G60 Service Check - what to look for exactly?

[CorradoWannabe 1]

Hi guys,

 

My first post here! I currently drive a 1.6 Mk 2 golf (1989) and going from uni to full time employment means that i can now afford that Corrado i've wanted for a while.

 

The buying guide here is excellent. I went to see a 1992 1.8 G60 with 160,000 on the clock - the car looked in good shape for the millage and there was a good amount of service history. I had read how it was so important that the charger had been replaced/rebuilt or serviced.

 

When i told the guy selling it (who was an ex-used car sales man who picked it up at an auction! So he says!) that with G60 they need their charger replaced every 50,000 miles he seemed worried - and said he didnt kno if it had been done - but left me with a MASSIVE stack of service history for the car to look through!

 

My naive questions are

 

i) what exactly will the charger service/replacement/ refurb be listed under?

 

ii) Is just servicing the charger good enough?

 

iii) Please complete the following for me - "with 160,000 on the clock i would not buy the car if the charger had not been serviced since before ______ miles"

 

iv) Also if the car has been well looked after - which it appears to be - what sort of life can i expect out of this car? (Silly question without the car being inspected i kno - but what sort of experiences have u G60 guys had?)

 

v) The car had an MoT done the day before i went to see it - and got through with no problems. How much can i take this as a measure for what shape its in (sorry for being so inexperienced!!)

 

The guy is askin for £2,250 for it - i think he will take £2,000 cos people seem to be put off by the high millage.

 

Thanks in advance for ur help - sorry if some of these issues have been dealt with already! :)

[Jim 1]

Welcome to the forum :)

 

Well i'll start off by saying that the original charger can go for 160,000 miles if correctly treated, but most people get the charger whipped off and serviced way before then just as a preventitive measure.

 

1) It should say in the reciepts something like 'Supercharger Refurbished / Rebuilt' and could possibly mention the replacement of bearings or apex strips - but as there are so few companies that rebuild the g-lader, its unlikely that its been done.

 

2) You can't really service it - the charger is usually opened to inspect for signs of wear, and is then consequently rebuilt if that wear is present, and is leading to internal damage of the charger.

 

3) I can't really complete that sentance - if you do the MFA trick on the buyers guide to determine how much boost pressure the G-Lader is putting out, that should help you judge how healthy the g-lader is. Then simply get her home, get that charger off and send it off for a rebuild.

 

4) Theoretically you could have a very very long life out of it - the G60 engine is basically the Golf GTI 8v engine with the compression altered and the charger bolted on - they are very strong, and provided the engine is well looked after, and the charger gets rebuilt every 60,000 miles, should last you long enough :)

 

5) The MOT doesn't really tell you tooo much, but if it passed straight through then thats a good thing. You'd be best off taking it for a service after you get it at a reputable VW specialist (like Stealth Racing or AmD) and getting them to give it a good check over and see if there is anything amiss with it.

 

For £2000 it sounds like a good price - does it come with a full service history, or any old MOT's to help you guarantee the mileage on it? And where abouts in the country are you?

[CorradoWannabe 1]

Cheers for the quick reply Jim - and the great advice too - very helpful indeed.

 

I live in South West London, well greater London - close to Wimbledon.

 

One of the reasons i am still so interested in this car is that it is literally just 5minutes away from my house.. seems a bit of divine planning if u ask me... :D ... due to this i have been to see the car (well just drive past n check its still there!) about 5 times already :roll:

 

I have to say that when looking through the service history i had to rush it - and i did plan to go back and have a proper look with mechanic friend of mine - i remember going through the service history back to about 75,000 miles - and the MoT sertificates are there i believe - i think its a FSH, will confirm soon.

 

I need a car that can handle a lot of usage - and i've found Golfs to be great for this - and having read other threads on this forum u guys seem to say that a G60 can be driven everyday no problem - thanks for mentioning those places to take the car for service - do you know places in the London area that could do the same sort of thing?

 

One last thing - have you guys heard of Expert Tecnik? Anyone here used them before? Are they recommended?

 

Thanks again!

[Jim 1]

Hm...

 

Well I personally wouldn't want to trust a Corrado if I was going to be doing a LOT of miles in it. They are not unreliable at all, but because they are just getting on a bit they do have little tantrums from time to time. Though the G60 does have a pretty good reputation - provided the G-Lader is in good working order, and the belts are all in good condition, there is not really a lot that goes too wrong on them.

 

As you are down in London, its not far for you to go to get your supercharger rebuilt with our resident Corrado G60 experts G-Werks, who are based down in West Sussex. Should you decide to go for the car, you'd do well to send a private message to g-man to arrange a day to drop down and get the charger inspected and if necessary rebuilt.

 

Never heard of Expert Tecnik myself... :(

[CorradoWannabe 1]

Thanks Jim, interesting to hear that about the number of miles etc - i think i would be travelling somewhere in the region of 300 miles a week + extra trips here n there. In the summer i was travelling 150miles a day in my golf and it got through the whole summer with only a radiator hiccup which was resolved relatively painlessly :)

 

I will check out G-Werks - i was just readin some old threads and it seemed to be the place to go for service - didnt kno it was in west sussex - that isnt too far at all.

 

Are Corrados easy to maintain in terms of things like oil changes and the usual regular maintenance? I assume they would be - i am asking as our family got a Merc A-Class and planned to do things like that our selves, but its a nightmare to try n work on - mainly due to the engine position and total lack of service manuals out there at the moment!

 

Lastly, what service manual do u recommend? I bought a Potter's one that was meant to cover Golfs/ Scirroccos/Corrados - but after getting it i saw the G60 is not coevered :(

[Jim 1]

Well fortunately the G60 and VR6 versions are covered by this workshop manual - only downside is its cost, and the fact its geared around left hand drive models.. but still is the best there is for Corrado owners.

 

From what I understand the Corrado isn't TOO bad to work on.. I don't get my hands dirty with my cars, but i've been able to do some reasonably straight forward stuff on it, and oil changes etc are a doddle - as easy as any 80's VW engine. The engine bay is pretty cramped though...

[CorradoWannabe 1]

Cheers for the link Jim - found it on amazon.co.uk for £67 - the other one i got was only £10 off ebay :)

 

Yeh the engine bay did look cramped when i saw it - i was used to the golf 1.6 where there is plenty of room etc. Thanks again for the G60 hints n tips - i now feel ready to go back n see the car again and check out the service history - if the charger is still the original one i plan to ask the guy to knock about £350 off the asking price - as this is how much a rebuild would cost i think (am i right?).

 

Right - im gonna get back to revising for my final exams now :( dreams of a Corrado at the end of all the exams is one thing that is keeping me going! :)

[Jim 1]

Yeah.. I think £350/£400 is the right kind of figure.

 

You'll be gutted to know that Halfords were selling those Lindsay Porter manuals a few months ago at £1.99 a pop.. ;)

[CorradoWannabe 1]

DOH! Now i kno how comes the seller had loads of them to sell and why they were so happy when i bought it!!!! :|

[g-master 0]

:shock: yeah i've heard of Expert Tecnik, in fact i went there with my bro to have a look at a mk2 golf 16v they where selling, claming it was a campagin it was not! It was how shall i put it.... sh*t :!: i'd stay way clear of them i was not impressed by what i saw. when we got there they were screaming a rado g60 round the car park wheel spining etc stone's flying up, not my idea of how to treat a corrado :mad: It's up to you mate your choice thats just my opinion :)

I'd go to g-werks Darren knows his stuff and i've always had good service :wink:

[h100vw 0]

Personally I'd be very wary of a G60 that had 160K on it and no signs of ever having had a rebuild on the charger. My Golf was close to being a paperweight when I bought it with 90K on. My passat with the same mileage is in at Pitstop/Gwerks and it needed some repair work.

A few years ago that could have been a bill for over a grand to get back on the road. Nowadays tho, that's less likely. Another thing to bear in mind is that it is notjust the charger that has done the 160K. The suspension and bushes will be well past their sell by date. The brakes could prolly do with looking at. The exhaust may be close to replacement too.

 

I would recommend you think hard about buying a 'cheap' G60. If you have a tight budget you could use the lot very easily.

 

It would be better to spend more money on a less miley one that has had all this work done. I think you could find one with closer to 100K that has had money thrown at it for about £3K that would IMHO be money better spent.

 

If you need any more input PM Henny and ask him about is leggy Corrado and how much he has spent on it????? :mrgreen:

 

Apologies if I sound like your 'Dad' :roll: but I'd hate you to buy in haste and repent at your leisure and it is very easy to do.

 

Regards

 

Gavin

[CorradoWannabe 1]

Gavin,

 

Of course you dont sound like my dad :) your advice is very valuable and just the sort of input i wanted!

 

Yeh - i have seen that if i jus throw in another £1000 i can get a Corrado with 1/2 the millage - probably from a dealer too - so that would give me a few other added bonuses. Its the fact that its right next to my house that is making me consider it more than i should probably - also its the first Corrado that i've been to see - love at first viewing perhaps? :)

 

Thanks for the input - i think you are right - i will look for one that has a lot less on the clock... having said that isnt there some way of having an inspection done on the car to see what state things are in? I think i need to give the service history a full inspection and perhaps come back here with my findings :)

[biggrim 0]

Yeah.. I think £350/£400 is the right kind of figure.

 

You'll be gutted to know that Halfords were selling those Lindsay Porter manuals a few months ago at £1.99 a pop.. ;)

 

Me too :wink: Still got some actually