red_baron

That was me! First time spotted on here. Well chuffed. Was great to see another parked alongside. Would have left a note to say hi but lack of pen & paper & the heavens opening made me scoot off!

Well... this may or may not be a fix. My Dad (much more patience than me, and also retired so lots of spare time) took a look at the car today. After changing the ECU relay there was no difference. Today he took the ABS fuse out and ran the car - same violent loss of power under acceleration. Put the same fuse back in and it appears as though the problem's gone away. He did about 10 miles with a couple of bursts of "proper" acceleration (he's nearly 78 so I bet he surprised a few people) and there were no issues. I've just driven it home and there was no evidence of it either, although I didn't give it the full beans as I didn't want to tempt fate. The sudden loss of power seemed more mechanical and I suppose looking into the braking system was a logical step. Seems weird but if it's fixed then so what! Fingers crossed its not just a temporary fix...

ECU relay replaced but the problem's still there. Seems to have appeared only after oil change - haven't a clue where to start. The loss of power seems more mechanical than electrical, I'm hoping I've not done something to the clutch with putting it on ramps (it's been on ramps quite a few times lately). Any more suggestions?

Hi All, I have a confusing one... the car's not really been used since November (its had the odd trip out, but nothing longer than 5 miles at a time). I've been having some bodywork done for the past few weeks - picked the car up on Friday & ran it to and from work with no problems (about a 30 mile round trip), in fact it seemed to be running better than ever. It was fine on a short trip on Saturday too - did an oil change up on ramps (not sure if it is the root cause of the problem) and ever since then even under moderate acceleration, the engine dies quite violently momentarily and then runs ok. I have to drive the car with virtually no throttle when accelerating, otherwise the power disappears and the car lurches forward. It doesn't stall, no lights come on the dash & it only lasts a fraction of a second. I've run VAG-COM and there are no fault codes logged. The car starts & runs fine otherwise & I can boot the throttle no problem with the car stationary & out of gear (i.e. no engine load). The car's a 1993 VR6 with about 125k on the clock. Any ideas more than welcome! Cheers, Ian

M plate classic green Storm with bra at White Cross Bay, Windermere over the weekend. I was in the missus' 1-series so may have looked a bit odd gawping!

As promised here's some piccies of car & wheels. Apologies as these were taken on the mobile and it was FREEZING cold at the time! Still chuffed. Still inflated and looking really good.

Hi Everyone, Having had air leakage problems on my rather old and corroded looking Speedlines for a few months (if not years) I finally took the plunge to get them refurbed. Didn't really have a clue where to go as I have a nasty habit of seeking out cowboys whenever it comes down to any garage related services. I picked up a flier for Prestige Wheels in Furness Vale at the Tatton Park car show a few months back and decided to get in touch. From the off everything seemed good - great communication, and they were happy for me to go and take a look at their facilities before making a decision. So I took the car in last Wednesday after work and picked it up Friday morning. In a word... superb! They chemically stripped them, sorted out the corrosion and gouges (kerbed well before I owned it) and re-coated them to match the original colour. They also swapped the rear tyres for the fronts and balanced them the best they have ever been balanced since I've owned the car. Oh, and they have maintained the correct pressures since Friday morning, even after an 800 mile jaunt up to Scotland and back. £250 for 4 wheels, including cleaning up and painting the nuts, and with a courtesy car thrown in for a couple of days too. They also offer a mobile service if you need it, and will collect your wheels from you for a small additional fee. I couldn't recommend them enough. http://www.prestigewheels.co.uk Speak to Helen and get yourself booked in! When the weather's a bit better and I've given her a clean I'll put some piccies up on here. Cheers, Ian

I had a blast through Scotland last summer being followed by a mate in a Caterham 7. The only smoke was a "puff" when dropping down a gear to overtake slower moving plebs. I've just had everything off down to the cam cover and there was a fair bit of oil around on the top of the cover (haven't a clue where from other than leftovers from when Dubsport were let loose on her a couple of years ago :mad: ). There seemed to be a fair bit escaping from the cam cover gasket at the front right of the engine. Everythings been cleaned up and the garkets have been replaced so I suppose I'll just see how things go for the time being.

On the way methinks...

Right. I've had a look at the new plugs today (one week old) and there's a tiny bit of oil knocking around. I think this is as a result of a leaking cam cover gasket which I'm in the process of changing at the moment. All the plugs look reasonably ok apart from number 6 - this one seems to be a bit blacker on the electrode than all the others and there's also some gritty deposits building up. The photo shows number 6... I think the cracked plug from my previous photo was number 6 too, as it had similar deposits. Anyone any thoughts to make me feel slightly happier about the car?! Cheers, Ian

Well in that case its cracked... Didn't notice that myself as I was too busy worrying about the oil! ... but it still feels like its misfiring even with the new plugs in. I'll check the new ones for oil tomorrow when I get a chance.

No, apart from the oil the plugs looked as they should for 2 years old...

The threads and electrodes are all dry as snuff... its just the top half of the plugs that have the oil on them. I'm worried that the head gasket may be on the way out :( although oil usage is minimal and there's no water in the oil & vice versa

Definitely didn't spill any oil, so perhaps it is the cam cover gasket. I think I also have a misfire and lack of power at highish revs - got absolutely pasted the other day by a Golf VR6 and she really seems to labour at speed :( I get the feeling there's some money to be spent soon

Hi everyone... after a number of months of trouble free driving (apart from a couple of incidents with a knackered coil pack!) I decided to treat the beast to a new set of plugs today as the old ones have been in for a couple of years now. On removing the old ones, there's a significant amount of oil knocking around on the body of the plugs and onto the insulators. The "business" end of the plugs are all fine. 2, 4 & 6 are the worst (the front three), number 1 is dry, but 3 & 5 have a small amount of oil on them but nowhere near as much as the front three. Does this sound major? Otherwise at almost 120,000 miles she's running fine and not using too much oil. I'm just off on a 200 mile round trip so will check the new plugs on Monday when I'm back. Cheers, Ian

I'm having to effect a temporary repair at the mo due to shortage of funds and an MOT & road tax due at the end of the month... I've had a quote from John at Pipewerx for a cat-back custom stealth exhaust in stainless for £350+VAT. Personally I don't think this is bad (even though its a lot of cash) but what do other people think about custom ones?

Yeah its for a VR6... surprise surprise my existing one has snapped on the n/s of the "suitcase" - its sagging a little at the moment. Still it has done nearly 112,000 miles! Can the rear section be bought from VW... or was that price just for the rear section?

Hi everyone... Sorry if the answer to this question already exists buried somewhere in this thread - A few times the VW OE exhaust is mentioned as a replacement for the original but does anyone know if its still available - either as a whole or in component parts? Cheers

I'm stuck... arghhhh :x I've been patiently following the guide and everything was running smoothly until I came to undoing the three nuts on the engine bay side of things. The upper one and the one by the expansion tank didn't cause me any problems, but the lower one of the two (photo attached) just won't come undone. To add to it, the whole thing just keeps turning - I think it must have come loose in the heater box itself. I've tried everything - WD40 (lots of), mole grips, Dremel, swearing etc. etc. Without this coming off I'm kind of stumped. Anyone got any suggestions - or know of any garages in the Manchester area that can be trusted to carry on where I'm very tempted to leave off? I'm off to China with work next week and don't have much time to spend on it now... Cheers, Ian

I think they call this the auxiliary water pump. Had the replaced last December when the chains were done. I thought the carpets were ok but on closer inspection they are absolutely sodden. I've disconnected the heater pipes for now and joined them together with some copper tubing which will hopefully mean I can use the car without carrying round an emergancy supply of water! Looking at other threads on the matrix it looks like it can be replaced without taking the dash out... 3 hours work apparently. Might take it to the garage that did my old FIAT Bravo matrix - 2 hours and £120!!

Bummer... looks like its the matrix after all :(

None whatsoever... I have had issues in the past but at the moment there's nothing! New cap's being fitted today so I'll run it tomorrow with fingers etc. crossed and see if it makes a difference.

...and its because the water is under pressure that it doesn't boil as the boiling point of pressurised water is higher than 100 degrees. I'm glad my high school physics lessons counted for something!

Definitely... the system is supposed to be pressurised which means it has to be completely sealed (obviously with a release valve if the pressure gets too high).

This is where it gets complicated... Water temp (according to the gauge) only ever reaches half way - the fan knocks it down pretty quickly - this only really happens in traffic; the normal running temperature is about 85. VAG-COM showed the temperature reaching about 86 degrees before the fan came on and it stayed pretty constant with the car stood still. The radiator is about 6 months old and I changed all the clips on as many pipes as I could (there was water leaking from the bottom hose joint - what sod that was to change!). I'll try and look at the pipes running to the heater matrix this weekend - but from what I've seen do far everything seems ok. I've been in touch with VW in Bolton to order a new expansion cap. The guy there said that the cap for the Corrado has a higher pressure rating than the normal caps... does this sound true? The cap I got from GSF could have been releasing prematurely, therefore allowing steam to escape even under normal running conditions - and I have had some staining around the top of the sphere... What do you think?