Now with new paint and leather

[dragon green 5]

Found a few pics of how my interior looked before I had the seats done in leather (12.5 years ago) sorry for the quality,pre-digital

Grey looks nearly white

And how it looks now

[dragon green 5]

Finally made time to fit my BBM quick release rear strut beam,but being me,and working on my own,I had to redesign the fittings ! With the BBM the bolts are screwed from the wheel well into the rsb "holders" ok if there's a spare set of hands,and more likely you have to drop the rear suspension !

So i made these out of some scrap stainless,tacked the heads of the bolts on.

I drilled out the rsb "holders" so the bolts would slide through.

Positioned the brace,and drilled the holes with a 6mm bit.Dissassembled the rsb,wheels off,and i could get my homemade plates in ! Then just a matter of bolting together using stainless nylocs.

Old and new

Fitted

Takes about 10-15secs to take out !

Excuse the carpet missing on the o/s boot,I'm having some c/l problems,and not quite finished it yet

[dragon green 5]

After getting a sprinkle of snow,rushed home and put the snow tyres on,excuse the pic,but it was/is dark

[Swompy 0]

Looks good mate

 

Notice much difference between the two strut braces?

[dragon green 5]

More room in the boot ! lol

Doesn't feel any difference in the handling !

[Redfox 10]

When a brace is working, the car does not actually lift off as much. It puts more weight into all four corners. Some braces work and some don't. The thicker and more solid, the better. It may be a nice design when something is detatchable, but in the same time, it should also be bolted together over as great a distance as possible. That means that even though aluminium is structurtally just fine, the heavy dimensions on the bar itself is mostly lost because it all ends up in one tiny stainless (flexing) steel bolt, or a thin flat piece of sheet metal at each end. What you want to do is triangulate that bar, and it'll have a noticable effect = more speed in corners and s-bends.

Same goes for the front.

Some models are adjustable, and again it adds up into just one tiny bolt - flexing.

The bolting onto the chassis should be with two or more bolts in each side, and over a great distance, to help less flexing.

One the Golf 2 and the Corrado (and even worse the Golf 1), the front track arms holding the brake hubs, holding the wheels are only suspended in two points, and that is even on the same horizontal plane. In an ideal world there should be double arms, and tracking ball on each side mounted the other way around to give better and more correct wheel holding while cornering and moving suspension. The track arms should be horizontal. The track arms when installing new ones can be fully welded and powdercoated and then some nice bushes.

While we cannot really install double arms, we can at least brace the suspension components with an extra brace underneath, that bolts to the front sub frame. hard bushings all over on the front also tightens things up, incl the engine, but to a limit, where we don't want the engine to break something, or peoples fillings to fall out ;)

If you install all three seriously made braces plus some thicker arb's both front and rear, you can raise the cornering speed quite a bit, and really feel what the wheels are doing. But the margin of security going from flat fast cornering, to sliding, is small, and a lot less than a standard car. I've tried these things on both Golf's and Corrado's and they work ;)

Loose the heavy speakers and amps, they just slow you down and destroy balance of the car ;)

Next would be to weld the sunroof firmly to get propper structural strength in the highest point, but maybe it's a bit over the top ? ;) also for me.

Loose big heavy wheels, and get the lightest money can buy. There's a noticable difference in steering = more fun = less time for listening to a big heavy stereo.

Hope it may cast some light as to why something does not allways work as intended.

Btw. I think it is also Wiechers who makes something in carbon.

Link to the front lower brace:

http://www.dcperformance.co.uk/cheap/670800/volkswagen/wiechers-sport-strut-brace/gw514003.html

and the rear carbon ones are also in the program, though I personally have doubts about the carbon ones, as the are some sort of glued = less strength or possible failure.

I my world the old out of production Eibach front top brace was a piece of art and works. I originally went to the UK just to gent one before the ceased production, for my former Golf 2, and carried it right over onto my Corrado ;) Can sometimes be found second hand.

Don't take my word for it, it's just what I found out myself, but I an sure more here, experienced the same. When buying something, go to a local motorclub and ask if they do this and that, and what it does to the cars performance and handleing. I did, when I was racing a bit with a friend years back, and a true motorsports store is also helpfull. Books on chassis setup is also helpfull, and al in all it can trandform your ageing Corrado to be quite a driving machine.

Finally get a 4 wheel alingment every year at least, it transform your cars driving.

So, first brakes and chassis, then engine. That'll sort you out.

Cheers,

Redfox.

Edited December 8, 2012 by Redfox

[dragon green 5]

Thank you Redfox,

I have an Eilbach front brace,uprated front and rear arb's, uprated(larger) front and rear brakes,car has a yearly 4wheel alignment, no big speakers and amps for me ! That's just the CD player in the boot !

The reason for changing the rear arb to a quick release one,is all down to the fact,my car is used everyday for work,usually the boot is full of tools !

If it was just a weekend car then yes i would triangulate the rear, But in the real world,I had to compromise,

Thank you for your comments

[Redfox 10]

Hi dragon green,

Thanks. Yes, it han be seriously tough to drive on molested nodern roads. btw just for clarification, I call the bar between the upper suspension mounting points for a strut brace, and the arb is below the car and are anti roll bars. All will aid the driving experience.

Perfect with that Eibach. I think it's the best ever made, at least I did not see any that are better so far. Keep it, and if you ever sell the car, keep the Eibach strut brace. Did I mention to stick on to it?

 

Cheers,

Redfox.

[dragon green 5]

I will keep the Eilbach ! lol

I have front and rear strut braces and front and rear arb's, with KW1 coil overs it does really handle,forgot to mention,it does have launch/traction control for when you want to push it a little harder !

[Redfox 10]

Sounds like a very nice car.

 

Cheers,

Redfox.

[dragon green 5]

I've been chasing a battery drain problem for the last couple of weeks.With the help of the search function on here,had it narrowed down fairly quickly !

I knew it was the central locking,but had to do some detective work ! Turned out to be the control box(behind rear door card)

Still available,but took 8 days to get from Germany !(main dealer) makes a lot louder "click" then the old one,and most of all,no battery drain ! Just need daylight to put the card back on.

£137 !!!

Edit,pic is of the old one

Edited December 11, 2012 by dragon green

[BILLCOR 1]

You must be one of Spoonfeds favourite customers mate, lots of nice bits on there.

Regarding the battery drain, I to have been having this problem, I thought it was the alarm, may have to look into this in the spring as mine is locked away for the winter, battery removed

[wapadrand 0]

Also have a battery drain problem and have had a couple of people look at it for me. How did you narrow the battery drain to the central locking control box?

[dragon green 5]

I traced it to the central locking circuit fairly quickly,having a few spare pumps,I tried them all,but still had a loss,Having done a fair bit of research on here,the control box always came up as when faulty,it looses power,but I couldn't find out how to test it !

So I took the car to my local auto electrician,left it with him to diagnose.when I went back to pick it up he was fairly positive it was the control box,but as he couldn't fix it,he only charged me a tenner !

So I bit the bullet and bought a new one,it cured my power drain,the relays in it do seem to have a more audible click.not noticeable when the doorcard is on

[wapadrand 0]

I traced it to the central locking circuit fairly quickly,having a few spare pumps,I tried them all,but still had a loss,Having done a fair bit of research on here,the control box always came up as when faulty,it looses power,but I couldn't find out how to test it !

So I took the car to my local auto electrician,left it with him to diagnose.when I went back to pick it up he was fairly positive it was the control box,but as he couldn't fix it,he only charged me a tenner !

So I bit the bullet and bought a new one,it cured my power drain,the relays in it do seem to have a more audible click.not noticeable when the doorcard is on

 

Thanks..autoelectricians I've used so far have not been able to suggest anything other than the alarm...and pretty sure it's not that.

[dragon green 5]

That's why when checked it,I locked the doors with a key,not the alarm !

[clumpy1 11]

What is the BBM inside?:scratch:

[dragon green 5]

What is the BBM inside?:scratch:

 

 

BBM is

http://www.bahnbrenner.com/

[clumpy1 11]

 

BBM is

http://www.bahnbrenner.com/

Sorry mate i know bahn brenner my first corrado which i done a deal with bristolbaron for his R32 was a 2.0 8v tall block with a bahn brenner charger. Just with your's being a 1.8t i was wondering where BBM came in to the equation. I take it that's a strut brace?

[dragon green 5]

Had a play with my clocks today,where I used to have my illuminated needles come on with the lights,they now come on with the ignition ! But,in case I want the stealth look,I put a small switch (glovebox)so I can turn the needles off.

Just the needles

Just the backlits

And both together !

Forgot to take any pics in the daylight,I'll try and remember tomorrow

[VWVW 1]

Very nice...Wish I had known you had DDI installed so that I could have had a proper look as you were parked next to me at the corrado GB meet at brooklands.

 

Is it possible to set the rev needle to change colour depending on your rev range ?? like on a certain TVR I think

Edited December 29, 2012 by VWVW

[dragon green 5]

They wasn't in at Brooklands ! Not DDi but Spoonfedtuning version.Wired the same as.DDi,not sure on the needles changing colour,mine are Audi ones converted by a one man business in America !

[CazzaVR 0]

Really like the dials Brian! 8)

[dragon green 5]

A couple of daylight pics,

Needle illumination off

Illumination on

[dragon green 5]

MOT today,passed with one advisory, front brake pads low !!

Did nearly 14k since last years MOT,should read 177k by the weekend

On a side note,ordered new pads, lol