Frustration with MOT and my Corrado

[Tempest 0]

Well, after having got the 2 Roccos through the MOT, it was the Rado's turn today, promptly to fail.

 

Reason: Rear brakes!! :mad:

 

Do the MOT now test the handbrake on the rollers? I could have sworn that in recent years they just tested the handbrake by hand, whilst the car was still on the bridge.

 

Anyway, I was pretty pi**ed off, as I had already tried to replace the rear disks, only to round off the lower of the 2 allen bolts on each side holding the calipers in place. The upper 2 bolts are even more inaccessible (tank or exhaust in the way for any specialist tools, as allen keys don't do the trick).

 

I left the Rado behind waiting for the quote for repair, after which I might seriously consider selling, as I'm getting quite cheesed off with all this.

 

I have too many cars, spend too much time fixing the damn things, lack certain key skills / equipment / friends that can help me to do everything myself, cost me too much money, and get too little joy out of them this way.

 

Sell? What do you think?

 

Tempest (very cheesed off at the mo')

[Jim 1]

Well I can't argue that you have a few cars.. 3, none of which you use as a daily driver is a lot by anyones standards!

 

I think you might be dissapointed if you sold it though.. don't rush into it like I did. Twice. The Rado is a nice motor, and you've looked after it well.. and after this, that should be it for a while surely?! :)

[GIXXERUK 0]

yeah they do test the handbrake on the rollers mate , cos sometimes they have asked me to stayin the car and do it while they operate the switch (needless to say a little footbrake may accidently have been applied ;-)

 

get it sorted and your clear for 12 months , plenty of time to consider selling it carefully rather than a heat of the moment decision

 

i do most of my own work on the car but sometimes you have to concede to allowing the garage to do it , either because lack of special tools or the wifes too busy hoovering to help ya lift the engine out

[mrbeige 0]

I think you might be dissapointed if you sold it though.. don't rush into it like I did. Twice.

 

Does that mean you're going to get another one???

[Jim 1]

My mind often drifts back to it, but I just don't think I can live the frustration of the regular repairs and the heartbreak of careless nimrods damaging it in car parks, etc to be honest.

 

Will see next year around March when it gets to my annual car swapping time :)

 

Anyway.. sorry for going OT in your thread Tempest!

[dinkus 10]

the wifes too busy hoovering to help ya lift the engine out

 

:lol:

 

Ahh keep it Eric! You know you'll miss the best car Karman made if you do sell it ;)

 

It shouldn't be tooo expensive to get the rear callipers replaced and once you've done the job, they'll be good for another 10 years :)

[Jim 1]

Indeed.. happy to come down and act as a spanner monkey for the day Eric, passing you bits up from the toolbox, etc? Could do with learning a bit about car repair! :D

[atif 0]

Mate please dont be disheartened!!

 

i felt the same when my gearbox went! i am yet to see your Corrado but from what i have heard it is a good car!

 

but once you get the car and you drive it then you will change your mind!

[G60Dan 0]

Give it some time, if you still feel unhappy with it the chop it in! But don't rush in to anything!

[GIXXERUK 0]

[NickVR6 0]

Eric, keep it mate, its a really nice car. I know you wont get rid of the mk1 rocco so I would advise getting shot of the later varient and keep the c and mk1. I know the later rocco is very nice, but thats what id do mate.

 

Allen bolts are a mare. I have never EVER managed to get off any of the brake ones on any vw ever, front or rear, or brake compensators or strut tops as per my recent posts. I allways find bolt replacements as allen keys really are a pore engineering choice.

 

Even the star bits on my plastic plug lead channels are all rounded off so even those need drilling. Will put bolts in there too.

 

There about as much use as the springy hose clips that save vw about 0.0000000000173 pence per million vehicles, NICE ONE BOYS!

 

Keep it, i like yours its unusual and very tidy, and they all get us down sometimes. DONT DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PhatVR6 0]

2x late model rear calipers (normally reffered to as "mk3 calipers by mk2 golf owners looking to upgrade)

 

 

£100 for the pair.

[billinjah 0]

sit down have a beer think about how much you loved her and all her positive points, all the posts you write are about how cool it is have a rare left hooker and air con! if you do sell ill find it hard to resist!

[Rob Heath 0]

I replaced the back brakes on mine not long ago and guess what, the allen key bots rounded. Just warmed them up with oxy acetylene and they came off, i replaced them with new one, about £1.50ea from vw.

[Tempest 0]

Thanks for your kind words, folks.

 

Picked up the Rado today, bill came to a whopping £270 incl. the MOT fee of £42.10, so that's well over £200 for:

 

2 rear disks at £22 ex VAT each :mad:, pads at price similar to GSF (not Pagid Fast Road, of course), plus loads of labour to undo seized caliper bolts, caliper bracket bolts, and recondition the calipers (totally seized). I argued whether it would have been cheaper to just replace the whole calipers and be done with it. :roll:

 

They assured me that they had replaced those nasty Allen bolts holding the calipers to the caliper bracket, but a quick look underneath tonight revealed that that was only the case on one side. The other side still had the original bolts, rounded off and all put back in again :mad:

 

As I had also requested them to replace a cracked inner CV boot on the right side of the Rado, and they had forgotten to do that, I'll have to go back on Monday anyway. If they're gonna charge me for that, I'll probably start shouting for help here in the forum very loudly, to see whether someone might be willing to help me do this job :-).

 

Then there's still the waterleak to cure (finally found it: flange on side of engine, finally something I will be able to do myself again), oil in and due to my meshfilter between 2 boost pipes also running down the outside of the pipe to the intercooler (strange, had the Lader rebuilt back in November 2004), and ... that's it till the next thing goes pop.

 

I'm definitely not doing very well with the Rado and getting tired of it compared to my Roccos, and hence the thought of selling is still hovering over me like Damocles' sword.

 

As for selling the Storm Rocco: Nope, done too much work on that and best of all, I actually enjoyed every bit of it, as most jobs were wanted by me, not by the car, unlike with the Rado. The Storm Rocco gives me too much pleasure, nice and simple to tinker with, relaxing after a hard day's work. Can't say that for my Rado at the moment which just gives me grief.

 

Tempest

[Rustynuts 0]

Thing is, there are always ways to get rounded allen key bolts off, first off all use allen key bits rather than allen keys themselves as you can hammer them in, if they then still round off, hammer in a torx bit or spline bit.

 

At the end of the day, Corrados are old cars, they will need maintenance, as with my experience tells with Golfs before, sometimes a bit of thought and brute force are required.

[craigowl 0]

Jim said

careless nimrods

 

Nimrods?

 

New to me as term for types of people - to use the term loosely.

Translation/derivation please - I dont get down on the streets much now, you know.

[PhatVR6 0]

I find the best way to remove those seized allen bolts is to heat them up with a blowtorch then hammer i the next size up spline bit. they come out then.

 

or, if you have a welding set, weld a 17mm nut on the head of the bolt. the heat releases the thread and the nut give you something to grip.

 

thing is, they are meant to be tight...I've had one come out on my golf, didn't thread lock it in (you're meant to use new bolts with thread lock when you replace them). the caliper came off, ripped a chunk out of the disc, snapped the brake hose and the handbrake cable, punched a dent in the wheel and bent the rear strut like a banana. cost me £700 to fix the car and £360 for the breakdown recovery as I wasn't in the AA or RAC. never again....

[TomB 0]

craigowl, Nimrod = Slow witted individual. Numpty is the Yorkshire variation I think :-)