 months and you’re laughing! Oh look, there’s another £1 coin: Here’s a close up, complete with 7p J You can see the fingermark in the sticky insulation which is as soft as nearly melted ice cream: Here’s the N/S/F footwell, with 10p! How this money gets underneath the carpet I’ll never know. You can see the difference compared to the rear soundproofing: I ripped out the rear soundproofing and took it, along the carpet up into the garden and spent a good while hosing it out with the high pressure hosepipe. Hopefully this will help to lift some of the diesel out and I plan on treating it with a decent wet vacuum then leaving it to dry for a few days. Hopefully that’ll sort it! ---------- Post added at 11:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:18 PM ---------- I thought I’d get a few pictures of some other bits I’ve acquired too. Here’s the reflex silver bonnet, wing and bumper which I bought from a guy who’d just done a Bora front end conversion. Came up at the right time and it’ll come up really well with a good clean once it’s all back together – got it all for a bargain price too: As well as that I also went to a local breakers and got the following items: Brand new spare wheel and tyre Full tool kit Boot carpet Parcel shelf N/S dashboard air vent Rear door speakers Centre console surround trim Double DIN cubby hole Both front arch liners Full set of standard height springs Spare N/S/F bearing carrier with hub etc Paid £40 for the lot – well chuffed! Here’s a quick picky of the stuff, all piled up ready to fit: I also made a start on modifying my Audi centrecaps too. I plan on making them more VW with some cheapy eBay special sticky centre caps. Decided to fill in the Audi bit with some filler, I’ll rub them down smooth, spray them silver then stick the centrecaps on, should look reasonable: So, that’s about it, I’ll update this again once I’ve done some more stuff!

Dash has gone, subframe and shell have gone, all a long time ago I'm afraid! Gaz - I do have 3 large coolant hoses left, pretty sure the bottom hose went and I'll have to check as to whether I still have the top hose, will let you know asap though! Jim - the deal is definitely still on, but it's not the leather from this car (which wasn't in 100% great condition), it's the leather from the TDi which is in much better nick :)

Pretty sure I kept these when I did the ABS upgrade on my car...which side do you need? I'll double check in the morning but I'm fairly certain I've got both.

Spotted a blackberry VR with crystal rear lights and 17's of some description parked on Chadwick Nick Lane in Fritchley, Derbyshire earlier today. Registration was M** TCH (or something along those lines). Never seen it there before, someone local?

Thanks for the replies everyone :) I'm looking forward to getting stuck into it, I think once I get started I'll find a pretty reasonable car hidden underneath all the neglect. Jim - I paid a nominal amount for it; not silly cheap as at the end of the day its book price is around £2500, but enough to make it too good an offer to turn down. David - thanks for the advice on the lights, I'll sort out some decent bulbs! Coullstar - I'm not letting him see it until it's finished and back on the road, as you suggest ;) I'll keep this thread up to date with progress over the next couple of weeks :)

First things first, I decided to have a look at the easy stuff – air and pollen filters. Here you go – they’ve been changed recently do you think?: When I removed the airbox to investigate a stray red wire I discovered a PD tuning box fitted in the wiring loom which no longer had its power source…”ahah” I thought – could that be why the engine has no boost, a tuning box with no power that’s fitted to the loom, obviously not giving the ECU any signal, let alone a modified one…off it came: I took the car for a quick test drive…hardly any difference, so back to the drawing board and onto a different job. For some bizarre reason my colleague had got annoyed with the noise the worn out rear wiper blade made on the rear screen. So…rather than replace the blade (a fiver?) or take the arm off, he went to the trouble of removing the bootlid interior trim and disconnecting the wiper motor electrical plug – weird or what?! So I took the trim off, plugged it back in and the rear wiper worked again. I then decided to have another quick look at the lack of boost issue. My colleague had commented that he’d replaced a section of vacuum pipe at some point – here it is…bright yellow so fairly obvious: I disconnected the yellow pipe from the vacuum reservoir and had blew down it, expecting to meet resistance, but all I could hear was air leaking out of the vacuum system somewhere. I quickly tracked it down to a fairly large hole in a cloth braided vacuum pipe right at the top of the engine near the inlet manifold…I cut out the section of damaged pipe and replaced it temporarily with a bit of thin plastic vacuum pipe from an old Polo GT: (You can actually see the how small the section is if you look at the engine bay pic a up above). Took it out for another quick test drive and wow – boost problem is no more! It felt so much better, loads quicker (and I mean loads), with the VNT pulling right round to 4000rpm. Once I’d done that a couple of times I remembered that it had never had a cambelt so decided to take it easy on the way back to the house! Having the engine’s power back also showed just how bad the brakes and handling were too – a bit of work to do there I reckon J Once I’d fixed the boost issue I called it a day on the Golf and cracked on with the Mini. However, the next day I went and picked up my first purchase – a Bora Sport interior complete with doorcards, in mint condition for a very good price – they’re the later spec seats with the side airbags too which is what I need. I’ve only got one pic but they should suit the Golf quite well...obviously they have headrests etc: That’s about it in terms of progress, but I’m sure you’re bored of reading by now! I’ve got a week off work next week so I’ve made sure I’ve got plenty to do, which includes: - New discs and pads all round - New N/S/F outer CV boot - New N/S/F wheel bearing - New top mounts both sides front - Refit standard height springs - New cambelt, tensioner and water pump - Single mass flywheel conversion with VR6 clutch - Remove carpet and thoroughly clean - Refit carpet along with replacement interior and doorcards - Fit replacement front wishbones along with R32 bushes - Replace broken bits of interior trim - Fit new bumper, bonnet and O/S/F wing - Full detail, inside and out - Lots of other jobs that will no doubt come to me as I work on it. Overall I hope to end up with a usable, reliable Mk4 Golf daily driver that has still cost me way less than £1500 which includes the purchase of all of the replacement parts. I’ll update this thread over the next couple of weeks once I get stuck in on the project properly. Thanks for reading! Tom

Where do I start with the interior...it hadn't been hoovered for years, stank of diesel because a jerry can had leaked on the carpets, was full of quarry dust and other stuff...and yes, those stains on all of the seats are what they look like I'm afraid (he's a man who likes ladies who aren't too fussed on where they have a bit of fun...): I took those pictures immediately after he'd emptied the car - prior to him doing that it was FULL of rubbish...we filled two bin bags before I got it to a photographable state - there were sandwich wrappers dated 2008 in the rear footwells! So, that's pretty much how the car is cosmetically. Mechanically....it's about the same: - The exhaust has snapped just after the cat, meaning that the car sounds rather like a tank, although its not an entirely unpleasant noise! - The discs and pads have never been changed so the front discs are literally about 12mm thick, the backs even thinner. - It's had an issue with the N/S/F wheel bearing for years and rather than repairing it he just whacked a new hub and caliper on without bleeding the brakes so there's hardly any pedal. - Its never had a cambelt or tensioner, or water pump - mileage is 135k. - It produces NO boost. - The ARB isn't attached to the N/S/F wishbone as he overtightened the droplink bolt and it sheared in the wishbone - The DMF is juddering - The starter goes "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeccccccchhhhhhh" once the engine has caught - The front top mounts are knackered - There's probably more...but that's enough to be going on with. However, on the plus side, the engine is fairly quiet and smooth (despite having no boost) and the gearbox engages all gears - great. So, you can see the extent of the work required, and also you get an idea of the work required to bring it back up to something like my required level of mechanical soundness - and its exactly the sort of thing I love to do :) You can see though that at some point he did spend a bit of time and money on the car as he went to the trouble of spraying the engine cover silver: Also...just to prove that this story isn't made up, here's a picture of the Corrado and the Golf together, the night before I bought the Golf home: So, the next night, after a quick trip to the pub for a lemonade and a dose of bravery, I decided to have a go at driving the Golf home. I was expecting the onslaught of warning beeps and bongs when I turned the ignition on, but it was pretty funny that literally every warning possible came up, one after the other, on the MFA: - Service Now! - Brake Pads Low! - Oil Level Low! - Fuel Level Low! - Something Else That I Can’t Remember! Now, bearing in mind that the lad had been driving this car for 18 months with no boost…I had a go at driving it home (once I’d bunged some fuel in it). Climbing up the hill out of the town where I work it would not do more than 30mph, no matter what gear I was in or how much I put my foot down. Turning the A/C on resulted in a noticeable decrease in the power output and the noise from the exhaust just drowned out any other noises that the car was making! The handling was amusing to say the least, what with having no front ARB and knackered top mounts. I’d already spent an hour hovering the interior and trying to clean the seats a bit but even so I put a seat cover on to keep my clothes free of the combination of contaminants on the drivers seat. Anyway, I coaxed it home through the back lanes so as to avoid drawing any attention to myself in the car of doom and I parked it up next to the Corrado for the night. I sort of like to think that if cars had feelings then the Golf would be feeling a bit like a dog that’s been rescued from one of those houses you see on RSPCA adverts….bruised, smelly and unhappy, but with the prospect of a brighter future: As that was a Friday night, I woke up early the next morning and decided to take the Golf down to my garage to have a quick look at it, even though I already had taken on another project for a friend in the form of an SPi Mini Cooper that needed rather a lot of work. Handily, my friend with the Bora asked me if he could come and use my tools and brain to help him change the cambelt on his car on the same day: Having the Bora there was very useful. Not only was it the same engine code (ATD), it also was new enough to feature the same cambelt tensioner (without the hydraulic damper) as the Golf, so I was able to familiarise myself with a PD cambelt change on a car that hadn’t had a lifetime of neglect! I was also able to compare the engine bay on the Bora to that of the Golf, just to see what might be missing or broken on the Golf.

Hey, I don't quite know where to begin this project thread to be honest! How I came about acquiring a very neglected 2003 Mk4 Golf TDi is a bit of a long (and probably quite boring) story, but I'm going to tell it anyway. I know it's not a Corrado but its still a VW so I hope you don't mind :) As you may or may not know, I've just finished building a VW Corrado TDi. Here it is: Prior to me TDi-ifying it, it was a lowly 2.0 8V that I ran as a daily driver for quite a while, including through the winter, subjecting it to conditions like this: Yes - on its winter tyres it drove in and out of that parking space :) Once I'd finished TDi-ing it, which took a lot of work and eventually resulting in me pretty much rebuilding the whole car, I started to think that running it through another winter or two might not be conducive to keeping it in a decent condition. It's already got the odd age-related blemish or two and 3 or 4 months of exposure to salty, wet, freezing conditions really weren't going to help. So I started to think about picking up a cheap car to use through the winter months. About the same time as I started to think about this, a work colleague of mine started to think about getting rid of his Golf. It's difficult to describe exactly what sort of attitude my work colleague had towards this Golf, but basically, in a nutshell, he could not give a flying **** about it. He's 23 and had owned the Golf for 5 years, it being his second or third car - he reckoned he'd looked after it (as in washed it, maintained it etc) for about a year, and for the next 4 years he just abused it, only fixing it when it literally wouldn't move anymore, never servicing it, putting oil in it only when the low level warning light came on...etc etc etc. Part of his reason for him wanting to get rid of it was that he decided he wanted a 4x4 to run through the winter, with the eventual aim of saving up and buying a BMW (E46) 330Ci. It was also because he was 'fed up' of the Golf and its lack of power. I should explain that it has the PD100 (100bhp 188lb/ft) engine, which another friend has in a Bora and is quite capable of moving the Golf along fairly well. My colleague had been driving the Golf for about 18 months with no boost - a problem I was aware of before I bought the car, but the fact he hadn't attempted to fix it is fairly typical of his attitude towards the car - it still moved so why bother mending it?! Soooo....he started to make noises about selling the Golf. I was feeling a little deflated after finishing the Corrado TDi build and sort of in need of another project, so I enquired as to how much he may want for the Golf. I went and had a closer look at it and had a long discussion which eventually led to us agreeing on a VERY CHEAP price and me wondering whether I'd be able to actually rescue the thing. At that time it was running on a set of quite nice looking 18X8 replica BBS Splits, lowered, which gave the car a nice wide, low stance. I don't have any pics unfortunately. However, he decided that he'd use these wheels to part-fund the purchase of his winter 4x4 (a fairly knackered Daihatsu Fourtrak - another story!), so he asked me if I'd got a spare set of wheels that he could borrow to run the car on until he was ready to sell. (I should say that he needed to get the Fourtrak on the road before he could let me have the Golf, and I needed the Golf before the tax ran out on the Corrado, so it was a bit of a case of getting the timing right with the purchase). As it happened, I'd managed to pick up a very cheap set of Audi 15x6 Pepperpots with tyres, in anticipation of getting the Golf. I let him borrow them for the last month or so of his ownership. He bought the Golf down to work the day before I officially took ownership of it, and even thought I hadn't actually bought it I couldn't help but give it a quick wash to see how it came up with a tiny bit of TLC - bearing in mind he hadn't washed it for about 6 months...here is the car: So...it's a 2003 VW Golf 1.9 TDi PD100 'Match'. The match, I believe, is a sort of limited-edition runout Golf that was produced right at the end of the production run before the Mk5 came out in 2004. It's got a reasonably decent spec, including A/C, MFA and all the other Mk4 stuff. I'll give you a rundown on some of the external 'modifications'...firstly there is that front bumper - this was chopped apart to fit an FMIC about 4 years ago, and then riveted back together when the car stopped producing boost and he took the FMIC back off. There's also the bonnet, which was nicely modified by a brick which was thrown at the windscreen by some lasses boyfriend who wasn't very happy with my colleague at the time: There's also a few little scratches but nothing too major, however what he did do when he cared for the car at the start was had the bump strips and door handles painted body colour rather than the usual black - a nice touch which just makes it look like a PD130 or 150 I guess.

Is the Mk3 OBD1 or OBD2? You'll find that the OBD2 VR6's have a lot more low down torque than the Corrado's OBD1 setup. Partly due to the more advanced engine management but also due to the throttle body having a smaller throat which promotes higher speed inlet flow and therefore more torque. That sensor is indeed the one that you describe. Have you checked all of the normal things first - plugs/leads/distributor components/air filter/fuel filter etc?

Anything is possible :) I've seen a spaceframed Corrado with a 2.0 16V C20 XE engine fitted, RWD of course, but it was track-prepped only so no worries about an MOT etc. If you were going to do it then it'd be a huge project - but it could be done. You'd run into all sorts of problems along the way without a doubt, but if you were able to overcome them you could have a fun little toy on your hands. And technically speaking it'd still be a 2.0 16V wouldn't it ;)

If its held on by an M6 allen head bolt and its between the oil filter housing and flywheel on the lower section of the block then its the crankshaft impulse sensor. Generally pretty reliable but when it goes faulty it can cause poor starting and general poor running in all sorts of ways. Best to Vag-Com it for faults but make sure the engine is running when you do because if you scan it when the engine isn't running the ECU will flag up the impulse sensor as faulty - it only does this because it can't detect a signal.

Nope, the camshaft position sensor is only fitted to the coilpack equipped VR6's and is to be found behind the coilpack on the upper timing chain cover. Held on by an M6 allen head bolt and very easy to change once the coilpack is off.

Hey, For some reason I was wondering earlier what song was at number one in the official top 40 when my car was registered - so basically what song would possibly have been on the radio quite frequently in the first week or so of ownership. Using this website I was able to find out that on the day my Corrado was registered, 01/03/1996, it was Oasis - Don't Look Back In Anger that was at number one - pretty chuffed with that :) What songs were at number one when your Corrado first hit the road?

Looks amazing Dave, very nice to have those properly shiny parts under the bonnet :)

2 sets for me please!