oneohtwo

This is extremely sad to see, you've had it so long and all that work gone. Glad you're alright though, the Corrado looked after you. At least it got to the big 300 before it happened.

Not really sure what's going on with the piston - it's bit hard to see from the photo. Could just be carbon deposits? The spark plug looks normal to my mind though. In terms of possible head gasket leak, other things to check or look out for: - water in the oil (white sludge or "mayo") - oil in the water - exhaust gas in water - blue or white smoke in exhaust (blue for oil in the cylinder, white for coolant) - loss of oil/water with no other obvious leak If water was getting into the cylinder you might expect to see the piston look clean where the water vapour steam cleans the piston, so possibly not that. If it was oil I'd have thought the plug would be fouled up, and that doesn't seem to be the case. But as above have a look for the other signs. Which cylinder looked bad? The VR tends to have issues on cylinder 1 and 6, although that's the 2.9l, as far as I am aware the 2.8 you'll have in the SLC is a bit more robust.

Well done! Always nice to tick that one off! I have a vague recollection that Corrado's had a tendency to pick up advisories on the rear wheel bearings, even if nothing wrong. Something to do with the design possibly. For a while mine kept picking it up on some MOTs but not others. I know what you mean about not driving it. I haven't driven mine properly for about 4 months - I just take it for a run up and down the nearest A road to keep the cobwebs at bay every now and then. Here's to driving them more this year.

I think the Golf motor superseded the Corrado one and might have been used on some late cars? I thought I was buying a mark 3 motor (with a 3a09 part number) but when it arrived it was clearly a Corrado motor. It was a bit odd, the box it came in was a proper VAG box, sealed, with a 3a09 part number and the motor was in a sealed bag, but the mark 3 motor looks quite different to the Corrado one. This was identical and it didn't have a VAG sticker on it either. My guess is that VW had some of the 535 Corrado motors left in stock after they were superseded but repackaged them as 3a09 as this was the new required part number. They perhaps then removed the 535 part number sticker to avoid confusion. Of course it could be a second hand part that someone was trying to pass off as new and I was mugged off - but the sealed VAG box makes me think it can't have been this. Anyway, all's well that ends well.

I managed to come up with a solution to the above, and swapped the circuit board from my working, but sluggish motor, into the new one. Was a fiddly job, but got there in the end and it works! Not sure why the replacement part didn't work initially - couldn't see anything wrong with it when I took it apart. I did notice the circuit board was ever so slightly different from my one, so could be that. Or may just be a duff one. Now I just need to calibrate the motor with the sunroof opening, as it's not fully opening.

Acquired a new old stock sun roof motor from ebay which I hoped would be better than my existing one which is a bit sluggish and occasionally stutters. Plugged it in to find it doesn't work at all. Checked the terminals and they all seemed have a circuit through them, so any ideas? I can return of course, but I am slightly loathe to as it's from Europe and I don't necessarily want to lose the import duties, etc.

Sad to see another forum stalwart go, but can understand your reasons. That's a decent car collection you'll have going on! Feel like I am in a similar boat. Don't have an urge to get rid yet, but we recently got a Polestar 2, partly as my gf got fed up with the lack of creature comforts in the Corrado, aircon and cupholders in particular. Since then I haven't had much cause to drive it, so it's not getting used much. I must admit driving around in a modern car, as you say, has been a pretty nice experience.

Another quick and easy adjustment is to tighten the throttle cable. Possibly not quite the same issue as hesitation/misfiring but I remember on mine the peddle response often felt slow and hesitant, but there was just a lot of slack in the cable. Tightening it up made a lot of difference. Other things I did that seemed to help around low rev and idle issues were replacing the ISV (or you can clean it - it gets a bit gummed up with carbon deposits and stuff, so if you can free it up and then clean it with brake cleaner it helps) and the dashpot (I swapped mine for a Passat one I think), but as Cressa says there's an awful lot that it could be!

Could be, I've no idea. Might just have seen an opportunity to save a few pence on costs with no loss of performance. Somewhat ironically, I think the cold starting issue (which started this process) may have just been due to a loss of pressure from fuel leaks. It's been sat for a couple of months whilst I looked into all this, so I replaced the battery and it started first time. Might replace the fuel pump anyway as the Bosch seems a good unit and it should give a lot more miles of service than the existing. The Pierburg can be a spare.

I did actually get a reply from Bosch (were pretty quick to respond on email tbf; the guy on the phone was useless), and they said the filter was deleted in 2022 by the factory, as removing it didn't impact performance. I find it slightly odd putting it in without, but as Bosch have presumably tested it and found it fine I'll go ahead. The VDO sender has arrived as well, and fits, so I think we are all good to go.

Interestingly I spoke to HEL and they reckoned they were suitable for fuel lines and are the standard ones they use and send out, and are the only connectors they use (other than for hard lines etc).

Circled in red. You can clearly see the mesh in a plastic ring. The ones I have don't have the mesh, but the clips are still there. I can't work out why this bit would be missing on some. Would Bosch have decided not to fit them? They even have the green QA pen marks else where, just not this bit.

I've picked up another one of the Bosch filters and it to is missing the pre-filter strainer over the inlet. Seems a bit odd. The Bosch website says a strainer is included, and there are pictures clearly showing a filter over the inlet, but they're obviously not being made with them. Spoke to someone from Bosch who was very little help. Not sure where to go from here, I am loathe to install the pump without a filter, but no idea where to get one that fits.

Has it gone in alright? I got the Bosch one but the part arrived without a wire filter over the inlet. The seller said they're other stock was the same, so ordered one elsewhere to compare. Otherwise it seems pretty good quality, and comes with installation instructions and all the clips and hoses needed which is reassuring. It's pretty different to the standard VDO type ones you see around so time will tell how well it fits I guess.

Ah thanks. I used the clamps that came with the HEL fuel lines they sent so assumed they were suitable, but having checked again they are just worm drive type clamps with an aluminium capping piece. I did notice that when I found the leak and retightened they did seem a bit loose. I will swap them out. The only nice thing is they finish off the braided hose quite nicely and stop any fraying.