Andy T

Cheers pal, I'll give GPC a ring with those numbers and see if they can get them cheaper than the stealers.

Does anyone know if these can be bought seperately from the headlights? its the black trim that clips on around the lens. My local dealer doesn't have a clue and my Etka isn't working - Anyone fancy looking up the part number for me? I'd just removed the FK 2 bar grille/spoiler at the weekend, it had been bonded onto the headlights(!) so the trims are beyond salvaging :? Cheers

I bet they bugger up the handling alot, lol. And how does a tyrefitter balance them??? :shock: :roll: the wheeltrim type ones stick out so far, they look as if they'd puncture your tyres James Bond style (or was that batman :?: :mrgreen: )

Did you clean up the lambda probe connections & earths? I'd definately run a new earth cable from the terminal on the bracket to somewhere good on the chassis.

Flash Red K-reg in moston/gorton area of manchester, might of been thursday or friday night, I was in the Corsa again so couldn't really say hi! first time i've seen a red K-plate like mine too :D

Cheers guys - yeah i'll change both mounts first and see what happens. Can get g60 box mount for about a tenner from AVS which is damn cheap, shame rear mount is about £45+vat! Henny, do you know of a garage in the north west that has the proper VAG tool for setting the alignment? Apart from VAG dealers I mean, who probably threw it out about 5 years ago!

why are they so crap on the corrado? ok so its been raining all day but now you've come out of work and the sun's shining.. 8) you open the windows abit, turn out of your parking space and then a cascade of water runs right over the roof channels, straight through your window and right onto the electric window switches - GREAT DESIGN VW !!!! This continues every time you brake, pull away or corner, until the roof is completely dry! Never had these problems with my mk2 :wink:

This is really starting to bug me now, if I try to change up to second just before the redline, the gear just won't go in at all, the lever just stops dead, I then have to clutch a couple of times to get it in :( When I first bought the car, it would change into second at high revs, albeit with a lovely synchro grating sound. Since changing the 'box oil to Redline MT90(and slick50 regrettably) the general gear change is much improved, but the above problem has come into play. normal driving the gearchange is pretty good, with just an occasional reluctance to downshift to 3rd or 2nd. Am I looking at a gearbox rebuild with new syncro cones, or could it be something simple? can engine movement cause this problem on cable change boxes, I wouldn't of thought they would be affected the same way as rod change boxes, am I wrong? The front engine mount is a very new OE part, the rear & g/box mounts are probably the originals, some movement can be seen in the rear mount but it has not broken. the gearshift adjustment seems fine as all gears are easy to acess when driving moderately! Would changing the rear & gearbox mounts help in anybodys experience? At the moment even a 1.1 fiesta can beat me away from the lights (up until 30mph anyway) :cry: Cheers.

Yeah, we'll I took it easy for first 200 miles, then gradually worked them harder. Maube I'll try taking the pads off, cleaning everything up then reassembling with copper grease again :?

When it does it again, turn your headlights on (to put more load on the battery) If the pitch of the noise drops slightly, I'd say it was your fuel pump.

When I first got my C, the front brakes were crap but there was no squeal at least. Now I've changed the discs and pads (genuine ATE disc's, pagid FR pads) I'm getting really bad brake squeal when slowing to about 5mph :oops: very embarassing. I made sure everything was totally clean on reassembly, and emery'd the hub face and back on the disc to ensure a perfect seating. I used copper grease on the back of the pads and all other parts the pad comes in contact with (caliper carriers etc.) Sometimes it will go a week without squealing, then it will start up again. Damp weather seems to agrievate it, but then they don't squeal in very heavy rain!! Any clues? could worn caliper slider pins cause this problem? oh yeah, the anti-squeal shims are in place on the pistons, both are in perfect condition. Cheers.

Did you have any luck straightening the rings? I've just found both of my front abs rings are bent in one place, and has split open one of the sensors. ABS light has not come on yet but the ABS has started to activate like rapid fire just before coming to a stop :cry: I've de-activated the ABS for now. How straight do the rings need to be btw? will they throw up fault codes or cause other problems if they aren't dead true? It looks like someone has used a longer than normal wheelbolt, which has pushed the abs ring out at one edge, you can see the marks on the back of the ring through the bolt hole :mad: :x :( cheers.

New ones from VW or GSF seem to be made out of better stuff these days (I think they are black now) I had to change mine when I bought the car last year at 82k, as there was only a scraggy looking piece left at the top! :?

They affect the ride/handling slightly too, acting as a spring assistor, they should be in perfect condition & full length, the garage should of replaced them

Yeah thats kinda what I mean't, just a neater method that allows switching between the bypassed route and the 'matrixed' route. Could even set the valves 'half and half' so the heater warms up a little during spring/autumn weather, but has less pressure running through it for safety 8)

Dark blue rado this morning (saturday) on Hyde Road, Belle Vue/Gorton, didn't see the reg/model.... looked nice, driver waved back 8)

Was reading a post on the yahoogroups corrado forum the other day, about the corrado heater matrix recall. It said that the risk occured when driving at high speeds/high temps for sustained periods, i'd not heard that before, guess I assumed they could just burst at any time/any style of driving. Does anyone know if VAG dealers can still check a database to see if your car requires the matrix recall, and whether it had been done? Do 1992 corrado's need the recall? I had to replace the matrix in my mk2 golf and get the recall valves done, but it sounds horribly more difficult job in a corrado and I dread ever having to do it! :cry: Since we don't really use the heater in the summer, would it be a good mod to plumb in a link pipe between the matrix hoses, with in-line valves, so that the matrix could be bypassed just by opening one valve and closing the other? Then the risk of bursting the matrix could be reduced in hot weather/long fast runs etc. by keeping the coolant out of it, which might extend its working life too.... I'm seriously thinking about doing it, are there any drawbacks though? I mean, the matrix would still have stationary coolant in it, would this cause any problems? e.g. corrosion or airlocks? I think I would have alot more confidence in the car if I knew that the matrix wasn't being used when its not needed! Opinions please guys ..... 8)

:shock: wow you are lucky, it usually results in a self-destructed charger! how did they check it by the way?

Yup its an awkward job, you might need a lamp under there to see what your doing, if you have different sizes/types of spanner try em all because there's not alot of room, you might also need a tube/bar to get some extra leverage if its seized. On my G60 it was either a 21 or 22m spanner :?: whatever you do, don't drop or knock the probe, they're very sensitive!

Errrmm, what car have you got? You need to just unplug the wiring connector, which is on the rear engine mount on the G60, and probably in a similar place on the other engines.

Good stuff. Just looked back through my notes when I was pricing up a lambda sensor, Euro car parts do a VR6 genuine one for £82.25 inc. vat (might be slightly cheaper than dealers?) and GSF do a 'best quality' VR6 one for £68.15 inc. VAT, but you'd have to check what make it was (genuine ones are Bosch)

My fuel pump seems to hum louder intermittently, and when it does, it gets louder as your turn accessories on like headlamps & rear demister etc.

Yes, if you unplug it, the ECU realises its not there, and defaults to a stored fuelling map. I ran it like this for a week, I got better MPG than usual and it ran almost normally. Like you say, you are getting some black smoke when you rev it, it points more and more to the lambda probe, or water temp sensor, its unlikely to be the plug leads. running rich will eventually kill the cat too. If the loom has been cut, I'd say its definately running a cheap generic probe - best to get rid of it and replace with an OE one if you want the best perfomance/mpg/reliability out of your car. The guys checking your exhaust should be able to tell at a glance which type it is - a genuine one will be stamped with the VW logo, and have flexible aluminium tube protecting the wires where they are close to the exhaust system. The other thing to check is the continuity of the connections - I found resistance in the circuit from the earth wire from the loom to the bolt on the engine mount. I cleaned up the connection but it made no difference - The whole engine has some resistance to ground so there must be a bad earth somewhere. I wired a seperate earth wire from the engine mount to a stud on the o/s suspension turret which gave a really good earth. If you unplug the lambda connector, then start the engine, you should be getting 12v across two adjacent pins on the 'engine loom' side, this is for the probe heating. you could also check for a circuit between the two pins on the 'probe' side. Andy

Totally agree, from what I've seen most of the VW 'technicians' are young kids out of school who have no real talent for the job or respect for your car whatsover, will quite happy rag it around the shiny tiled workshop floor, god knows what they'd do it if they took it out for a test drive! :cry: I'm lucky to have a fairly knowledgable parts guy in altrincham when I can't get parts anywhere else, but apart from that, STAY AWAY FROM THEM!

I had a very similar problem 2 weeks ago with my G60 and it turned out to be the lambda probe. When it runs bad & bogs down, is there any black smoke from the exhaust? If the lambda has gone you usually get black smoke when you accelerate, and your tailpipe would of turned black after a few minutes of this! Best thing to do is unplug the lambda probe harness at the connector when it happens again, if it runs well with good mpg (limp home mode is safe fuel settings and won't chuck too much fuel in) its got to be fuel related, most likely the probe. How do you mean the connector has been replaced, has it been grafted in with new crimp terminals? the wiring colours are different from one side of the connector to the other, this is normal. If it does turn out to be the probe, use a VAG one (or a VAG one sourced through GSF/ECP if they sell them) don't use cheap generic ones, they don't always work properly and are made from cheaper materials so only last a year or so!