tonytiger

I agree - the cv boot has almost certainly split. Should just need cleaning up, new boot and grease.

There seems to be conflicting information as to how soon this could be come law, and whether the UK government could over-rule any of it or not. I don't think you should assume it won't happen for a while, or that it won't be as bad as some people are saying - hopefully not, but I wouldn't bet on it. The dft feedback form (link taken from the ACE forum) summarises some of the points. Apart from the modification point, it mentions vehicles older than 30 years and unmodified being exempt from testing. Why do that? Can old vehicles not be dangerous? Also, "where a vehicle has dangerous defects discovered at test, that the vehicle shall not be used on public roads and the registration of the vehicle must be withdrawn until the defects are rectified." - not sure what it means with regard to registration - but would that still allow driving to and from an MOT centre, or not at all? Then there's another money making bit - "when major or dangerous deficiencies have been found following a more detailed roadside inspection, Member States may require the payment of a fee." I understand there are some benefits in the proposals, and testing caravans and trailers is no bad thing - albeit more expense and hassle - and testing brake fluid seems an obvious thing to do. However, in general and as usual, this just seems to make things harder and more expensive for law abiding people - it won't stop unroadworthy, uninsured cars.

If at first you don't succeed, hit it with a big hammer. :) Except for once I didn't. I created a terminal removal tool from a pair of tweezers with the aid of a grinder, and it worked!

I don't think there was ever a definitive answer. It's discussed a bit in these 3 threads: http://the-corrado.net/showthread.php?35802 http://the-corrado.net/showthread.php?32243 http://the-corrado.net/showthread.php?56829

No worries - an extra gadget that'll have a use eventually. I had seen those other kits, but wasn't sure if they would do everything or just most. Shame they're so pricey - still might fork out for one anyway, as I suspect I'm going to have a few more sockets to do anyway.

Well, I've failed to remove the terminal from the fan connector with improvised methods, and the laser tool which I now have won't do it either, as that only does the smaller terminals it seems. I'm trying to remove the larger terminal on the left in the attached photo. Any other suggestions please anybody? (Apart from fitting a completely different fan!) [ATTACH=CONFIG]69202[/ATTACH]

When I click the new posts link at the top of the page it's not showing any posts after 12.30pm today. I've tried this in Chrome and Firefox - same results in both. I've also tried signing out and using the 'todays posts' link - but that gives the same results (though the times are an hour different due to BST). What's going on? I've just realised the main forum page doesn't show any updates after 12.30 today either. And there are no new threads shown either - so I guess nobody can see this!!!

To counter those saying walking away (which may be the right thing to do depending upon your circumstances) logically that might make sense, but then you might forever wonder what if you hadn't. It depends what the house/location/etc mean to you, and depends how many you've looked at previously - is this the only one that you really felt was the place, or were there other close contenders? In the case of my sister and brother-in-laws house, apart from monitoring for subsidence for the first six months and having the drains surveyed to check for damage (what an exciting video that is!), in the first week they moved in they thought they could smell gas and called a plumber out to check things out. He promptly condemned everything - and switched the gas off at the meter - and of course took some money from them too! So no heating and no oven/hob as that was gas too. New boiler needed, and fire, and all new pipework from the meter - and not in their budget. And to make matter worse, they even had trouble with the people who attempted to install the new boiler - stupidly they paid upfront, and the job was never completed, so then had to pay somebody else to come and finish the job. BUT, they don't regret it at all - it was the right house for them. And I think unless they come into a substantial amount of money, I doubt they'll move for a long long time. So, I can understand why you're going to have the wall cavity survey - but you've still got to be prepared to walk away if there are serious problems, or be prepared to have the work done - whether funded by yourselves, or through a reduced sale price. Good luck, whichever way it goes.

I'm not convinced about a cylinder/plug/injector - I might have misunderstood, but isn't the problem that it stops turning over very quickly - no matter how long you hold the ignition in starter position, it only turns a for a second or two and then nothing? That's why I'd expect electrical fault of some description.

daleyboy, no apology needed - all just part of the discussion :D I've had the same experience as Walesy with regard to roof condition, both buying and selling. Generally, imo, a load of rubbish - if it's still there doing it's job, it'll probably keep doing it a good while longer - though obviously some people prefer peace of mind and have them replaced anyway. None of the houses I've sold or close family have sold, have had the roofs replaced by the new owners - even years later! Again, I think it's largely a case of surveyors not taking any chances whatsoever - and to some degree, I don't blame them - it's just not very helpful to the buyer or the seller. I'd be more worried about the state of gas pipes/boilers/fires, and the electrical wiring. And just because you've got a certifcate to show it was done by a 'professional' doesn't guarantee it'll be okay (though obviously it would be most of the time).

I've some issues with the o2 sensor on my vr - vcds shows a 'no signal' fault, which might explain why the emissions were so terrible during its mot on saturday. I do have a little meter in my car linked to the ecu side of the o2 sensor plug (if that makes sense) at the back of the engine, and the meter was working fine before and after the mot. However, since I've moved the wiring a bit to check the plug connection etc, it's been intermittent so it looks like I might just have a continuity problem somewhere that I'm going to check for. So, what I'd like to know is, can anybody tell me what route the wiring takes from the o2 sensor please? It appears to disappear up behing the brake servo, and I'm not sure where it goes after that. I know some of it goes to the fusebox, but I guess at least one wire goes direct to the ecu. If I need to replace any of the wires, can that be done without removing the brake servo (or anything else much for that matter)? I'm really not looking forward to this. Cheers.

Daleyboy, did you read my first sentence in full? You've even gone on to say yourself that what's in the written report might be different from what he thinks off the record, which is absolutely no help from a legal/mortgage/insurance point of view. I did not recommend Not to have a survey done, just that getting a surveyor to commit to saying it's historic movement without monitoring may be difficult even if they think it is, to avoid litigation further down the road.

Getting a full structural survey won't necessarily help as such, as the engineer/surveryor will likely err on the side of caution to avoid being sued at a later date. Is there any sign of cracking 'round the windows now? When my sister bought her current house a few years ago, there were some potential issues with it - as there was visible cracking/movement internally - but it looked historic so didn't expect it to be a problem, but of course mortgage survey made a big deal out of it. My parents paid for further survey to be done, but made no difference as they wouldn't commit to it being historic and no longer a problem. In the end, a claim was put in with the sellers insurance for subsidence as part of the sale/mortage agreement - and the house was monitored for movement for 6 months and, as expected, there wasn't any, so that was that sorted. The boiler problem isn't the end of the world - as long as you get it serviced (and get any other gas work/appliances checked) then at worst it will break down. Obviously you'd have the expense of replacing it, but if you budget for that now as a possibility perhaps you could negotiate the price a little. Or, perhaps just sign up to one of those monthly schemes where you get an annual service in the price and breakdown/replacement cover. At the end of the day, it comes down to how much you want that property, and how much hassle/effort you prepared to deal with to get it. What ever happens - good luck!

Does it make a difference if the car is warmed up, or is it anytime? Can't really suggest anything other than what's already been suggested. You might need to check for wiring faults/corrosion too. Does it always stop turning over so quickly?

In the absence of the correct tool, I was going to try improvising something - so thanks for the info - I'll give that a go. Though it sounds like it's easier with at least 3 hands! Cheers.

Cheers Kev. Not a hope of getting one of them locally on a bank holiday weekend then. Guess I'll just have to wait (as usual) to have one posted.

The big brown wire on the radiator fan socket/connector on my vr has corroded off (resulting in boiling coolant today). I've removed the rubber seal from the back of the socket but I can't figure out how to get the terminal connector out so that I can resolder it. Anybody know how to do that? CHeers.

Thanks. Pics would be good so I can get an idea of how bad (or not) the scratches are - are they deep or light? I'm generally limited on free time at the moment - otherwise I'd just have driven up to look. Cheers.

Do you still have the bonnet? If so, have you got any pictures please? Also, do you have the spoiler mechanism? Thanks.

That's great news. I'm sure you'll think it all worthwhile when you're driving it again. Mine's booked in for MOT this Saturday, but I know there are a couple of things it will definitely fail on - just want to find out what else is wrong with it before I start fixing things.

Received mine safely last week. Thanks to Matt and everybody else involved in getting these produced. :thumbleft:

Gruvenparts do a billet one (at a price) - http://gruvenparts.com/website/cart/cart.php?target=product&product_id=256 But if you really do want to get one made up yourself - I might have an old plastic one kicking about - I just need to find it.....

Even if it could pass the emissions test without a cat, isn't one of the new MOT rules that a cat must be fitted if it had one when it left the factory? Could be wrong, but I'm sure I read that somewhere a few months back.

Forgot to say, I've got commuting cover on both cars - though I haven't driven the corrado to work for about 3 years now - so I know that will add a bit to the price. I think I tried Footman James a couple of years ago, and they were either too expensive, or wouldn't do commuting cover, can't remember which. But I know it varies person to person, and day to day. What's really annoying is that most of the brokers use the same group of insurance companies anyway - so apart from brokers fees, there really shouldn't be much difference in price no matter which broker you get a quote from. I noted in the small print from flux, it mentions a broker fee of about £60 I think, and I presume that doesn't include the £30 policy issue fee. So on that basis, the corrado insurance is actually really only £240 !!! If only.

..were narrowly beaten by Adrian Flux for me this year (when pushed). The initial renewal price from Flux for my unmodified VR6 was £341. That's for 3000 miles, unmodified, kept on drive, £250xs, 13 years ncb (protected), no points, 1 no fault accident 4 years ago, and I'm 39 (driving for 22 years). My saxo vtr renewal is also due at the same time, and my renewal price was a shocking £666 - no mileage limit, £100 xs, 4 years ncb, kept on drive. The cheapest prices I could find was from CK, at £332, and £492. Very helpful on the phone and notably cheaper than the rest. The next best quotes were Prestige Carclub at £550 for the saxo but with £450xs NOT protected, and Sky with £582 (protected) for the Saxo, and a whopping £542 for the Corrado. Adrian Flux then re-quoted me £326 for the vr, and £480 for the saxo - so to save hassle, and a tad more money, I've stuck with them. It was tempting to switch to CK though as their quotes were so good straight away, were very helpful on the phone, and flux were having a laugh with the initial 'best' renewal price. I think my postcode is risk D, which isn't great, but even after reducing the total renewal price by £200, I still feel like I've been robbed. Last year I didn't bother to ring around, and just auto-renewed - perhaps that's why my renewal was so high this year, assuming I wouldn't bother and would just pay it. Well, I'll not be doing that again!