Trev16v

This is why we drive with a little £50 DVR mounted in the windscreen now, continuously recording a reasonably good video stream to SD card. The view through the windscreen is continously recorded for every journey. Whether or not such evidence can be presented to argue a case I don't know, but if I or the wife should be unfortunately to be involved in a bump again in future, it'll be good to have. In my opinion anyone who even remotely cares for their vehicle and NCB should invest in one of those £50 DVRs.

Do you still have the shell? If so, I'm after these panels in good condition: http://the-corrado.net/showthread.php?71889-WTD-Front-floor-pan-quot-connecting-plate-quot-sections

Do you still have the shell? If so, I'm after these panels in good condition: http://the-corrado.net/showthread.php?71889-WTD-Front-floor-pan-quot-connecting-plate-quot-sections

Hi Matt, many thanks for taking those images for me. It's much appreciated. To be honest, looking at them I'm quite concerned about the amount of surface rust that has managed to creep in. I have a feeling those panels may turn out to be a bit too thin in places. I gave it some thought and in the end I have bitten the bullet and ordered brand new (and stupidly expensive) panel for the one side from VW Classic Parts in Germany. With that said, I am still on the lookout for a decent pair of salvaged panels as a backup, in case this one doesn't materialise from Germany. CazzaVR, did you have any joy in looking at yours for me please? I'd still be tempted to come and cut them out if they're in good nick. Trev

Happily, VCDS/VAGCOM will communicate with the 9A ECU. I think it's commonly said that the 9A ECU doesn't support comms because it can be notoriously difficult to make it work, but I figured out why this was and modified my interface so that it does. (I wrote some blurb about this in the big VAGCOM thread.) Using VCDS was really helpful last year when trying to diagnose some issues with our 9A Corrado. I used it to set the ignition timing and CO properly, and it also flagged up a very intermittent closed throttle switch that I might never have otherwise discovered. So, if the OP wants to get the car down to me in Oxfordshire at some point, we could wang my laptop onto it. (I realise that this would mean at least getting it to start and being able to limp it over.)

Any luck, gents? :)

About 200ish all in with postage back and forth, if I remember right. Removal of the rack is about as fun as hammering nails into your eyes, but it's not too bad. I rebuilt the front suspension on the wife's Corrado 16V last year and had the rack done by WPS. I completely lower the subframe to do it, while supporting the engine. It's just time consuming more than anything.

Sounds like it. Not good news. You can use a company like Western Power Steering to have it rebuilt. I've used them twice in the past.

Here are some pictures of the panel concerned. First of all, right side of car. This is the one that I want to replace. I realise it's not that bad at all anyway, but I have had to cut a couple of inches of rust out to form the large hole that can be seen, so I would rather just remove the panel and then refit a decent one. Also, the metal has quite thinned from surface rust - it only looks clean because I sandblasted it. If it comes to it, I'll re-use the same panel but repair it nicely on the bench with the TIG welder. I just don't fancy doing any nasty upside-down welding on this car. The left side of the car. This panel is okay in terms of not being rusty, but some tool has really jacked on it in the past and really crushed it in. I might try to just hammer it back into shape, or again, replace it. These panels, where they're "corrugated", form the underside skin of the sill. It's particularly important that replacements are very clean around the area where mine has gone. Chaps - once again many thanks in advance for any help with this. Also if it's any help to you Matt if you're prepared to cut the panels out, I could indicate on one of the pictures where the seams are if you like, though they're probably reasonably clear.

Hi Matt, that's awesome. Could I trouble you also for the images you have please? These metal floor pieces are commonly mangled so it may work out beneficial to get several to work with.

Hi mate, That's awesome. When do you think you'd be able to look for me? As I'm tempted to tackle this over the jubilee week. I'd happily PayPal beer money to you upfront for the hassle of getting there and doing pictures. Trev

You have a severe mechanical problem if the timing belt is stripping. It's nothing to do with oil pressure or blocking off the charger oil supply. How well does the engine turn over by hand? Specifically, how well does the head alone turn over by hand? It could be that your head has been overheated in the past and now the camshaft no longer turns as freely as it should, or something. Did you refit all head bearing caps in the correct orientation and location? The only time a belt will lose teeth is if it has been very perished by oil contamination and it is old, and / or valves have met pistons (16V engine). There's something horribly wrong with your cylinder head if two brand new timing belts have stripped. Or... thinking about this a little more, are you sure you have tensioned the timing belt propery, or is the belt starting to slip on the crank sprocket that should be driving it? Or is it definitely tensioned properly, but the belt's teeth are literally being ripped out?

I have a Golf G60 Syncro. I wish to replace the "connecting plate" sections (as they're called in ETKA) that are situated on the left / right of the car immediately beneath the bulkhead. On the Golf G60, the panels used are the same as those used on the Corrado; they're different to those used on the standard Golf MK2. When you look underneath the Corrado right at the front of the sill on either side and at the bottom of the A-pillar / bulkhead, you'll be familiar with an area of the floor that is pressed into quite a complicated shape. It's the area that people (unfortunately) commonly jack under and hence it often gets crushed out of shape, because it's not very strong and forms a cavity behind it. This part spans from the front 6" or so of the sill, and stops just before the structural box-section that runs beneath the floor sheet on either side. Here's a diagram that shows the component: The component is items 8 and 9 in that diagram (left and right, respectively). These are obsolete from the maindealer now, and were stupidly expensive when they were available (considering it's just a 12" square bit of pressed metal). What I will also do later on (when wife / baby / time permit!) is take a proper photograph of the area in question on my G60 Syncro, where I can show clearly where the seams are and where the piece is spot-welded in. The side I think I will definitely remove and replace (or repair) is the right-hand side piece (passenger side on a RHD car). What I'm looking for is someone who is breaking a Corrado and scrapping the shell, who can confirm that these areas are in very good condition (the right-hand piece more importantly) with no or little crush damage and nothing more than the slightest bit of surface rust along any seams, and is prepared to chop the areas out with an angle grinder so that I can then remove them properly by drilling the spot welds (or perhaps the seller might be prepared to remove them by drilling the spot welds for me - I am happy either way). Or, if the car isn't located across the country then I could perhaps pop over and do it. I'm located in Oxfordshire and work over in Gloucestershire. Any help getting these cut out from a scrap shell would be extremely appreciated and I'll stump up generously in return! One thing I would need to ask beforehand is if the seller would be prepared to scrape a bit of underseal back quickly to just check that the areas are in good condition, and perhaps take some pictures for me before I travel. The areas on my G60 looked very good until I stripped the underseal. Cheers, Trev

In the past I've seen someone actually cut the metalwork around the rear glass in order to extract them when removing from a scrap shell!

I agree that the fact that a given interface uses an optoisolator should not be an intrinsic reason for it not to work with the 9A ECU. Rather, it's going to be more to do with the complete design of the interface. Specifically,the 9A ECU doesn't seem to be able to sink much current when it wants to pull the K-line low. What I've found is that an interface should have a K-line pull-up resistor of not too much lower than 1K. I've used both an interface I made myself and also a trasparent blue eBay one (which sounds similar to yours), and I had to increase the K-line pull-up resistance value inside the eBay interface from 560R to 820R before it would work reliably with the 9A. Prior to doing that, I could see on the 'scope that the ECU wasn't able to pull the K-line low enough towards 0V. (See post #306 on page 31.) (Being able to communicate with the 9A ECU successfully turned out to be extremely useful. I managed to get the mixture calibration done, and it also helped reveal an intermittent closed throttle switch fault that I may never have identified otherwise.)