Corrado woes -Please help

[krishen 2]

Hi. right i really need your opinions/advise with my situation.

Basically bought a corrado vr6 beginning of Feb and the day after i picked her up blew the head gasket. Got that repaired (in total cost £1000) and been driving it for the last 2 weeks and its been going through oil quickly (2.5 litres used up in less than 400 miles).

 

Garage that did the head gasket have now told me that it basically needs a bottom end rebuild. Been told that this is a pretty expensive job (around £1500-£2k).

Or they suggested if i can find a good engine, do a straight swap or even just the bottom end.

 

Im really stuck on what to do. Not sure if i should just sell the car and cut my losses? Repair? Scrap/break her?

I know people say corrados are a money pit and i was prepared for it but this is on a different level.

 

What do you guys suggest?

[B41LEY 0]

Real bad luck there, guess you know why the previous owner was selling it now! How many miles has it done?

[krishen 2]

Its done 103K miles. Body wise its pretty mint. When i took it for a test drive it seemed fine. Oil looked ok and no mayo gunk under the cap.

[Leonard 0]

Sounds like garage are taking the piss a bit.

 

You can get a 'new' engine for £1750 from Vege

 

Tricky one though, if rest of car is mint and you are keeping it for a while.....

[volksworld13 0]

hi

you can get a new engine or recon for vege?

website ?

im intersted in this!

[Leonard 0]

hi

you can get a new engine or recon for vege?

website ?

im intersted in this!

 

Give them a call really helpfull

 

http://www.vegeuk.com/index.php

[krishen 2]

Sounds like garage are taking the piss a bit.

 

You can get a 'new' engine for £1750 from Vege

 

Tricky one though, if rest of car is mint and you are keeping it for a while.....

 

The price they quoted was a ball park figure. Just the pistons alone were coming to over £600 (from stealers)

[Leonard 0]

Sounds like garage are taking the piss a bit.

 

You can get a 'new' engine for £1750 from Vege

 

Tricky one though, if rest of car is mint and you are keeping it for a while.....

 

The price they quoted was a ball park figure. Just the pistons alone were coming to over £600 (from stealers)

 

Best bet would still be a Vege engine I reckon and you maybe sell your head on. Shame I know but...

 

How much do you trust your garage to do the work properly? £1000 is quite a lot to do a head gasket and not check the rest of the engine for wear (in my opinion)

[fla 9]

 

How much do you trust your garage to do the work properly? £1000 is quite a lot to do a head gasket and not check the rest of the engine for wear (in my opinion)

 

Agreed. At 103k i wouldnt expect the bottom end to have gone, how did they diagnose this? Perhaps post up a video clip of the engine running. Have a look at the exhaust to see if its burning oil (blue smoke) rather than white.

May also be better to take it to DG to have a proper look over. Dont lose hope, there is usually a cost effective solution, if you dont mind getting your hands dirty too.

[tandino 0]

I would suggest that if the head gasket went and contaminated the oil system with water and therefore emulsified the oil this could be the reason why the bottom end is now fooked.

How long did you drive it before the diagnosis that the head gasket was gone?, what im trying to work out is if you drove it with 'milky' oil..

 

shame your so far away otherwise i would have fitted a bottom end if you could supply one..

[Critical_Mass 10]

I've got experience with the Vege engines and i CAN recommend them. When i bought the engine (Jan 08) it was about £1900.

 

By the way its on exchange basis so your knackered engine will have to go to them so they can recon it and sell it on. I think you can keep your old engine but the new one will cost more. So not worth selling the on the old one. It comes with no ancillaries. It does have a new oil pump though.

 

Id give them a bell as they arent forced to have one in stock, when i ordered mine they only had 2 in stock and one had already been sold. So i got in touch just at the right time.

 

My engine has now done about 18k and it doesnt use oil, not even the amount the handbook says it should use.

 

You could get yours rebuilt, but it could end up costing you as much. With the Vege engine you know its been done right and it also has 1 year warrenty. Though to keep the warrenty valid you'll have to get a garage to sign the service book at the service intervals.

[tandino 0]

I would have a guess that after spending a grand and contemplating getting shot the OP doesnt want to spend 2 grand getting the car fixed.

Personally id just find a 2.8 bottom end and fit that, they are in my experience far less prone to problems than the 2.9 and are cheap and plentiful and dont produce hardly any less grunt, it was the other bits fitted to the ABV that gave the power difference in my opinion..

[krishen 2]

Sounds like garage are taking the piss a bit.

 

You can get a 'new' engine for £1750 from Vege

 

Tricky one though, if rest of car is mint and you are keeping it for a while.....

 

The price they quoted was a ball park figure. Just the pistons alone were coming to over £600 (from stealers)

 

Best bet would still be a Vege engine I reckon and you maybe sell your head on. Shame I know but...

 

How much do you trust your garage to do the work properly? £1000 is quite a lot to do a head gasket and not check the rest of the engine for wear (in my opinion)

 

I think they are pretty decent. Work was done at MidlandVW. After the head was done they did say it may still be abit smokey in which case would need aengine rebuild. The overall bill came to £1k but had quite afew bits replaced (upper timing chain, tensioner and guides, water pump, valve seals, oil breather pipe).

[Critical_Mass 10]

No no maybe you wouldnt want to spend 2k on a new engine... i was just giving an informed opinion :D At least with a recon'd engine you have piece of mind and a warrenty to fall back on.

 

Just my 2p :D

 

If its still a bit smokey and still using oil. Then take the spark plugs out and check for oil on the plugs. Especially on cylinders 1 and 6. If there's oil its probably bore wear.

[SIMONG 0]

this sounds poo! but unfortunatlly these are the risk we take when buying a used car. did you get a recipte off the guy "sold as seen", not sure if that would get you anywhere but i always sell my cars with this so that if this was to happen then they would have no come backs.

 

for what your gonna spend on another engine and getting it fit you could prob buy another VR, but this is now your car and do you wont to keep this one?

 

you've also got the option, as long as your blocks ok, of rebuilding yours with upgraded/performance parts/charge it? or the root of a conversion? 1.8 20v T bet you could pick up job lot for £1000 or less

 

this is one of the main reasons i wnet for a G or the VR. at the end of the day a G is pretty much just a 1.8 8v engine which went into loads of VAG stuff.

 

the choice is yours!!!

[krishen 2]

 

How much do you trust your garage to do the work properly? £1000 is quite a lot to do a head gasket and not check the rest of the engine for wear (in my opinion)

 

Agreed. At 103k i wouldnt expect the bottom end to have gone, how did they diagnose this? Perhaps post up a video clip of the engine running. Have a look at the exhaust to see if its burning oil (blue smoke) rather than white.

May also be better to take it to DG to have a proper look over. Dont lose hope, there is usually a cost effective solution, if you dont mind getting your hands dirty too.

 

Definitely is blue smoke. Haven't checked plugs yet as the car is still with them till i get a chance to pick her up (this weekend).

 

What and Where is DG? A garage?

[Critical_Mass 10]

for what your gonna spend on another engine and getting it fit you could prob buy another VR, but this is now your car and do you wont to keep this one?

 

Prob with that though, the same or worse could happen. These cars are getting on a bit and many are well over 100k on the clock. To find one with a good shell is good, the engine will need rebuilding/replacing at some point in the future.

 

But of course, the choice is yours.

[SIMONG 0]

IMO mileage is everything, i dont really care for it, as long as it runs/sounds good, not chuffing smoke out its good to go!

 

my 1.8 16v had 0ver 130k, my G40 over 140k and my G60 has 199k on clocks! but it does have full history and a mass of reciptes, but i am planning on 2lt bottom end. which would be getting full rebuild before it goes in

[Bullfinch 0]

DG is DG Autotech. It's a garage in Kidderminster who specialise in Corrado's - both Dave and Graham (DG) are Corrado nuts.

http://www.dgautotech.com/dgauto/

As you're in Brum it doesn't seem they're too far from you - always worth a shout IMHO.

[krishen 2]

DG is DG Autotech. It's a garage in Kidderminster who specialise in Corrado's - both Dave and Graham (DG) are Corrado nuts.

http://www.dgautotech.com/dgauto/

As you're in Brum it doesn't seem they're too far from you - always worth a shout IMHO.

 

Ok got a call today from the garage. When they started the car from cold there was alot of smoke. Once warmed up, less smokey. So they are going to take the head off and check that everything they replaced is ok (at their cost). When they had the head off originally they did check the bottom end (as much as they could see) and they reckon it didn't look too bad.

 

Small glimmer of light but not raising my hopes too high.

 

If they still come back with bottom end as the cause i will check out DGAuto to get a 2nd opinion.

 

Cheers.

[millerman 0]

DG is DG Autotech. It's a garage in Kidderminster who specialise in Corrado's - both Dave and Graham (DG) are Corrado nuts.

http://www.dgautotech.com/dgauto/

As you're in Brum it doesn't seem they're too far from you - always worth a shout IMHO.

 

Ok got a call today from the garage. When they started the car from cold there was alot of smoke. Once warmed up, less smokey. So they are going to take the head off and check that everything they replaced is ok (at their cost). When they had the head off originally they did check the bottom end (as much as they could see) and they reckon it didn't look too bad.

 

Small glimmer of light but not raising my hopes too high.

 

If they still come back with bottom end as the cause i will check out DGAuto to get a 2nd opinion.

 

Cheers.

 

a good idea to check with DG depending on the outcome !

[krishen 2]

Right thought id update you guys. i received a call from the garage last week, telling me some great news. After investigating they found that an oil breather pipe was not only gunked up but the gunk had solidified. So they cleaned that out put it back on and smokes gone. Been driving the car for almost a week now and engine wise it is lovely. No sign of smoke whatsoever :D

 

Thanks for the replies.

 

just a side note, my fuel gauge seems a bit odd. When i plant my right foot the petrol gauge drops and then when i slow down it goes back up. Its almost as though its some sort of "live" mpg reader :confused4:

[SIMONG 0]

great news on the engine! hope it stays that way too!

 

my fuel guage does that to i just try not to nail much!