Mystic Rado

Yeah, but like Andy says above, the main benefits are from the dip beam, which should be pretty reasonable with the projectors in the In-Pros. What you might want to do is look into wiring them so that the dip stays on when you switch to main beam, so you have main and dip on at once. Depends how much out of town driving you do, I guess.

Don't you need H7s for the InPros? I don't see how an H4 kit would fit :?

I had an hids4u H4 Bixenon kit in my standard 'rado where, as I've posted elsewhere on the forum, it was absolute pants and didn't suit the Corrado headlight design. Took it out and, out of interest, stuck it in my Mark 2, where it actually works very well in a conventional round headlight. There's loads of light, a good cut-off and a little hint of blueness to the light, but not too much. Dip is great, main beam less so. It's a 6000k kit, I wouldn't get an 8000k set-up, you'll have less useable light and far more of a blue-ish tinge, I think. I didn't realise you could get an H7 bixenon kit. One thing that's weird if you mix Xenon high beams and halogen high beams is the strange mix of light colour - white and yellowish - which I don't really like. I guess you'd get that if you stuck a bixenon in the low beam side and stayed halogen in the main beam ones. But as far as bulbs go, 6000k I'd say.

If they're angel eye-type lights, I think the bulbs in both lights are H7, one bulb does dip and the other one does main beam, so you'd just need four H7s. Unless you've got an uprated wiring loom, stick with the standard wattage as anything else is going to be too much for the original wiring :?

Yandards is right for standard headlights, but if you've fitted Inpro or similar angel eye type lights - is that what you mean by Audi/BMW style headlights? - then I think the bulbs are H7. If they're just LHD standard Corrado headlights they're H4 and H3. Second the new Philips Xtreme bulbs btw, but uprated loom makes a big difference too.

There are a few out there, one on http://www.matey-matey.com - erm - this thing. The problem with the Corrado is the headlight plug design, you can buy them from VW dealers, but it's fiddlier than doing a loom, for, say a Mark 2 Golf, which just uses standard H4 connectors. Making 'plug and play' looms is really problematic because you need something that mates with the original headlight plug, but no-one makes one. There's a load of great basic information on this site, complete with a decent wiring diagram. Oh, and there's this in the knowledge base.

I'm sure you'd get no end of customers! Given the level of demand for these things and the fact that folk are clearly prepared to pay a commercial rate for a decent, well-made loom, I wonder if there's any mileage in seeing if we can approach an automotive wiring specialist and simply getting a batch made up. I made my own using soldered joints, heat skrink, OE plugs, protective convoluted tubing and splashproof fuse holders then hardwired it into the original wiring loom - I don't trust spade connectors when it comes to seeing where I'm going at night :? But making your own is quite time consuming ime anyway, and to do it properly, you end up shelling out on a lot of specialist bits - decent quality cable, fuse holders, relays etc - that a professional could probably source cheaper by buying in bulk. There seem to be so many people who want uprated looms that we must be close to a point where someone could produce them commercially and be confident of selling a fair number. I think it's asking a lot for an enthusiastic amateur to produce these in his or her spare time in the sort of numbers that seem to be required for minimal profit. Just a thought, but if someone knows an individual or company who could come up with a quote for producing uprated looms on a commercial basis, then maybe it's worth looking at that option?

I had the same problem - it turned out to be my girlfriend. I got rid of her and now everything's back to normal.

There's a blurry pic of a matt black 'rado at the top of this page. Interesting choice of wheel colour. I guess ultimately it's down to you, I used to run a matt-blacked Kawasaki 550 bike when I was couriering in London years ago, but that was 100 per cent pure rat. It'd also make it hard to sell if that crosses your mind. I guess you could always matt black it, then save for a full-on paint job later down the line, but if you're going to do that, you might be better off just living with the paintwork as is for now and putting the money towards a proper paint job?

Camo ;-)

To my eternal shame, I have to confess to quite fancying a Volvo V70 T5... No, wait, really. There's nothing out there other than a 'rado or maybe a 911 I'd really want, so I might as well have something that looks like the back-end of a bus, will carry shedloads of mountain bikes and camping gear out back and still goes like stink. In fact I might get one as a daily anyway :)

Cheers for that, I've been 'just about' to send some Mk 5 Golf 288mm calipers off to Bigg Red for the last six weeks or so, but hadn't seen any of their work. Looks like I'll definitely do that this week then and report back :-)

Have to agree with most of the above. I have both a 'rado VR6 and a tweaked Mk2 8-valve GTi and while the GiT's a hoot to drive and practical with it, the Corrado's faster, nicer and just getting into it puts a smile on my face - and the noise from the VR6 :D Corrado's also seem a lot more corrosion resistant than Mk 2s. If you do a search on here, there's a whole thread about how they used galvanised body panels on the 'rado, hence it's pretty tough unless it's been badly repaired in the past and while my Storm seems - touch wood - to be overall sound, my admittedly older Mk 2 is getting quite raggety around the edges and I reckon next year I'll be looking for a new chassis to put the motor in. I do think Corrado's are potentially pricer to run. There are loads of cheapo Mk 2 bits about, but you have to bear in mind that the Corrado has a lot of one-off body panels and components, so while the chassis and motor aren't significantly more expensive than a Golf, it's possible to blow a load of dosh on more specialised bits. Best solution to that is to buy second had - great classifieds section on here or on eBay - and buy the soundest 'rado you can afford to begin with. For perspective, I bought my VR6 about a year ago and since then I've had to: replace the serpentine belt tensioner (knackered pulley), headlights (lenses / reflectors shagged - they're expensive btw, think 120 quid or so - the front ARB drop-links and the front discs / pads. I also sorted the non-functioning sun-roof which was time consuming. The rest of the stuff I've done to the car is mostly mods to improve it rather than needs, but Cs are a bit like that... Of those things, the only bits which would have cost more than on an equivalent Golf are the headlights (unique to the 'rado) and the sun roof, which I suppose I could have left. Day to day, the VR6 actually uses less petrol on motorways etc than my Golf - it's tuned though - and is no worse about town, tyres are slightly pricer for the 'rado, but not by much if you use mytyres.com or similar and service parts are about the same. As someone said, this is a Corrado forum, so most people here are going to be less than totally impartial, but if I had to choose between the Golf and the Corrado, the GiT would be in the classifieds tomorrow. The C's a special car, especially in VR6 form - ducks behind handy wall - still looks amazing for a 90s car, in fact still just looks amazing full stop, and has the bonus of a sort of stealth X-factor in that a lot of people don't even know what they are, which I kind of like :)

No worries, mate. It's changed a bit since the old days - gone all mahoosive and high tech, but good people who know their VW still.

Awesome GTi have a good reputation - http://www.awesome-gti.com/ - over Irlam way and I found them professional and helpful.

Eh? I don't know what bits you mean... I think he means the OE VAG four-pin connectors that attach to the headlights. You can buy them new from the dealers, part numbers are on here somewhere if you do a search. Means you don't have to rely on dodgy spade connectors to connect the uprated loom to the headlights, plus looks 100 per-cent neater. Basically what you're doing is feeding power direct from the battery via a relay which is triggered by a feed from the original wiring loom. Ideally you want to solder and heatshrink the new loom into the original one and do as much as you can to seal the relays and the fuse holders from water. I had an old Trimsport loom on my Mark 2 that worked well, but gradually died from corrosion, so when I made up one for my 'rado, I sealed everything I could to the max including bagging the relays and using splash-proof fuseholders that should be effectively waterproof. Stay away from crimped connections - next best option to soldering btw, seems to be the crimps that come with a heat-shrink sleeve and adhesive.

I was in a similar position to you when I bought my 'rado last year. After getting it properly checked over, I ended up getting new drop links cos the old ones were trashed and a new waterpump as it failed with mucho whining. As far as mods go, the things that I did quite quickly were fit a set of H&R coilovers, dropped by about 40mm, looks much nicer, handles better. Then I got a Neuspeed rear anti-roll bar fitted, which tightened the steering up no end and made a big difference. The other thing I hated was the longish throw on the stock gear change, fitted a Dieselgeek quickshifter from the States which made the change so much nicer in both directions. Uprated headlight wiring loom is a must if you plan on driving at night - the ones on eBay are quite basic, I made my own with soldered / heatshrunk connectors and water-resistant fuse holders plus OE headlight plugs from the dealers. I haven't had any problem with my stock Corrado wipers, but I did fit a set of silicone wiper blades. Most owners seem to go for the Lupo wipers though. Next to go on are a set of 288mm brakes in place of the stock 280s. Bigger pad area etc, is supposed to give much better braking. And, eventually, a full paint job :-) I've used C&R in the past, for my Mk 2 Golf GiT and they were spot on, though definitely not cheap. Anyway, welcome to the forum and Corrados generally. I think it's an addiction, but it's worth it when you're howling across the Peak with the windows down listening to that mad noise :-)

Yeah, the high beam ain't great even in the GTi, where otherwise, to be fair it works pretty well - twin 100-watt spots in the driving lights anyway, so it's not a big issue. Fwiw, I've got a pair of E46 HID projectors which I'm going to retrofit into some spare headlights. The real problem with that is the headlight glass, I'm going to try it with the stock fluted lenses and see how things look and then take it from there. From what I can tell, it's near impossible to smooth headlight glass, so I'm looking at either getting new lenses fabricated from Lexan sheet or similar or, possibly, cut the stock glass and insert a smooth area in front of the projector. One day, when I have some spare time.... :?

There are some pics of the kit on the hids4u.co.uk web site - here. I don't have any beam pics, but trust me, the kit was dreadful in the 'rado - I guess taking the end cap off the shield might have helped btw.

Possibly, I'm going to stick it in my Mk 2 GiT and see if it works better with a more conventional headlight - if it does I might hang on to it. If not, it's for the chop. It's the H4 bixenon kit btw, but like I said, it doesn't seem to suit the Corrado headlight. I'll PM you if I decide to flog it. Just for info, I took the hids4u.co.uk bixenon H4 HID kit out of my 'rado and out of interest, installed it in my Mk2 Golf GTi. It was - and I don't think this is too much of an exageration - absolute pants in the Corrado headlights. Awful beam pattern, light all over the place etc, just very nasty with big dark patches where there should have been light and light where there should have been no light. The hids4u kit gets good reviews from a lot of people and seems pretty decent, the bulb uses a solenoid which moves the light capsule when you select high beam putting it in the right place for full on light etc, anyway... I've found, in the more conventional headlights on my Golf, the kit actually gives very decent results, similar to the relayed 90/100 watt halogens I normally use, but with a whiter light. The cut-off is pretty much the same as the halogen and I've not been flashed yet by anyone. I'm no headlamp expert, but I don't think the hids4u kit, which has a very well shielded bulb - Caspar-type shield with a big end cap for anyone interested - suits the Corrado's headlight optics, while it clearly works decently enough in the more conventional round headlight on the Golf. I've mailed Ian at hids4u and suggested that his kit doesn't suit the Corrado and he shouldn't sell it to to Corrado owners in future. I can't really comment on other kits except to say that generally HID in halogen reflectors isn't known for being a great solution despite my GTi results. It's okay on the Golf, but I'm not sure it's any better than my relayed halogens and I actually prefer driving with the yellower halogen light, especially on main where I now have a mix of halogen 100-watt spots and HID mains, which is a bit weird. I'll leave it in for a while and see what I think longer term. Don't know whether it would get through MoT either, seems ambiguous feedback on that front. Anyway, just my tuppence worth. Relayed higher rated halogens on the Corrado now and much, much happier :-)

I guess so, ideally you want to borrow a motor which you know is working well on another car - I suppose the other way of looking at it is that if it is a tired motor then it doesn't matter what else you do, the motor will still be tired (he said, unhelpfully) :? Look on the bright side, at least your mechanism seems to work okay, if the metal gizmos had broken, it'd be an infuriating roof out job.

It might still be worth trying a different motor. From memory the cut-out on the motor operates at quite a low level of resistance, so it may be that a fresher motor will have the ooomph to shift the roof, particularly if you can wind it easily backwards and forwards by hand.

I'd steer clear of the eBay ones, they look pretty gash and simply make up your own. There are plenty of places selling automotive electrical stuff on the web - http://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk for example and http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/ - and some relevant wiring diagrams floating about. For example: http://www.matey-matey.com/uprated_head ... ring.shtml There's also a really good US lighting site that explains the principles etc in real detail, erm, http://www.danielsternlighting.com and also has diagrams and advice, see this article. It's really not that difficult and making it yourself means you can use top quality wiring, solder the connections properly, seal stuff - I think Vehicle Electrical Wiring Products and Demon Tweeks both sell the water-resistant fuse holders Andy's using for example - and spec it how you want. You can buy the OE headlight plugs from VW dealers and hardwire the uprated loom into the existing headlight wiring to trigger the relays. There's an American guy who makes bespoke looms as well, including a Corrado one, but he didn't get back to me when I e-mailed him a year or so ago. You can probably find him with google, I seem to have lost the bookmark, but he exists and his stuff does look good. I'm not great with electrics, but I made up a pretty effective loom off my own bat, so if I can do it, I'm sure anyone can :?

Possibly, I'm going to stick it in my Mk 2 GiT and see if it works better with a more conventional headlight - if it does I might hang on to it. If not, it's for the chop. It's the H4 bixenon kit btw, but like I said, it doesn't seem to suit the Corrado headlight. I'll PM you if I decide to flog it.

After I got my sun-roof mechanism repaired - it was broken - it would open and tilt, but not close. Turned out to be the motor. They get tired. Secondhand motor off someone on here sorted it immediately. Hopefully yours'll be as easy to sort out. Good luck :D