Purple Tom

Oh yeah, a couple of other things, I fitted a new front bumper to replace the damaged original which has made a big difference to the front end, and also, my alternator mysteriously fixed itself :shrug: I did a long motorway drive to pick the missus up from near Alylesbury, and on the way back we called a Maccy D's for some food. We went and ate, and when I switched the ignition on to start the car I noticed the charge light illuminate! Started the engine, switched the lights on and sure enough, they were at full brightness without the need to rev the engine to excite the alternator into charging. I've done about 1000 miles since and it's been absolutely fine, so god knows what the problem was, but either way it's saved me some money. Wierd, because I've heard of Corrado's breaking all the time, but not fixing themselves :lol: All the teething troubles related to the OBD2 conversion and general rebuild are all sorted, and I'm really REALLY happy with the end result. Just need to get a couple of minor dents in the doors sorted out and it'll be good to go. Oh, and I've got a baffled sump to fit at some point soon, before a trip to the 'Ring at the end of May anyway, will combine it with an oil change methinks. The other thing I fitted was an uprated headlamp loom made by Kur2y. It's an absolute revelation, I can actually see where I'm going! I took the headlights out to fit it, and managed to mount the relays in a fairly unobtrusive place just behind the N/S lamp, utilising the bracket that the dim/dip resistor used to fit on. Anyone who hasn't fitted one, DO IT NOW! The difference is incredible and easily makes the lights as good as (if not better) than my Mum's Mk5 Golf. Mk1 - I think the RC's do suit the 'Rado, although I know they've been done, a lot. They do look good though :)

No didn't get the Recaros', decided in the end that there's nothing wrong with my leather so think I'll leave the interior alone for a bit! Kev, I agree entirely about the gear ratios, I'm already looking into it for a possible 6-speed 02S conversion, we'll see though. After a full detail last night, I decided that this morning the weather was good enough to put my new wheels on, and I think it looks rather good......have a look: Thoughts please? Tom

It's also worth mentioning the 12V fitted with an OBD2 set-up. Mine has so much more torque at low rpm than an OBD1 12V, and is loads of fun to drive on the twisties without ragging the nuts off it. I've never driven a 24V obviously so I can't compare, but if you want to have more torque without a 24V conversion then I would definitely recommend going OBD2 on the 12V, maybe combine it with some mild(ish) cams and a remap and you'd be well away :D

The rear wheel bearings will be the same as a Mk2 Golf 16V, they're the same for many many VW's of the same era, even down to the mk2/3 Polo. However, DON'T fit GSF bearings. They are of a really poor quality and you will find yourself replacing them in a very short amount of time. Go for genuine VAG (they aren't that expensive), fit them and forget about them. I went through 3 sets of GSF bearings in 4000 miles on my Polo GT before biting the bullet and getting VAG ones. I never had a problem after that. If you're going to fit new wheel bearings, you might as well fit new rear discs too. I used Febi discs from AVS and they've been fine. As you have to drift the bearing races into discs it makes sense to start with new discs rather than old ones (unless your discs happen to be in very good condition). Would also be worth replacing the carrier bolts as they tend to round off, and have a look at the rear caliper sliders while you're at it. HTH! Tom

Agreed, even factoring in my OBD2 conversion I get at least 33mpg at motorway speeds, and nudging 40mpg when just pottering about at 30-50 mph. When OBD1'd I still had to spank it a bit to get it to drop below 30mpg. If the noise isn't rpm related then I would lean towards it being the wheel bearings, quite possibly the rear ones rather than front. Does the noise remain the same if you drop the gearbox into neutral and let the engine idle when doing 70mph? If it does then I would immediately rule out any exhaust related problems and concentrate instead on rotating parts. I guess it could be the diff bearings too, which could show itself when cornering (as the diff will be experiencing differing loads on each side), but I doubt it tbh.

Hmmm, interesting...what did you do about the massive difference in throttle body throat size? There must have been quite a large step from the OBD2 t/b to the OBD1 inlet?

Go to www.vwspares.co.uk and purchase a set from them. They're made by Beru and are OEM quality, but a damn sight cheaper.

I contemplated it, but the major difference was the size of the flange where the throttle body fits. What did you do, cut the OBD2 flange off and weld it to the OBD1 manifold? The only other difference I could see was a vacuum take-off for the ISV which is easy to block off.

Well, it's pretty much sorted now, and I bloody love it :D As I said above, I got it all up and running on the thursday night, and finally test drove it at about 10:30 that evening. Had a couple of disasters that evening, the biggest one being the bonnet release cable clamp coming loose and consequently stopping the bonnet from opening. Thankfully only the N/S pin was stuck, the O/S still opened so I was able to get the grille off and with the help of a couple of mates got the bonnet open again and secured the clamp properly. The other disaster was that though I'd tried really hard I hadn't managed to get the gear linkage in the correct position, so engaging reverse selected first, first was third and third was fifth! Got that sorted too, all part of the major learning curve that I've been on over the last couple of weeks. The cold idle problem has been a major pain since I got it running. Basically, when I started the car from cold the 'idle' speed would be about 4400 rpm, gradually dropping to the correct 1000-ish rpm after a minute or so. Acutely embarrassing at 7.30 in the morning, and also acutely damaging to the engine! It got to the point that the only way I could conceive of starting it without it doing that was to unplug the throttle body plug and start it, which confused the ECU somewhat. If I then plugged it back in and started it the idle speed would be a more bearable 1750rpm until it dropped down. Every time I did that I had to plug in my Vagscanner and clear the fault code, it became a right pain. Another problem was that on high speed, high rpm gearchanges the throttle would hold the rpm at which the gearchange took place for a couple of seconds before dropping, making a smooth gearchange nigh-on impossible. I'd already spoken to Kev about my previous immobiliser problems, and he reckoned it was a knackered T/B, more specifically a knackered stepper motor. I agreed with this, and Vince offered the same diagnosis when I took the car down to Stealth on the saturday morning to have the Beissbarth alignment done. Vince was also good enough to Vag-Com the car for me and found no further faults other than a very old MAF fault which was cleared and didn't re-appear after a lengthy test-drive :clap: To cut a very long story short, I got hold of another T/B from a mate, in a straight swap for an OBD1 T/B, and both the cold idle and gearchange issues were immediately sorted. It felt like I had another 30 lb/ft too :wave: Another issue is that the alternator has stopped charging at low rpm, I have to give it about 2500rpm to excite it enough to start charging. I also have no battery warning light, but I do have 12V at the alternator end of the IND lead. Not a major problem, and it'll be solved once I get a new alternator, but I want to get it sorted soon because without the battery warning light I have no idea whether the drive belt may have broken, and obviously that drives the water pump. Although......thinking about it I would know if it had broken because the steering would go very heavy....either way I need a replacement alternator :lol: The car feels completely, totally, inconceivably better to drive. The engine has go soooo much more low down torque it's unbelievable. Before doing the work it felt really flat below 4000rpm, hardly any torque and you really had to get it high up in rev-range before it would think about giving any power. Don't get me wrong, it was quick once it was moving, but it was always quite hard work getting it to go. I think it was mostly down to slop in the timing chains TBH, so now with new chains and tensioners and the OBD2 conversion the difference is incredible. The extra torque, coupled with the brand-new front suspension set-up has transformed it into a car that makes me smile at every corner and every time I put my foot down. The exhaust note has changed for the better too, probably because I've fitted new manifold gaskets! :nuts: The Bilstein/Eibach shock and spring combination is really good too, firm without being crashy, but also very supple and compliant at low speeds. I really couldn't ask for a better ride given that car is now around 40mm lower than standard, and I haven't had any bottoming-out issues on any of the country lanes where I live. The R32/TT wishbone bushes have made a massive difference, and coupled with all the other new components the car now handles like I've heard a Corrado is supposed to. Turn-in is excellent, very quick without a hint of understeer even in the the wet, and its very adjustable mid-corner with the throttle if necessary. I know the VR6 is a heavy lump but it really doesn't feel like it drags the car wide in a corner. I had a play with a JDM 1.8 MX-5 earlier round some sharp twisties near my house, we were both trying and although the Mazda was obviously more nimble round the corners it certainly wasn't cornering any quicker than me. It was obvious that he was running very stiff suspension though which might have made it a little less chuckable into the corners. Either way, I was impressed with how the big heavy VR kept pace with the light, nimble roadster. I think I'll shut up now, I'll maybe make a list (more for my reference than anything else), I've all the bits I've replaced/repaired in the 6 months that I've owned the car, but it might scare me a bit. I''ve only got one pic of it done, and it's got an odd wheel on but it gives an idea, i'll get some more up soon :) Thats Daves16V's Corrado behind it by the way, a very nice car which'll be for sale soon...

You will still need to use the bolt to release the tension on the belt, but providing you don't move the belt once the tension is removed it literally is a 5 minute job to unbolt the old tensioner and fit the new one. You should only need a 13mm socket to do it, just remove the airbox and the tensioner is right there. If you're still not confident I'm sure someone would be willing to help you out, but if you just take your time it'll be absolutely fine :salute: Tom

Have a look at this thread Should tell you everything you need to know about the differences between the calipers.

If I understand correctly you want to know whether it's ok to SORN the car but keep the insurance running? If so, the answer is yes. I do this for around 5 months every year when my Mini is off the road. I SORN it as I don't use it during the winter, but I keep it insured as it helps the policy build up NCB etc. So yeah, just SORN the R32 until you're ready to use it again, but obviously renew the insurance when it's due. The only time the insurance would become invalid is if you used the R32 on the road when it was either SORN'd or not taxed at all. HTH Tom

VR6's definitely need the ISV I'm afraid, unless you convert to OBD2 but that's quite involved really. As for the charcoal canister, it can be removed but I'm not sure on the process, think you'd definitely need a catch tank of some description but I don't know for sure, hopefully someone else will.

Yup, all bearings are the same throughout the range. All the rear discs are the same size too. If you replace the discs you have to replace the bearings anyway, as the inner bearing races are pressed into the disc and although they are removable using a suitable drift, it's a false economy as new bearings are cheap as chips. Don't get GSF bearings either, or any other for that matter, they're all crap. Go for proper VW ones and make sure you use the correct method when putting the preload on them and they'll last for ages. Fitting them is an easy job, I use a specific sized socket for drifting the 'outer' inner race in, and a decent punch for drifiting the 'inner' inner race in. Then it's just a case of using decent grease on them, fitting the dust seal, making sure the stub axle is perfectly clean and unpitted, then fitting the whole lot along with the thrust washer and nut and then getting the right preload on them. Job done, takes about half an hour per side providing the carriers come off OK. Be prepared to get a bit angry with the stupid hex-headed bolts that hold the carriers on, especially if some monkey's been at them before and rounded them off. One of mine was rounded and I had to use some heat to get it out, but once that was done it was plain sailing. FYI, the same bearings are used on loads of VW's, even including the small engined drum braked cars like the Mk3 Polo GT etc. Hope that helps Tom

I would agree with keeping your wishbones. I just replaced the entire front suspension on my VR and in the end I decided to keep the original wishbones and just press a set of R32/TT bushes in. I kept the front bushes as they were because, as Kev says, they don't take any abuse at all and are only really there to stop the wishbone from moving about. It's the rear bushes that do all the work. I simply removed my wishbones, cleaned them up, gave them a couple of coats of primer then hammerited them and fitted the new bushes. They are made of good quality steel and only had surface rust so it seemed pointless replacing them. If you decide to go down that route then you'll need the R32/TT bushes too. They make a massive difference to the way the car drives and are pretty cheap. I got mine from TPS using my Club GTi discount and got 8% off. Total price including VAT was £29.46. It took about 5 minutes to press the old bushes out and fit the new ones. If you want the part number, it's: 8NO 407 181 B You'll need two of them. Make sure you get the car properly aligned afterwards, and while you're there you could think about replacing the lower balljoints as, depending on how you do it, they pretty much have to come off to remove the wishbone anyway. Don't forget that on the VR you'll need to raise the engine on the O/S to remove the front wishbone mounting bolt. Hope that helps a bit. Tom Oh, and incidentally, I've used TPS in Derby ever since they opened and have never needed an account number. They know me by sight and name now because of the amount I've ordered, but I've never had an account with them, I just always quote my Club GTi number to get the discount. It sounds like some TPS centres vary on their operating policies which is a bit daft really.

Yup, everyday for me too. I'm not too precious about it, I like driving it too much :D

I drove it the same day as Greg, in fact, I was entrusted with the keys and £40 in cash to go and fill it up with 97RON at the Total garage before Greg arrived :D I didn't go for as long a test drive as Greg, maybe about 20 minutes in and around the Southam area, but all I can say is I was incredibly impressed with the cars impeccable manners at low speeds. Off-boost you wouldn't know you were in anything other than a standard VR6, and this is even more impressive when you consider the car is 'only' running OBD1 management. However, once you get it singing up above about 2500rpm you are transported into a different world. This, in my opinion, is supercar territory. The rush of acceleration is really like nothing else I've ever experienced. I've not been fortunate enough to have driven that many fast cars, but I've been passenger in a few and this car totally eclipsed anything else that's gone before it. I would echo Greg's sentiments in that it feels like going into warp speed, it's almost like the scenery around you blurs and you experience tunnel vision as the car accelerates in an incredibly linear fashion up to speeds that are licence-losing in the blink of an eye. My missus bloody loved it :) Needless to say, I'm selling my Vauxhall-engined Mini (anyone interested?!) and going straight down to Stealth once I've got the cash. I really can't think of a better way to spend that amount of money, and I believe it turns the Corrado into a viable alternative to any modern car up to and above £100k. Seriously. I'm just glad that I've just done all the necessary chassis and brake mods to my car to be able to handle the power and torque, as well as an OBD2 conversion :norty: Thanks Vince, another customer found and retained, and I only came down to have my suspension aligned :lol:

It's alive.... :clap: But it idles at 4400rpm and as it was 23:30 when I started it up I soon switched it off :( I think it's because of the ECU losing the throttle adaptation settings, need to re-calibrate it tomorrow if the method I've found works. Got it booked in at Stealth on Saturday morning at 9am for a full alignment so I really need to get it done for then...no pressure :lol:

Well the story with the immobiliser continues. I spoke to Vince who originally fitted this OBD2 kit to another Corrado back in 2006. He said it should have come with the key and transponder ring too. I contacted the guy who sold me the kit who had another look in the shell and found the key/ring hidden under the carpet! He's posted it to me so I should have it tomorrow (monday) :) Hopefully I can get it fitted fairly easily and it'll run. But, as the engine is back in now I thought I'd put a few pics up of the work done so far. They're not very exciting, all oily dirty pics, but gives an idea of what's been going on :lol: Got everything disconnected after having a small battle with the driveshafts (will explain later) and I got the engine out: I did a lot of things before starting the chains/tensioners, including fitting the OBD2 loom, which was a nightmare! In fact, it was easy, but getting the bloody servo out of the way was a proper pain in the arse :mad2: Got it sorted in the end though, but I was pretty nervous because I had no real way of testing anything before putting the engine back in. I really didn't want to connect everything up, find a major problem somewhere and have to take it all out again. But, I had to go for it, so got the loom fitted and started on the chains. I got the gearbox and flywheel off and was able to see why it's not possible to do the chains with the 'box on. I didn't realise how all-encompassing that lower housing is: Following the awesome how-to guide in the Wiki, I got the engine partially stripped. I used a BL A-Series flywheel locking tool to lock the VR's flywheel (works on small-block VW lumps too!) and was also able to find some 3mm bits of steel that were ideal as cam locking tools! I thought I'd have to make one but didn't want to fork out £15-odd for one that I'll likely only use a few times at the most. These bits worked great :clap: : Stripping the engine down revealed that the upper tensioner was broken around the rivets, as per usual, but also that the lower guide piece had broken into two pieces. The 'upper' piece was seperate and sort of floating about on the chain. It couldn't go anywhere but I'm sure it wasn't contributing to the general health of the engine. The guides and tensioners weren't too scored and the chains seemed in good health in general but I'm pretty convinced they were the original ones: Once it was fully stripped I whipped the camshafts out and replaced all 12 tappets with genuine ones. I really wish I could have afforded a set of 268's to go in there at the same time but I think that can wait a little while! And replacing the camshafts isn't difficult with the engine in anyway. I fitted the new chains, tensioners and guides, including the mk4 upgrade to the upper tensioner: I set the intermediate shaft timing mark to point to the top to aid the fitting of aftermarket camshafts later on. Once the upper was on and the chains correctly tensioned I removed the cam-locks and found that after several rotations of the engine the timing marks all still lined up, so I was a happy chap :lol: So I fitted a new crankshaft oil seal to the lower cover, bunged the flywheel back on with a new clutch and then fitted the gearbox after checking the clutch arm for cracks and fitting a new release bearing. It looks quite good in this pic but I forgot how much stuff there was left to go on! Once the box was back on I fitted a new water pump, crack pipe, cooler seals and small transfer pipes etc, just to save having to do it later on. The cooler wasn't showing any signs of going opaque so I think that'll be ok for a while: Once I had done that I figured it was as good a time as any to drop the engine back in and start connecting things up! That was a good moment as it was good to finally be getting things back together again! I would have liked to have done some cleaning work in the 'bay but I really didn't have much time so I'll just work around it and get it clean when the time comes. Plus it's a daily so it'll get filthy soon anyway 8) I dropped the lump back in and got things pretty much back together ready to give it a try: It was at this point, when trying to start it, that the immobiliser problems revealed themselves. However, when switching the ignition on the TB made the correct noises and there was no fire or funny noises, so again, I was happy :lol: About the driveshafts. I did the usual of leaving the front suspension on and locking the front brakes to make it easier to undo the inner CV bolts. They all came undone without a problem but the inner CV's refused to budge enough to drop the driveshafts out of the gearbox driveflanges. When lifting the engine out I was able to release the O/S (long) shaft, but the N/S stayed firmly attached to the gearbox. A bit of persuasion got it off, but what happened was that the inner CV outer casing stayed attached to the 'box, leaving the inner drive section attached to the driveshaft and the 6 bearings on the floor. This meant I had to learn how to rebuild a CV joint, luckily the Bentley manual helped with this. I ended up having to do both inner CV's in the end, fortunately the drive surfaces and bearings were in good condition so some fresh grease should see them last another 130k. The second driveshaft problem related to the longer, O/S shaft. I just could not get it free from the drive flange in the bearing housing, whereas the N/S shaft literally fell out of the drive flange. I got the entire strut off the car with the driveshaft firmly attached by the spline. I knew something wasn't right as if fitted correctly the CV joint shouldn't be an interference fit. Copious amounts of hammering later, coupled with temperatures of 160º+ courtesy of oxy-acetylene and a very poorly fingernail :ignore: saw the CV joint out, and me wondering who the holy-***-****-bugger would loctite a CV joint in! :eek: Unfortunately it resulted in a knackered CV joint, despite trying to protect the threads. Once all of that little lot was sorted, coupled with more expense on a new CV joint, I got the new CV boots fitted to the driveshafts and cleaned them up ready to fit: I still can't believe someone would put loctite on a CV joint spline!!! I also got the new wheel bearings pressed into their housings, along with their drive flanges, and fitted the R32 bushes into the cleaned up VR6 wishbones: Forgot to mention that I fitted the wishbones to the car before the engine was in, along with new steering arms, steering rack boots, trackrod ends and ARB drop-links. I think that's about it, sorry for the essay, but I've learned an awful lot and I reckon I'll be able to give some useful VR6 related advice now :clap: Thanks for reading, I'll update again when it's running Tom

Long story to tell which isn't finished yet so I'm not going to start it! I'm having immobiliser issues atm, definitely with the OBD2 ECU as my car doesn't have a factory immobiliser. I was told the ECU had been defeated but I'm pretty convinced that was bullsh*t. Lots of pics and stuff to show you, but the long and short of it is that the car starts and runs but only for a couple of seconds. I'm happy that it does that though, at least it proves the chains are right and the loom is ok etc, but still lots to do yet. Adam - yeah I'm happy to fit the 288's for you mate, let me know how you're getting on and we'll arrange a time. Tom

Well I fully retract everything that I said, I was convinced the difference would be very noticeable but obviously not. I'm pleased though, I was going to upgrade to 312's from 288's this summer, which would have meant sacrificing my Speedlines and running some other 16" rim as a winter wheel. Now I'm going to keep the 288's, run my RC's as a summer wheel and the Speedlines as winters with some decent winter tyres on :) Saved me some money too! Tom

You never know :D Thanks, may be in touch if anything goes a bit pear-shaped! Cheers Tom

I agree! What you could do is buy the brand new one that I have in my for sale listing for £45 posted ;) (shameless plug, sorry!)

Well the time has come...chains/tensioners/clutch/gearbox/OBD2/suspension overhaul! So far I've reconditioned a set of bearing carriers that I purchased, ready to fit new bearings and drive flanges into. I've also partially stripped the front of the car and begun to make note of what does what on my OBD2 loom, which I've inspected and rewrapped with proper tape rather than shitty insulation tape :pukeright: Everything has come apart fairly easily so far, I reckon in a couple more hours I'll have the gearbox and chain covers off and be ready to begin the task of getting it to the correct TDC and replacing all the necessary components. Looks pretty straightforward though to be fair. Here's a few pics.... Here's how it looked when I remembered I really should start taking some pictures :lol: And how it looked when I left it tonight, all water hoses off, inlet manifold removed, wiring loom partially removed: Here's the reconned bearing housings: The cleaned-up gearbox: OBD2 inlet manifold: Rewrapped loom: And the boxes of bits ready to go on, scary stuff! I'll update again soon once I've done some more stuff to it!

I don't have 312's, but I can imagine the difference is pretty noticeable. I run 288's and the difference between those and 280's was pretty large, and thats only an 8mm increase on overall disc diameter, coupled with a large increased in pad swept area. If you couple that with an 24mm increase in disc diameter I reckon you're going to notice a massive difference between 288's and 312's. Hopefully someone with actual experience will be able to tell you for definite though :) Tom