Purple Tom

My Vredestein Snowtrac3's are bloody brilliant :clap: I deliberately sought out some terrible roads yesterday after the 6" of snow we had on Friday night. The Corrado didn't put a foot wrong at all - in fact at one point I passed a Range Rover Sport which had just slid into a ditch. I've found them not particularly brilliant on black ice (not compacted snow, actual black ice!), but they are fantastic on both fresh and heavily compacted snow. They feel planted and I even found myself going quick enough at one point for the spoiler to go up...certainly wouldn't have felt like that on the T1-R's! As Kev has said they are quite progressive in the dry. On the first day of using them before it snowed I found that cornering relatively hard would provoke a certain amount of an understeery slide, but its incredibly progressive and very very easy to predict and correct. Not a hint of lift-off oversteer either. All in all - I will never run summer tyres through the winter again!!

Removing the rear wheels will definitely improve access to the job. I reckon an hour to do both sides at the most, and that includes thinking time :) I had a problem with my old VR6 handbrake cables freezing so whenever I parked it at night I just left the handbrake off until I replaced the cables. However I park on a flat area so it wasn't a problem for me.

They're not a big pain to change at all really, although you need to partially dismantle the centre console to do it, better to take a seat out. In terms of the caliper end, it's very straightforward. I'm not sure about the obsolete issue, I wouldn't have thought they'd be Corrado-specific, there must be an equivalent fitted to other VAG cars from the same era?

Well as I've got my winter tyres on I spent a lot of today just enjoying how amazing they are, and how planted the car feels in pretty much any conditions! Here's some snowy pics: And the temperature at 23.15 tonight when I got called out to work: All good fun! :D

Might be worth giving them a quick measure beforehand just to check the centre of the mounts to the shell, but there's no reason for them not to be - good plan :)

Just had a look on Vagcat and the part numbers for the Golf VR6 and Corrado VR6 rear beams are the same...1H0 500 051 Q So I think the answer is yes!

Is it worth putting a link to VagCat in the first post too? I use it, its basically on online version of ETKA, and while it's not 100% accurate for modern VW's, it's always been bang on when I've needed part numbers for the Corrado. You have to sign up to the forum which takes a few minutes and then you're free to browse through the catalogue, its really really useful! Might be helpful for people to find part numbers, and also hopefully save Scarlett a lot of time as people can post up the part number they want a price/availability for. For example, I just found the part number for the 90mm splitter - 535 805 903 B http://www.vagcat.com Tom

134k when I did mine - no noise but the top tensioner pad was broken around the rivets and the lower guide was completely snapped in half along its length. Replaced all components with new, including the Mk4 top pad upgrade and it ran better, sounded better and seemed more powerful.

Got my winters on last night...nothing special but I'm running Bora 15x6 steelies on adaptors, soon to be going widetrack though. The tyres are Vredestein SnowTrac3's and they're great :) Tom

Go to Halfords and buy the Bosch 928S set. It retails at £27.99 but with a trade card you'll get them for just over £15. The go straight on the standard arms and fit without any modification.

I disagree, if it won't turn at all and just clicks, then after a few goes turns over absolutely fine then its unlikely to be the battery, otherwise it would continuously get worse. Have a look at all of the battery connections, including the earths and the connections to the starter, and also might be worth checking the ignition switch as well... Obviously it could be the battery, but going by the symptoms you've described it doesn't sound like it :) Tom

I did it at the same time as chains/tensioners/clutch/OBD2 conversion on my old VR. I just took them out of the packet and dropped 'em in. Got it built and fired up eventually despite some trouble with the OBD2. One of the 12 was noisy for roughly 10 minutes, as soon as I got it moving and the oil temperature up to normal it quietened down lovely.

Looks good Mark - amazing the difference the shotblasting makes to the rear beam! I'm afraid to say that the outer sleeve for the rear beam bushes needs to come out too - they're a tight interference fit in the beam. Make a note of the orientation because the new ones will need to go back in the same way. I'd also recommend getting standard OE bushes, don't bother with poly bushes. I might send you a PM over the next few weeks regarding shotblasting if that's ok? I'm going to have some bits that'll need doing, and I'd rather pay you over anyone else! Cheers Tom

Excellent news :)

I've gone for 185/55R15 Vredestein SnowTrac3's. I got them about 6 weeks ago and paid just over £50 a corner from mytyres.co.uk (I reckon they'll have gone up considerably by now though :( ) I went for that size because I've got a set of 15x6 5x100 steels for my Corrado as I'm about to do a widetrack conversion. Only slightly bigger than the standard 195/50R15 tyres and they have very good reviews. Should be a good size for standard Speedlines too... Tom

Mine's called Ted

Just to resurrect this thread, I met Mike Brewer at the NEC Classic Car Show today (Friday 12th) . I shook his hand, told him I didn't want a picture or his autograph and just said "when are we going to see a Corrado on Wheeler Dealers?" He said "the series after this one - I've bought a G60 with a blown supercharger", smiled, and walked off somewhere. So keep an eye out for it :)

Sounds like my old VR - L*** PVW - Aqua Blue lowered on BBS RC's? Sold to a guy in West Bridgford who worked in Leicester so conceivable to be spotted there - god I miss that car!!

No, you may well need more than 5L, I don't know off the top of my head how much coolant a G60 takes. It will say in the capacities section of the handbook though, if you've got it handy, mines outside in the car :lol:

I think I've read that about 213 were made - does that figure seem accurate? I think in the last 2 years I've seen maybe 20 come up for sale so I think its fair to say they're pretty rare - not that I'm trying to put you off James! :lol:

What I tend to do when replacing coolant is pre-mix the coolant before putting it in the car. I Buy 5L of Halfords Advanced Antifreeze (made to exactly the same specification as G12+ but about a third of the price with a trade card) then find an empty clear 5L bottle - an old screenwash bottle is ideal. Fill the empty bottle with neat antifreeze until it's roughly 40% full (just judge it), then add water to the top. Fill the cooling system on the car using the method recommended by the manufacturer. If it's not enough then just do the same again with another 40/60 antifreeze/water mixture. I always keep a bottle of pre-mixed coolant handy in the garage should I need it, and if for whatever reason I change coolant in the winter I just go for a 50/50 ratio, but that's just me. HTH Tom

I have to agree with Judith, I regularly see 45+mpg from my 8V, and even with my country lane thrash to work and back every morning I still see 35mpg per tankful - pretty good really. The Corrado 8V has 2 engine codes - 2E and ADY. The ADY is the later one and uses Siemens engine management with an OBD2-style stepper motor in the TB for idle, the 2E is earlier and uses Bosch gear with an ISV. Servicing wise they are all tall-block 1984cc 8V lumps so identical to the Mk3 Golf GTi in that respect. Running gear wise they are the same as any other narrow-track Corrado (16V and G60). They have 256mm brakes up front just like the 16V, but the 280mm upgrade is a piece of cake. I'd definitely recommend one if you're after a nice reliable economical daily driver. I liked mine so much that I bought it back within a year of selling it. HTH a bit. Tom

Thats actually the power steering pump, bloody noisy things aren't they!

If for whatever reason it doesn't work out with mort1414's engine, I have a bare VR6 block and head that you could have. I got them from another member for free recently but currently have no use for them (other than filling up the garage), so if they're to be used for R&D purposes then all good, as long as I can make a coffee table from the block once you're done with it! Good luck with the dissertation though, sounds like a good project :)

I'm not a massive fan of crumbled ham...can we have cheese and pickle instead? (I like blue cars.......)