Bens Corrado G60 - engine woes and a long to do list

[bendunstan 10]

Hi All,

 

Long time lurker first time poster on these forums. I've been wanting to get myself a Corrado G60 for a very long time and this sunday finally presented me the opportunity. After years of being tortured by my friends having various VW's (a G40 polo, Mk1 GTI, Oak Green Mk2 16V, and a Mk2 16v G60 to name a few) i bit the bullet and brought a Corrado. I have been looking for a couple of months but due to working away they all seemed to slip me by, anyway i put in a call when i saw one re-appear on ebay and with a pocket full of notes made a 160mile journey to devon to get my new car. I had pre-arranged a deal with the seller, he failed to sell it at £2500 previously so i rather cheekily offered him £1400 cash and the car would be gone by the morning assuming he hadn't been telling me porkie pies about the condition. To my surprise, he agreed.

 

I'm not 100% sure of the colour of the car but i think its dark Burgundy pearl? Is this rare? i don't think i've ever seen another in person the same. I do like it very much though.

 

So after checking the bodywork which seems to be pretty solid to me, i had a good rummage round the sills and looked for any signs of crash damage, there is seeming very little rust on the car with only a small bubble appearing under the spoiler where im assuming its getting trapped and a very small bit behind the trim on the drivers door. Other than a small scattering of to be expected stone chips the paint is in remarkable condition considering its age and 141k miles on her

 

Opening the bonnet revealed a couple of unexpected goodies as this car was advertised as standard. It has bahn brenner intercooler piping staring me in the face. After looking through the large stack of paperwork it turns out the supercharger has been serviced only 450miles ago by G-werks (shows how little mileage its done) and prior to that it had a stage 2 jabba sport rebuild and service.

 

The paperwork also shows the whole head being stripped, cleaned and rebuilt,valves lapped in, new valve guides, hydraulic lifters being stripped and cleaned and the head being machined.

 

£600 has been spent making the sunroof tilt and slide and another £450 for a complete new rear spoiler mech all by VW dealer!

 

It was at this point the guy gave me a small box of bits which the previous owner had given to him, in it was the original supercharger pulley and chip........ i couldn't believe my luck! A quick dig confirmed my thoughts and there was the invoice for the new chip, pulley and belt kit along side a Schrick baffled sump. It has some coilovers on it which are fixed rate jobbies and a little to harsh if i'm honest. but again the receipt for these is in the paperwork and they will do for time being.

 

Its got some aftermarket wheels which i've not taken off to inspect and see what the origins are but they are in bloody good condition, i don't know if i like them or not but again they will do nicely for the time being. It came with service history dating back to 1996 and mot's back to 1995 which is when i guess it would have had its first anyway being a 92 car. I assume that being a 92 car explains why its got a vr6 type bonnet and steering wheel on it? although it seems to have the early style radiator dials oddly.

 

So now to the bad bits, well i stupidly didn't cotton onto the fact that the central locking wasn't working when i unlocked it but a friend says this will almost certainly be the vacuum pump and the passengers window doesn't go down, again something prone to going wrong and lets face it, it wouldn't be a VW if it worked 100%!

 

So guys and gals, if anybody wants to wipe the smile off my face and tell me some horror story about the car then please do as id rather know now then find out a messy or expensive way.

 

She seems to idle lovely, pulls very hard and is a complete joy to drive, i'm just kicking myself that i didn't buy one sooner. Any ideas what BHP it would be running with mods it has? not really bothered as its fast enough for me for now but would be interesting to get a guestimate.

 

Any tips or advice then i'm all ears, i know a bit about G60 corrados but i'm sure i was so excited when i was buying the car i might have overlooked a couple of things. Easily done i guess.

 

hopefully some pictures will be attached below. Just phone ones for the time being i'm afraid. And yes i know she needs a wash! If anybody wants to ask anything about the car then please do and i will do my best to answer

 

 

Cheers

 

Ben

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]75601[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]75602[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]75603[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]75604[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]75605[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]75606[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]75607[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]75608[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]75609[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]75610[/ATTACH]

Edited August 10, 2014 by bendunstan

[GrahamU 5]

nice car, welcome to the forum

[robrado974 1]

Looks a very nice , tidy car . How much did you offer him !! lol . Where in Devon did the car come from . Welcome to the forum .

[bendunstan 10]

Looks a very nice , tidy car . How much did you offer him !! lol . Where in Devon did the car come from . Welcome to the forum .

 

£1400 i got the car for, i didnt really expect him to say yes to be honest. The lad was having bother with his daily driver and needed a certain amount of cash to bridge the finance for a new motor so i guess my offer was what he wanted. Kinda felt a little guilty but that soon subsided after a few miles in the car:grin: The car came from Exeter. I just noticed that your signature says your car is dark burgundy pearl. Would you say mines the same colour?

[Jim 1]

Very nice. Always nice to see a G60 - really getting quite uncommon these days! Looks good too :)

[bendunstan 10]

Very nice. Always nice to see a G60 - really getting quite uncommon these days! Looks good too :)

 

Thanks Jim, I have wanted a G60 for the best part of 15 years so although i didn't pay through the nose for a mint example i am happy with what i have and i think/hope its an honest car.

 

This is also one G60 which will not succumb to being converted to a BBM/Lysohlm Charger or Turbo conversion. It Wouldnt be a G60 anymore in my eyes and the main part of the appeal is of the car is its distinctive sound, relative rarity and exclusivity. Howmanyleft.com says just 360 G60 C's on the road still.

 

Still trying to get a match for the colour, i think it is Dark Burgundy Pearl and will check the sticker in the boot but this is starting to get a little faded and i work away so not be able to check till the weekend.

[robrado974 1]

Looks dbp yes . I can't remember the code off hand , but there is a thread in the search for colours and codes . You will find the code in the engine bay , left hand side near the headlight , or in the boot near the lock .

[Portent 0]

Chuffing love G60's now :)

[VR-Sixy 0]

That looks very nice indeed. Got yourself a bargain there, methinks.

[Hofmiester 10]

Absolute bargain, you lucky bugger

[bendunstan 10]

Thanks for all the comments, glad it seems to be getting some good feedback.

 

Just finished sorting out all the paperwork that came with the car and it has hardly been used since 2009 when the head was completely rebuilt. The paperwork seems to signify a car thats been pretty well looked after and although i might not agree with all previous owners mods im very happy with it.

 

One small blip though, i did give the car a good look over underneath looking for signs of rust and crash damage and i didnt notice anything but i have just found a receipt for some Kurust...............

Scared to look under her again now incase ive been a dick and missed something. Im hoping the sills have just been sprayed in it as a precaution or something similar.

 

I dont suppose anybody can shed some light onto the origin of the wheels? its one of the few things i dont have a receipt for and would like an idea as to what they are worth as im not sure i like them so may consider selling them on to fund something else.

 

Also some berk decided that alpine 6x9 speakers would look good in the parcel shelf, i hate it! If anybody has a (i think its grey, could be beige, will have to check at weekend) parcelshelf which has not been violated and do want a parcelshelf with holes then they are welcome to the headunit and all speakers in the car as a swap. dont think the headunit is anythign fancy, just a JVC CD jobbie but it might be what somebodys looking for. I have no intention of running a stereo in the car at all and the headunit space will make way for some extra vdo guages

 

So my intentions for the car.....

 

I think im going to leave the engine alone for the time being, maybe a bit of tidying up and repainting, the car is plenty quick and i would rather keep an eye on it as is just to be on the safe side. Receipts and other peoples word only prove so much in terms of reliability and how the car runs. So far so good though. Just a few cosmetic bits to change, i want to put smoked indicators on it as they stick out and look dumb to me and i want to smoke the front fogs and indicators to give a bit of a stealth look to the front end.Would i be better off forking out for genuine items or go down the Lamin-X route? The numberplates will be changed for some pressed items, not really sure why somebody thought large VW logos would look good on the end. Each to their own i guess.

 

After that, im in no rush and will only get the odd weekend here and there to work on it, and i want to keep the driving VS working on the car ratio very much on the driving side. You can all stop sniggering now!

 

Cheers

Edited September 11, 2013 by bendunstan

[rob_pandy 10]

Love it. Was it for sale on ebay ? L8ve the colour

[bendunstan 10]

Love it. Was it for sale on ebay ? L8ve the colour

 

yeah it was for sale on ebay twice, i missed it the first time but kept the advert meaning to ring the guy and see if he wanted to do a deal. It just so happens that it popped up again and i noticed it after only being advertised for about 30mins. This was about 8pm, told the fella what i wanted to pay and it would be gone the next day so long as it was what he said it was and not a rust bucket. I think i definately came up trumps. To be fair if it was a complete dog theres a brand new charger, mint interior, like new wheels and coilovers so could have got my money back out of it fairly easily. Had nothing to loose and for once i came out smelling like roses. There was a couple of other lads who had travelled down to see the car and actually offered the guy about £300 more than i had offered but credit to the seller, he didnt accept it and stuck by our prior agreement. Didnt even try and bid me up using them as leverage, Top Man!

 

Really happy with it and i would have never picked the colour myself to be honest, especially by the sellers pics as it looked pinky purple. Having seen it in the flesh i dont think i would have the car any other colour! gives the cool look of a black corrado untill the sun hits it and you get the deep red colour shine through. Paint is in real good condition too although its quite dirty in the pics. A few swirls here and there and a couple of stone chips but if we are graced with a nice weekend before the winter sets in hard i will try and recondition the paint. real good wash, clay bar, compound, polish, sealer and wax. Should have a nice fresh look to it by then and be easy to keep looking nice.

 

Cheers

[rob_pandy 10]

Awesome love it when a bargian works out well

[Benjevw 10]

Looks awesome man! I've always wanted one aswell :) , I'd say just use lamin-x.... it's cheap and can be removed quite easily if you ever want to change back to standard.

Put some estorils or Sebring alloys back on it maybe? That's what I'd do :)

Look forward to seeing how it comes along dude

 

Ben

[bendunstan 10]

Looks awesome man! I've always wanted one aswell :) , I'd say just use lamin-x.... it's cheap and can be removed quite easily if you ever want to change back to standard.

Put some estorils or Sebring alloys back on it maybe? That's what I'd do :)

Look forward to seeing how it comes along dude

 

Ben

 

Cheers bud, will hopefully look even better with just a bit of tlc in the near future, Ive heard good things about lamin-x and its relatively cheap so will give that a go first. As for wheels, so many i could choose. Not a fan of sebrings it must be said, id probably go for some corvette C4 wheels but cant be dealing with the hassle as they are something stupid like 9.5" wide. i can already hear my wheel bearings crying out! I really like design 90's but they are a bit common for me. I not into this scene stuff but do like to be a little different with my choices to a point.

 

Its definately going to be a slow project what with me working away during the week and a wife and 2 kids at home. drivability will be the key. No monster stretch tyres here and although i like the car low if it gets in the way of driving it will be raised up. probably end up with a bit of a vanilla corrado but its only me who shes got to make smile :-)

 

I live in banbury, dont suppose any of you folks on here live local? be good to meet up with some fellow enthusiasts in the future

[Benjevw 10]

Yeah I bet it'll look stunning after a polish and wax!

 

I'm over in Bedfordshire so not too far away! Was over in Banbury last week to pick up some flocked goods :)

[clumpy1 11]

Think there are a few who live not too far from you bud.

[Album56 0]

Nice looking G60, sounds like its had similar performance mods as mine, 68mm charger pulley & chip which should give you a 10bhp boost maybe 170 - 180 bhp if its running well. I have had my 92 J plate G60 since it was 1 year old & its been utterly reliable & is so enjoyable to drive, that torque & power that really builds from 2500 rpm still thrills thro the gears after 20 years.

I hope you get as much pleasure from yours.

[bendunstan 10]

So after a little drive this afternoon ive come to the conclusion that im loosing boost. The car is not unresponsive under 3k rpm but its not urgent. It revs quite quickly but seems to be lacking a bit of power. Can you please cast your eyes over the pics and give me the thumbs up or the thumbs down.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]75635[/ATTACH] Overview of engine bay

[ATTACH=CONFIG]75636[/ATTACH] Closer pic of pipes

[ATTACH=CONFIG]75637[/ATTACH] Suspect number 1, is this really the best way to block a hole? Whats ment to connect to it?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]75638[/ATTACH] WTF!!!!! Why is there some kind of plug which isnt connected to anything, could this be an inlet temp sensor or somehting? should it be connected as stock?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]75639[/ATTACH] Getting angry now i didnt notice this when i brought it. why is there what looks like garden hose connected to the throttle body???

 

Also i have a blanking plate for the boost return delete mod. Can somebody please explain what else i need and a description of how to do it please, pics would be ace!!!! I know the pros and cons but for the amount my car will be driven i think im gonna give it a go for a little while, i can always change it back

 

Thanks for looking and i really hope there is no problem with what your all looking at. I intend to take most of these pipes off if the weather gets better and re attach everyhting to make sure that its connected right and tight but your advice in the meantime will be much appreciated.

[clumpy1 11]

Don't get angry mate these car's test your patience you haven't experienced anything yet. For what you paid for the car you got a deal did you honestly believe there was going to be no issues???? It sound's you have minor issue's i don't want to come across as cheeky but get someone who know's the corrado look at it don't dither along hoping that the advice you will get on here will sort all the problem's miraculously. I paid alot more for my car than what you have paid and i have had issue's and had to fork out but that is corrado ownership I'm afraid. ;)

[owen g60 10]

If you can get somewhere near me ill run through it with you. Can do the boost return mod at the same time.

 

That pipe coming from the throttle body is it going into the return pipe?

[bendunstan 10]

So some success! Boost leak sorted by adjusting a jubilee clip which wasn't tight. Gonna give everything a once over tomorrow! I would however like somebody to let me know if all the pipes are correct, the throttle body one looks a bit suspect. Cheers in advance

[bendunstan 10]

Yea it's going into return pipe. Thanks go the offer of going through it all but your a bit too far, the offer is appreciated though.

[Tempest 0]

The sensor that seems disconnected, attahced to your boost pipe, is the CO-pot/boostpipe air temp sensor.

 

Needs to be connected to the G60-ECU.

 

Tempest