corradophil

Grooved discs - hard to say, I doubt you'll notice any real difference on public roads. The front brakes do the majority of braking, so I doubt it matters what make you use on the rear, so probably just go with whatever you choose for the front. I went from 256mm standard 16v front discs and VW pads to 280mm G60 spec brakes with Zimmerman drilled discs and Pagid fast road pads, to be honest the difference in braking was very slight. On my Mk1 GTI I used to go through front discs and pads very quickly probably beacuse I was 19 and thought I was invinsible! But it gave me a good opportunity to compare pads back to back, I tried some Kevlar fast road things which were lethal, no brakes when cold, and even worse when pushing hard, I remember having to pull the handbrake up and drop it into 2nd at about 55mph, because it would not slow down and I was approaching a junction. Halfords pads were pretty good suprsingly, but my favourites were bog standard Ferodos.

Excellent, its always good to see projects like this, particularly if you do alot of the work yourself.

I know what you mean, I've thought similar things with every fault being put down to the Blue temporature sensor or Lambda probe. In this case, I have experienced this problem on two different cars, My Corrado, and my old Mk2 Golf GTI 8v running Digifant, on both cars it was the ISV at fault. On the Golf I managed to strip and rebuild the ISV (I know its supposed to be a sealed unit but with a lot of messing around you can dissmantle it), just cleaning it with carb cleaner didn't work, but I got it there in the end. On the Corrado a good soak with carb cleaner did the trick. My observations are: 1. The ISV sticks open, making revs drop slowly and causing a fast idle. 2. The ISV sticks shut causing the engine to be unable to idle or to have a very low idle speed. 3. The ISV does not stick in one position but reacts slowly causing the engine to hunt badly and revs to drop slowly. I am not saying it must be the ISV and cannot be anything else, but I beleive there is a good chance it will be the ISV.

I agree with Henny and suspect the ISV is a bit sticky. When you come off the throttle the ISV is supposed to regulate the idle speed, but over time they get gunked up, which can cause the revs to drop slowly. I have experienced this exact problem on 2 of my cars, and solved it by giving the ISV a good clean up.

Hmmm looks interesting. Maybe a job for the Autumn, till then I'll stick with my standard ones. One thing I noticed on mine was the spindles were not perpendicular to the scuttle, the whole wiper mechanism was not sitting straight which reduced the pressure the arms could provide. I removed the mechanism and bent the pressed steel chassis to straighten the spindles out. That made a good improvement with standard wipers.

You will always get orange peel, to get a glass finish you need to flat and polish it.

Got to say, I'd go for mounting it in the rev counter as per the post a few weeks ago. I was very impressed by that and think the extra hassle/time would be worth it in the end.

Absolutely, if your are going to get it repaired proffesionaly at some point, you will probably make the job worse by having a go, than if you left well alone.

Cool, your very lucky - owning a Corrado and a split screen camper.

I really like it except for the bonnet and headlamps. But A20 Lee's is just as good.

I used to work in a body shop, but never got as far as spraying colour, although I know the basics. I sprayed my passanger door, rear bumper and O/S lower rear quarter in my garage and they match the finish if the rest of the car perfectly. Obviously I could prep them to a profesional standard, beacuse thats what I used to do. The spraying is a steep learnning curve, and I woould recommend practicing on scrap panels as mentioned before. You don't want to mess it up on either of the Corrados. We always used 2K acrylic paint - far better than cellulose. Carry out the repair and guide coat and finish with p180 production paper, prime with two heavy coats of 2k high build primer. Guide coat the primer and wet flat with p800 wet and dry. Apply base coat in 2-3 thin coats to build the colour up, you are not trying to get a gloss with this. Then when the base coat tacks off, 2 coats of 2K clear lacquer. If you are blowing in the lacquer, mist some thinners with the spray gun around the edges of where you have painted after applying the last coat, this will make it polish up easier. Leave it all to harden, a good test is if you can mark the paint by pressing your finger nail into it, it is not hard enough. It should not mark at all. Once hard, wet flat with P1500 wet and dry to remove orange peel, but be very careful not to brake through the finish or you'll be spraying it again. Finaly machine polish with Farecla G3 compound. You should get a glass finish using this method with practice. One big issue is blending the colour, you must assume it will not match and 90% it does not. It is not an easy process to get right, and the paint and materials will cost a fair bit, but if you have the interest, time and money you can get good results. To be honest my advice is, touch in chips and sratches with the touch paint from the dealers, and save to get it done profesionaly.

Have a look in the engine section on Club GTI's forum, there is a thread about rebuilding them, and people seem to be getting good results.

Theres a rear engine Mini around Essex somewhere running an RS Turbo CVH and nitrous. That is silly fast.

Hello and welcome. 1.8 16v verses 2.0 16v has been discussed many times before, so it's well worth using the search to see what has already been mentioned. 2.0 16v models are a little more torquey at low revs, but either go ok. Out of preference I would go for the 2.0, which is what I have got. I think the change over was 1992. Cost is a tricky area, you should be able to get a nice 2.0 16v for £2000. You can have mine for £3500 if you like, totally mint no dents or rust and plenty of go, see my signature for spec :wink:

Certainly does, at London Volksfest last year there was someone with a supercharged VR who kept showing off reving it up etc. Sounded gorgeous. There was also a VW Transporter, this had a Porsche flat 6, now that was a lovely sound, made the VR sound about as impressive as an Austin A series engine.

Good stuff, sounds like all the work will be worth it in the end.

My valver is a lot of fun and nice and simple, plus I have no fears of tensioners to be replaced or superchargers to be serviced. It also suprisingly economical. Great engine with plenty of character in a great car. My choice - VR6, I really wish mine was a VR!

No, no, no. Nothing wrong with being different but no. I think they will look very wrong, and if thats not bad enough you will need to employ someone full time to them clean. If you do get them you will also need to fit hydaulic suspension on your car for when your hanging out in da hood.

Could be, I thnk that comes as part of the brush pack though doesn't it? So replacing the brushes would also replace this.

I think it does, also check to make sure there is a thin wire going to the alternator, if this is disconnected it won't charge.

Sounds like worn alternator brushes to me. You can get them for not much nore than a tenner, and they are a 5 minute job to fit.

If you have that much movement, surely this should be visible, in whichever component is faulty? Parked on dry concrete so there is plenty of load put on the steering components, the smallest movement of the steering wheel still shows movement on the road wheels, so there can be no play in my steering. Last night I was parked on full right hand lock, and reversed off the drive on full left lock, as I was reversing on lock there was a big clonk from what I think was the front o/s strut. Seemed like either the sping re-seating, or the top mount moving in the suspension turret. I'm wandering if the top mounts move within the turret causing a knock. Oh yes the knock occured before dropping off the curb, so it was on level tarmac.

Or maybe The Bee gees, Staying alive. 1. Depends on how much of a rush I was in, but if I did, I'd try to do it as slowly/quietly as possible. 2. Yep

gradeAfailure, There you go, a very generous offer from Phil K. If you can remove the cylinder head, you can definately remove and refit a rear beam. I've done loads cylinder head changes on 8v VW engines, and only done the bushes once, and I'd rather do the bushes than the head. :lol: I prefer bush to head :? I did my rear bushes in 1 day, including knocking out the old ones and pressing in the new ones. Why not remove the beam yourself, get the firm to fit new bushes, and then refit the beam. That has to drastically reduce costs.

Such a shame, really nice car. My mate Simon was really looking forward to buying it. Can't you get rear bushes from GSF? Just seems so wrong to scrap a car like this due to needing a couple of suspension bushes. Cylinder heads are not too bad to change, on my old 8v Gti it took 2.5 hours from driving the car into the garage to lifting off the head. And I was working on my own without any help. I wouldn't bother porting/polishing the head, just do what it needs to get it running properly, particularly if you would still plan to sell it. Got to be worth shopping around for prices for the rear beam bushes.