bcstudent

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you change just the headlight class on all Corrado's? German Swedish & French list the parts as follows for cars manufactured after 08/1991: HEADLAMP LENS-LH Part No. 94807 Price: £25.20 HEADLAMP LENS-RH Part No. 94808 Price: £25.20 By the way....I know absolutely nothing about the VR...sorry

Welsh g60: Even if, for some strange reason, there's something different about your car that prevents you from pushing the whole bolt through after the head is ground off all is not lost.... After supporting the engine, removing the final crossmember bolt (17mm head, halfway between the two bumper retaining bolts but offset towards the wing) will allow the crossmember to drop away from the chassis arm as far as your engine support will allow. This provided access to cut through the bolt shank, leaving less than an inch of bolt to push through. Either way it can be done with no cutting and rewelding of the chassis arm and will cost, at most, the price of a few bolts and the rewelding of new captive nuts on the bumper hangers. I hate lying b**tards!

Thanks. I can see now what you meant about the tapered hangers too Henny! Incidentally, the metal I drilled through under the battery is very thin and would offer little in structural rigidity I'd say, in case anyone was wondering!

Okay....job done, problem solved, etc. I finally succeeded in getting the bumper off this afternoon. To recap, only the rear of the two bolts on the passenger side had broken the weld around the captive nut, although knowing what I know now both could be removed by grinding the heads off and pushing the remainder up into the chassis leg. Since I couldn't be sure there was enough room to do this when I started I had to take slightly extreme measures to prove it. I hope this will make it clear to others what needs to be done in the future. I call it 'taking one for the team', and since the car is a pile of crap anyways, who cares?!....... I had planned to simply hacksaw through the bolt shank at the point between the chassis leg and the crossmember, but it was clear that this was impossible to do with the bolt fully tightened. I needed to gain access to the ex-captive nut in order to slacken the bolt off a little, if not remove it completely. After removing the indicator from the bumper I found I could see up the chassis leg through the small hole the cable passes through. Here comes the grim part.... I removed the battery, and by poking a screwdriver through the hole for the battery clamp bolt I was able to roughly locate the position of the ex-captive nut below. Using a small-ish holesaw I drilled two holes through the top of the chassis leg on which the battery sits, creating a slot. The captive nut is square, and measures 17mm across the flats. I used the open end of a combination spanner to grip the nut, and held it by passing a socket extension bar through the ring spanner end to form a 'T' shape. Using an air ratchet on the bolt head I was able to slacken the bolt enough to allow access to the bolt shank between the chassis leg and the crossmember. I had to hacksaw through the shank as the bolt was too rusty to remove completely. Following a post bumper removal inspection I can confirm that there IS enough room to grind the heads off both bolts and push the remainder up into the chassis leg. This is indicated in the attached picture where you can see the chassis leg is deep enough to contain the ENTIRE bolt. In future, if faced with the same problem, this is the method I will be using!!!! Good luck to all others facing un-captive bumper retaining nuts....

I've decided my Corrado is too much of a nail to sell to any poor unsuspecting punter, so it's become a 'project car'. I love the power delivery of the 1.8T motor and reckon this is the way ahead. Anybody got advice for the conversion process? It's always nice to have the facts before-hand!

Cheers, a pic would help a lot. The front bolt is sheered, I assume, level with the bottom of the hanger since this was the part that was forced backwards. I have the sheered part of the bolt as it was conveniently prevented from falling out by the brake cooling duct. However, I forgot to offer it up to the chassis leg to confirm this. I notice there's enough room (with the inner wheel arch removed) to get a crowbar between the chassis leg and the crossmember, allowing considerable downward pressure to be applied. Hopefully this, along with a blast of the air ratchet, will be enough to hold the ex-captive nut and shift the bolt without destroying it. If not it's grinder time! Considering the force of the impact I'm fairly impressed with the way the Corrado took it. The bumper isn't even broken, just pushed back about an inch. This has in turn mangled the slam panel fairly though. When I bought the car the driver's side indicator lens was cracked while the passenger side was perfect. Guess which one got obliterated....

Hmmm....following an accident last night where I shunted a Corsa up the backside (a good choice of car to send scrap-bound I think you'll agree) has left me with a similar problem. The force of the impact has sheered the front bolt off completely and broken the weld on the captive nut for the rear bolt. I did consider grinding the head off the rear bolt with the hope that it'd lift out, but I'm not convinced there's enough room inside the chassis leg. Similarly, I could see no easy access to the bolts that attach the bumper hangers to the ironwork. If I manage to solve this I'll post the solution immediately.

Following an 'incident' last night I too now have some interesting curves at the front end. I can probably kick the slam panel straight-ish for now, but would be interested in buying a good 'un for the right price. Should think myself lucky that I got away without a scratch on the bonnet or wings I guess!

The spoiler didn't work on auto or switch when I got my Corrado either. Finally got round to taking a look and found the power was disconnected in the tailgate. I reconnected it expecting fuses to blow or some other electrical madness to occur, but thankfully it's been working perfectly since. Some things are way simpler to repair than you'd ever imagine, eh? One problem fixed....several hundred to go....

MAN! That sounds like one interesting motor. Any pics of it around?

Well cover me in eggs and flower and bake me for 40 minutes if my carpets aren't now swimming too. I'm going right off this Corrado....seems like it's a case of 'fix one thing and something else falls off'. If it wasn't such a great looking car I'd have burnt it out weeks ago. Many thanks to all who have posted within this topic....at least I have several avenues to follow. It seems the first should be the seal around that fan intake in the scuttle panel.....

Deadlocks...hmmm....would that be what the *whir* a few seconds after locking the door? I'm not used to such hight security (ahem) gagetry after owning nothing but Mk.2 Golfs for eight years!

Dunno if anyone else has had this happen, but worth a try I guess..... A couple of times recently I've returned to my Corrado to find it unlocked. Nothing has (yet) gone missing from the car but it's a bit of a worry since I live in a well shady area. Each time it's happened I haven't been 100% sure I actually locked the car but can't ever remember returning to a previously owned car to find it unlocked. What ya' reckon?!

I hate insurance companies....especially Herts. A few years ago I renewed a policy with them and thought nothing of it. The year passed and when I renewed again I happened to read the policy document. They had removed the 'third party cover for any insured car not owned by the policy holder' part without mentioning it. When I rang them up I discovered that I didn't have that cover for the previous year either, meaning I had been driving uninsured and unaware on many occasions! Needless to say I always read policies now. I accept that I SHOULD have read the policy before, but as far as I was concerned it was simply a renewal. I feel they should have notified me of such a significant change.

Did anyone find a solution to this problem? I've just bought a heap of junk Corrado with the same problem - heavy steering initially, which lightens after a short distance. It ain't safe and it's doing my head in. So far I've only tried changing the fluid to the green VW stuff in case some numbnut had put something too viscous in there.....incidentally this made no difference.

Showing 103,000.....but I have a feeling it's a lot more! Don't you just hate it when you buy a local car and *everyone* has a story to tell you about it?!...."last time I saw that car it had 140,000 on the clock" :mad:

Um....shouldn't the negative terminal be at the same potential as the inner wing...or any other body part for that matter?? How would negative terminal and inner wing contact cause a problem? Just a thought. Did I miss something?!

Very common on Mk. 2's....had the same problem on every one I've ever owned. You may find the light flashes more when it's raining...if this is the case the usual cure is to clean the earth contact. On a Mk. 2 you'd find this bolted to the rear right-hand corner or the rocker cover (as you face the engine bay)...it's a brown and white wire. May solve the problem, may not....but for five minutes work it's gotta be worth a try, right?!.....assuming of course it's the same set-up on a Mk. 1

Yup....know a thing or two about crashing Golf's myself :( . The silver Mk. 2 you see in my profile was a tatty, yet well loved example I'd owned for 8 years. Got caught out on a poxy Norfolk back-road in the wet but walked away without a scratch. Was gonna take my ol' man's Fiesta that night :shock:

First thing's first...did it ever work?! I ask because I just bought a Corrado with a stereo that was exactly the same. Upon further investigation I found that the previous owner had jammed the rear speaker wires in the hinge for the back seat :shock:....similarly the short circuit had blown the amplifier chip. If you're looking to buy a new amplifier chip then your best bet will be to find the part number and go speak to someone in Maplin....I believe there is one on Castle Meadow in Norwich. I would not expect it to be all that cheap though :? I'd also try to find the reason why the amplifier failed before I fitted another stereo in place of the old one!