Diamond Hell

Try refilling it and letting it warm up while looking for any obvious leaks.

This and don't go running it for too long without any coolant!!

Which wheels?

15s with 50 profile tyres?

16s with 45 profile tyres? They need media blasting and repainting.

Both sets needs new tyres.

Just looked at the costs of tyres - 195/50 R15 vs 195/45 R16

Uniroyal Rainsport3 in both sizes - £36 for the 15s and £56 for the 16s! :shock:

I've had a couple of flywheels taken to 6kg by JNL Racing:

http://www.jnlracing.com/

Doesn't make much difference TBH, but it's just a bit keener to rev out, which is nice.

I would recommend you get the face re-machined, or at the very least checked when you get it lightened, to make sure it's in good condition. This is why you'd want to use someone who knows what they're doing rather than 'any old machine shop'

Not for a Corrado.... except for various nuts and bolts :lol:

Don't polybush, especially not the back bushes on the control arms. They are significantly inferior to the TT bushes, which not only improve the steering feel and turn in, but are also particularly hard-wearing.

aren't the wishbones designed to crumple when hitting a kerb etc?

Yes and that's why I'm directing you to weld 1" and leave 2" gaps. This is what I did on mine and when I got taken out on the 'ring at 100mph in Oct 2012 the control arm folded where it should and there was no damage to the main subframe of the car. Here's the bent control arm and an undamaged one for comparison:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]76757[/ATTACH]

Works for me :thumbleft:

If it's 'narrow track' and you're handy with a welder and have workshop equipment access you can improve things a lot.

Replace the bushes with OEM quality, but replace the rear ones with MKI TT control arm bushes. These are solid, bunded rubber and will make the steering a lot pointier and take a significant amount of slop out. They push right in.

Before you put the new bushes in, clean the control arm up and then stitch-weld it - 1" of weld, then 2" of no welding. The standard control arms are only spot-welded together and are pretty sloppy. Again this will tighten things up further.

People have already said replace the ball-joints and track rod ends, but only do this if they're sloppy. Replace the anti-roll-bar drop links while you're there, they're cheap and they get sloppy too.

Any idea how your top mounts are, condition-wise? If they're shot go get a top-of-spring upwards assembly from a Golf3 in a scrapyard (make sure you have the same size spring top as you currently have) and buy new top mounts for that set up - it is more simple and robust and takes out the stupid castlated nut on top of the strut.

Finally, the biggest difference you will make to the handling is getting the front end aligned properly. As already mentioned in another thread, for road I'd go -1.5 degrees of camber and 0 toe - if you can't do your own alignment, take it to Protyre, or similar and give them those specs. They should also be able to tell you the full alignment of the car front to back and side to side, so you know whether you're all tracking straight. All this should even your tyre wear out and you should find the car turns in a lot sharper and nicer.... unless you drive like a pussy, in which case the inside of your front tyres will wear a touch faster than the outside of them.

Just get OEM, with a new lightened flywheel.

Go new for the flywheel because a new clutch will bite harder on a new flywheel because it will be properly flat, without lumps and bumps worn into it by the pressure plate.

Send it to someone and get it taken to about 6KG, which will give you sharper throttle response and make the motor more rev-happy..

i think the quattro is a D reg with a small pannel at the bottom of the dash with diff locks

Ain't no visco in there then! She's mechanical locking diffs, because snow ploughing ability.

Explaining a lightened flywheel to an insurance tele-agent.

Oh that's hard work.

No, it really is *that* easy.

ANY branch of Protyre will have what's usually referred to as a Hunter Machine.

They will also have expert guys who use the ramp every day on way more expensive and complex cars than a Corrado.

This is a four-poster ramp, with turntables the wheels sit on, so the alignment can be set when the car is on its wheels, as well as some fandango computerised kit that shows all of the alignment on screen.

I can't see how any 'specialist' will be able to do better than this, unless they have a set of settings specifically honed for particular behaviour on road.... and I've just given some suggested settings which I know work well.

:scratch: Don't understand why you'd use a specialist? Alignment on these cars is dead simple and easy to do.

Anyone who has been trained on an alignment machine and is competent can get it set up correctly and the values I've provided will sharpen things up.

It's not rocket science.

You *can* do it yourself, as per my build thread update:

Put simply you put the string down either side of the car, in line with the hubs on the (assuming same front to back) wheels.

 

I tied the steering wheel straight, having checked the indicators were cancelling at the same height either side.

 

Next measure the distance from the front and back hubs to the string and adjust the distance of the string so it's the same distance from the front and back hubs.

 

Now you'll be able to see what toe you have front and back. The rear isn't really adjustable, the front is adjusted in/out on the track rod arms.

 

For argument's sake we'll say you want 0 degrees toe on the front, so you adjust the track rod ends until the values you're measuring at the front and the back of the rim are the same.

 

On my car I've given it a heap of camber on the front, too - I know I like this set up and I know the max you'll get on the 'narrow-track' platform is around -2.0 degrees, so I just dropped it in. Do the camber before the toe, as the toe will change as you add camber.

 

If you want a more accurate set up and to check for front to back alignment and to know how to make a camber gauge and then use it there is a guide here, which I would strongly recommend you read:

 

http://www.northloop.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?13232-DIY-Wheel-Alignment-Camber.-A-how-to-guide.

However, the alignment on the Corrado is dead simple. You don't need to take it anywhere special - just go to any alignment place. ATS will charge you £70 for camber and tracking and it'll be fine. For most moderate road use I'd recommend zero toe and one degree of negative cmber, which will give you a car that turns in a bit sharper and is more playful.

Just don't ever rely on that list!

Strut to hub bolts: 18mm nuts

Various trim screws: 9mm heads

M12 subframe bolts: 18mm nuts

Peened M8 nuts: 12mm nuts

Sleeve joints on exhausts - 16mm and 15mm heads

M12 wheel bolts on 5-stud cars: 17mm heads.

Elsewhere:

Japanese M8 bolts - 12mm nuts

Japanese M10 bolts - 14mm nuts

Generally the spanner size is what fits the nut - that would be my best guide :thumbleft:

If you don't find anything amiss with things as you strip it down I would strongly recommend having your flywheel re-faced (or replaced) - I had a flywheel so knackered at one point I point a new clutch in there and it slipped immediately!

TBH Sean, I can't take any credit for it and it's actually dead easy, particularly the limited alignment I did the other night - I kept it really simple and assumed that the wheels front to back were reasonably close, which means I'm never going to have alignment as close as a Hunter machine will deliver, but it's a start.

Put simply you put the string down either side of the car, in line with the hubs on the (assuming same front to back) wheels.

I tied the steering wheel straight, having checked the indicators were cancelling at the sample height either side.

Next measure the distance from the front and back hubs to the string and adjust the distance of the string so it's the same distance from the front and back hubs.

Now you'll be able to see what toe you have front and back. The rear isn't really adjustable, the front is adjusted in/out on the track rod arms.

For argument's sake we'll say you want 0 degrees toe on the front, so you adjust the track rod ends until the values you're measuring at the front and the back of the rim are the same.

On my car I've given it a heap of camber on the front, too - I know I like this set up and I know the max you'll get on the 'narrow-track' platform is around -2.0 degrees, so I just dropped it in. Do the camber before the toe, as the toe will change as you add camber.

If you want a more accurate set up and to check for front to back alignment and to know how to make a camber gauge and then use it there is a guide here, which I would strongly recommend you read:

http://www.northloop.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?13232-DIY-Wheel-Alignment-Camber.-A-how-to-guide.

Now with added MOT!

Final bleed of the system tonight and the braking system is behaving itself and the ABS is working and the G60 front brakes feel like G60 front brakes should do.

Partial re-test tomorrow.

Exceedingly unlikely, as the Syncro has the VC in the rear diff. I think you'll find most of it (aside from the calipers and carriers) is totally different!

Finished off the brake pipes and bled things up last night, then got out the baler twine, for some wheel-alignment farm-style:

And it now drives straight.

On the first test-surf (I can't describe it as a drive, given the weather) the ABS light came on when I stamped on the anchors then the ABS stopped working, so I took it back in, checked the resistance of the sensors, disconnected the ABS ECU, re-connected it and tried again - worked fine. Now I guess I need to search for ABS problems on the forum :shrug:

Replaced the two pipes running from the ABS unit to the rear compensator today. Also remade one of the rear pipes, as the flares on it just weren't cutting it.

I switched from using one of these tools:

http://www.frost.co.uk/brake-pipe-flaring-tool.html

Which hasn't improved with age, to an older version of one of these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-SAE-Hand-Held-Flaring-16-inch/dp/B008YFX2LM

Which I would heartily recommend - it's not possible to put not enough/too much pipe into the flare and there's no way of the blocks going off-centre, unlike the tool from Frosts.

Next up: DIY front wheel alignment with string.

H'mmmmm I was hoping there was some trick to it :scratch:

Replaced two brakes pipes from the compensator to the beam and both flexis tonight.

What an utter arse of a job that was.

Wondered how many people on here run their C as a second/third/project car and how many have them on daily duties. Also what else do you have at the moment?

Our mainstays at the moment are:

Passat 4Mo TDI estate

Golf3 TDI

My current list of sh*tters is:

Corrado (hopefully being upgraded to daily duties in the new year to replace the Golf3)

Golf2 Syncro track car

Share in a BMW 325i gravel titabout car

Suzuki SJ 4x4 trials hack

T25 camper (for sale)

Car trailer

What's on your roster?

After having installed the ABF I have one major issue to resolve with the car. How on God's green Earth do you get the sodding fuseboad back clipped in?! There's just NO SPACE!!

Any suggestions/hints and tips greatly appreciated.... even if the answer is to take out the bloody dash and get the wiring sorted FIRST.

Cheers!