Akinesis

Since I've owned this car (about six weeks) I've not stopped chasing problems. Yes, I appreciate it's all part and parcel of owning a 'Rado - and I wouldn't swap it for the world. But it is starting to get me down :( As it stands, my car is stuck on a ramp at my mechanics club after I tried to fit a second hand exhaust. Firstly, the mid-boxes are different fitments, but this doesn't bother me too much because the old one is still good enough to use (this system is only temporary anyway). I also bought a decat pipe, too. When I offered the decat up it was about 9 inches too long, but with some modifications to the mid-box I thought that I could get around this. I believe the exhaust system is original, as the clamps where well an truly rusted up. I had great fun angle-grinding the old clamps off. It also turned out that I had to grind off the bolts between the cat and the manifold. When I went to take on my next challenge of removing the lambda sensor from the cat, I noticed the nut that holds the sensor on had been tack-welded. Again, the angle grinder came out and I carefully wore down the tacks. Then I discovered that there was one final tack that was inaccessible for the grinder. I looked outside and it was getting dark, plus the garage closes at around 9.30pm. I admitted defeat and decided to live with the cat for a while longer and revisit the fitting of the decat another day. I had about 30 mins work ahead of me fitting up the new exhaust... until I went to refit the cat. My intention was to use the new bolts that came with the decat pipe (hence why I was happy to grind the old ones off), but - guess what - they were far too big for both the cat and manifold flanges. With Halfords closed and no spare bolts to hand, I've had to leave the car stuck on the ramp. The problem is that I'm supposed to be travelling to Reading tomorrow for my girlfriends birthday (I'm meeting her at her mums where we're spending the whole weekend) :brickwall: My dilemma - my lift leaves at 4, the garage doesn't open until 4.30, and it's a bit too cheeky for me to leave the 'Rado sat on a ramp that a few other people are probably waiting to use. So I have to fix the car and drive up myself. The second part of this dilemma is that I don't even know if anyone will show up to open the garage - there is no-one pencilled in to manage it over the weekend :bad-words: OK, maybe the moral of the story here is nothing other than better preparation. But I have a Scirocco and a Mk2 Golf that, so far, have been very forgiving to work on. I've never seemed to have a problem. But the Corrado is forever giving me grief every time I work on it. I still turn around and see the big flashing lights which spell out 'YOU WENT INTO THIS KNOWING THE 'RADO IS A MONEY PIT', but it's getting me down that I just seem to be having no luck at all. Here is a list of my current 'major' problems: 1. Suspension needs replacing - she's currently sat on coilovers that sit so low I'v had to take the front splitter off as it was scraping and damaging it. I've had one coilover out but the collars are seized and can't raise it. The rear passenger one is squeaking badly. 2. Engine is lumpy - the revs are all over the place. I've changed the plugs, leads, dizzy cap and arm. I've cleaned the idle control valve, which helped slightly, but the tick-over is still all over the place. And after coming off the accelerator when warm the revs dip to almost cutting-out before picking up again. Sometimes it's at a steady 800rpm, or a very lumpy 500rpm. In traffic the engine can cut out completely. 3. The exhaust - you all now about that. 4. Under-chassis - rust, rust and more rust. I have taken loads of pictures because I want to start a build thread. I need to drop the front subframe and rear beam to get the rust off and paint them. I need to replaced the wishbones and all the bushes. Plus the fuel filter is just one big cylinder of rust. 5. Brakes - the brakes have been replaced recently, but not very well. I need to drop the callipers, but the bolts are truly seized. The front drivers ins't fitted well and only scrubs half the disc. Plus the pads are loose (I've not know this before!). Moly grease has been used all the brakes - not copper! I also have the ABS light on, and need to start investigating that. Plus the rear pipes could do with replacing. On the rear brakes the heat shields are rotten. One has fallen off and has ruptured the boot to the rear cylinder - not good either!! 6. Squealing from the engine. There is another post on here about that, so I won't go into it too much. I won't drone on any longer, as I'm sure you get the picture. I enjoy working on the car, and I know they are getting old, but have I picked up a rather nasty one here or is this really what owning a 'Rado is all about?? What made me buy the car is that the interior and exterior are almost mint. Others' thought would be appreciated :wave: Dan :salute:

I'm testing out my Mk2 Golf over at Brands Hatch on 17th August. I've entered it into a championship that my cousin is already apart of, with the first race happening at Brands in September. Brands is a track I haven't run on before, so thought it would be a good idea to get use to it before the race :wink: Can I expect to see anyone on here who will be running on that day?? Just thought I'd ask :grin:

Well, I never had a thread hi-jacked as much as this before :lol: Mine makes the noise with the car sat in neutral and clutch up. I can get out the car, lift the bonnet and hear the noise coming from the general area of the belts - but only when it's cold. So it's not going to be the thrust bearing for me. But I hear you on the clutch-rant. It's actually a pet hate of mine, too. I always make sure that whenever I'm sat still the car is out of gear and my foot is well-distanced from the clutch pedal. I always tell anyone else off when I'm passenger in their car and see them doing it :grin: Anyway, I think the solution for me is to get a hose, put one end to each pulley in turn and the other end to my ear so I can find out exactly where this damn noise is coming from. But the car is locked up in the garage for a couple of weeks now - I barely use her during the week and I'm away this weekend. So may have to pick up the fault-finding next week :?

Ok, by the sounds of it my water pump is not about to give up :clap: Thanks guys! Tensioner pulley - you talking about the timing belt? :shock:

Yes it does :( I changed the belts the other day but the noise is still there. I turned all the pulleys when the belts were off - alternator was free, power-steering pump was free but the water-pump was quite stiff to turn compared to the others. So it looks like that changing the water pump is the next thing to try

Roger that - a trip to VW it is!

No, it wasn't insured through postage :( Will get it welded, then! Thanks for advice :grin:

OK, just got a second standard exhaust but the main box has been delivered with stress-cracks at the base of the port where the center-silencer would connect. It's both on the top and the bottom (guessing DHL didn't handle it with car :mad2:) behind the seam-weld. Could these be welded over, of gun-gummed?

I got me a Halfords trade card yesterday, and I'm super-keen to use it! I want to give me Corrado a damn good service, which will include an oil and filter change, new air filter as well as new ignition componants (plugs, leads, disi & arm and maybe a new coil). Except Halfords hardly stock any parts for the 9A :bad-words: So, looks like I'll be taking a trip to the stealers to get all my stuff, unless anyone can point me somewhere else? Don't have a local GSF, which sucks :( But my Golf has the KR, and there is all parts available from Halfrauds for that lump :grin:

Thanks for clearing it up for me :wink:

No absolutely no receipts for it, and the previous owner didn't mention anything. I have a better flux-capacitor in my Golf :wink: I'm glad that you can clarify it's a tracker. Wasn't worth loads of £££'s, was it?

It is fun, I totally agree. If I got a car that needed no work doing to it I would probably be more disappointed! :lol: But my bank account doesn't like it :cry:

It seems to be a constant up-hill struggle with Corrado's :grin:

...and it's out! Will do a full job tomorrow, but all power-supply wires are snipped :grin:

Cutting...

...Oh, and the 'resistor' is slowly cooling off. Possible electrical one-way valve, so the car batt doesn't conflict with the back-up batt?

Ok, the wires that piggy-back from the boot light def link up to this unit. And the other blue and white wires link up too, but these are go nowhere now but are quite long (could these have linked up to the GPS aerial?). Also, with some brute force - I got the unit fully out. The pic isn't clear but this sticker is on the underside and basically say: "MOTOROLA. This unit is to be used in the UK only, not the USA or Canada due to unauthorised use of frequencies." Def sounds tracker-ish? With the above picture, this is a shot of the boot-light. You can see at the bottom centre is where the piggy-back is made from the light unit. The big fore-most cable-sheath that runs top-right to bottom-left is the long wires that are just coiled up. And centre-right you can see the cable sheath is hooked over (with the shoddy electrical-tape wrapping) after it piggy-backs the boot-light, and runs off to the top right with the other (possible GPS?) cable.

Let me go and have another quick look...

I got some loose wires (thin blue ones) that are coiled up and lead to nothing, and the others are 'piggy-backed' from the boot-light. It's hard to say whether these wires are the ones that run to the rear bench, as I don't want to start pulling panels off if I don't have to. But the wire sheathings look the same. It's nt a tracker is it??

Ok, here's the pic...

Yeah, I was an audio specialist for a few years and with Vee-dubs you have to swap the perm live and ignition switch over for them. I've always wired mine up to permanent live for the same reason - listen to music with the keys out (car washing/polishing :grin:). So is it just Alpine's with Corrado's?? Can I direct people to this thread, too - I may have found a second culprit... viewtopic.php?f=19&t=94579

On investigating my flat-battery problem I came across some mystery wires while checking the boot-light. I followed them to under the seat and I found this... This silvery box is very well stuck down, so didn't want to try and take this out without knowing what it is. There appears to be no markings The part wrapped in electrical type seems to be a resistor and it is constantly too hot to touch!! What the hell is that about? It appears very much to be homemade, so I really (REALLY!) doubt that it's a standard item!! But I don't very much like it being there! Can anyone shed light onto this?? :scratch:

A dark green or black (light was funny) VR6, N***PDD, driving away from the Naval base (Sultan) towards Stubbington in Gosport today just after 3PM. Totally standard (from the outside!).

Um... mine's an Alpine head unit, too! :shock: Hmmm.... I haven't charged the battery yet as I've got a 100 mile journey home in a couple of hours. Was gonna get a jump. Let's hope it's not the alternator packing up :pale: Interesting about the Alpine head unit, though!!

That's what I'm gonna have to do. I'll get to the bottom of this, though :grin: