tony_ack

I've wasted 2 days now only to find out that the mk4 unit DOES NOT FIT in the corrado. All the studs are in the wrong place - not by a massive amount but they're not going to line up to the corrado holes. I've checked vagcat again to confirm the part numbers, and the unit I have isn't even listed at all against a mk4 golf. Now I have a car I can't use and no.way of getting it back on the road until I find something that fits

Cheers Jay - unfortunately I don't have a panel punch and am not going to be able to get for today... I think I'm just going to have to be as neat and tidy as I can be with the cutter for the big rectangular bit, and I've got a step drill bit for the holes, if needed

Tony - I'm looking at using a MK3 VR6 drier - simply because the pressure switch plugs into the housing on the drier, rather than into one of the pipes. As I'm going to need custom pipework made up, it saves having to have a special bit made to house the pressure switch. It does mean I'll have to run the wires right to the front though Cheers for the condenser info - I will look into it, and have a think about how to mount it. Moving the rad back is a no-no as there is less than 1/2 cm room there as it is with the Schrick So the install (so far)... Been a bit of a rough day to be honest. I had the dash out and heaterbox out in less than an hour, but the lowest fastener for the heaterbox had obviously snapped when the matrix was replaced by a previous owner. Rather than remove the stud, they just left it in there, so I needed to get it out to carry on. And what a ******* job it was. 2 hours, 5 broken drill bits and 1 broken dremel, and 1 scratched bulkhead later, I finally got the twisted remains of the stud out. Next I had to marry up the new ducting - unfortunately the MK4 ducting isn't quite plug and play, and I'm going to have to do quite a bit of chopping to get it in. 3 studs out of 4 line up, and I need to drill to get the other one in. Then I need to cut a fairly big hole in the bulkhead for the evaporator pipes, which I tried to do, but my dremel had already had it from getting the stud out. I'll also need to drill a hole for a little outlet pipe at the bottom of the ducting. Finally, there's a big mounting next to the inlet flap which gets in the way of the Corrado bulkhead, so that'll have to be cut off too. Obviously because I'd already killed my dremel, I couldn't get any further with the physical install, so I started on the wiring. That was surprisingly easy. I got some pretty neat splices in and I'm getting pretty handy with the soldering iron now! There were no real surprises anywhere (except the wiring to the clocks was pretty much all white, so I had to trace them back to the plug to find the rpm wire), and by the end of the day I had the system working off the car's power (not had chance to do any diagnostics yet though). I've run the engine bay wiring down the left hand side of the engine bay, as there was a hole already in the bulkhead there, which I suspect is for the alarm wiring. The outside temp sender is just cable tied to the horn wiring in the bumper at the moment until I can find a better place for it. ---------- Post added at 09:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:06 PM ---------- I have taken pics by the way, but got a little side tracked when I got stuck on the stud - I'll get some more pics taken tomorrow of the bits that are going to need some chopping-work.

Going for the install today! Can't do the aircon yet, but I want to do the dash-side of things. Nervous. Hasan - Is it the early Polo (94-99) or late Polo condenser you used? They definitely look shorter and more slam panel friendly

Latest pinouts... Revised climatronic wiring pinout (17-pin) 17-pin CC connector: 1 - (Sw/Bl) - Blower motor live feed - wire from N1 in fusebox (use original wire) 2 - NOT USED 3 - (Bl/Ro) - 'Aircon 'on' switch (inside cabin). Conencts to pin 39 on VR6 ECU - OBDI and OBDII, wire is the same colour. Sends signal to ECU indicating aircon activated on controls 4 - (Br/Gr) - RPM signal, U1/6 on fusebox 5 - (Sw/bl) Live feed for the control unit - from a 10A circuit (I'm going to use fuse 13 as it is kind of what the early MK4s do (connect to A1/7 in fusebox) 6 - Earth 7 -(ro/gr) don't think this needs connecting - only applies to post-2001 setups with aircon thrust sensor. 8 - Outside temp sender pin 2 (this needs the wiring and sensor from the donor), sunlight sensor 9 - NOT USED 10 - (Gr/Bl) - panel illumination - use the wiring from the old heater controls illumination 11 - (Ro/ge) - Signal from Aircon pressure switch, pin 3 (indicates high pressure in a/c system) 12 - (Gn) - 'Aircon 'on' switch (at compressor) Signal from pin 37 of the VR6 ECU, or brown temp sender pin 1 (or splice into anywhere between the two). Indicates aircon compressor has been activated by fan controller 13-17 - NOT USED 12 pin CC connector: 1 - (gr/ws) OBD II port, pin 7 2 - (Br/Bl) Signal to aircon pressure switch pin 2, initiates aircon 3 - NOT USED 4 - (gr) Live feed from fusebox for aircon signal, 5A required, but no 5A in Corrado fuse box, so may just take fuse 13 again. Or poss fuse 6, but that's 20A.. 5 - (ge/br) Outside temp sender, pin 1 6 - NOT USED 7 - NOT USED 8 - (gr/ws) Sunlight sensor, pin 3 9 - (sw/ws) Signal from A/C pressure switch, pin 1 - indicates low pressure in A/C system 10 - (Bl/ws) - Speed sensor - comes from W1 of the fusebox, but I suspect you can tap into the feed to the ISO connectors for the radio. 11 - NOT USED 12 - (bl/ro) - don't need to connect (this is the signal from the outside temp sender routed through the cc, to the dash clocks) Fan Controller (later VR6 and/or aircon) 1 - ro/ws - Aux water pump 2 - ro/ge - pin 3 of aircon pressure switch 3 - A/C thermal cut off switch pin 2 4 - br/ws - fan run-on switch 5 - sw/gn - Stage 3 switch 6 - br - earth 7 - ro/sw - yellow temp sender (pin 3) 8 - Gn/ws - AC Thermal cut off switch pin 2 9 - Live feed 10 - gn/ws - aircon clutch pin 1 Coolant temp sender (yellow) 1 - Radiator fan pin 2 - note: requires uprated wiring 2 - Ign Live (no change) 3 - pin 7 of fan contoller (no change) Coolant temp sender (brown - replaces black sender on VR6) 1 - fan controller pin 8, ECU pin 37 2 - Ign live (no change) 3 - Fan controller pin 5 (no change) 4 - Aircon pressure switch, pin 1 Aircon pressure switch 1 - sw/ws - Brown temp sender pin 4, climatronic loom pin 12/9 2 - CC pin 12/2 3 - ro/ge fan controller pin 2 4 - Live (fuse 13, A1/7) ---------- Post added at 08:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:37 PM ---------- Climatronic (control unit) input/outputs There are 4 connectors, 2x16 pin, 20 pin and 12pin 16a 1 - 2 - Temp regulator flap motor live 3 - Footwell/defrost flap motor earth 4 - Central flap motor earth 5 - Air flow flap motor earth 6 - unknown, but need to bridge with 7 on this setup 7 - unknown, suspect this is a/c thrust sensor signal (not required, but must bridge with pin 6 to bypass) 8 - 9 - CC control unit live feed 10 - Temp regulator flap motor earth 11 - Footwell/defrost flap motor live 12 - Central flap motor live 13 - Air flow flap motor live 14 - 15 - Earth for cc unit 16 - 20 1 - Outside Temperature sensor (output signal to clocks, not required) 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - Floor outlet temperature input signal 6 - 7 - Evaporator temp input signal 8 - Temp regulator flap motor position sensor input signal 9 - Central flap motor position sensor input signal 10 - Footwell/defrost flap position sensor input signal 11 - 12 - 13 - Vehichle stationary input signal (not used unless the Corrado has an output for this? 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - Back pressure flap motor sensor input signal 18 - Photo sensor input signal 19 - 20 - 12 1 - OBD2 diagnostic port output signal 2 - Aircon live feed output 3 - Aircon 'on' output signal to ECU 4 - 5 - Illumination power input 6 - 7 - Fresh air intake duct temp sensor input signal 8 - Outside temp sensor input signal 9 - Earth for sensors I 10 - 11 - 12 - Earth for sensors II 16b 1 - 2 - Low pressure in A/C input signal 3 - 4 - Speed sensor input signal 5 - 6 - Engine speed input signal 7 - Ignition live feed input (used to power A/C) 8 - Earth for sensors III 9 - 10 - High pressure in A/C input signal 11 - Blower motor controller sensor 12 - Aircon 'On' input signal from ECU 13 - 14 - Blower motor power output 15 - Blower motor output signal Fan controller inputs/outputs 1 - Output - (activates Aux water pump) 2 - Input - High pressure in A/C system indicator (activate stage 2) 3 - Input - Activate Stage 1 fan 4 - Input - Activate fan-run on 5 - Input - Activate Stage 3 fan 6 - EARTH 7 - Input - Activate Stage 2 fan 8 - Input - Activate aircon compressor 9 - Input - Ignition on signal 10 - Output - (activates aircon clutch) 1 - Output (activates cooling fans, full speed) 2 - Output (activates cooling fans, med speed) 3 - Output (activates cooling fans, low speed) 4 - Battery Live Aircon pressure switch inputs/outputs 1 - Signal feed for aircon (out) - Low pressure 'OK' signal 2 - Signal feed for aircon (in from CC) 3 - Signal feed for aircon (out) - High pressure 'OK' signal 4 - Live feed to aircon (in from fusebox) Brown temp sender inputs/outputs 1 - Signal feed for aircon (out) - High temp 'OK' signal 2 - Ignition live 3 - Signal feed for stage 3 cooling (out) 4 - Signal feed for aircon (in from a/c pressure switch)

Spot on - I went to see a MK2 Golf a couple of years ago with 30000 miles on the clock, one careful owner, garaged, and it was rotten underneath.

6 deg is pretty conservative and supposedly suited to running 95 ron, so if you're running 97 ron or above, try increasing to 8 deg. The first restriction is going to be engine knock, as the KR has no knock sensor.

Had a day off from it yesterday, as my brain was starting to scramble! Instead I looked at why my headlights weren't working - it turned out that it was one of the relays in the uprated loom after all. I also had a look around under the bonnet... first I noticed that I definitely have the 10-pin fan controller, so that should make it easier. Secondly, I noticed that the vac reservoir for the schrick may be in the way of where the aircon expansion valve goes through the bulkhead, so I may need to relocate that. Tony - the aircon wiring makes much more sense the way you've put it. Looking again at the MK4 diagrams, it looks like there is a signal wire back to the CC unit after every stage, and the list of compressor error codes support this. Looking at the 24v wiring diagram on page 23/7, there is a junction between the green wire coming out of the thermal switch F163 and two wires into the fan contoller... the document states that this connects to L68 which is 'Connection 2 (Sensor) in climatronic wiring harness) but it's not obvious where exactly that is. It's definitely a feed back to the cc, as L68 is an earth point, not a live feed. I realise that this isn't the same as your install, but am I missing something obvious regarding where it connects to? The only green wire on the cc plugs is for the ECU feed ) (A/C 'on' compressor feed) I think it may be an idea to use the bench setup and knowledge of the compressor error codes to test the aircon wires and see what error each one throws.

Update... I've done a bench test on the ducting system, and it seems to work! A couple of small issues: 1. The LCD isn't working properly - I think this is my fault as I disturbed it when I opened up the unit to clean the buttons 2. The flap motors seem to pulse when not in use and make a faint 'ticking' noise as if they're still trying to move a little. I've done a little research and it appears that this is because I need to perform the 'reset' procedure to calibrate the motor/flap positions... the problem is that I need to do this via Vagcom - you can't do it through the cc unit itself. So that means I need to install it before I can see if the reset procedure works. The good news is that the recirculation flap seems fine, as I know these are often a problem. Part of me wants to kick on now and get it installed, but I know I still have one or two things I could do with sorting out first, such as getting the aircon switches and wiring finished off. I think I'm going to do it in two stages - get the unit installed and wired up first (including aircon wiring) then sort out the aircon later. Shopping list for next week: Air con pressure switch, 4-pin (1H0 959 139 B) Brown temp sender, 4-pin (replaces black temp sender in thermostat housing - it also acts as the a/c thermal switch) 2x 357 919 754 - these are the wiring harness plugs for both of the above. Once I've got all this, I should be able to complete the wiring.

Thanks again for the continued help! I also have found the wiring diagram for the 3 stage fan controller on a Golf VR6 - I'm guessing this will be pretty much the same as a non-aircon Corrado. From what you're saying, it looks to me like what happens is that the stage 2 cooling is activated if the pressure in the aircon system gets too high, which kind of makes sense as high pressure could be indicative of increased temperature in the coolant. There is then the question of the wire at junction L39 (connects high pressure switch to 10/2 on fan contoller, and cc unit) - at first I thought this was a feed from climatronic to the fan contoller, but now I'm thinking it's a feed back to the climatronic unit to signal that the high pressure switch has been triggered and to shut off the A/C? With this in mind, I would guess that in order for the A/C compressor to activate, a signal needs to be received from the cc, the low pressure switch must be closed (opens if pressure too low) and the thermal switch must be closed (opens if temp too high). Then for the high pressure switch, it remains open until the pressure gets too high, then closes to activate stage 2, and send a signal back to the CC (which may then shut off the A/C signal). If this is the case though, I'm not too sure why a signal would need to be sent to the ECU to say that the aircon pressure is high/stage 2 activated - there's no equivalent signal in the non-aircon setup. My confusion with the ECU feeds is that on the MK4 setup both feeds to the ECU come directly from the CC control unit, but how does the CC unit know that the compressor has been activated? The CC sends the original signal to activate the aircon, and probably sends the ECU signal then, but the signal passes through two switches before reaching the compressor, and the CC unit does not seem to have any 'knowledge' of these switches.. Do you know which ECU pins the two wires connect to? I assumed they were pin 37 and pin 39, but these are both 'aircon on' signals (one from the cabin, one from the compressor) as far as I was aware. Good point about the fan run-on - luckily I don't need to touch that! g3radfan3speed.pdf

I've stripped the remainder of the wiring from the MK4 loom today, and now I've also re-attached the photo sensor to the loom. I may still need to do some fettling with the cc loom to get it compatible with the correct A/C setup, though now I'm starting to think it may just work 'as-is'... Revised climatronic wiring pinout (17-pin) 17-pin CC connector: 1 - (Sw/Bl) - Blower motor live feed - wire from N1 in fusebox (use original wire) 2 - NOT USED 3 - (Bl/Ro) - 'Aircon 'on' switch (inside cabin). Conencts to pin 39 on VR6 ECU - OBDI and OBDII, wire is the same colour 4 - (Br/Gr) - RPM signal, U1/6 on fusebox 5 - (Sw/bl) Live feed for the control unit - from a 10A circuit (I'm going to use fuse 13 as it is kind of what the early MK4s do (connect to A1/7 in fusebox) 6 - Earth 7 -(ro/gr) don't think this needs connecting 8 - Outside temp sender pin 2 (this needs the wiring and sensor from the donor), sunlight sensor 9 - NOT USED 10 - (Gr/Bl) - panel illumination - use the wiring from the old heater controls illumination 11 - (Ro/ge) - pin 2 of fan controller (or is this not required?!?) 12 - (Gn) - 'Aircon 'on' switch (at compressor) Pin 37 of the VR6 ECU, wire is the same colour 13-17 - NOT USED 12 pin CC connector: 1 - (gr/ws) OBD II port, pin 7 2 - (Br/Bl) Aircon pressure switch pin 2 3 - NOT USED 4 - NOT USED 5 - (ge/br) Outside temp sender, pin 1 6 - NOT USED 7 - NOT USED 8 - (gr/ws) Sunlight sensor, pin 3 9 - (sw/ws) Air con thermal cut off switch, pin 1 10 - (Bl/ws) - Speed sensor - comes from W1 of the fusebox, but I suspect you can tap into the feed to the ISO connectors for the radio. 11 - NOT USED 12 - (bl/ro) - don't need to connect Fan Controller (later VR6 and/or aircon) 1 - ro/ws - Aux water pump 2 - ro/ge - T17/11 of climatronic harness (if needed), pin 3 of aircon pressure switch 3 - splice into wire from AC thermal switch 4 - br/ws - fan run-on switch 5 - sw/gn - Stage 3 switch 6 - br - earth 7 - ro/sw - rad fan switch (pin 3) 8 - Gn/ws - AC Thermal cut off switch pin 2 9 - Live feed 10 - gn/ws - aircon clutch pin 1 Rad fan switch 1 - Radiator fan pin 2 - note: requires uprated wiring 2 - Ign Live (no change) 3 - pin 7 of fan contoller (no change) Fan controller inputs/outputs 1 - Output - (activates Aux water pump) 2 - Input - Climatronic (not sure what it does..?) 3 - Input - Activate Stage 1 fan 4 - Input - Activate fan-run on (is this just another 'activate stage 1' signal? 5 - Input - Activate Stage 3 fan 6 - EARTH 7 - Input - Activate Stage 2 fan 8 - Input - Activate aircon compressor 9 - Input - Ignition on signal 10 - Output - (activates aircon clutch) 1 - Output (activates cooling fans, full speed) 2 - Output (activates cooling fans, med speed) 3 - Output (activates cooling fans, low speed) 4 - Battery Live Aircon pressure switch 1 - sw/ws - AC thermal cut off switch pin 1 2 - CC pin 12/2 3 - fan controller pin 2 4 - Live (fuse 13, A1/7) On non A/C cars, pin 3 is the input to the fan controller telling it that the thermoswitch for stage 1 has been activated. The changes to the fan controller pin 3 inputs for CC are due to stage 1 being activated if aircon is switched on (it is needed to cool the a/c rad). In the CC setup, Stage 1 is triggered directly from the thermo switch and bypasses the controller completely under normal operation. The aircon 'on' signals use the old input from the stage 1 thermoswitch to activate stage 1 when aircon is switched on. Because stage 1 is now activated directly by the thermo switch, you need to uprate your wiring from there to the fan. I'm still trying to work out what pin 2 on the fan controller does, as on the Passat setup this connects back to the CC unit - I don't think it's needed to activate the aircon, so what does it do?? Also, I'm not 100% sure on the wires to the ECU from the CC unit - how does the CC unit know that AC has been activated correctly?

Right! I've learnt to my cost tonight that the 12+10 pin climatronic loom is the best way to go if you're using a MK4 donor, or anything else off the A4 platform. The 17+12 pin setup I have appears to use a more advanced 14-pin fan controller, and uses a completely different aircon pressure switch setup (matching the 'from May 01' in the wiring diagrams above) which routes everything through the fan controller. I found out after spending absolutely ages this evening dismantling the MK4 loom (still got some way to go yet!) All is not lost though... I've compared the Climatronic loom pinouts and I think I can convert mine to match an earlier setup with a little fettling to give me the right outputs for a 10-pin fan controller. The earlier MK4 setups still retain the pressure switch and thermal switch in line between the CC unit and the fan controller, and the fan controller is very similar to that on late VR6s and the Passat Tony used. Without wanting to sound too far ahead of myself, I think I've worked out about 95% of the wiring - the only bits I need to work out is firstly the changes on the Stage 1 switch wiring - it looks slightly different on the clima diagrams to a standard 3 stage setup, so I imagine that has something to do with engaging stage 1 when aircon is switched on. Also, on the MK4, there appear to be two power inputs into the fan controller, and only one on the Passat diagrams.. I think I'm going to go for a MK3/Passat VR6 compressor and associated pressure/thermal switches as it needs to be compatible with my existing fan controller setup.

Thanks - some light bedtime reading!

Exactly! Why have a fun weekend car, when you can have a fun car every time you drive it? It's perfectly adequate for daily duty, all it's really missing for me is aircon, and that's soon to be rectified hopefully :-) Plus cars seem to develop more problems when they're stood for long periods. And they go downhill rapidly if they're left stood outside.

Just got back from picking up the MK4 loom - it looks on first glance like it has everything - and I mean EVERYTHING attached to it - fusebox, inc fuses and relays, dash loom, inc switches, engine loom. Not got chance to look at it properly tonight as I'm tired. I'm also making some progress in working out the remaining unknown wires. First things first though - need to sort out my headlights as they failed on me on the Snake Pass this evening in the dark! Think it's something to do with the uprated loom but I'll find out when I get a chance to look at it.

I'm pretty sure the replacement VW rad I used was the same size as the original. Genuine rads come with the top elbow already attached, but I think they're now obsolete

Cheers for the reply, having the later fan controller looks like it may make things a lot easier!

I'm hopefully getting a full MK4 loom this week to give me al the wiring I need. In preparation for this, I've been trying to work out the wiring on the climatronic loom. Here's what I've got so far (colours are on the clima-loom side): 17 pin connector: 1 - (Sw/Bl) - Blower motor live feed 2 - NOT USED 3 - (Bl/Ro) - unknown - this connects to an orange connector in the plenum chamber on the Golf MK4, and then on to pin 40 of the ECU - not too sure what this does.. EDIT - think this is the 'Aircon 'on' switch (inside cabin). Conencts to pin 39 on VR6 ECU - OBDI and OBDII, wire is the same colour 4 - (Br/Gr) - think this is the RPM signal, comes from ECU on MK4, but could poss get this from the clocks? EDIT: comes from Pin 22 of VR6 ECU, but can prob tap into feed to clocks. 5 - (Sw/bl) This looks like it may be the live feed for the control unit - it comes via a 7.5A fuse on the MK4... this could poss come from fuse 14 (backup lights/heated washer jets, 10A) on the Corrado? 6 - Earth 7 -(ro/gr) Feed from (or to??) the fuse for the A/C clutch on the MK4. Guessing it is the feed from the A/C signal , and it is routed through the climatronic so that the climatronic controls it? 8 - Outside temp sender pin 2 (this needs the wiring and sensor from the donor, though this is prob the earth) 9 - NOT USED 10 - (Gr/Bl) - panel illumination - use the wiring from the old heater controls illumination 11 - NOT USED 12 - (Gn) - not sure what this is for but again goes through the plenum connector and onto pin 41 of the ECU. EDIT: this could be the 'Aircon 'on' switch (at compressor) - poss a feedback signal to the climatronic that the aircon is on? Pin 37 of the VR6 ECU, wire is the same colour 13-17 - NOT USED 12 pin connector: 1 - (gr/ws) OBD II port, pin 7 2 - (Br/Bl) Rad fan controller (T14/8 on MK4 Golf, not sure what it does yet) - EDIT think this goes to the aircon pressure switch then onto the fan controller. 3 - NOT USED 4 - NOT USED 5 - (ge/br) Outside temp sender, pin 1 6 - NOT USED 7 - NOT USED 8 - (gr/ws) Sunlight sensor, pin 3 9 - (sw/ws) Rad fan controller (T14/12 on MK4 Golf) - EDIT: think this actually goes to the aircon pressure switch 10 - (Bl/ws) - Speed sensor - comes from W1 of the fusebox, but I suspect you can tap into the feed to the ISO connectors for the radio. 11 - NOT USED 12 - (bl/ro) - not 100%, but I think this is the outside temp sensor from the MFA?? EDIT: I think this is a feed FROM the climatronic TO the clocks for the outside temp - the MK4 routes the temp sender reading through the clima onto the clocks. This won't be needed on the Corrado if that's the case. I'm still stuck on what the two wires to the ECU are for - are they readings or signals? I've noticed there's no engine temp sensor - could that be one of the readings? Another one could be a signal wire to raise the revs when A/C is activated? I'm also haven't looked into the A/C side of things much yet. Do the climatronic control unit and the rad fan controller do all the clever stuff, without the need for all the extra aircon relays under the dash?

Make sure you don't snap the captive nuts when unfastening the bumper bolts! May be worth changing the thermostat, housing and crack pipe while the front end is off - if a system has been losing pressure for god knows how long, you'd be surprised at how many new leaks can develop once it's up to pressure again. Definitely pre-fill the rad before connecting the hoses, it will save a lot of time.

I would imagine that the AA check would *have* to be very thorough as they don't want you coming back and putting in a claim if they missed something. ---------- Post added at 09:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:29 AM ---------- EDIT - it only covers cars up to 15 years old, so no good on Corrados!

Okay, thanks for the help. I am starting to think it may be better to ditch the Diavia stuff altogether. The polo condensor may be an option if it fits, and then get the drier off a similar era VAG car. For the compressor, I was still thinking of going for the MK3 VR6, but if the MK4 era one fits, it could be an interesting proposition I've updated my members gallery thread with more info on the Climatronic swap, so may be best to head there to continue the discussion! http://the-corrado.net/showthread.php?53635-Ant-s-VR6-Climatronic-swap-begins-here!&p=733298#post733298

Quite a bit of stuff done in the last month or so. The first was a visit to Stealth, who found out my Schrick wasn't working (and I guess never had!). They traced the problem to the vacuum reservoir (i.e. it wasn't holding vacuum), and managed to put together an improvised (but no doubt reliable) replacement. The problem was that they couldn't get the parts until the next day, so I had to leave the car with them and come down to pick it up later in the week. Luckily the train ticket down only cost £12 from Sheffield (it cost more for the taxi!). The car feels great now, and I definitely feel the slight characteristic lag when the flap opens. It sounds fantastic too, especially once you hit the wall of torque between 2.5k and 4k rpm... and then after the lag it pulls and pulls and pulls. It's never going to compare to a turboed car, but I need to keep it reasonable! I also got Stealth to do the alignment while I was there as both front wheels looked to be running full camber despite the 4-wheel alignment from the previous month. I was pretty shocked to be honest. Vince said that the strut bolts on both sides weren't particularly tight, but on one side they were pretty much finger tight. When they jacked the car up, the wheel on that side tilted inwards under its own weight! The car still pulls a tiny bit to the left but I think that's due to the tyre wear, and it has improved a lot over the past month. Also, the new tyres on the front only have about 4mm of tread left (!) after about 2000 miles, but they haven't worn visibly at all since Stealth did the alignment. I got my MOT certificate as well, so all is good for 12 months. Apart from that, most stuff has been cosmetic. I finally finished restoring the leather interior (pics to follow) - it's not perfect but it looks very tidy now. I've also added a cupholder from a Passat - I tried painting it beige with the left over paint from the seats, but the paint was too rubbery and just scuffed off, so I removed the paint again and it's just black. I will paint it again with proper paint one day... It is very convenient though, especially in a daily car. My spoiler started playing up - it would go up and down in stages, so the mech was sticking. When I swapped the tailgate, I just used the mech in the replacement tailgate, even though my original one worked perfectly. Simple answer then - I swapped my original mech back in and it seems to be working perfectly now! I even managed to get rid of a squeak in the boot too (not sure what was causing it!) ---------- Post added at 08:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:34 PM ---------- Whoops... I've gone and bought myself a MK4 Climatronic unit. So the swap has officially begun! I'm going to try to post as much info as I can in this thread to help out others. I've already been nagging Coolrado for info, as the plan was originally to go for a Seat Leon system, but it proved pretty hard to find one from which someone was willing to give me the parts I needed. A MK4 Golf system came up on e-Bay recently, advertised as everything needed to do the swap to Climatronic on a non-Climatronic MK4 except the wiring, so I got the Climatronic ducting, including motors, sensors and blower fan, the Climatronic loom, the control unit, and a 'pigtail' for the sunlight sensor. It's only a start I know, and there are plenty of bits to get. I'm going to try to keep notes for myself and anyone else trying this, feel free to correct me or add any other info! So, to do a swap into a non-aircon Corrado, I think you need the following parts: -In-dash Control unit (got) -Climatronic ducting, inc. motors, ducting sensors, evaporator and blower fan. Note that you don't need any additional ducting to go to the windscreen, side vents, etc - you use the Corrado stuff (got) -Climatronic loom (there is a 12 or 17 pin version) (got - 17 pin) -Dash wiring loom from the donor car (though I guess you could make your own wiring if you felt brave). Again, 12 or 17 pin versions of the connectors to the climatronic loom are available, so try to get matching if possible -Sunlight sensor - hopefully this will be attached to the wiring loom of the rest of the car (got but not attached) -Cabin temp sensor - as above! (actually I think this MAY be integrated into the MK4 Golf control unit?!) -Aircon pressure sensor -Outside temperature sensor (the Corrado one won't work) -Engine loom, including wiring to any climatronic sensors and the aircon relays/compressor -other engine bay sensors (not sure which ones we need yet, though I am sure there is at least engine temp) -Aircon compressor (not sure which one to use yet) -Aircon condenser (ditto) -Aircon drier -Aircon pipework (this may need to be custom unless I can find some VAG stuff that will fit!) -possibly a 4-pin blue temp sender? Parts notes... -As far as I'm aware, all climatronic control units from the era are interchangeable in terms of wiring, though some are physically different. Seat Leon controls definitely fit and offer a bigger screen, though they cost more. Golf MK3 ones won't fit. Passat B4 controls fit with a little fettling. I'm not sure about the MK4 controls but they look like a good fit. The same controls were used on the MK4, Lupo, Passat B5 and Polo 6N2. -The MK4 ducting shares its part number with that used in the Seat Leon, Audi TT, Audi A3 and Skoda Octavia -There are two main loom versions, differentiated by the connectors used to plug into the rest of the car. One uses a 12pin + a 10pin connector, the other uses a 17pin + a 10pin connector. The actual wires are the same, they just get routed to different pins between the two plugs. Don't panic if you get a mismatch between dash loom and clima loom - you can always order the correct connector from VW and re-route the wires to the matching pins. -The A/C pressure switch can be two types - the traditional high/low pressure sensor, or a thrust sensor. It would appear that certain compressors will only work with certain switch types. I'm not 100% sure if it's just a case of changing the switch type to make it work if you've got a mismatch. -I have a later VR with the later fan controller, if you don't have this it could make things trickier. Physical install notes -The clima ducting is secured with 4 studs, as opposed to 3 on the Corrado. 3 of the studs line up with the Corrado holes, and for the fourth you can either cut off the extra stud or drill a hole into the bulkhead. However you also need to cut a hole for the evaporator piping, so I say in for a penny...etc. Make sure you at least primer the exposed bare metal once cut. -The Corrado glovebox and passenger undertray need to be trimmed to fit, or you can get one off an A/C Corrado. I think the first option is going to be easiest to be honest! Electrical install notes -Some of the wiring to the clima connections are already going to be there in the Corrado, e.g. blower motor feed and dash lighting feed, and it would appear many of the colours match. That's just a start, much more info to come!

Cheers Hasan, I'm still trying to source parts at the moment, and the bit I'm fretting about most is the under-bonnet stuff as my car hasn't got aircon. I know tonedef used a Passat VR6 setup, but there are only about 40 Passat VR6s left in the country, and he had to butcher the slam panel to get it in. I'm pretty sure a compressor from a Golf VR6 will work as it's the same as the one on the Passat, but the biggest worry for me is the pipework. I've checked the Passat VR6 part numbers for the pipework on Vagcat and unfortunately it's all unique to a rhd Passat VR6! Which Polo was the condensor off? Does it look like it will attach fairly easily? It's proving very difficult to find someone breaking a car who will let you have everything you need! You could do with the engine loom as there are a few sensors on there, and also the dash wiring used by the climatronic system (including sunlight sensor) The MK4 boys do this conversion quite a lot and there is a special kufatec loom they use but I think it is designed to work with the MK4 wiring. I'm planning to do a full write up, including part numbers, donor cars, etc, but I'm still some way off at the moment!

I'm after the Diavia aircon bits from the engine bay, including: Compressor Condensor Drier All pipework Pressure switch Any extra a/c relays Don't need the cabin bits as I'm hoping to go Climatronic, but I'd consider the whole lot if someone has a full setup and doesn't want to split. Or if anyone knows where else to source the bits from, or setups from other cars that will fit let me know.

Bodywork and respray.