My Rado VR6 in Ice Grey Violet Pearl

[toledo 0]

Due to pressure from a couple of people ,mainly my brother, i have decided to write this record of my Corrado VR6 purchase and ownership.

In April i discovered the listing for a 1994 L Corrado Vr6 in turquoise ! ( actually Ice Grey Violet Pearl ) having covered 104,000 miles with fsh , all working electrics and was described as being in immaculate condition as well as having 7 months tax and MOT.

I emailed the seller to ask some pertinent questions about things like timing chains, service history and if he had any reciepts for major work like the chains, clutch , gearbox etc.

This was his reply :

No resprays or damage, all original

No rust

No driving issues, new clutch 28/02/04, gears & steering ok

No chain rattle, far left windscreen control a little stiff but works ok, new matrix 12/02/10, sunroof & spoiler ok

 

Services:-

24/03/94 26 miles

06/07/95 7317 miles

24/07/96 14270 miles

18/01/97 17416 miles

21/01/98 23047 miles

03/12/98 27238 miles

11/03/00 32595 miles

04/08/01 41527 miles

20/07/02 49264 miles

01/02/03 53166 miles

19/07/03 56886 miles

14/02/04 61447 miles

07/08/04 64769 miles

05/02/05 68132 miles

09/07/05 71144 miles

11/03/06 75931 miles

08/07/06 78370 miles

10/02/07 82382 miles

11/08/07 85545 miles

02/02/08 88347 miles

20/07/08 91737 miles

31/01/09 95008 miles

08/08/09 98398 miles

06/03/10 101173 miles

14/08/10 102593 miles

 

If you were to come and view, you won’t be disappointed

 

In fact in a further email he informed me that the only fault on the car was :

The far left swivel control on the heater control, where you can change the air flow from windscreen to feet, to main dash blower etc.

 

As it was in the midlands and i was in France due to relocate back to the uk in the following fortnight, i couldn't go view the car and when i did move back i would be an hour n half away .

Anyway following the above information given by the seller on the car i felt as comfortable as you can be to bid on it, it started at £1750 and didn't move until very late on but i won it at £2008 which i thought to be a bit of a bargain!

I then arranged with a mate to go down with him ( a mechanic ) in his recovery truck to collect the Rado ( this would mean one lot of fuel and no risk of uncovering any faults that may have left me stranded by the side of the road on way back home with it ).

We got there and proceded to inspect her, it was obvious to me that the front end had been blown over by a bodyshop, the colour match was great and the depth of finish was good but there were dirt inclusions in the paint and the stone chips typical of a car of this mileage were painted over ( the chips were still there but recovered in paint )- so much for the original paint - no resprays !!

Also when i opened the fuel flap i was greeted by the beginnings of the dreaded rust round the filler neck as well as a un-treated stone chip on the rear arch that had blebbed up - so much for the No Rust !

So we went for a test drive, she squeaked and rattled along and had a very hard ride even though it was running on standard suspension, despite this the Magnex made a nice subtle noise and she went well and there were no coolant temp concerns or stalling / misfiring issues and the oil covering the engine appeared to be old oil rather than from a major leak or anything.

I estimated that the front brakes discs were thin, it was due a service and the shockers probably needed replacing plus the paintwork clearly needed a bit of work .

So i asked the seller to help me out on the price as i felt it was not as described, ' oh no ' he said ' i wanted £2500 for it so i won't budge on price ' he clearly had no real conscience as regards his decription of the car and the true condition and the fact that we had travelled a distance on the back of his description. Lets face it Rado vr6's are not too hard to buy at the moment !

So i had to make a decision on the spot which wasn't helped by my mate telling me to buy it ,buy it , buy it ,he had not thought to tell his missus what we were doing on his day off so she had booked an appointment with a wedding planner so he was in a seriously mad rush to get back ( this wasn't helped by the fact that he turned up late to pick me up either ! )

I decided to go for it and asked my mate mate to take the front spoiler off before he loaded it onto the truck to avoid damaging the spoiler, he promply ignored me and split it at the corner, when we later unloaded it he produced some blocks of wood that prevented the spoiler catching the truck , these can't have been available when loading obviously !

Here she is :

[toledo 0]

First jobs :

I replaced the front indicators that were both cracked, 1 of em arrived off fleabay covered in red overspray ! The seller refunded me a part of the price so i am ok with it especially as i managed to remove it although the rubbing has left a slight dullness to lens, i will polish this out when / if i get the time.

 

I bought a new engine cover as some muppet had previously forced the cover off without undoing the hex bolts that hold it on !! This was probably the same rough arse who'd had the door cards off and not put them back properly, refitting this cured many of the rattles, also unscrewing the rubber tailgate rubbers cured the loud squeak from the rear, i love free fixes, they make you feel very clever i find

Anyway the engine cover had been chucked around by postman pat so had a chunk broken off the edge of it angry , this has glued back on but the glue is just visible.

The oil cleaned off the engine with several attacks with Bilt-Hamber Surfex HD which is a fantastic product for those of you that haven't tried it, it is a degreaser that can be diluted according to application and is bio-degradeable so you can spray away knowing that it won't accelarate the end of days LOL

On this note the engine breather looks recent and i wonder if this was the cause of all the oil and gunk over the engine, there doesn't appear to be any other suspect although the sump gasket is a little weepy ( have u seen the price of 'em )

I also discovered that the rear calipers are suffering from seizures and are very rusty so have planned to replace these when i can.

Next i discovered a posting advertising the scrapping of two late Mk3 Valvers with the 288mm brakes , so i negotiated to buy the complete hubs set up with balljoints, hoses, calipers , drilled & grooved discs and pads showing very little wear.One of the balljoints is split and the hoses look a bit tired but what can you expect for £45 posted eh ?

[toledo 0]

I have used Bilt-Hamber ( i'm hoping that if i mention their stuff enough times they might want to send me some free samples ) hydrate 80 which is a rust converter prior to hammeriting them.

[BILLCOR 1]

I dont think you done to badly for £2008, someone was a bit anal about servicing if its all correct, they do look good in IGV

[toledo 0]

I decided i'd rather take the rado over to york where my mate has his dealership and change the oil & filters whilst on a ramp and at the same time delve further into my firm ride which i had sussed actually came from the rear of car and i suspected the axle bushes, these were confirmed as completely sha**ed ,i was able to ascertain that there are a few small patches of flaking underseal but otherwise underneath include jacking points it's all good.

So new vw oil filter , Quantum semi-synth, vw fuel filter were all replaced and we determined that after a visual check the 2000 mile/6 month old air filter and spark plugs were left alone ( i have since purchased some new NGK's for later )

I have also now bought some Powerflex axle bushes off this forum and am waiting for them to arrive.

I then set off back on the M62 with the motor running like a dream with oil & coolant staying in the right area on the guages.

Until i was a couple of miles from home ( thank god ) when she starting making a metallic noise from the engine bay which gained volume and the coolant guage hitting 115° . My water pump had failed probably due to the fact that the car had been unused for over 6 months when the previous owner had purchased his R32 to replace it.

So a new genuine water pump was ordered at TPS ( this was before they started messing me around and i still used them ), this duly arrived with a plastic impeller .

I then googled VR6 water pump replacement and was delighted ( not ) to see what is involved due to the pump being where it is, i decided to replace the crack pipe, thermostat housings and topr radiator flange as this had a weep when pressurised when i bought it and would leave a pink trace of G12+ down the flange after a run.This flange had been made obselete two weeks earlier and i was told there were no more in stock, despite this i found one at TPS liverpool and after arguing the toss they agreed to post it to my mates dealership who had the account with TPS leeds.I then ordered the two bolts that usually sieze into the metal collars in the top of the radiator and if you are unlucky you snap the top of radiator off when trying to undo the bolts, leading to a new radiator !!

[toledo 0]

I dont think you done to badly for £2008, someone was a bit anal about servicing if its all correct, they do look good in IGV

Yeah i think you're right , but a bit more honestly wouldn't have gone amiss, i realised later that the advertised 7 months tax & mot were actually 4 months and even though i'd asked if he had both alarm fobs as well as keys in fact one fob was lost and will need re-flashing to accept another. You will see over the next few postings that it is far from immaculate !

 

---------- Post added at 01:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:19 PM ----------

 

So it is off with the wheel arch liners, off with bumper

Then the grille, headlamps and slam panel, radiator

On removing rad i found quite a bit of surface rust on x-member and plate that holds fans behind rad so these were wire brushed, treated with rust converter and hammerited.

Edited June 27, 2011 by toledo
pics missed off

[toledo 0]

Unfortunately my overeager but under-experienced skills reared their head and in trying to torque up the reverse thread bolt that holds the pulley onto the tensioner i discovered that my cheap torque wrench doesn't work in reverse but is very good at stripping threads if that's your aim.

Anyway i got hold of a tensioner from a nice bloke in wolverhampton and picked it up while visiting the outlaws. was assured that the bearing was good but this make a racket when installed so swapped my bearing onto it, to be fair it was silky smooth spinning on your finger so appeared ok but it wasn't a big problem as i had my new one to fit to it, i fitted it and just manually judged the torque on the bolt.It runs quiet as a mouse now ( how quiet does a mouse run exactly ? )

I also replaced the v-belt with a Contitech belt from ECParts as TPS wanted a fortune in comparison and cotinental make the genuine belts anyway.

So on with the pump and coolant pipe etc, i had ordered all the thermostat parts , housings , o'rings, bolts and pipe from TPS wanting to go genuine as they weren't ridiculously expensive but after being told on the phone they had arrived i made the 8 mile each way trip to their halifax / bradford site i was informed that an accountant had refused the order as my mates account that i use to order TPS parts is with the Leeds branch and even though they are the same company he/she wasn't happy with that arrangement . God i love accountants, they know the cost of everything and the value of f**k all !

So i said, no problem invoice me the bits with no discount and i'll pay cash, OK he says ,what did you order ?

The accountant had cancelled the order leaving no trace of it and as it is done over the phone with me referring to Etka for the part numbers i couldn't possibly remember all the details just like that I went home and ordered a Topran kit off t'internet and saved about £20 as well ( i had taken the genuine thermostat though from TPS )

They had also not got in my top rad flange bolts so this took another visit to be told that they had got them in but then promptly lost one of them. This was the point at which i gave up on them, after reading all the impressive company mission statements adorning the walls in reception i would have expected more from them but how many times can you deal with them when they've let you down and no-one at their end seemed bothered or even embarrassed.

So i go next door to Halifax VW who get me the bolt for the following morning and also offer for me to go thru their obsolete stock bin following their stock-take they were just finishing.A nicer pair of blokes you couldn't hope to meet and they told they regularly got people in with stories similar to mine re TPS.

The following day i went back and picked out a new radiator temp sensor, oil filter housing,a litre of gear oil and several bags of torx and hex bolts & screws from their old stock pile which they refused any payment for, top guys who will get my business in future, especially as they said they would do deals on any parts i wanted with the % depending on the margin.

[tony_ack 0]

Don't think you need the hubs and ball joints for the brake conversion, so save yourself some hassle!

 

I found the Topran crack pipe/hosuing kit okay, but like you I got a genuine thermostat. Also, I found the rubber seals to be a little suspect.

 

My only worry now is that you have changed almost all of your cooling system, so don't be surprised to see a leak develop in one of the bits you haven't replaced! I had to change the rad after doing mine, as a fully pressurised system showed up a pin hole leak.

[toledo 0]

Don't think you need the hubs and ball joints for the brake conversion, so save yourself some hassle!

 

I found the Topran crack pipe/hosuing kit okay, but like you I got a genuine thermostat. Also, I found the rubber seals to be a little suspect.

 

My only worry now is that you have changed almost all of your cooling system, so don't be surprised to see a leak develop in one of the bits you haven't replaced! I had to change the rad after doing mine, as a fully pressurised system showed up a pin hole leak.

 

I compared the seals i received with the genuine top flange seal i had and they looked absolutely identical even down to the grey colouring, and i may have been lucky with mine as there have been no leeks from these or anywhere else .............yet !

 

The hubs came with the brakes complete and were explained as an easier fit due to changing the whole hub at once but i've stripped them down to lube, de-rust and paint everything so will jut fit the brakes.

[wy906 0]

IGV ftw!

[toledo 0]

To get to the pump you have to loosen the front & rear engine mounts and with a block of wood on jack lift the sump up on the angle to give you access to the bolts , see the images below

New pump in place and new v-belt routed round lower pulleys whixh makes it easier when you drop the engine back onto its mounts .

Next, thermostat and housing which is in three parts and is bolted together, i bought a new smaller torque wrench as these are torqued up at 10 nm and my biggy starts at about 36nm.

Of course the rear most allen key headed bolt on the housing/cylinder head rounded off and i had to smash the old housing up and get it out with locking pliers after i took a photo to remind myself of positioning of sensors on thermostat housing.

I built the system back up using the new parts and also fitted the new top flange with copperslip on the bolts to avoid future seizing.

I reconnected the radiator , filled it with just H20 and checked for leaks - oh ye of little faith - ran it up to temp and the top rad flange pee'd everywhere, i dismantled it CAREFULLY and realised i'd re-used the seal and left the old one in my toolbox, so that was soon sorted and re-tested with no probs on 2nd run.Drained again and re-filled with G12++ / H2O mix.

After finding no leaks after pressurising the system and getting the fans running 2 / 3 times i re-built the front end.

 

She now runs at a steady 90° normal running rising to 105° in traffic or on m/way so i'm happy with that, there is still a slight noise from pulley side and i think the alternator bearing is perhaps running a bit dry.

[toledo 0]

IGV ftw!

 

Sorry mate , you've lost me ?

 

ive grey violet what ?

Edited June 27, 2011 by toledo
correction

[wy906 0]

Sorry mate , you've lost me ?

 

ive grey violet what ?

 

Ice Grey Violet for the win! :)

[toledo 0]

So next job was to replace the worn pedal covers with nice shiny new ones, genuine of course, we could always suss out the aftermarket ones that used a harder less grippy rubber and fitted badly :

[toledo 0]

These were far easier to fit than i expected , i do remember our mechanics swearing at these and how awkward they were to stretch over the pedals.

Another satisfying cheap improvement, gearknob and steering wheel next, i did buy a gearknob from TPS a while back but as they list several and you can't see them before you order them it isn't the right one, i think it's from a G60 and late Mk2 Gti

Here it is with the rest of the order , pedal covers, rad top flange, door card clips, and sunroof grease ( how bl**dy much !!!!! )

 

On that point, does anyone have a guide to greasing the sunroof ?

 

The next test to my amateur mechanicing skills was the day the door handle let go and i heard a clunk as part of the lever fell into the door, bu**er !

On seeing the mental prices being asked for second hand ones that would probably be of a similar vintage and therefore liable to break at any point without warning i ordered a passat handle conversion kit from Germany and a couple of new topran handles from Fleabay, these were listed as for a Passat 1988 - 1996 which of course with hindsight is daft because when the B3 became the B4 in around 1993 the handles were changed inside and out , outwardly they resemble the Golf Mk3 handles and the fixing screw is much further recessed than the earlier model, so the seller apologised and ordered me the correct ones on a special order, these took a month to arrive and were for the front rather than the rears i'd ordered to have a de-locked look but it was easy peasy to swap my barrels over , they came with locks & keys but i don't like to see 2 or 3 sets of keys to a car.

The handles cost £7.99 per side + £3 delivery and the conversion kit was £27 delivered.

 

After drilling the first pin out that holds the lever into the handle mechanism i found out that with the right small screwdriver i could spin the pin round then put the driver on an agle to grip the pin and pull it out, the levers come with new solid pins.

My door now opens with the solidity of a new car, after a month of reaching across from the passanger side that is a relief.

 

Filled with a new sense of purpose i now removed the seats, wetvac'd the whole interior , carpets ,seats and boot, i cleaned the rooflining with carpet cleaner in a spray bottle using a cloth, the linings come unstuck as it is without wetting them through so it was safer this way.

I don't think the car had been valeted in well over a decade !

I could have built an extension on the house using the sand i found in the spare wheel well and behind the rear arch carpets shocked

Then a new set of genuine carpet mats went down, i discovered one of the rear quarter panel interior trims was coming unglued so i removed it , glued the vinyl back in place , covered it in clothes pegs until it dried and then re-fitted it, good as new !

Next i treated all the rubber parts , door seals etc with Autoglym rubber and vinyl which left me whith nice clean rubber and a very dirty cloth .

Sorry i have no photos of these bits but some things are just too boring to show, and stopping to take a photo every few mins really strings out the job don't you find

[toledo 0]

Rear brakes are corroded and seized, the handbrake is very dodgy, took the rear calipers from our kids old passat before the pikeys took it but one of the piston seals was split and after pricing up the service kit from TPS at over £50 trade i have bought a new genuine Mk4 Golf nearside one off Fleabay and am looking for the other side now .

 

Also when i took the wheel arch liners off to get to bumper bolts for pump job the liner cracked the filler in the front wing which i believe was part of the wonderful paint jo done to sell the car by the previous owner, i have now acquired a couple of replacement wings to sort this in due course, just need to find a bodyshop , i thought i'd found one but the job they've done recently on my daily came back showing fantastic panel beating skills but there were a couple of runs and masking marks on the edge of the panel which is dissapointing although i did rush them .

 

Oh and i bought some front and rear Sachs shockers and springs that have covered 15,000 miles last night to go with the powerflex axle bushes i am waiting to be delivered.

[toledo 0]

She looks good to say that i've only washed her on the outside, no polish or wax yet

[8vMatt 1]

A good write up on progress so far, surprised to read you had so many problems with TPS. I've dealt with TPS Exeter for a while now and they are awesome to me. Shame they aren't all the same then. I don't think you paid too high a price for it, just think you would need to take care of bits on any car you buy secondhand.

 

Look forward to reading about further developments.

[fla 9]

very good and informative thread. Great pics, good to see what you're doing and its all the more satisfying when you know you've done it yourself.

[wy906 0]

Excellent paint condition!

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yep and I'm now even more convinced mine was repainted [the wrong shade] at some stage in it's life!

[8vMatt 1]

Yep and I'm now even more convinced mine was repainted [the wrong shade] at some stage in it's life!

 

Are you thinking yours is darker than this one then Kev? Your sig pic looks slightly darker but not a bad colour still :shades:

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yeah it's a long story mate, but mine's not right. Wy906, this one and IceViolet's all look the same colour to me. Mine, albeit very nice as you say, is wrong! :lol:

 

Obviously a complete respray is the answer, but do I love the car enough to throw £4K+ of paint at it? Hell no! £4K+ of horizon grabbing performance, yeah absolutely, but not paint :lol:

[8vMatt 1]

Yeah I would agree about the choice of use of £4k, if yours is not needing paint, why spend out on it.

[toledo 0]

A good write up on progress so far, surprised to read you had so many problems with TPS. I've dealt with TPS Exeter for a while now and they are awesome to me. Shame they aren't all the same then. I don't think you paid too high a price for it, just think you would need to take care of bits on any car you buy secondhand.

 

Look forward to reading about further developments.

 

very good and informative thread. Great pics, good to see what you're doing and its all the more satisfying when you know you've done it yourself.

 

Thanks guys, have been meaning to do a write up for a while, there's more to come !

 

---------- Post added at 04:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:31 PM ----------

 

Excellent paint condition!

 

Thanx, just don't get too close !

 

---------- Post added at 04:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:32 PM ----------

 

A good write up on progress so far, surprised to read you had so many problems with TPS. I've dealt with TPS Exeter for a while now and they are awesome to me. Shame they aren't all the same then. I don't think you paid too high a price for it, just think you would need to take care of bits on any car you buy secondhand.

 

Look forward to reading about further developments.

 

I've discovered that TPS is actually the banner given by VW under which companies bid for the franchise every three years, the one near me used to belong to Halifax VW and is in fact in the same car park but the last time it came up for review the Sytner group won it, they also have the Leeds one and probably several others but the one in Exeter is possibly someone else again ?

 

I too don't think i paid too much for it , i am just frustrated by the dishonesty and bare-faced cheek of people when they are selling, you can then imagine the same person playing hell at the bar of his local pub if the tables were turned. I should have seen if he'd have let me walk away rather than redress the price on the back of a very poor description.