Stonejag

Are you using the right kind of spanner? You need one that looks like this: If you use a normal one it'll take loads more effort and you've more chance of rounding it off. Mk4 calipers should bolt straight onto your existing carriers - did you only get new ones so you could powdercoat them? I'm in the middle of painting my new set, looking forward to brakes that work! Stone

I've got a cat in the garage (car's already decat) - if you don't have any joy I'll dig it out for you tomorrow. Stone

Also autos are rarer ;) Mostly I like it for the convenience - my gf only has an auto license so I got used to driving them, plus it gives my dodgy knee a bit of a break. You can always put your foot down if you want it to shift! They get very aggressive on the shifts when the fluid is low and really bang into gear, especially 1st->2nd - I think the trick is finding one that hasn't been mangled by the abuse because as you say they're expensive to fix. That said, when I wasn't sure if new fluid would fix it I was quoted £800 for a full teardown with all the seals replaced and the valve body cleaned out, with £300 on top to rebuild the torque converter - you could easily spend a grand paying someone to sort out a manual gearbox so they aren't quite as bad value as you might expect. That Spanish one looks very original - much better than mine when I got it. Maybe it's the weather, rain always makes my paint look good :lol: Stone

OK, so I know I'm a sad git, but I've found a place to buy first-aid kits from that fit properly in the centre armrest Outside: Inside: Fitted: It has all the standard stuff (tons of bandages, tape, blunt scissors for clothing, plasters, slings, space blanket...) and it doesn't expire until 2016 so you won't poison anyone using it. As an added bonus it even looks like the OEM one if you squint a bit :lol: Dirt cheap at £9 (less than £15 shipped - I spent an extra £1.99 on another space blanket just in case) so there's no excuse not to, really. Good as a stocking-filler, maybe? [Website link] Now I have a nice firm armrest that clicks into place properly and doesn't go saggy when a passenger looks in its direction. Win! Stone

Takes all sorts, I really like mine! Try one out and see how you like it. (Hey, come and try mine if you want ;)) The auto boxes mainly suffer from VW's idiotic 'lifetime' transmission fluid. They mean lifetime of the warranty, not the car - so really by the time they crap out they've had years of crud accumulating in the sump, a blocked filter and they're half empty. Why provide a dipstick if you aren't going to provide a drain plug? :bonk: Flushing the fluid is an easy job (I managed fine and I'm a mechanical newbie) and massively improves the shifting - IMO you can't say you don't like the auto box unless you've driven one that's been properly maintained. A lot of people are just anti-auto; they take quite a different driving style to manuals and you do have to get used to them. They'll seem slow if you're driving them gently because they change up to 4th early to take advantage of the torque converter lockup (so no wasted power in moving the fluid around unnecessarily) - if you want to drive it sportily then just put your foot down a bit harder/faster! In sport mode mine changes from 2nd to 3rd at 80mph and 3rd to 4th at 120mph - and if you kickdown hard when it's in fourth it'll drop two gears instead of one so you get a huge lump of torque. Yes, they're not going to be quite as quick or precisely-controlled around a track, but most of your miles are going to be on roads. They still have oodles of power for overtaking and they'll rev to 6000+ after a kickdown so you're not missing out - having less gears also means more torque available in each so you get plenty of beans at lower (normal?) speeds. You do lose a bit of top speed but mine will still do 140... At the end of the day, if you want to drive it like a manual you can still lock it into each gear - if you're revving above the normal value for the gear you're in then it'll change as soon as you move the stick, and the changes are consistently very quick. Since there's a detent on position 1, if you put it in 2 it's a bit like having launch control from 0-80 :lol: Try one and see. I wouldn't want a clutched one as a daily driver. Then again you could ask fla - he must have converted his for a reason! [edit: mine had 79500 miles on when I bought it, and it did do all the stereotypical auto things - snatchy changes, rolling back on hills...all fixed with fluid flush] Stone

If that pic is as high as it goes then you'll probably need new springs. When I bought my car it was around that height (ie, slammed!) on 17" rims with 205/40/17s and the fronts rubbed quite a bit. That was on fixed-height shocks/springs though. I swapped to cheap coilovers and it made a huge difference - I raised it at least 45mm from its previous height and it's still got a ~40mm drop on it...I figure I can swap them for more expensive ones once I've settled on a wheel/height combination I like. No more rubbing, and it's much less uncomfortable! Stone

It varies - I know of one online plate manufacturer who have done plates for me before without seeing any of the documents at all! Occasionally the DVLA go berserk fining people and it tightens up for a bit... I suspect I'll have to change mine if I get stopped but since they're the correct font and correctly spaced I'm not too worried about it - they're arguably safer/more legible than regular plastic plates as the black areas aren't at all reflective, whereas plastic ones are glossy over the whole surface. Not to mention people who buff them to a high shine in the hope of dazzling speed cameras! I bought them in good faith as road plates so I might get away with blaming the plate makers if it ever comes to it. I prefer them because they're much more resistant to delaminating than plastic ones so you don't get the muddy streaks behind the front plastic. Plus they're stuck down so if you try and steal them they bend! I see all sorts driving around - plates with the space in the wrong place, wrong sizes, wrong fonts, BMW / Playboy bunnies / Man U logos where the flag is supposed to go etc etc - if they don't get stopped I don't see why they would pull me for mine. Fingers crossed :) The pre/post-2001 thing is intended so people don't try and get away with old-style plates on their 11-reg cars - the font changed slightly to harmonise it with EU regs. The worst I see is black/silver plates (only allowed on pre-1973 vehicles if fitted before 2001, if memory serves) - they might look great but they're an absolute fuzz magnet! I always find it hilarious on cop shows when they pull someone with an italic numberplate and find a boot full of drugs and weapons :epicfail: Stone

If anybody's still looking for M12x40x1.5 hex head bolts in 10.9 I just got some off eBay - seller name boltmeup. (direct link) They do stainless plain and lock washers as well so you can sort all the hardware out in one order, though I'm getting some stainless spacers made up by the nice man in our machine shop... I have a set of Mk4 front and rear calipers waiting to go on but the braided lines I got from C&R (this set) had the wrong size banjo bolts in them. A quick flourish of the calipers tells me that they gave me 1mm thread pitch but I needed 1.5mm ones - so the wiki isn't quite right, as people already pointed out. One question - I'm missing one of the plastic covers from the calipers, where the slider bolts from the carriers insert. The ones I have are marked 11.8190-00671 but that doesn't get me any search results...can anyone translate it into a VW part number? If not, if anybody has one spare I'd be very grateful for it :) Stone

I get it, it's all my fault! I agree that it takes work, but equally there's no point forcing myself on people who clearly aren't interested. I think Tempest's comment about being feted is quite unfair - there's a difference between expecting to be courted and being faced with a wagon circle when you're trying to say hello. I'm glad Toohottotrot noticed it too or I'd feel like a right loser! By contrast, all the forum peeps I've met while buying or flogging stuff have been lovely - all up for a chat, in a couple of cases spending over an hour poking around the car and pointing out missing bits, diagnosing or offering advice. It's all very well saying I should be more open-minded but it cuts both ways and it wouldn't be hard to make a little effort even when you're with your mates. That said, it won't be the last meet I go to and hopefully I'll get to meet more of you later on :thumbleft: Stone

Ah, I didn't realise they came with the stereo, thanks. Any more for any more? Stone

Depends on how well it's been attached previously, but my door card was only held on by a couple of screws at the handle end. You may be able to pop those screws off and then bend the door card outwards by a couple of inches - on mine it had just enough flex to get my hand in and unplug the cable. Lazy but it might work? Stone

Need to get myself a new door handle seal so I thought I'd check if any of these are still available and their numbers...would make the trip to the dealers a bit more worthwhile! 1) Triangular plastic cover for the top of the bonnet release handle 2) Oblong plastic cover that hides the edge of the metal radio cage 3) Square plastic quarter-turn connector (2 of them hold on the fusebox cover/shelf) 4) Round plastic quarter-turn connectors holding on the tailgate interior trim panel 5) Handbrake cover sleeve (the bit below the grip that always breaks) 6) screw holding the dash cover above the fusebox onto the chassis, lower right side (by the driver's right knee) All for a late-model VR with black interior. Cheers :) Stone

Mine are painfully hot - I really struggle with anything about 1/3 of the way up the dial. I do have heated seats though :) Stone

Didn't see this earlier - have just ordered. It allowed me to pay so there must still be a couple left! (free advert ;)) Stone

My tuppence, as a new (this year) Corrado owner. I joined up with the CCGB early this year (March?) as my other half was a member of the Mk1 Golf club and got 10% off her insurance with Adrian Flux, so given that I was seriously thinking about getting a C at that point it seemed like a worthy investment. Tumbleweed for a bit. Eventually I got my membership card/sticker/Sprinter in the same week I bought my car - in August! As it happened AF refused to insure me due to no NCB so the insurance discount never happened. In the first flush of membership excitement I went to the Beaulieu meet - admittedly it was mostly a Scirocco event but it was nice to see a few Corradi in the same place. I had a brief chat with a couple of the owners but to be honest I felt excluded - with the notable exception of JMR. After a while I got bored of not being in the cool gang so I went home :shrug: The Sprinter was nice, but as previously mentioned quite short! There's a wealth of information in the wiki and on the forums so it didn't really feel like I was getting much real value out of it. So ultimately I paid £10 for a sticker and some embarrassing silences. Not a great first impression. Having joined the forum here I've got much better value, both in access to information and through the classifieds. If I only had £10 to spend on club memberships next year it would definitely be going to the forum, even though it's optional! The CCGB is nowhere near as active as some car clubs (random example, the Land Rover 101 club - they run a registry, history searches, group buys of remanufactured parts and the only forum...more expensive membership but much clearer what value you get from it!) so it's harder to see what service the CCGB is providing. Obviously I know nothing about any of the past history but a merger seems quite sensible. Stone

Saw a black C on Hatter's Way in Luton earlier - anybody here?

From a quick Google, I think you want p/n 325 853 601. Plenty on eBay - or go for a debadged grille so the scum can't steal it! Stone

Brilliant, thank you!

Not going to argue with swiftkid but my Halfords trolley jack has been fine. They don't supply a rubber pad with it though so if you're not careful you can squash the metalwork around the jacking points... Their axle stands are about 20 quid but I haven't used them. Normally I use my ramps for working underneath though. Up to how much you're going to use them really - you could sort yourself at Halfords for under £50 if you aren't going to use them that often. I only use mine for swapping wheels over and adjusting the coilovers so I can get away with the cheap gear :) Stone

It is possible, and there's nothing dodgy about lowering (or raising!) the mileage on a replacement set of clocks so it reads the correct number for the vehicle. These guys are the closest to me but there's bound to be someone near you offering the same service. Try a Google search for 'mileage correction'. Never used them myself but it's handy to know they do exist! Stone

I've got the white clips (only one per side, right?) - luckily they came with the car. The driver's door handle didn't and has been a pain ever since! Excellent, does that mean you know the part number too? :) Need to grab a few bits of trim anyway. Cheers, Stone

It was pointed out to me today that I'm missing one of the rubber seals from my offside door handle - I need the one that goes around the 'hook' end (opposite end from the keyhole). This is probably why the inside of my door card is all wet... Anybody got one spare?

Embossed plates are legal, provided that: - the font and colour are standard (no silver-on-black unless it's old: think it's pre-1973) - they incorporate retro-reflective material - they are marked as meeting BS AU 145d - they have a manufacturer's mark showing who made the blank plate - they have the name and postcode of the supplier on them - they have no symbols in the Euro-strip (if present) other than approved ones (the Union Flag, the flags of England, Scotland or Wales, etc) - no VW logos or German flags! Most plates fall down on one or more of these - my pressed plates were supplied without supplier's name or postcode, for example - but you'd have to get a particularly grumpy officer trying to trip you up to spot it. I believe that front plates can legally be put on any vertical surface on the outside of the car (not on the dashboard as so many do!) but I'd have to doublecheck in my copy of the Construction & Use Regulations 1986 - unhelpfully the government's online archive only goes back to 1987 so you have to buy a printed copy to look it up! In practice, as long as you're not openly trying to game the system you should be ok. Stone

You don't need the cable attached (or plugged in!) for the central locking to work - it's only there to operate the hold-key-in-lock-position-to-shut-windows-and-sunroof function. When I cut the (damaged) cable off my driver's door handle I was still able to lock and unlock the whole car, including the boot, just from the mechanical and air action - though it did struggle a little! I haven't checked the part numbers on mine but it sounds to me like you've been sold the wrong handle - it may fit the holes in the door but isn't lined up with the striker properly so the car doesn't know you're trying to lock it. I'd be returning them for a refund and a whinge ;) Stone

Just got back with my stash of odd parts - also very helpful to have another pair of eyes cast over mine, makes me feel much better that it's not a total lemon! I still don't understand how the exterior got so ratty when the interior was so mint but I guess it's another Corrado mystery :lol: Top prices too so many thanks! :thumbleft: Stone