oneohtwo

It's a bit of a left field choice, but as far as load lugging, rugged, throw anything at them 4x4s go you can't go far wrong with a Daihatsu Fourtrak! It's rock solid, built like a tank and is absolutely, never let you down, dependable. Seriously it just keeps on going. All the mechanicals are solid and kept simple, and the engine is a tough old unit. Body panels are all galvanised so rust shouldn't be an issue either. The obvious downside is it's not very refined on the road, performance could be charitably described as sluggish, but it will maintain that performance whatever you are carrying or towing! Ride is very firm (adjustable dampners don't really do anything! :lol: ), but it's not a woeful drive; gearchange is clean and slick, and the handling is fairly neutral. Obviously it's no sports car, that's not really what you go looking for in a 4x4, but it won't drive you into a hateful rage everytime you drive it (unlike some cars...*cough*206*cough*). Other than that agree with what's been said above re. Land Cruiser and Rav 4. Fourtrak is obviously smaller than the Land Cruiser, and less refined than both but will carry loads, tow and go anywhere better than the Rav 4 IMO. If you have the money and space, then you can't go far wrong with the Land Cruiser, (we replaced the Fourtrak with a Land Cruiser, for a bit more on road refinement. The Fourtrak kept on going mind!) and of course none of the above will break like a Freelander probably will...

I'd be interested to know this as well, in case mine needs doing later on. Sounds like it could be useful to a few people, and I'll change the thread title to include this as well so it's more easily found. Glad to see the thread is being of some use!

I'll add my name to the Corrado Yeovil Division! :salute: I've an Aqua Blue VR, usually can be seen on the A303 or the A37 between Ilchester and Yeovil. Haven't seen others, other than that dark VR that may or may not be a Storm... Will have to be more observant!

This is pobably about what mine is using now. Got someone to drive behind me to check for smoke and their slightly vague verdict was: "there might have been a trace of smoke", so not surprising I haven't noticed any! I guess the next step will be a compression test to confirm what I'm looking at... (then after that try and discern if it is running rich... :roll: ) Cheers for all your help guys, much appreciated! What did Corrado owners do in the days before the forum?!

10W/40 as per the manual. it is a semi-synthetic though. How much would that affect things? The Golf chap mentioned above uses it in his VR and as I say doesn't get through as much, it's what they generally use where he works. Full oil change needed?

Yeh I'll have it :lol: :lol: Saw the Storm/non-Storm I mentioned earlier again, same time, same road in Yeovil. I'm absolutetly certain it was black this time, it was a clear day and there was no hint of blue in it! So either someone's resprayed a Storm, or they've been sticking cheeky Storm badges on a normal VR! :norty:

Hi guys, my VR has been having a naughty drink of the oil, and wondering if anyone has any ideas. Basically am getting through a lot of oil; over a ltr per 1000 miles, which is outside the slightly excessive sounding tolerance in the manual and from reading other people's usage on here quite a bit more than it should. If it carries on I might have to start callign it a Diesel! :lol: :| Trouble is I can't quite figure out where it's going. I don't have any major leaks, there's never any drips or puddles underneath anywhere it's been parked. There is some weeping out of the rocker cover, but not excessive amounts. So I figure it must be getting burnt, but I've no blue smoke out the back or any smell of burning oil. I've no white gunge in any of the oil, and there's no oil in the coolant so I'm ruling out head gasket for now. Having done a search on here I understand I'm probably looking at either piston rings or valve stems? The engine is probably quite worn (140k+) and am I right in thinking increased blow by would force more oil vapor through the pcv pipe back into the combustion chambers? The pcv was knackered and split apart so replaced it with a new one a couple of weeks ago. Oil was dripping out of this onto the exhaust manifold so I was getting an oil burning smell from that, but since I've had the new one the smell has ceased. Also as I say no smoke, and a mates AAA VR in his Golf has worn piston rings and has blue smoke to go with it, but even he's not getting throught the same amount of oil as i am. I was expecting the breather pipe and air intake pipe to be full of oil deposits if this was the case but they and the throttle body were all clean. I've had the spark plugs out, but they weren't oiled up. There was oil on the outside of them, so that will be out of the rocker cover I guess. They were highly carbonated though, and the exhaust has a lot of black carbon deposits, so on a slightly seperate issue I think it might be running a bit rich, and not really sure what to do there either. :shrug: So I'm a bit stumped all in all, I can't see any of the oil burning symptoms that I'm aware of: blue smoke, smell, oil on plugs, white gunge etc so wondering where the oil is going! :confused4: Would it be burning oil without any of those things showing up? It seems to run alright, haven't had any loss of power; it always seems willing to pull throughout the range, and is smooth. I don't mind topping the oil up like I'm refueling it if it runs ok just a bit confused and hoping it's not indicative of an underlying issue lying in wait!

Guess it was Mystic Blue then. All I know it was a very dark colour, looked black, and had a Storm badge on the rear! I've an Aqua Blur VR. Actually live outside Yeovil so not often in town with it other than the odd occasion driving to work (such as today), not really much fun though... apart from the Tesco bypass! I'll have a lookout for you, whereabouts in Yeovil are you generally?

My first spot! :grin: Saw a tidy black Storm :salute: in Yeovil at 1.55pm cruising past the library on wednesday. Just caught myself before I waved as I wasn't in my Corrado and that may have seemed a bit wierd...!

Thanks mate! I managed to convince myself I couldn't make it any worse! Although shortly after the first picture I was wondering what the hell I had done...no choice then but to plough on! :lol: Really pleased with the the finish (have surprised myself!) and has started giving me naughty thoughts of going over the whole car with the buffer... :norty:

Cheers fella! I nabbed it from my Dad's garage, along with the drill and rubbing compound! :grin: It's pretty ancient...the draw strings is unravelling. Not so much help for you though, sorry!

Not been doing a great deal with it recently, mostly due to funds, or lack thereof, so just trying to do a few touching up jobs. Got the handbreak and gear lever surrounds out and gave it a good clean under there, and then been sorting on of the 'bad' bits on it. Basically on the legside door I had some laquer peeling off. It has had a respray at some point in its past, and my guess is they didn't do a great job on the prep. :nono: Anyway i thought I'd give it a go myself, try and get it half decent in the interim and figured if I cock it up it has to go the body shop anyway, so I've not really lost!Thought I'd document progress with a few pics! Bad bits. The tools. 400, 600, 2000 wet and dry and some ancient Woolworths rubbing compound! :lol: Start rubbing down the old stuff with the wet and dry Spray a thin coat of laquer to try and give the paint a bit more protection from the sanding More rubbing. Then after some more new laquer and rubbing: Done! Skipped a few steps there, obviously. Gave it a good buff up with the buffer and the finish has come up better than the rest of the car! It's by no means perfect, am unsure whether to spend more time on it getting it absolutely flat, if you get close you can see slight ripples were the patches were, or to just leave it in case it turns into a forever job :nuts:

Saw this at Volksfest, congrats on your win, well deserved! Very smooth.

Good to hear your rebuild is almost done! Not sure I could tackle a full rebuild, but it's nice to know there are those out there who can and do, and keep the cars going. Look forward to seeing pics of it when it's complete! :) More Pictures!:

Admittedly you can't see much of the car!

Cheers mate! Would have more pics up but it's refusing to accept they are less than 800 pixels wide when they are under 700, :bad-words: so I'm gonna leave that for a bit until it sorts itself out!

It's taken my a while but finally posting pics of my 'Rado! Some on here might recognise it as Walesy's old one, and that would be because i bought it off him! cheers Walesy! :salute: Absolutely loving it at the moment, the way it drives, the sound if you give it the beans, not to mention the beans themselves, the little spoiler that pops up, jut sitting in it, but most of all is the constant looking back at it when you've parked it 'cos it looks spot on and then thinking "that's mine" :D It instantly puts a smile on my face when i come home and see it sat on my drive, no matter what my mood. Very much standard at the moment, other than the Lupo wipers and I intend to keep it that way really, only doing essential improvement upgrades! The only thing that does tempt me is lowering a tad, as it often looks a bit high, and I love them when they look squat and hunkered down....but I'm not sure how that would affect the ride, don't want it rock hard so it shakes the interior apart! So that's something for way down the line. For now I am just having a good interior tidy up, getting trim out and cleaning the dirt that's built up. Next move is to give the leather a good seeingto with one of those Furniture Clinic kits. Anyway, pictures:

(well last night) Swapped my vent flap bowden cables over. They were clipped to the wrong levers! Was wondering why I wasn't getting any air to the footwell vents! Easily done mind you, even after I took them off I still managed to put them back on the same way... But it's all gravy; no cold feet for me this summer! :D Took me a while to figure out what the problem was initially, as everything was in working order; it's alright though, I enjoy lying on my back, upside down, with my fingers in some flaps... At the same time I also managed to familiarise myself with the exceptional build and design quality of the Corrado dash. My highlights so far are the small tray in front of the fuses on the drivers side, and cig lighter mounting, which as far as i can see is only held in by magic... :lol:

Perhaps he moved and couldn't get a parking permit at his new gaff... Nice car though, looks fabulous and a tad unhinged!

Can't argue with that! God knows how long it took him to get that good...