ProdigalSon's G60: MOT pass! *phew*

[dirtytorque 0]

Looking forward to this one.

You will make an excellent guinea pig for me.

8)

[ProdigalSon 1]

I just got back from the States on Friday night to discover that my insurance would run out on Sunday 20th July at midnight (last night).

 

So, I got the usual renewal call from Flux on Saturday with a proposed £700+ premium :shock:

 

After some ringing around this morning, managed to drop that to the mid four-hundreds, and finally chose Brentacre at £490 as they seem to have the best mix of modification allowances/breakdown cover/sensible inclusions/knowledgeable staff (spoke at length with John :salute: ), even though they weren't the cheapest - Flux and Chris Knott were both a bit less expensive, but with different packages...

 

Was pleased to have shaved more than £200 off last year's premium and increased my cover a bit too :clap:

 

The fact that my insurance expired last night also reminded me that I have now owned my G60 for a full year! :new-bday: :grin:

[boost monkey 0]

Woot! congratulations buddy.

 

Wasn't it fun trying to get it back through all the flooded country roads! :lol: :cuckoo: Good job you had a monkey for a depth gauge so to speak.

[ProdigalSon 1]

Awww, still feel bad about my bro and wife having to push the 4x4 out of the flooded river :oops: D@mned automatics! :bad-words:

 

Thanks for checking the depth of that ford on the way back too :salute: My C would cope even less well now that it's dropped :lol:

[Jim 2]

Brentacre are good guys, definately. I always used to speak to John too and he always knew his stuff! I should have phoned and spoke to them this renewal time but by the time you've spoken to 2 or 3 insurers and reeled off a list of modifications, etc you just lose the will to live! There is a lot to be said for just owning a bloody standard motor like a Ford Focus or something!

[ProdigalSon 1]

Brentacre are good guys, definately. I always used to speak to John too and he always knew his stuff! I should have phoned and spoke to them this renewal time but by the time you've spoken to 2 or 3 insurers and reeled off a list of modifications, etc you just lose the will to live!

I know what you mean - the back of my envelope got covered in scribbled notes real fast, and I had to resort to, er, an Excel spreadsheet :oops: just to keep track of who offered what and for how much. *sigh* :dorky:

There is a lot to be said for just owning a bloody standard motor like a Ford Focus or something!

Well, I wouldn't go that far... :cuckoo: :lol:

[ProdigalSon 1]

No pics for this one I'm afraid - was in a bit of a hurry, as spent most of Saturday doing chores and then trying to sort out boost monkey's new window looms, so it was about 8pm when we started on replacing my rear engine mount.

 

Jacked up driver's side and axle-standed it, then removed the gearbox mount bolt, the two front mount bolts from underneath, and the two bolts under the rear mount. The three bolts through the engine bracket into the rear mount were OK to get out except for the double-ended bolt with the lambda bracket affixed to it - the 10mm nut was totally rusted on :roll: but a spot of Plusgas and the 10 milli Erwin sorted that out :grin:

 

With a 2 inch piece of wood on the trolley jack under the sump, we proceeded to lift the engine, so that we could slip the old mount out. Unfortunately there was precious little room there even with the throttle body close to the underside of the scuttle tray, so we had to remove the 4 bolts off the back of the block and lift the engine bracket out of the way too - those bolts are a bit tricky to get at!

 

That done, with some more random wiggling of the old mount, it fell out to the rear of the driveshaft :clap: and I even managed to get the new one in the same way, and bolt the engine bracket back to the block.

 

What we should've done next was get the two underside bolts into the rear mount as they were a pig to line up, but instead we put one of them in, then one of the top bolts, then spent about an hour raising and lowering the engine to try to get the second bolt hole (and captive nut) in the rear mount to line up with the hole in the subframe :bad-words: Lots of near misses with getting the thread to bite, and lots of trying to move the rear mount around finally got it into a position where it looked good, so we dropped the engine and it all lined up :clap: Lots of bolts back in and torqued up to spec, lots of tidying up and then it was finished... at 12:30 am on Sunday morning :eek:

 

Anyway, had to check that it was working, so went for a nice 30 min blast :nuts: and tried lots of fast gear changes to see if it had improved - especially fast 1st to 2nd changes, which are easy to do when there's no one else on the road! :wink:

 

Seems to have improved a lot, I reckon that the last bit of grind in the 1-2 change is a worn out synchromesh - a job for another day :lol:

 

Thanks to bm for helping and hanging around until midnight :salute:

[boost monkey 0]

No probs, was good to get at least one Corrado sorted! :nuts:

 

you should maybe look at getting a nylon gearchange bush from Neil, I can send you his email address. They're £10 posted IIRC. Very quick to change over at the turret end of the cables.

[Supercharged 2]

With a 2 inch piece of wood on the trolley jack under the sump, we proceeded to lift the engine, so that we could slip the old mount out. Unfortunately there was precious little room there even with the throttle body close to the underside of the scuttle tray, so we had to remove the 4 bolts off the back of the block and lift the engine bracket out of the way too - those bolts are a bit tricky to get at!

 

Yeah thats the only way to get it out on a G60...

 

Is your's alot better now? I thought mine was fooked so I changed it (brand new genuine) but i'm still getting too much engine movement imo - starting to think the VT front mount is knackered but it's only done 12k miles!

[ProdigalSon 1]

Is your's a lot better now? I thought mine was fooked so I changed it (brand new genuine) but i'm still getting too much engine movement imo - starting to think the VT front mount is knackered but it's only done 12k miles!

It does seem to have made a noticeable difference, my front mount was replaced a while ago but both are OEM replacements, not poly or uprated in any way. That said, the rear mount we removed had rubber that could be deformed by hand, so was well past its prime, and anything would've been an improvement! :lol:

 

Could it be something to do with the cross member bushes, as they are also between the engine and chassis, and could be tired? :scratch:

[boost monkey 0]

Yeah, cross member mounts could be going I guess. They don't have any metal parts to them as the engine mounts do because they just slip over the CM brackets into the rad support panel.

 

Worth replacing at £12 for 4 from VW!

[boost monkey 0]

:nuts:

[ProdigalSon 1]

Wow, that was like, stereo. :lol:

[Supercharged 2]

Sorry forgot about this... crossmember is powerflex'd so not that and also G'box mount is Turn2 (OE Golf TDI)

 

I'm fairly sure the VT mount needs a new insert tbh but it's not lasted at all!

[ProdigalSon 1]

Just before driving down to London on Friday night, I gave my tyres a quick check as the steering had been a bit vague in the wet. Turned out that was because both front tyres were semi slick :pale: As in totally bald from outer edge to centre, and worn below the legal minimum on the inner half... :confused4:

 

Knowing that the missus would not be happy if we lost our table at the restaurant, I quickly arranged with boost monkey to go over to his place and do a 4-wheel swap as my rears were looking a bit poor and the weather was torrential rain, all night. :clap: Also noticed that my Weitec coilies had settled even lower than intended, so I pushed back up about 4-5 cm each - the tyre wear could well have been toe-out scrubbing and arch rubbing in combination :roll:

 

So I was driving with a higher but much better suspension geometry, and rocking a sweet set of Sebrings for 24 hours with some decent BF Goodrich Profilers 8)

 

_DSC9567.jpg[/attachment:4ryhw2b9]

 

Jon put my slick BBS rims on his ride, and I picked up a set of four Dunlop SP9000s from a tyre dealer while in London on Saturday morning (he only had 4s of Dunlops or Pirellis, so after a quick check on the Forum :salute: I went for the Dunlops). When I returned to Oxford around lunchtime, I had the new tyres in the back (seats down, plenty of room :wink: ) and boost kindly pulled all four BBS off his car and left it on stands/bricks/jacks and his spare tyre :lol: so I could take them directly to my local tyre place for a swapout.

 

Result has been awesome - no more bump steer or 'fighty' steering feedback, the steering is lighter (but still satisfyingly Corrado-heavy) and the grip and handling are awesome again. Chuckability has returned :clap: :norty: :nuts:

 

Reckon that by putting the Weitecs back up a bit, it has put the suspension back into decent geometry and much closer to the wheel alignment that was done when the coilies were fitted :grin:

 

Also fitted a set of EBC Greenstuff pads yesterday while we swapped rims over again, and they seem pretty good so far. Already run them in a bit with progressive gentle braking from 30/40/50/60mph to a crawl, then left-foot-braked along a stretch of 30mph road to get the break-in compound working. Have yet to do an emergency stop, but the pads feel crisp and progressive already, so no worries there. :salute:

[boost monkey 0]

Someoen has taked ma BBS! Now I am cry.

 

Seriously though, what a weekend! I'm mid moving out of the death house of much doom and sanitational mingage, and we still managed TWO complete wheel changes, doing your pads, about 6 runs to and from the DHOMDASM via the tip!

 

Good work brosephine :grin:

[CazzaVR 0]

Actually think it looks rather sweet on the Sebrings 8)

[ProdigalSon 1]

Actually think it looks rather sweet on the Sebrings 8)

Yeah, it was definitely a pleasant surprise to see how good it looked :nuts:

 

Given that we were in a hurry to get to London, my beloved suggested that we should only swap front wheels, but I managed to blag something about 'better balance and stability with four matching tyres' :dorky: when it was mainly because it would've looked daft with two Sebrings and two BBS :gag:

 

Vanity 8) Is bad :nono: :lol:

[boost monkey 0]

:lol:

[ProdigalSon 1]

Whoa! Long time since my last post...

 

Bunch of stuff done since last Autumn:

 

Minor maintenance stuff *yawn* then just before we went on hols in mid Feb, I put the car in for its MOT, which suffered a FAIL :( :

 

- Offside brake hard line 'excessively corroded' - turns out that it wasn't (pic to follow), but had to remove it to discover that fact, which meant inlet manifold off etc. and 9 hours leaning into the engine bay to pull it out and replace with a newly made replacement. :censored: Cheers to Boost for the lend of the brake pipe flaring tool and for the cupro-nickel pipe and connectors, and to the wife for suiting up :norty: and getting her hands dirty :salute:

 

- 'Sidelights adversely affected by main lights' *sigh* That's because the headlight loom is upgraded, so you actually get good illumination... Returned to stock for the purpose of re-test.

 

- Blown reg plate bulb *D'oh!* :roll: Replaced.

 

MOT advisory:

 

- Slight blowing of exhaust at mid joint. Fixed with the able assistance of Boost and some 'exhaust glue' :shrug:

 

All done and dusted now, off to be re-MOT'd at the dealership tomorrow, instead of the previous MOT Nazis :nono: :lol:

 

Also just had my birthday and Boost bought me a full set of VR6 cogs, so I feel a summer rebuild coming on :clap: :grin:

[boost monkey 0]

Wow, this boost guys treats you real nice. Maybe he will buy you a pespi sometime soon too? :lol:

 

Glad it's getting another ticket tomorrow, let me know how it goes.

[ProdigalSon 1]

Er, failed again...? :scratch:

 

This time on the flexy hose (same side as the unnecessarily-replaced hard brake line), which is bulging and has begun to weep fluid :pale:

 

A bit surprised that the first MOT didn't turn that one up, but instead failed the hardline on very thin evidence :shrug:

 

I was at the dealership for the MOT anyway, so bought a new flexy hose on the spot (with discount from Dave) :thumb right:, to be fitted today then back to VW for a partial retest.

 

Advisories were: play in one of the lower ball joints (other side was replaced last year, but this one resisted removal!), perishing rear beam bushes, and play in both rear bearings. All do-able, will add them to the summer refurb list! :wink:

 

Anyway, off to don my boiler suit 8)

[ProdigalSon 1]

MOTWIN.

Finally passed, but has a few advisories still (listed above) that I will look into fixing now that a) it is light in the evenings and b) it is warm :clap:

 

The local dealers didn't charge me for the retest even though I had taken the car home to fit the new flexy hose (£15 and 15 minutes, for the record) :thumb right:

 

Seeing as the weather is nice, I'm contemplating putting my headlining back in... mainly because I have been driving the wife's Honda for a couple of weeks, and as soon as I drove the C again I noticed _all_ of the creaks, rattles and pings from the cabin and trim :roll:

 

Will be giving Boost a hand with his rear beam refit this weekend too. Corrado maintenance is fun (which is just as well)! :lol:

[boost monkey 0]

:bday: woo! good work bro, glad it's all working again. I thought it was going to rain today, but no sign so far. Odd.

 

I still have your balljoint remover, so I'll bring it back round in a bit. Rear wheel bearings are easy peasy too, although you should buy new rear discs at the same time, seeing as one of the races fits inside them for the bearing. Bushes I no can do :shrug:

[ProdigalSon 1]

Nearly 4 years... wow, that's a long delay to updating your own thread!

 

Well, the C has been SORN'd for about 15 months as we couldn't afford the road tax while we were both studying, but I've been paying off fees and saving up since September to get it back on the road.

 

Summary in brief:

1. Washed it last week!

2. Serviced it (new oil and filter, reconditioned the very flat battery, checked electrics, plugs etc.) and started it on Saturday, which was impressive seeing as the petrol was over a year old!

3. Insured it with Footman James for £450 fully comp on a classic policy (5k miles) with mods included, for me and the wife

4. Booked it for MOT yesterday afternoon at VW

5. Taxed it for 6 months' tax when they told me it passed

6. Collected it today, with a long list of minor advisories (eg. summer work list!)

7. Bought 2l of brake fluid for a changeover, and found the replacement sunroof trim strip

 

Happy days!