a_riot

Neither of my 93s have this setup. I guess it only came on 95s?

I tried that before but it made no difference. I have it checked right now, so I'll see if this posts.

Is the staying logged in problem ever likely to be resolved? I have to repeatedly log in over and over again after doing anything at all, and it's become very tiresome. I don't even bother much at this point, so wanted to know if it will be fixed anytime soon, or if it's a lost cause. Of course, I was logged out again trying to post this.

I didn't like them either for the same reason. Just ok in the dry, poor in the wet and quite noisy as well. I think it's the compound more than the tread, but overhyped and overpriced imho. I'll have to look into the Uniroyal Rainsports, thanks for the suggestion.

I wouldn't use moly grease in a wheel bearing subject to high speeds. "Greases containing moly are recommended for roller bearings subjected to very heavy loads and shock loading, especially in slow or oscillating motion such as found in universal joints and CV joints. If such greases are used in high-speed bearings, problems can be experienced with roller “skidding” where the bearing roller fails to rotate through the full 360 degrees due to reduced friction. As a result, the roller develops flat spots, and its service life is reduced."

You can test that sensor easily enough if you have a ohmmeter and can boil some water, so no need to throw good money after bad. In fact many of those parts you've replaced can be tested. You'll eventually go broke if you repair the car this way, and it can add red herrings to the issue as well. If the crank sensor was bad, the car wouldn't start at all. If it was the one way valve on the fuel send line, you'd have good warm starts but hard cold starts.

There is a special grease called wheel bearing grease, usually available at most auto repair stores.

I'm starting to wonder if my clips aren't correct, or maybe aftermarket are a different size. The round opening seems too small to fit over the protrusion so it just keeps popping off.

My fusebox was fiddled with unnecessarily by a tech a few years ago, and they never bothered to install the white plastic clips, so it now hangs down so that the fuses face the floor. Its not a big deal, except some of the relays will start to come out and I'll lose my horn and so on. I have the clips, but after trying numerous times can't get them to stay on. Is there a trick I'm missing here?

Mine tends to leak from one of two places. Either from around the hatch holes the spoiler uses, or through the spoiler mechanism itself. There are holes in the plastic sleeves the spoiler mechanism is inside, and rain can drip from those if its gets down in to them. I used some urethane goop to seal around the two rubber gaskets that sit below the spoiler.

I'm not sure I understand what the problem is, but you know the ABS light comes on at startup and stays on until hydraulic pressure builds up high enough to switch it off. I wouldn't recommend unplugging any connectors that attach to the ABS computer while the car is running just as a precaution.

I can't speak to relays used in Passats as I've never used them, but a relay is a relay so as long as they are rated to handle the current they should work. Here in the US with our non-relayed crappy US DOT headlights, an upgrade to European headlights along with relays is a massive upgrade. I can't say how much was due to headlights and how much is due to relays, but I'd guess the relays make a significant difference since light output is so sensitive to voltage drop. My headlights are better than almost all new car headlights here in the US, especially my brights. With relayed European headlights, I couldn't be happier with the light output, pattern and coolness of light switch.

The 2 rear caliper carrier bolts are M10x1,25x20 but the 4 splash guard bolts are listed as M10x24 with no pitch specified. I would guess they are also 1.25 pitch but don't quote me.

It sits on top of the transmission lever assembly, so fairly accessible in the engine bay. Its right under the lower radiator hose, but still fairly easy to remove with two screws. Its a cheap part, but now that its fixed it will probably work for the next 25 years :)

Just mentioning this in case others encounter it. I was having issues with my reverse lights for a long time, and finally got around to fixing it. They were intermittent for a while, depending on where the gear lever was, then would only briefly flash on when put in reverse. I removed the connector to the switch and shorted the terminals and the lights came on fine. So I removed the switch to see about replacing it, but once removed, I noticed the pin inside it the sleeve must hit, was kind of dirty and not moving smoothly. It only moves a couple of millimeters but I guess there was enough gunk in there that it wasn't getting a reliable connection. I shot brakekleen in there and lubed up the chrome lever, reinstalled and its now working fine. I love old cars you can actually fix!

The intake manifold is after the MAF, so would be unmetered air. Typically unmetered air causes the engine to run lean, not rich, since you've got more air than you need, without the fuel to match.

I was having a sudden high idle a few months ago, but it was steady not fluctuating like yours appears to be doing. No codes, nothing obviously wrong, so I pulled off the ISV and gave it a really good cleaning, as well as the throttle body. Seems to have solved my issue as its been fine for months since. I think the VW MAFs are typically fine, don't need cleaning, and work for decades. It isn't that complicated a device and has no moving parts, so I never understand why techs always suspect it first. Perhaps other manufactures make ones that fail, but its rare I hear of a Corrado with a bad MAF unless the owner start to clean it all the time. It cleans itself with heat, which will burn off pretty much anything so I'd just leave it alone and look elsewhere. A bad O2 sensor won't do that since if it gets weird readings it goes into limp mode.

If it isn't the resistor, you might want to take a look at the copper contact ring under the fan speed dial, assuming you have the later interior. That can get bent and then you may see odd behavior when turning the dial. Usually you'll just lose speeds when that happens, not mix up speeds, but if the thin copper contact ring gets warped or shifts position, that could occur I guess. First try just pushing on the dial and see if that changes anything, and then take a look inside by removing the dial. The small copper contact that is moved along the ring when you spin the dial can get oxidized, bent, or develop wear spots, and usually a good cleaning, straightening out and repositioning will fix it. You'll see what I mean once you open it up. I had only speed 4 and so took it all apart and redid it and now have all 4 speeds, and the dial feels better to turn to boot.

I have found that Corrado parts are significantly superior to A2/A3 parts in general. They were just built better than the VW products sold at the time imho, with some notable exceptions, so I'm not sure you can extrapolate from other VWs. For instance, when I replaced the head gasket on my lower mileage Corrado (100k miles), I had planned on replacing the upper chain guides and plastic cooling parts at the same time. But looking at the guides, they looked brand new, as did all the cooling plastic housings. So they all stayed where they were and are still going strong 15k later. The same parts purchased today aren't going to last that long from VW or elsewhere. They just don't make them like they used to, so I'd be hesitant to replace things that aren't broken with parts from the modern era, as they just aren't as durable. They figured out how to cheapen them while still looking similar.

That seems excessive to me. OE VW hoses and radiators last decades, so I don't replace them unless they are blown or about to blow. I've replaced many cooling components as needed and never had an issue, as I think the components that came with the car are superior to what we can get now. However, I think that VR6 engines that have leaky head gaskets pushing combustion pressure into the cooling system can suffer from ongoing cooling system failures, so that definitely does occur without owners realizing it. If you suddenly start blowing hoses and finding leaks, the head gasket might be the culprit not the cooling system components.

It seems that if I do anything at all, change pages, write a post, etc, I always get logged out. I've cleared cookies, rebooted, changed browsers, etc, but it hasn't helped. I can log in ok, but doing anything after that gets me logged out even though "remember me" is checked. Its almost like the timeout for auto logoff is set to 30 seconds or something. PS Curiously, I just sent a note to Jim the admin, but was redirected to the login page instead, so I rewrote it, and was notified I have to wait 60 seconds to make another post. But since I apparently wasn't logged in when I made the first one, why is it telling me to wait 60 seconds? It seems to know I just made a post so I must have been logged in, but then keeps redirecting me to the login page as if it doesn't.

That's not quite correct though. The heat from the engine is supposed to be passed into the coolant and radiated out the radiator by using the fan, not just radiate into the engine bay and stagnate. If sitting in a traffic jam air can get trapped, but once moving it should dissipate, but it is a small engine bay with almost 3 litres of motor so there is that. Is the cardboard deflector at the top of the radiator and all the radiator air ducts still in place (see image)? Air flow can be tricky, and if hot air is getting trapped in your engine bay, that might be why. You can use smoke to see what might be going on with the air flow inside the engine bay but that often tossed piece of cardboard prevents the air from endlessly cycling around the radiator, so its not as useless as some think. The air is pulled rearward into the engine bay but once moving should leave through the bottom and sides and not saturate the engine. Even if your temps are ok though, that doesn't mean that everything is fine, as it could be the fan is coming on more frequently than it should to try and keep temps normal, when normally it wouldn't run as much, thus pulling more hot air into the engine bay even though temps are fine. If the fan isn't coming on when it should, heat will build up and then as soon as the engine is saturated with heat, it won't cool down until the motor is off. This is typically seen with fans that have lost the 1st speed, or have a Chinese thermoswitch that doesn't switch it on at the right temp. I had that happen, and opening the hood after driving resulted in a blast of hot air in the face. Once the engine is heat saturated due to a cooling issue, there's really no way to cool it down without turning it off and waiting. Check to make sure all your heat shields are still in place as well. If you have a laser heat device, you can try pointing it at various places to see what is going on and maybe make changes if need be. Maybe something as simple as an air duct that directs the fan air downward might help, just make sure it doesn't overheat some other component like the battery, etc.

I would agree. I had the same issue but couldn't find anything obviously wrong. But it turned out there were a number of small things wrong that added up to excessive heat in the engine bay cooking plastic parts and hoses, etc. Typically these aren't obvious issues and missed so low temp sensors or low thermostats are used as a workaround, but that just shifts the problem, and now things run too cool in winter etc. A properly working Corrado typically doesn't run too hot except under extreme situations. Make sure you have the proper coolant with the right ratio filled to MAX and the system is bled. I use distilled water and G13 these days. Make sure you are using the proper oil viscosity. Higher oil temps will lead to higher coolant temps. Make sure your fan's 1st speed is coming on and going off at the appropriate temperature. Normally my fan won't get to 2nd speed unless stuck in traffic on a very hot day, but make sure all 3 speeds come on and go off when they are supposed to. Make sure the thermostat isn't sticking closed and opens fully when it should. Make sure the temp sensors are the correct temp values and working. You can get higher valued sensors and tstats as well as lower so make sure a PO didn't do something like that. Make sure your radiator is working efficiently, is clean and there's nothing blocking it between the condenser and radiator and has the cardboard strip sitting on top of it to prevent circular air flow. Make sure the aux water pump is running when its supposed to. Make sure your reservoir cap isn't leaking pressure before its supposed to. Make sure your head gasket is good and combustion isn't getting into the cooling jackets increasing pressure/temps in the cooling system. If all that works, you shouldn't really see high coolant temps under normal driving conditions but expect some variation from Corrado to Corrado. I have 2 and one runs hotter than the other for reasons I can't figure out. I suspect that the cooler running one has slightly less timing after having the head decked when doing a head gasket, but that's just a theory. But I did notice it ran cooler when the HG and timing chain guides, but also installed a new radiator at the same time. If yours is original it may be time to replace it.

Odd. I've replaced both mine and never had an issue with fitment on a 2.8 engine. Don't recall what brand but it wasn't a VW part. I would imagine the sensor itself doesn't fail, its likely just the wiring that fails so you might be able to fix the old one if there is a break in the wiring but at the age it likely is, I'd try and find a replacement if you can. Are you certain the old O-ring came out with the sensor? Just wondering if it got stuck preventing the new one from seating.

I had an interesting opportunity that gave me an interesting perspective. The first Corrado I bought had 134k miles, but had been "upgraded" by the PO with an aftermarket exhaust, suspension, intake, chip etc. It rode and drove like a dog, and had all sorts of weird suspension noises, poor fuel mileage, harsh, damaging ride, sounded like crap and was a bear to maintain. My second one was a one owner low mileage car, and the owner had it dealer serviced and was completely stock. That car rides great, makes no weird noises, has great power, and requires little maintenance. So to me the high maintenance reputation Corrados have is simply bogus, and speaks to all the "upgrading" owners do with ill-fitting parts, poorly installed.