Jim

Yeah.. well the heater direction flap seems to move quite nicely, but the air direction flaps are extremely stiff. Having disconnected the bowden cable from the dials, it's extremely stiff to push / pull the bowden cable and make the inner flaps move. Just uploading some pictures now.. Frustratingly I have a nice new (boxed) set of controls from what I believe is a Passat, but they're like almost a mirror of the Corrado ones with the direction dial being on the right hand side and the fan speed on the left. Some parts seem interchangeable but the mechanism for the direction seems slightly different. I may be able to scavenge it for bits though if I find something has broken on these controls.

Everything is OK as far as I know? What is / isn't happening?

Gave in and took it out.

They make quite a difference actually. Along with a remap they're good for between 20-30BHP (if you're lucky!) but give a much more grunty feel with more power available lower in the rev range. Just makes the motor feel more eager. A worthwhile modification though obviously difficult to justify as the cost of the cams + fitting + remap isn't an inconsiderable sum.

Thanks David :) I disconnected the bowden cables, and then was able to force it around a bit more and it's clicked back into working again thankfully but doesn't seem completely sweet so would be nice to strip it and check it over properly. It seems to be that you need to get the front dial off first, before you can then access the gear and the arms. What I couldn't work out is how you actually pull the dials from the front, so you can then dismantle the mechanism properly? The heat and fan speed dials are OK and can be left alone but I'd like to dismantle the direction dial to clean it all and reassemble properly?

Cheers - just found that P3rks has one for sale and will refurbish the flaps prior to posting it out, all for £50. Think that's pretty fair so gonna take a punt on that :)

Hello mate.. do you still have the heater box? How much posted please? If you could refurb the heater flaps as per your listing on page 1, that would fantastic. Thanks.

I'm sorry - I'm terrible with people's real names! :( Which Gareth?

What a nightmare. I don't own a dremel so that wasn't an option, and after some minutes and a lot of swearing and swinging off the heater box it was loose but didn't want to come. The upper bolt and released itself from the heater box but the lower one wasn't having it so I just took to the plastic on the back of the heater box with a hacksaw. With it finally removed from the car I removed the matrix, lots of leafy debris, lots of coolant, all the loose foam off the flaps and then started to fiddle with the heater controls. I seem to have managed to f@ck those up as well now - the left switch (direction) is just screwed. What a total disaster. Reconnected my clocks and immobiliser unit, put the steering wheel back on and backed it into the garage - just going to have to walk away from it for now before I torch it. Guess I'm on the look out for another heater box - and god knows what to do about the heater controls.. there's two sets on eBay, one at £90 and one at £150. Utterly ridiculous.

No issues getting the two out in the scuttle tray. Just the two that hold the heater box in are not gonna come out. Not sure what to do tbh.

Got them out eventually. More problematically both the bolts in the engine bay that hold the heater box in place are just spinning the whole thread and not undoing :( what a ****ing nightmare.

Well, I'm under way but hitting a few bumps so far. There's a few interior screws that simply refuse to budge and are at risk of getting the heads chewed if I try much more. I've given them a blast with 3-in-1 penetrant spray and stopped for some breakfast. One is in the air vent on the passenger side of the dash and the other two are the screws holding the centre console in, in the big binnacle at the bottom / centre of the dash (where the cool Corrado auxiliary gauges can be fitted) - they will not shift for toffee - how the hell is that possible on frigging interior screws! :(

I have to agree. The replacement supercharger may be a lot cheaper but the work involved on getting it on the car (unless you're capable of all the design and fabrication work required, plus remapping the engine, etc) is going to outweigh any potential savings there. Sadly there is nothing out there that is a plug and play replacement for the G-Lader. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-CORRADO-1-8-G60-PG-GOLF-RALLYE-G-LADER-SUPERCHARGER-COMPRESSOR-/221449314661?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item338f686165 G-Lader above is £400 'Buy it now' - then get it to someone like JMR or OCD for a rebuild which is approx £300 I believe.

I have 263's, stock air box with the snorkel removed and a K&N panel filter, and a stock exhaust. It sounds great to me and significantly more rowdy that standard but not excessive in any way.

Posting this on behalf of chazrad who was having computer issues :) Please message him if interest! Chaps, A blinding opportunity for some lucky soul...one of our number has sadly had to withdraw from this road trip around Wales next week. He has kindly advised me that the accommodation which has been paid for should be offered to another club member who might be able to enjoy it in his place. So here it is: Do you own a Corrado? Do you want to be part of a road trip to drive the finest roads in Wales with some like-minded Corrado enthusiasts? Can you get time off work and from family commitments to be available from morning 4 - 7 Sep? Can you get to South Wales for the start point by 0930hrs? If you can answer yes to that lot, then contact me as soon as possible and I will pass on the rest of the information. To be clear, the accommodation costs of this trip (3 nights in B&B accommodation) is covered because it is paid for. All other costs on the trip will be covered by the individual, including fuel, all other meals and other costs as necessary. For details of the route, see other thread in this section about the CCGB Wales Road Trip 4-7 Sep 14. This offer is open to CCGB members only, but you could pay the membership fee (£15) to become a club member and immediately save IRO £80 in accom costs on this trip. Let me know if you are interested. Charlie

I'm terrible at getting into the job and forgetting to take pictures but I'll try!

I think I can guess who :)

As I say - if it ends up being impossible, I will just carry on and take the dash out. But it has to be worth a try to save myself some hours!

Well, I think I'm going to be tackling this tomorrow. Got all the stuff now. Went to poke around my other lockup this evening and found a spare hot/cold brand new old stock bowden cable and a set of the Passat heater controls, so will be a good opportunity to try and get my heater controls all sorted after years of being stiff and horrible. Bought a roll of this kind of thin reflective matting from B&Q and some copydex to glue it with (this is how we repaired the missing foam on the flaps on 2cc's Corrado a couple of years ago and it's still working just fine) so that should take care of any disintegrated foam on the air diverter flaps in the heater box. Bought a load of zip ties too so I can tidy stuff up if needed as going along. I've re-read the (brief) wiki article on doing the swap without taking the dash out, and given davidwort said he did it with the dash in too on his car, I'm going to at least try that route. But if there's any sign of violence / brute force needed to extract the dash, I'll just go back to doing it the long way round. The joy of Corrado ownership :)

If your VR6 is bone stock standard (air box, air filter, exhaust) then they're extremely quiet as standard. It's only performance exhausts and air filters that start to make it sound a lot louder!

If I thought I was in for the long term with my VR I'd give serious thought to this kit - 6th gear in my VR is something I always fancied!

53MPG?! I think you need to get a 'Bluemotion' badge for the back of it - that's mighty impressive.

Has to be worth a punt at that price - either resolves the issues, or you continue to scrap the engine anyway - you're no worse off and indeed could just remove the pump and sell it again anyway to recoup most of what you just spend acquiring it!

E39 M5 is right up there in my dream garage - be sure to get some pictures up if the VRT sells and you do pick one up :)

Just reading up on oil pump issues, they apparently do cause all the symptoms you're describing. Just reading a random page which describes the issues thusly: * Low oil pressure (check) * Increased engine operating temperature (check) * Noise Again - just wanted to know if you've changed it yet? I don't believe they're mega money from VW if you can stomach having the sump off the motor again? :) Has to be worth a punt rather than ripping out the engine and having to swap over so many other parts.