fendervg

Looks good - handy if you can read German like me! The other good one in German is the big Corrado Book, that was recently reprinted - great colour pictures and cutaways with some rare factory archive photos - not too much on the VR though as that had just come out when the book was first published. The black and white paperback of press articles in English isn't great - mainly US stuff, but good for completeness.

Do you still have this? Would be interested.

Glove box light and cigarette lighter for illumination.

Are you basing your temperature readings off the dash gauge? In my experience that reading can vary wildly and is really only helpful as an indication of when you should pull over and stop to avoid overheating! You could try hooking up VCDS diagnostics software - this will let you see the exact coolant temperature that is being reported back to the ECU by the blue temp sensor. Alternatively, swap the plugs around between the blue sender and the (yellow, I think) one for the dash to see if the reading changes. All are located at the front of the thermostat housing. I used to run the low temp rad switch mentioned in the "Definitive VR6 Cooling" thread on here for a few years, but replaced it with a normal one once it went faulty. Having refurbished/replaced most of the cooling system I didn't have any issues - I think most of the over heatng happens when there is already a problematic component somewhere in there such as a pump, rad, fan, stat etc., and the low temp alternative parts are fitted in an effort to fix this and end up masking the real cause.

2.8 VR6 engines found on the Golf 3 and others use a 3.5 bar regulator, the 2.9 VR6 ABV needs a 4 bar. I wouldn't believe any of the other stuff in the description - makes no sense. All the FPR does is maintain a constant pressure in the fuel rail, everything else is done by the ECU and the injectors.

Thanks Anna. It's worth asking them anyway I'd say just to see. I understand the problems with the small volume vs high cost for these parts, but I'd say the fog lights might be worth it as they are standard to all late Corrados both LHD and RHD, and nearly all cracked at this stage. I also think that at this point in the car's life the remaining owners of good condition cars would be prepared to pay a bit more for re-manufactured OEM quality parts than before. I'd certainly be willing to pay in the region of €200 a side, if the glass was hardened.

Yes, this is the fuel pressure regulator (4 bar) on the RHS of the rail. There is a small allen head nipple on the front left of the rail where the feed and return hoses join up that can be undone carefully with a rag for soakage to relieve fuel pressure in the system. Another way is to remove the fuel pump relay and run the engine until it cuts out having used up all the fuel in the system. You can use that bleed nipple to attach a pressure gauge to the rail for testing - you should see 3.5 bar at normal running engine on, and this should rise to 4 bar with the vacuum hose to the FPR disconnected. Once the engine is stopped you should still have at least 3.0 bar in the system after 30 minutes. Be careful when removing the old regulator from the rail, they tend not to come out easily without being damaged, and it is easy to bend the rail housing if using too much force. If you're replacing it anyway a pair of water pump pliers on the exposed part works well.

For the hot starting - check the residual fuel pressure level at the rail - often a new FPR will fix this. Some have suspected a leak down through the feed hose from the pump and have fitted a small non-return valve there. It sounds like you might have a minor misfire there - check/replace your leads and spark plugs and and check dizzy cap and rotor or coil pack.

Hi Anna - any chance VW Classic would ever do a run of late fog light and indicators? I know it's probably a tricky part to mold etc, but would be worthwhile as I'd say nearly all are cracked and there would be great interest. Preferably with hardened glass. Any of the options I've seen that involve swapping over lenses from other units tend not to give great results. Cheers.

Trying to have a chat first is always a better option IMHO - then save the bigger guns for later if that doesn't work. There's no point antagonising people from the word go unless it's a no hope situation - they do live beside you after all.

It does. It checks the return voltage, and if not present disables ABS. This is to allow for faulty wiring in the loom, broken PCB or blown bulb.

Yeah, the bulbs tend to blow if there is an ABS fault as they're not meant to be on all the time, like mine was! Make sure you test the loom connector and PCB to check that it is the bulb and not something else.

1w 12v filament bulb, or similar LED with an in-line resistor from any good electronics supplier - try Radionics, would have said Maplins until the last few weeks...

IMHO prices have gone up, but not to the level that some people are asking - and it's only for very clean original cars with little to no mods. There seems to be a lot of premium put on low mileage examples now, which is pretty much irrelevant if you are buying a car to drive but seems to be an obsession with collectors/investors who are hoping that the low miles reflect well on the rest of the car.

Just an update on some poor running issues I was having over the last few months and how they were eventually resolved. Basically the car was suffering the dreaded stalling when coming to a stop or dipping the clutch, and an also had an erratic idle and some lurching/bucking. Often it would cut out at junctions several times even on short journeys, hot or cold. It would also sometimes buck violently in low gears and lurch without warning. This is all now resolved, thanks to two things: - I took off the intake boot to check for air leaks, and noticed some oil around the PCV valve, so cleaned that up and added some host clips to make a tight seal. Also noticed a small tear in the vacuum hose from the solenoid valve to the throttle body that runs under the air box. Replaced this. - After a while, the car suddenly developed a misfire on one cylinder - investigated all the spark plugs and it turned out that one had failed, maybe a crack or something else, but I replaced them all with a new set and now all of the problems are gone and the car idles and returns to idle perfectly every time as it should. I had checked all the plugs before, and they weren't that old, but it looks like this may have been a gradual failure that eventually manifested itself as a misfire - so always worth replacing the plugs in these cases. Hopefully this might help some of you having similar problems - these well known symptoms are a nightmare to track down and seem to be caused by multiple things in many cases.

Could be a faulty ignition switch - it's a common failure item.

Yes, it connects with a special cap on the reservoir. I've always used this model, and never had any issues once it's not over pressurised. Works much better than using the spare tyre. Your only other option is the two man gravity method I think, but that's a pain.

Surely the lambda will just pull back and compensate for over fuelling? I'm all for worthwhile upgrades but I don't think putting any more fuel in there without more air as well will do any good? And as for spray patterns, how much of a difference will that make in real terms? I thought the main test of injector health was the ability to deliver a given amount in a certain period of time. I think the systems as it stands was designed to work at 3.5bar operating pressure, with a fixed injector flow rate, and is governed by the ECU fuelling map and lambda for rich/lean detection once up to speed. I'd say the most benefits are probably to be had by cleaning and checking the existing factory injectors and replacing all the o-rings. I have a set of refurbished ones that I haven't gotten around to fitting yet, but will update when I do. BTW, the post office here have a service where they will give you a delivery address in the US, and will then ship back to Europe for you - do you not have something similar? It's not that cheap, but handy for those times when a supplier will only ship within their own country.

There are two relays and a set of fuses behind the glove box for ABS. The ABS ECU is in the passenger foot well beside the door, behind a trim panel.

Ah, it's a primitive system for sure - but no worse than any other of that era, and I've rarely come across a 25+ year old car with no ABS issues, if fitted. The sensors and rings are service items anyway and should be replaced regularly or when they go faulty in the case of the sensors. The pedal position sensor is a bit of a weak link, but the ABS light is a simple circuit where most often the bulb blows from having been on all the time (easily replaced) and the ECU failure due to water ingress is also pretty rare. One problem is that these systems don't like being sat around for long periods of time, so if a car has been off the road, there will be issues for sure, and there's also a tendency to fit cheaper after-market sensors after seeing the price of new ones from VAG. The later Teves 20 retrofit system is much more reliable and better designed, but they also give trouble as this age, and it's a lot of work to collect all the parts and fit for not a lot of return - but parts are easily available and an MOT pass is guaranteed! Overall braking performance is not much better though.

I think the 117 part is for G60s etc, with only four outlets. For a VR6 you will be looking for a six-outlet pump unit, and will also have components for EDL/EDS built in.

Well, there aren't many options. BBA-Reman at least have diagnostics that they can use to test a pump unit. If you or someone you know is handy with electronics it's possible to take a look at the PCB yourself. There's very few good second hand units around because most of them weren't working when taken off the car and they were only produced for RHD in the first place. VW do have some new ones in stock, but at over £2k a piece I don't think there will be many takers.

PCB is in the rectangular plastic housing that sits underneath the pump unit. Right in the way of lots of heat, dirt and water! The connector goes into the front of it. Two long Allen head screws hold the cover on, but they can seize and are easy to round off. I don't think the ECUs go faulty that often unless they get water damaged. It's all solid state and simple stuff.

I don't think the pumps changed on the RHD VR6s - probably just a minor parts revision. Once it's got the correct number of outlets and the right loom connector socket you should be good to go. Be aware that the actual mode of failure on these is not the valve solenoid (unless extremely corroded or heavily contaminated brake fluid), but the PCB that is underneath, which can crack with heat, get dirty/wet and the loom connector disintegrates.

They are getting hard to find now because they were only fitted to a few models for a short period of time and were specific to RHD. Not all o them are repairable or can be successfully refurbished as well. I remember reading somewhere that the same ABS system was fitted to some Volvo cars from the same era.