Solitaire

Fla hoping to get past the bellhousing problem by only using a box that has come from a car using the same VR6 engine, apparently, that part should be the easy bit, as you say, am running a little short on time tho, as my gearbox is getting noisy, if you can get any info let me know, and i'll do likewise regards, caroline

Does anyone know it the above is possible? I have a corrado VR6 auto, 94M, 4 speed 096 transmission. The gearbox is on its way out at 83K, and i am thinking of the possibilities of changing it for a different auto transmission (looked into the conversion to manual, but kinda like the auto box, just wish it was better!) At VWNW Tatton Park, Sunday, I spoke to someone who said he knew somebody who had upgraded to a Passat 5 speed auto transmission from a Passat VR6. I also spoke to someone who told me that the VR6 engine is fitted in several vehicles including the Audi A/S3, Sharan/Galaxy could it maybe be in some seat's to? As these vehicles all come with auto options, would it be possible to fit a box from one of these cars, maybe an Audi Tiptronic being the most favoured option if at all possible, anyone out there technically minded, or knows of anyone who has done this, any problems i should consider first, ie ECU, Driveshafts Any comments appreciated, Thanks, Caroline

FLA, considered the swap to manual, but like the auto box and dont really want to let it go, changed the TPS and the blue temp sender by the Thermostat, drove fine for 85 miles, then the same fault again, spoke to another auto gearbox guy, who says it is only the pumps that go, and it shouldnt need a full rebuild so gonna look into this next, hoping to take her to the VW show at tatton so crossing my fingers i dont get too many problems before then, if you find any other auto box that will go in let me know, maybe an Audi, or Ford one (from the Galaxy?) the auto gearbox place also told me to change the MAF Sensor, but there was a broken wire on this which i fixed, and the sensors are over £200 so havent done it yet Mike79, have you tried resetting the AUTO ECU c if that helps?

Did you check the warranty issue, even if the gearbox wasnt fitted by VW the VW supplied recon box, which is about £1800 plus Vat, has a 2 year warranty, only know this cause my VR6 Auto has been playing up lately. I get 1st 2nd and 3rd, but only get 4th after the revs have flaired up considerably, so i have looked at changing the gearbox. The best people to see are a specialist auto gearbox place who can plug a laptop into the ecu, and change the gears via the computer, they should then be able to find the problem, mine cost £40 for an hours labour, they have come back with 2 sensor faults on the engine, causing low pressure in the gearbox, will change the two sensors and let you know if it fixes the problem, best of luck

Mines an auto, love it, but unfortunately its started to make a rather strange noise on gear changes - could be expensive to fix, i did originally buy with the intention of changing to a manual, as the car was the right spec in every other way, but hope the auto can be saved, cause it is so easy to drive, and power aint an issue, probably a couple of tenth's of a second slower

Cheers RW1, will do

Cheers MikeVR6 & RW1, Have printed the link, ta very much, the guy i bought the car from said he was getting 21 mpg, however, according the the MFA, i am getting between 24 - 28, traveling the 6 miles to work each day, havent actually calculated it to see how accurate this is, but may be some fault ie temp sender, as the fan seems to cut in, when the engine isnt that hot, is this possible. will get the car rechecked for fault codes when i save up a little, still broke from the stealers £450 bill for a new immobiliser and 2 abs sensors!, which i had to have done 2 days after picking it up. I dont seem to have any problem with the box at the mo, other than its a little slow of the mark sometimes unless you kick down, assuming the torque converter is as it sounds and converts the power to 'drive' the wheels, if this goes, any idea how much it is to replace? Cheers

Bump! Anyone with any more comments greatly appreciated, must be more than 3 auto owners on the forum?

Sorry Trippy, but i have to mention this! I sent Trippy (James) an email on March 1st regarding the Air Con he had for Sale, On march 2nd i made him an offer on said aircon, which he accepted on 3rd March, to show i was serious, i offered to send him a deposit and call to collect the aircon in a couple of weeks time. On 4th March, i sent £50 cheque and confirmed that i was probably working the weekend of the 12th but would drive up probably the 19th to collect the Air Con. James replied for me to send him an email when i was coming up and he would arrange to be in. On the 14th i confirmed i would be up at the weekend, most probably Saturday, by this point James had cashed my Cheque so knew i was serious! I confirmed an approximate time on the 15th, lunch to early afternoon, then again emailed on the 18th, and 19th just as i was leaving. Carlisle, took me 3 hours in the car, i live in North Wales, it also cost me £30 in Petrol!, i arrived at James house, to find the Air Conditioning was still in the car that he was breaking, with no one seeming to know exactly how long it would take to remove! I find this totally unbelievable, i arrived at 2pm on Saturday the 19th as agreed, and was expected to 'go away for a couple of hours and pop back later', although james didnt seem particularly keen on taking the unit out of the car anyway. I had a completely wasted day, which i could have worked! so lost money by taking the day off, then wasted petrol travelling up for nothing, i wasnt even going to get my £50 back without waiting, except for that one of James friends lent him the money. However, I WOULD RATHER HAVE HAD THE AIR CONDITIONING THAT I THOUGHT I HAD BOUGHT! Sorry to go on, but i am extremely p'd off!!!

Cheers, Am planning to install a manual, if and when it gives up, but would like a six speed one if that would go in.

Just bought a VR6 Auto wondering if anyone else on the forum has one, or has driven one, and can help me out. what could go wrong?, what kind of faults should i look out for? What MPG should i be getting (GETTING ABOUT 21!) As far as i know my auto box is working perfectly, tho never having owned an Auto, i just want to check, am well accustomed to other corrado faults having previously owned one. This car has covered 80K, full history, recent service including change of Gearbox oil If you saw the car - you'd know why i bought an auto, could always change to a manual in the future!

Well here she is, my new 'C' Blackberry 94M, 80K Electric Heated Leather Recaros Automatic We've done 500 miles together so far, and needed a new immobiliser, and 2 new abs wheel sensors - the joys of owning a Corrado, but i still love her. If any other forum members own an automatic, i would appreciate your comments on driveability, what could go wrong, mpg etc, this is my second corrado, but first auto, wasnt my first choice, but the rest of the car was too good to miss!

The C's a 94M Blackberry with Grey Leather VR6 Auto, and before anyone knocks the auto - try it, cause i had a manual last time, and the auto aint much different acceleration wise, did think twice about the auto, but the cars only done 79K and she's in very good nick I may try to change one of the switches, see if it makes a difference, not fiddled round with the passenger side yet so not sure what works on that one

Got Grey Electric Heated Electric Recaro's in my new one! :D Only prob is the heater doesnt work on the passenger side, and the electrics half work, thought it was still worth getting the car tho, as you dont see many with the recaro interior, if i get chance, will post some pics only thing, can anyone tell me why they have the seat release on both sides? and why it isnt big enough to hold the seat belt, like the non recaros do, may be a daft question, but just wondering, only had the car since saturday and just noticed it last night!

Hi guys My last VR had exactly this fault, on Starting, the rev's would rise and immediatly fall to nothing, cutting out, sometimes several times, sometimes only once and sometimes not at all. A new immobiliser reader coil fitted at VW completely solved the problem lo and behold, my new VR that i picked up today, has exactly the same fault!!!! and just left me stranded outside the newsagents for the last 10 minutes before it finally decided to start, so back to VW on monday!!!

Finally found myself a blackberry car Andi! And she is in Surrey, 94M, Elec Heated Grey Recaros! Cant wait to get her on Saturday!!!!!!! Hope yours is still goin strong...........

It's would be very hard to describe how they do it but here goes. But basically he works the dents from behind with long mental poles which in my case he put between the window and the door skin using a card lines it all up . The guy who done mine was great if you can spot where they used to be on my car I'll eat my hat :lol: He had a problem with one on the crease but it is a lot better than before. I would never recommend something without knowing they where any good. He done five of us at work and everyone was well impressed and the cost is nothing compared to taking it to a body shop. I can only vouch for the one in Derby never used any others HTH Had this done on my VR6, and must say the job was fantastic, i had two small car park dents (one on each door!) both on the crease of the door, and one on the rear quarter panel, all have disappeared, and i would have no idea where they were, way way cheaper than a bodyshop, and no paintwork involved

Cheers Kev & corradovr6sc, One of the technicians at work has had the car up on the ramp yesterday, and followed kev's notes, the leak is definately from the thermostat housing or plastic pipe ajoining it, the drips are running down the front of the gear box, there appears to be a gasket on the thermostat housing and it may be coming from this join, anyway, he has offered to come with me to VW in the week to get the parts, although he reckons replacing the plastic pipe looks a very tricky job, any ideas on the best way to go about it guys? and i suppose being a corrado that the parts are quite expensive (had to pay £55 the other day for the headlight switch!) Need to get it fixed soon, as planning to sell it to buy a late blackberry car with a little lower miles, then again, i need to find the blackberry one first, or sell mine and drive an escort van until another one comes along (not very appealling! - doesnt quite give the same adrenalin rush when ya put ya foot down!) There are also three electrical plugs located close to the thermostat housing, and the plastic around them appears to be broken so the closest plug is loose, does anyone have any idea what these are for? Cheers guys, Caroline

Thought i give this a push up the list as i still have a problem My garage has pressure tested the system for me today, and cannot find a leak, although they do agree the system is leaking, they have done me a favour by checking it out as they try not to do corrado's but i have been taking my cars to them for years (and VW are so much more expensive!). Anyway, they say there are rust marks down the front of the engine, but they cannot see the source of the leak, they also did me another favour, and combustion tested it again just to be sure, and they say it is definately NOT the head gasket. As they dont have much experience of Corrado's thought you lot might be the best bet again, any ideas?, would anyone happen to have a diagram of the front of the engine, poss on .pdf, so i could get any thoughts on where the leak may be. I am sure this cuts out the water pump, as isnt that on the side of the engine?, and i have dismissed the coolant bottle/top aswell, as these are now new. I was in a small accident in this car just before i noticed the problems, and the engine did bounce in the accident, enough to blow the rear engine mounting, so just wondering if i could have loosened anything off, there was no major damage to the car otherwise. Any suggestions welcomed!, cheers caroline

Know your a bit far, but give tech tronics a ring anyway, there should be a code on your alarm somewhere, if you can give them the code, i believe they may be able to send the fobs to you

Matt, Norwich Union Direct may be a good try for the insurance, i am 31 with full no claims and got it for 327 TPFT, beat my present insurers by over £100, and my corrado is parked on the road. Cant see the fully comp being that much more. Regards, Caroline

Another good company for the alarm is tech tronics in Trafford Park Manchester, i lost the fob for my Piranha total closure alarm, and they supplied 2 more (after removing the alarm to find the code) for under £60 not had a problem since, and that was after piranha had gone out of business, telephone is 0161 872 6275 Caroline

Cheers Rodders, Will give that a go, have had the car 'combustion tested' today to check the head gasket and that has come back negative, however, the mechanic says there is another test he can do later in the week, but he believes the head gasket is ok, will check out the expansion tank cap and see if it looks ok. Also cheers on the blackberry VR6, but i dont think i'll be going to see it afterall, as the vehicle is on Cat D on HPI, and at £7650, i would be looking for one which is A1, looks like i'll be keeping my black one for a little longer, give me a bit more time to sort out the problem. Regards, caroline

Cheers for the advice kev, but am still stuck, this morning i checked the coolant level, which was very slightly below minimum, there was no water marks around the top of the tank, and after topping the level up to maximum, the coolant warning sensor was flashing! dont know why, because as i said previously, this is a new sensor as i originally believed the sensor to be faulty. Anyway, 20 minutes into the journey, it stopped flashing. I checked for any smell in the coolant tank and it doesnt really smell of anything. Also can see no trace of leaks anywhere. A friend has suggested it may be a leaking hose, or radiator, but it is such a small leak, i'll top up from just below min, to max, about once every couple of weeks. Need to get it sorted pretty quick really, as i was after a blackberry car and there is one available at the mo in reading, so mine could very well be up for sale. Also, if anyone on the forum knows the reading car, would appreciate some info, its advertised in autotrader this week, and steve, the owner, says he has owned it for about 3 months, its a 96N VR6, blackberry with Grey leather, and 37000 miles, sorry its a little short on info will add if i get any more. cheers

Can anyone help with the following problem, a couple of months ago the coolant warning light would intermittently flash, on one occassion only, the level was low, therefore, i changed the coolant bottle/sensor, the problem is still there, but now the level is regularly dropping, tho not completely emptying the coolant, it seems to drop so far, then stop, i have suspected the head gasket, as there is an intermittent misfire, but no other signs, and the misfire could be due to a faulty plug or lead as the car is due a service. Dont want to start panicking if it could be something simple the car is a VR6 with 112,000 miles, full service history, there is no water in oil or vice versa, and it has no starting problems, or overheating. please help with some suggestions of what to check, thanks