tony_ack

You will miss having that permanent fixture on the drive, that something to look at and then dream 'only if...'. But I think that with the time and money that you don't have in the first year of marriage then it makes sense. On the other hand, you're entering a time in your life now where doing things like owning a classic car is going to become more difficult. And you were talking about getting rid of the MK2 as well so does that mean rep-mobile-ia beckons? Whatever you do, if you sell it whole make sure it is to someone that you know has the same dedication as you to restore it. I sold a really early and very solid MK2 GTI project (1985) a few months ago for a criminally low price because I needed to get rid of my lockup. I let it go for slightly cheaper as he was keen to finish it off and restore it. I found it being broken on eBay a week later.

Look smaller yes, but I was talking about feel from a driving perspective. The VR6 rides higher as standard so the 195s can look 'lost' in the arches. It's really subjective, but I definitely preferred the look of 205s over 195s. But 195s are so much cheaper, so it depends how much of a factor price is!

I've done really well in not spending any money on the Corrado recently, then I noticed this thread... I'm interested in the rear speaker shelves, pillar trims and centre tunnel trims. Any chance of pics of the damage on the centre trims? To be honest, I've got a decent top half of the gear lever surround (where the badge goes) so not too bothered about that, but would be good to see the handbrake trim. Are all the tabs on the tunnel trim intact? Second dibs on the footwell trims, but I suspect they've definitely gone! Had my eye on the carpets too, but I've got to draw the line somewhere...

I'd definitely echo this about the 195/50s - they are okay on the speedlines but they just feel a little smaller (largely psychological I think!) and definitely look too small, especially on standard ride height

May be a bit late now... Only done this on the MK2 Golf, but the method is pretty much the same. You'll need to take off the bumper (17mm with a captive nut in the chassis leg - it'll be tough to loosen the bolts but don't break the nut!!) and arch liners, and loosen the bolts from the wing to the slam panel. Your biggest challenge is going to be getting through the underseal and breaking it so you can separate the wing from the body. Some of the bolts are hidden by the underseal so use your new wing as a guide to see where they should be. Once it's on you then need to reseal the wing to the body to ensure it stays rust-proof. When fitting the new wing, nip up the bolts so they're slightly more than finger tight, which should allow you to still move the wing to get it aligned properly. Make sure you align with the bonnet down and ensure all your panel gaps are the same. The driver's wing on my Corrado is slightly rusty, and having swapped a wing on the Golf, this time I think I'd rather repair the rust than swap the wing, as I'd be loathed to mess up the alignment and damage the factory underseal. Between the sunroof and the wing I would think the sunroof is easier to be honest!!

Did exactly the same repair on my (replacement) tailgate - the rust wasn't bad but it was worth fixing before it got worse. I attacked the insides with a dremmel, which, with the pointy-grinder attachment just about reaches all the way in, then like you I topped off with Kurust and then followed up with a good etch primer. Unfortunately as I needed to grind beyond the lights plinth to where it was visible, so I ended up painting the whole of the panel beneath the plinth to get it blended in properly. Good luck with the sills - I checked mine last week and the one which had a small rust bubble on the lip where it joins the rear arch turned out to be solid, and the side that looked solid had a rotten lip! If your wheels are off, also take the opportunity to clean up inside the arch around the fuel filler (if you didn't already when you did the welding on that side) - mine looks perfect from the outside, but the underseal is starting to separate slightly and rust is starting to form on the inside around the filler hole. Treatable if you get to it early, but once it's visible from the outside it's a cut and weld job.

Wow, it's times like this when I'm pretty pleased with my petty little 'to do' list! I agree with Cazza to a point - it may be cheaper to break and get something a little more complete, but it really depends what you want out of the plum. The plum is definitely not going to be easy to get back on the road, but it does make a very good project, which I get the impression you are after more than anything else (and so a high cost in hours could actually be a plus point!). Plus you need to factor in that you know the Plum - where it is strong, where it needs work, whereas a new Corrado may look okay on the surface, but horrors may lurk beneath. On the other hand, if you feel sad every time you look at it, wishing you could drive it, then definitely time to weigh up your options. I'll chip in a little on what I know! Engine - Corrado and Golf 16v have the same engine code as you know. I've had a quick look on Vagcat and the Corrado has a bigger clutch, but to be honest I can't see that being a problem as surely the blocks are the same? At worst you may have to keep your flywheel if they're different. A popular swap for the MK2 boys is the 9a bottom end with the KR head and MK2 gearbox (not quite as popular as the ABF out of the MK3, but you suggested you don't want to change much!). This will allow you to get more torque while keeping all the injection system the same. If you're dead set on staying with a 1.8, another way to look at it is that if you can get a Corrado 9a engine into a Golf, then you should be able to get a Golf KR engine into a Corrado. Steering rack - you really need to know this is okay before the engine goes in! May be worth swapping anyway if you can get a cheap second hand one if you can't be sure? Brakes - I've still got my old 280 calipers and carriers off the VR spare if you want to save some dollar. Need new seals but otherwise good Chassis - if the rear axle had to come off, I would be tempted to swap for a proper Corrado one. Chassis leg rust would worry me! For the floorpans, see if you can clean them up. I'm not sure whether the Corrado and MK2 floors are the same, but VW heritage do replacement MK2 floor panels for pretty cheap. Electrics - I thought all electric mirrors on VWs this age were grumbly?!? The ones on my VR and the missus MK2 both make a loud whirring noise on both sides, so I thought it was normal. The ones on the A4 are positively silky in comparison!

If you mean the handbrake cover (the plastic part on the shaft of the lever itself), then try the dealers - I picked one up from there earlier this year. Think black and grey were available at the time

The parts are hard to source in the UK as it was a rare(ish) dealer option. It is a massive job to fit it. Dash has to come out to swap in the A/C evaporator and heater box. You'll need to cut a hole into the bulkhead for the pipes. IF you have the full setup then the engine side shouldn't be too bad in theory, but you'll need some electrical skills to wire it all in. If it's in earlier Corrado then you will likely need to upgrade to the later fan controller. I decided to retrofit a Climatronic system out of an A4 platform car (MK4 Golf, Audi A3, Seat Leon, Skoda Octavia). I did the dash side okay (with a bit of extra drilling and cutting) though I' having trouble getting the engine bay stuff. If you want to palm the work on to a garage, then they'll probably charge big $$$ - if they're experts at this sort of thing then it will be at least 1 full day of fiddly labour, assuming all the nuts and bolts come out without any trouble.

This just broke on the missus' MK2 so now the central locking isn't working. I replaced the plastic tab with a new part last time but obviously it's not work, so I'm just going to glue it now and have done with it

Pretty sure the thermotime switch controls the cold start injector only, which only fires when you start up. A dodgy thermotime switch or cold start injector would make the car struggle to start, but it would be fine once it fired up (unless the cold start injector is leaking, which would cause rough running) If it only does it during warm up, it may be worth checking the wiring to the WUR, and check the resistance across the terminals on the WUR itself (should be about 22-28ohms iirc). If that checks out, try swapping the wires around on the 3 temp senders. Think the sensor on the back of the block is the oil temp sender for the MFA

I spent some time on the Corrado today. I took off all the wheels to give the wheel wells and arches a really good clean, but the main purpose was to see how badly it was rusting. Well, some good news and bad news. The good... -the rear arches are mostly okay -very little around the fuel filler - just a bit on the left-hand inside of the filler hole where the underseal has separated slightly -nothing around the windscreen -inner front wings are completely rust free -sills are mostly okay except for a small (less than 5p) rust bubble on the left hand sill near the front (smaller than the rust I ground out of the opposite sill) -all wheel wells clean and rust free -most of the visible body is rust free, just a couple of spots of very light bubbling The bad... -three visible rust spots on the rear panel... not bad on it's own, but I haven't checked the rear valence under the bumper yet, and... -1.5" hole inside the boot on the rear panel, where it joins to the floor. Seems to be on the join, and hidden by the foam that packs the spare wheel, but still needs fixing -rear arch to sill join on the near side looked okay, but the 'lip' was loose... after a bit of prodding it was rotten! I've removed the loose rust and the completely rotten metal from the area, along with some of the underseal to try and stop more water collecting there -rear arch to sill join on the off side was bubbling on the lip, but doesn't seem to be rotten (well, I can't put my finger or a screwdriver through it anyway and there seems to still be some solid metal there) -surface rust inside all the suspension turrets -front off side wing lip is bubbling quite badly... may be just enough metal left to salvage. Near side front wing is starting too, but should be easy to repair. -both front jacking points (not the actual proper jacking places, but the 'nipples' that stick out at the front of the floorpan) have collapsed and rusted So now I have yet another new priority. When the car is back on the road in the spring, I'm going to book it into a trusted classic car restorer (missus' friend's dad) to get me a quote to sort out the rust properly. He's meticulous about his work, and as these areas only get exposed once every 5-10 years, I want to make sure they're done right and the repairs will last. The car could do with a respray eventually as it's a bit of a patchwork quilt at the moment, but that can wait a few years. NSR arch-sill join OSR turret

Very different, not plug and play... but I found this - it's for B5s but it should give you an idea of the work involved. http://forums.audiworld.com/showthread.php?t=2797763 Ignore the stuff about immobilizers, it's only 98-99 cars in the UK that had the immobilizer built into the clocks. You can get around it with VAGTacho anyway. Is the B6 CANBUS as well?

Never lost any torque on mine but the Schrick changes the characteristic of the engine low down anyway. It didn't damage the airbox at all - both parts just slid out, and will slot in again without any trouble at all.

I'm sure some people have tried this. I haven't but I've got an Audi A4 and a Corrado, and had the dash out on both! I'm pretty sure the heater box holes won't line up to the Corrado bulkhead, so you'll have to do some messing around there. Also the fusebox is on the side of the dash (accessible with the door open on the A4), but it is under the dash on the Corrado, so you may have to relocate that? The Audi dash is a lot deeper too, but that may just be cosmetic. There will be a lot of rewiring. Make sure you get the stalks from an Avant if you need to control the rear wiper.

Remove the resonator inside the top half of the airbox and trumpet from the bottom half if you don't want to spend much and still get similar sound/performance. Sounds great on full throttle.

If you've just had a new rad fan switch fitted, why do you need a manual switch? I wonder how the manual switch works... does it switch on stage 1? Or the fan on full speed? Is it overriding the rad fan switch? Thermostat isn't particularly easy to get too. From my experience they tend to jam open rather than closed but I'm sure RW1 has much more experience with this in his line of work! Water pump isn't a bad job, the hardest part for me was getting the old pump out of the block as it wasn't for budging at first. Just a quick one on the thermostat... my water temp tends to hold at 75-80 during normal driving and then up to about 95-100 in traffic. It's just had a new water pump, new VW rad, new VW fan switch and new VW thermostat so I'm not too sure what's going on. The only thing I haven't changed are the temp senders, but I wouldn't expect them to cause the gauge to both over read and under read.

Time for some vallium-laced ham I think!! You can only do what you can do... The missus MK2 failed its MOT last week so I've booked it into the garage to get the brake lines and rack gaiter done. I don't have the tools (or patience) for the brake lines, and I don't fancy wrestling with the TRE for the rack gaiter. I'm tacking the handbrake (cables in case you were wondering!) and ARB drop links myself.

You need to swap seats with the missus then! Chivalry is outdated imo (ducks and checks for the missus behind him) You should be able to open the sunroof and get to the drain tubes from there. There's one in each corner. No need to get the headlining down (thank god). ---------- Post added at 05:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:19 PM ---------- Steering wheel isn't adjustable, but that said... I haven't done one of these on the Golf, but on the Corrado it is really easy, and I also don't know why you would need to remove the spline adaptor? Unless the Golf design is radically different? I know it's a pain to remove the barrel, but the switch should be okay?

Some things are so important, they have to be said twice!! (not a double-post error at all.... :-) )

Swap the wires to the three senders on the side of the head to see if it makes any difference. If each of the senders reads the same, then you can rule them out.

I use standard Beru plugs from GSF for my MK2 Golf with the same engine, supposedly OEM quality.

Had an issue with my passenger side front top mount... it was sitting way to high, so I replaced the top mounts when changing the suspesion. 6 months laters it was sitting way too high again. So I spent a morning changing the top mount for a new one, and now it's sitting... way too high. Your temp issue could be the gauge sender? How is the oil temp?

Check your sunroof drain tubes - liek on the Corrado, the seal isn't completely water-tight, and any water that gets through should drip onto the frame and out of the drain tubes. Get a low E string from a guitar or - even better - your old speedo cable, and push it through the tubes to try and unblock them. The front ones come out in the inner wing area, and the rear ones under the rear bumper at the sides. I think your dealer is having a laugh with the vac piping - they can only order it in 5m reels, but they should still sell it in whatever length you need. At my local dealer it's a stock item, so never ususally have any trouble. With the steering wheel spline, I remember getting a steering wheel with the spline adaptor off an F-reg GTI, so it's not just the '90 spec ones that have it. I would bet that the small splines are only on the series 1 MK2s (pre 87), with the 4-button horns. 87-92 have the same steering wheel design (with differences to spoke location between PAS and non PAS). For a garage, it's irrelevant - it's a 30 second job to remove the spline adaptor with the right tools.

Thought I'd get some time to work on the Corrado this weekend, but the missus' MK2 has failed the MOT, so plans have changed. -Both rear brake pipes need replacing -Both front ARB drop links need replacing -Steering rack boot -Handbrake (one side is not working apparently so probably a seized mech!) The ARB links come to £60 from VW so that's not the best start (heard bad things about the GSF ones for the MK2) Don't have the patience to do the brake lines and bleed the system myself, so I'll palm that off to the garage. Same goes for the steering rack boot as I don't know how easily the track rod end will come off