Ant's VR6

[stuarttaylor37 13]

Any idea where the guy found new sills from?

[Keyo 47]

Any idea where the guy found new sills from?

 

 

https://www.vwheritage.com/191803207a-left-floor-pan-outer-edge-vw-spare

[tony_ack 0]

Any idea where the guy found new sills from?

 

Germany, he knew a 'guy' who can source panels, said they were the last two available from the supplier. Doesn't mean more don't exist though!

 

They've arrived today, just need to get it booked in now!

[tony_ack 0]

https://www.vwheritage.com/191803207a-left-floor-pan-outer-edge-vw-spare

 

Saw these, luckily the inner sills and floor are factory fresh, just need the outer sills doing

[tony_ack 0]

Sills were sourced by Mount Panels in Leeds, website is here: http://www.mountpanels.com/

[tony_ack 0]

Happy day last Friday, 8 months after I first got a quote for the welding, the car passed its MOT!

 

I've done the painting myself - it's not the best job but conditions weren't the best over the last two weeks. Should be fine until the Spring.

 

The original exhaust was ready for replacement too, so it's got a stainless Jetex on there now.

 

I got the car back that night, and straight away started making a list of the things that need fixing...

 

Biggest issue is the rad fan coming on stage 2 instantly with the ignition, and then running on for 10 minutes after its switched off. The car's not got off the cold map since I got it back, so getting through a lot of fuel... The horn has stopped working as well, interestingly both the fan run on and the horn are on the same plug at the back of the fusebox, with the fusebox having been half-out until last week, I think the probelm might be there.

 

The deluge of rain yesterday also showed how inadequate the wipers are... it already has TT arms and blades, but the blades need freshening up and the motor is past it. Lots of steaming up inside yesterday too, I'd love to finish the climatronic install (8 years later) and install aircon, but it's pretty far down the list at the moment.

 

She's also got a 'back on the road' present - a set of recently refurbed Speedlines and nearly new tyres when I get the chance to fit them.

 

Like every time I've got it back on the road, it needs a few weeks to loosen up and get the niggles fixed, but I'm looking forward to getting it all working again!

[Simeon 0]

Great news it's back on the road, congrats

 

I fitted these wiper blades to my TT arms and despite being a little suspicious of the cheapness, they are excellent

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193045080958?ViewItem=&item=193045080958

[Cressa 44]

Jealous of you being back on the road. Well done mate

[Billzeebub 1]

great news that the car passed the mot and you're back on the road. The best Corrado colour combo obvs. Cant remember the last time I saw another one out on the roads

[tony_ack 0]

Great news it's back on the road, congrats

 

I fitted these wiper blades to my TT arms and despite being a little suspicious of the cheapness, they are excellent

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193045080958?ViewItem=&item=193045080958

 

Wow that is cheap... I've gone with a bit of vaseline for now, as the blades aren't actually split or particularly worn, just the rubber was really hard, and a new wiper motor is waiting to be fitted, we'll see how that works.

[tony_ack 0]

So, not had much time to fix the car up due to the young family, but I've got a couple of things done.

 

I've STILL not had chance to wash it yet though!

 

The biggest issue is still the radiator fans - this still rumbles on. I've disconnected the fan controller which stops the fans coming on - I'm only doing short journies at the moment, and the gauge hasn't even hit 70, even without the fans (another issue in itself...!). The fans also don't come on if I leave the fan controller plugged in, and disconnect the output to the rad fans, so the fault is definitely before the fan controller.

 

The fan run on has stopped now, so obviously something has changed.

 

The o/s rear light fuse had blown - I changed it but then it blew again. It seems okay now that I've disconnected the fan controller though.

 

I've tried a new yellow sensor in the harness, and no difference

I've tried a different fan controller (thanks Keyo), but still the same

I've pulled the related fuses (19, and 13 just in case) but the fans still run, despite the fact they should have no power.

 

So next I started just pulling fuses out one at a time to see if it was being powered by another circuit. It turns out it is being fed off Fuse 6 (Fresh air fan/AC)

 

The fresh air blower circuit looks pretty uncomplicated - comes out of a blue 6-pin plug at the back of the fusebox (connector Q). It's more complex for cars with A/C, but mine has neither the A/C relay or the additional A/C fusebox connector (N) for this.

 

So that's where I'm up to. I have a Climatronic installed and looking back at my build thread (8 years ago!!). I think I powered it off Fuse 6 - at the very least the blower power would have been routed through the climatronic unit. I've taken out the lower dash now, and unplugged both the 17 pin and 12 pin plugs from the climatronic, and the rad fans still come on. That's as far as I've got - next is to unplug the connector out of the fusebox to see whether it stops, and if so, see whether there is a short in the wiring. between the fusebox and climatronic loom.

 

One success this week is I've managed to get the car onto the recently refurbed Speedlines with nearly new tyres - they look pretty incredible and I'll post some pics soon.

[tony_ack 0]

I've managed to have a fairly productive couple of weeks.

 

First, the cooling issue - The fan after-run issue seems to have fixed itself now and only comes on when needed, not every time I switch the ignition off.

 

Fuse 6 is the fan controller live signal feed on late VRs - it doesn't show in most fuse guides, but it is in the Bentley wiring diagrams if you look carefully. The feed to the fresh air blower splits just after it leaves the fusebox, with the main feed heading into the dash, and a smaller wire heading into the engine bay.

 

With this in mind, and having replaced the fan controller, the issue has to be in the sensor inputs. The yellow and rad sender didn't make a difference, but the issue stops when the black sender is unplugged, so it must have been stage 3 coming on. I'll probably fit the new brown sender I have in my parts stock as I want to run aircon at some point (I have the 4 pin plug for it too). I just need some time to do a coolant drain and flush. I also want to change the blue temp sender, and the yellow one. The dash gauge reads way out - it doesn't even get to 70 before the fans come on. The oil temp has started working now too - the engine is getting up to temp fine, and the fans seem to be working at the right time (with the exception of stage 3 which is just unplugged for now). The idle is a bit erratic sometimes - it will be fine, then go up to about 800rpm for a bit, so I wonder if the blue sender is worse for wear too.

 

So, on top of that I've:

-Replaced the wiper motor

-Fixed the OSF foglight - the issue was in the connector

-Refitted the battery jacket which seems to have fixed the clunk at the NSF

-put some cable ties around the exhaust rear heatshield and rear exhaust mounts, which seems to have fixed the rattles and clunks at the back

-Traced an oil leak to the low oil presure sender, and replaced that (brown for blue)

 

Next to tackle are:

-an ominous issue with the starter, where it won't engage and spin freely sometimes

-an issue with the alternator - it was a cheap replacement, and the lights will dim when the car goes back to idle - sometimes the battery light will flicker too as the revs come down and the electrics have got a fair bit of load (lights, rear window demister, etc.)

 

I tried to upload a pic of the car, but it said the file wasn't valid for some reason.

Edited November 2, 2019 by tony_ack

[Dox 23]

Sounds like the alternator is turning too slowly, is the pulley larger than the original?

 

Golf V5 starter is an upgrade for the VR6.

 

Sometimes its amazing how gremlins disappear after a cars been laid up?

Edited November 2, 2019 by Dox

[tony_ack 0]

Sounds like the alternator is turning too slowly, is the pulley larger than the original?

 

Golf V5 starter is an upgrade for the VR6.

 

Sometimes its amazing how gremlins disappear after a cars been laid up?

 

Thanks Dox, that's what it is with the alterator. I checked today and remembered I had to swap the pulleys when I replaced the alternator a couple of years back as the new one had the wrong number of grooves. The original is on the car now - I compared the sizes of the pulleys and even with it on the car there's visibly a few mm difference - the one on the car is larger than the one supplied with the new alternator.

 

I'm guessing I'd need to repace the whole unit for one with the correct size pulley?

[tony_ack 0]

Right! Starting to get really fed up with the alternator issue. I ordered a recon Bosch alternator off eBay - I went for a 90amp one with a 7 groove pulley as the car had heated seats put in at some point. So they sent me one that shared the same part number as the 70 amp model, and one with another 6 groove pulley. I called them, and they said it was fine, it really was a 90Amp alternator really, andd just swap the pulley and it'll be fine. I said I'd try it, and get onto them if any issues manifested themselves.

 

So I got the old one out, swapped the pulleys over and installed the new one. Straight away, the car seemed to be getting enough power at idle, the lights and heated screen didn't seem to stress it at all (though the heated seats as well made the dash lights dim slightly). The idle was also a lot smoother, no increase in revs as I increased the electrical load.

 

Problem solved! Or so I thought. A week later, driving home in the dark, the battery light suddenly came on and the lights dimmed. Great. I tested the car once I was home, and sure enough, the car was running off the battery. The voltage increased slightly (about 0.5v) when I revved it.

 

So I assumed it had failed. Whilst in dispute with the ebay seller, I found a second hand 90a alternator - it was from an Audi A3, but matched the Corrado VR6 90A part number. It needed a pulley swap when it arrived, but it was a clean VW exchange unit. I swapped the pulley, installed it, connected it, then started the car..

 

The battery light went out but the alternator made a loud rattling noise and then, woosh, a flash of light as the insides of it lit up. I turned the car off straight away.

 

I loosened the belt, checked the shaft and it seemed to be rotating okay, so I've no idea what caused it. I thought it may be spinning the wrong way, but the arrow is pointing in the right direction

 

So now I have 4 bust alternators...

[tony_ack 0]

Alternator is sorted now. I still had the engine jacked up when I started it - this turned out to be a Really Bad Idea. I'm not too sure yet why it caused the rattling - I'd guess something was pushing the aux pulleys out of the alignment and putting pressure on the alternator shaft, causing the rotor to catch on the stator. As soon as I lowered the jack, everything was fine. I'm keeping an ear out for any further damage - luckily I only ran the car for a couple of seconds, so fingers crossed it hasn't buggered the bearings on the alternator, water pump, steering pump and engine itself.

 

The next challenge the car has given me is the clutch. I notcied that it wasn't returning to the top each time - it would return 2/3 of the way back then get stuck -sometimes it would 'pop' back up on its own, sometimes it would stay there. I thought it was catching on the floormat/dash trim at first, but then I noticed that sometimes there wasn't really much pressure on the first 1/3 of travel (but sometimes there was). This sometimes gets worse - occasionally I end up with pressure only on the last 1/4 of travel, sometimes it is slightly better than that. Sometimes it improves when driving.

 

I started by bleeding the clutch - for some reason eezibleed didn't work at all - nothing came out of the slave cylinder bleed nipple. I tried pumping the pedal and the fluid shot out, but when I retightened the nipple, the clutch just fell to the floor. What worked in the end was a gravity bleed - left for about 15-20 minutes with the nipple open and the resevoir cap loose, fluid dripped through slowly, and when I retightened, I had pressure again. The first time I drove it, the clutch felt like normal, but it's steadily got worse again to where it was before I bled it. I've only got a bit of actual clutch travel again now, and the gearchange is getting slightly less smooth.

 

So, new slave cylinder is on order, due after Christmas - we'll see how that goes.

[Dox 23]

I had the clutch issue, eventually the slave failed completely dumping a puddle fluid on the road outside the house. I fitted a used one off a 16V gearbox I have stored in the shed

[tony_ack 0]

I changed the salve cylinder last weekend. It was a fairly easy job - access was the biggest difficulty, but didn't really cause a problem with a mixture of long and short extensions. When I took the slave cylinder off, it was missing the pushrod - I found it still attached to the clutch housing, surrounded by what was left of the seal, so that might explain the problem!

 

New cylinder is now fitted. I gravtiy bled it again - it took a long time but it was worth it as the clutch travel is spot on now.

 

Next problem to show itself is a clunk on the NSF, but as far as problems go, that should be a fairly easy one to sort (famous last words...)

[tony_ack 0]

So Yellow and Black temp senders are now changed. I changed the black one for a brown one as I want to run aircon at some point.

The gauge is now working again, and the fans appear to be coming on and off when they should.

I made a nice list called 'things that bug me about my Corrado, the plan is to work through and fix these when I get chance!

1. Rattly exhaust/back of car
2. Hot start woes
3. Starter not engaging/disengaging correctly
4. Getting the kids in and out is a ballache
5. Temp gauge not working
6. Oil temp works when it wants
7. NSF knock
8. Scatty idle, sometimes
9. Squeaky front brakes - right
10. Slight pull to left
11. Passenger window temperamental and not aligned properly
12. Lack of cup holding solution
13. Climatronic just too warm
14. Passenger door doesn't close properly unless you know how
15. Rust on rear arch needs cleaning up
16. Sunroof panel looks crap and needs painting
17. Sunroof not quite aligned
18. Passenger door paint is a mess
19. Rear panel paint isn't much better
20. 1x Wiper nut cover is exposed, one is faded
21. Wipers not quite aligned properly
22. No bluetooth
23. Steering just feels a bit woolly
24. A bit juddery when you boot it
25. Engine bay is a mess
26. Full closure doesn't work
27. No aircon

Edited May 18, 2020 by tony_ack

[Simeon 0]

Ouch, quite a list ... but not one that'll be completely unfamiliar to most Corrado owners I'm sure 😅

Sounds like you're making good progress generally, hopefully we'll be able to get pics up soon now the forum has been migrated, be good to see it on the new wheels

[fendervg 32]

I'd be afraid to start a list like that - it would never end and depress me too much. The annoying thing is I have the parts amassed and tools to deal with most of them, but it's getting the time that's the problem...

[tony_ack 0]

On 2/13/2020 at 10:27 PM, Simeon said:

be good to see it on the new wheels

So, not the best pic, but took this on a day out at Harewood House in the Autumn. It needed a good clean at the time (as did the wheels!)

 

[tony_ack 0]

And a special milestone today too... 

[tony_ack 0]

I'd love to say I'm getting loads done in lockdown, but with three kids, working full time at home (which I'm very grateful for), and my wife running her business, I'm just about managing to eek out an hour on some evenings after the baby has gone to bed.

I've got the car on axle stands now to tackle some of the jobs that need doing.

1. Rattly exhaust/back of car - still not sure this is sorted after 2 times in the garage. Think there is also an issue with a rotten rear bumper iron and missing rear bumper bracket which may be causing some of the knocks.
2. Hot start woes - it was behaving itself on the whole, but I'm planning to give the intake a good clean out and check for air leaks, plus install a non-return valve near the fuel pump. There's also an issue on cold starts where it will turn over and not fire. This is the same crank sensor issue that I've had for 8 years - a little wiggle of the wire soon cures it!
3. Starter not engaging/disengaging correctly - seems to have cured itself with regular use, but the starter is looking very crusty. Looks like a fairly easy job to change from underneath, and I have a Golf V5 starter in the garage
4. Getting the kids in and out is a ballache - Solution to this is leave the kids at home
5. Temp gauge not working New yellow (actually brown 4-pin) sensor. The gauge is working but doesn't get much above 90. I still need to fit the new wiring plug, the pins are just connected directly to the sensor at the moment. I've just changed the coolant too.
6. Oil temp works when it wants - Fixed, new sender!
7. NSF knock - I discovered the passenger outer CV boot had split. I took out the driveshaft, and half of the inner CV joint stayed in the diff. I tried to reassemble, but there was no movement in the joint (as in it didn't move up/down/left/right as it should), so I got a new inner CV joint. I'm wondering whether the old joint was on the verge of failure and was causing the clunk - the clunk started not long after I changed the slave cylinder, and I did originally think that either the slave cylinder wasn't secured properly or something around there was responsible for the noise. I'm also planning to change the ARB bushes and ARB droplinks. The ball joints and track rods look okay and have been replaced fairly recently
8. Scatty idle, sometimes I hope the intake cleanout will cure this
9. Squeaky front brakes - right I stripped down the brakes on that side a few weeks back, greased the slide pins (they are 288s, so the pins slide into the rubber boot), and checked caliper movement, and all seemed okay. As I rotate the wheel and disc, it turns freely except for a bit of resistance with pad against disc for about 1/8 of the rotation. I'm pretty sure this is the cause of the squeak and vibration, but I'm still working out what's casuing the resistance. I've bought some new discs (which I was hesitant to do as the ones on the car have only done about 1500 miles in the last 3 years), and fitting them to see if they make a difference. I read somewhere that retaining screw (which on mine, like most others, has broken off) stud can sometimes poke out the tiniest bit and raise the disc slightly, which would cause the symptoms I've got. Who knows. I'm also part way through changing the front backing plates. On both sides, one of the bolts have sheared off, leaving the stud stuck in the hub. After wrestling with all manner of techniques to remove it, including drilling, I decided instead just to spot weld the backing plate to the broken stud. It's a bit hacky, but easy to undo in the future if I need to.
10. Slight pull to left hopefully it'll be sorted with all the other changes, if not, book in for alignment again
11. Passenger window temperamental and not aligned properly I'm planning to take this apart to replace the rollers. I've read the bottom may need welding (it is very rattly) but I'm feeling confident having just learned how to weld! 
12. Lack of cup holding solution my ideal here is to 3D print a cupholder. I have been spending the last few months getting up to speed on 3D printing, and can print confidently with PLA, and am having some success with small ABS prints too. There is a design on Thingiverse for a Corrado cupholder which I've downloaded, but it's going to take 21 hours to print, so the main issue is finding a block of time to do it (the printer is noisy and there's no space in the house to leave it in the background without annoying someone). I suspect it will take a few attempts, and I also think the design may need refining too, but I'm looking forward to the challenge!
13. Climatronic just too warm I've been studying technical gudies to see how to adjust the mixer flap settings with Vagcom, but no luck yet. It's really hard to find good info about it. The panel I have is from a MK1 Skoda Octavia.
14. Passenger door doesn't close properly unless you know how I'm hoping to lube the handle a bit, but the main issue is that the door isn't aligned properly. I've tried to do this several times in the past, including jacking up the door to bend the hinges up a little, but no luck
15. Rust on rear arch needs cleaning up Waiting for a sunny day with a lot of spare time!
16. Sunroof panel looks crap and needs painting Looks better now it's aligned, but still needs painting at some point
17. Sunroof not quite aligned I started getting issues with the sunroof struggling to close, and scratches on the left rear of the panel and feared the worse. However, the good news is that the mech seems to be aligned properly, no signs of breakages, and no play in the rear slider. The panel itself was far too high at the rear, so maybe it was catching the roof when closing, adding to the resistance? I spent 10 minutes getting the panel aligned properly and it looks good now (tiny bit lower than the roof at the front, tiny bit higher at the rear). It also opens and closes a lot better, and is a good few mm from the roof when sliding
18. Passenger door paint is a mess no plans to tackle this yet, big job for the summer!
19. Rear panel paint isn't much better this too!
20. 1x Wiper nut cover is exposed, one is faded
21. Wipers not quite aligned properly
22. No bluetooth still an issue, it's currently got a Blaupunk Woodstock DAB54 radio which really suits the dash, matches the illumination on the climatronic and gives me DAB, SD cards (though only up to 1GB) and an Aux input. There is a bluetooth add on module for it but they are uber rare now. I've also got a more modern kenwood DAB/Bluetooth/USB unit but it looks a lot more like a typical 90's after-market radio. I really want to keep the Blaupunkt in as it's pretty, sounds great and is generally awesome, despite being over 15 years old, but the Kenwood is more practical...
23. Steering just feels a bit woolly hopefully the refresh will sort this out a little. Rear wishbone bushes, ball joints and track rod ends all seem solid.
24. A bit juddery when you boot it this refers to a slight looseness at the front end when you put your foot down, rather than hesitation from the engine. I have a new gearbox mount and rear engine mount to fit while the car is off the ground. 
25. Engine bay is a mess i'm fixing trim/replacing missing clips as I go. Hopefully I'll have chance to give the car a proper clean too!
26. Full closure doesn't work I could do with a new alarm really
27. No aircon this is so far down the list at the moment!

[tony_ack 0]

I started off needing to replace the Passenger outer CV boot as it was split. Okay, not the most straight forward job, but just get the driveshaft off, change the boot, back on again, and should be done in a day.

Four weeks later, the car was finally beck on the road. In the end I did:

• Passenger CV boot

• When I removed the driveshaft, the inner CV came apart, so I repalced that

• While I was under there and doing the CV boot, I noticed the rack boot was torn, so replaced that and cleaned up the Track Rod (pic of old boot, and pre-cleaned track rod)

• When I took the TRE off to replace the boot, there was a lot of play so I replaced that
• I did the other TRE too as I ordered the wrong side originally, and thought I may as well do the pair
• I noticed one of the ARB links was torn and loose, so I did both of those. The driver one didn't come off without a fight

• When the links were off the ARB was rotating pretty freely in the bushes, so I did the ARB bushes too
• While the subframe was dropped I thought I may as well do the rear and gearbox engine mounts (front is still the Vibratechnics)
• I was still stumped by the pulsing front brake on the driver's side, so decided to get new front discs in case I was dealing with a warped disc. I spun the old disc, and it was definitely catching on something in the same place every rotation. The ABS rotor looked slighlty warped too, so I put it back into shape. So new discs now fitted 

 

The backing plates were worn, so I replaced those too

 

Finally, I did a coolant, oil and filter, gearbox oil change, and cleaned the BMC CDA

Always the case - you start doing one job on the Corrado, you end up finding 10 more. 

I drove the car afterwards, the pulshing brake appears to be fixed, and I don't know what exactly made the difference, but the wooliness in the steering has gone - it's tight, sharp and super-responsive. Can't wait to take it out for a proper drive.