fendervg

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.

The Digifiz is too small to fit snugly into the Corrado binnacle, it would need a bit of fettling and a surround to look right.There's plenty of info online about fitting them to a Mk2 Golf. The most common digi dash conversion for the Corrado that I've seen is using the ones from an Astra GTE - there was a post on the FB group a while back from a lad that had a few of these for sale.

For the wiring, there is a link loom from the switch to the fusebox assembly, and then it's a whole headlight loom replacement with one that has the wiring for range adjustable lamps in it. Often available on German ebay, where this was a more common option. The motors are not specific to the Corrado, so should be easy to find. Replacing the loom is a lot of hassle, and it's possible to run a new loom yourself - each motor has 3 pins, one for 12v current, one for earth and the middle pin for the signal from the switch, so it's easy enough to come up with something. I have the parts stashed away somewhere and have not got around to fitting them yet - will see if I can dig out part numbers and a wiring diagram for you.

Early VR6s have the 2x2 connector - I think the change-over happened about the same time as coil packs were used instead of distributors. All are OBD1 however.

Worth checking the FPR - there is a small allen-head nipple on the front of the fuel rail on the left, near where the flexi-hoses for feed and return join, you can connect a pressure gauge here to test it. Be careful undoing it as there may be a fair bit of residual pressure there. The fuel pressure should be 3.5 bar with the pump running, and rise to 4 bar (fuel pump nominal pressure) when you disconnect the small vacuum hose feed on the FPR. With the engine turned off, it should keep a good residual pressure and still show >3 bar after half an hour or so. A few of us on here have fitted a small non-return valve on the feed hose at the pump end in the fuel tank and this has sorted warm starting issues. I'd also check the hall sender (either part of the distributor, or in the side of the head near the coil pack) as they are also known to cause hot starting problems sometimes.

Yep, it's to heat and vaporise oil residue in cold climates during start-up. On UK cars it's always a dummy part with a plug going to it from the loom, but no terminal pins in the sockets. I've never been able to come across the part number for the actual part with the heating element in it and am not even sure if they are available any more, but they are not needed on our cars.

Yeah, a good idea to always use something to spread the load a bit and protect the under seal. A good idea someone gave me years back was to use ice hockey pucks - they are made of a very hard rubber compound and perfect for this.

BKR5E will work as well. They are slightly cheaper, I think the EKU is the long life version.

Yep. They usually have them - at least that's where I used to get them. They are also used on some runabouts.

NGK BKR5EKU. Bog standard and easy to get hold off. Don't bother with any of the fancy triple electrode long life ones as they make no difference on the VR, some feel they can even cause problems.

That's a joke. What's broken on the one you have? It's a really simple circuit board and you can easily solder in a replacement bulb or even better, an LED with resistor.