fendervg

Ah, win/win so - nothing like the old "plug it out and plug it back in again" !

Nice win - are you saying you just unplugged the PPS and then plugged it in again? Or did you swap out with the replacement that arrived?

I have one stashed away here for this very eventuality.

3M mounting tape

Just connect a mechanical pressure gauge permanently to the test nipple on the fuel rail! Even better would be to have the read-out in the cabin.

I connected a gauge to do all the tests during troubleshooting mine a few years back - cranking pressure was fine, and running as well - but when left standing the residual pressure would drop well below the tolerance specified in the workshop manual.

Possible - hard to tell, I think it is right provided the upper black hose on the right goes to the fuel filter and then the black feed pipe, but depends on how the extra length of hose has been looped and routed. With it the wrong way around I would think you would have a no start situation and no fuel flowing past where the valve is. A bigger picture would help.

Some better pictures in this thread:

https://the-corrado.net/topic/86717-one-way-valve-on-fuel-pumppipes/

Thing is in this one, a  faulty CPS was the culprit - not necessarily broken, but an intermittent or weak signal, and this can play havoc with the fueling as the CPS tells the fuel pump relay when to run the pump once it detects the engine turning. My guess here is that replacing the CPS will solve it, and cold starts after sitting for a while will be improved by the non return valve - fingers crossed!

Not great resolution, but black is to the engine and blue is the return - the valve is fitted with an extra bith of hose that curves around the lid and then connects to the OUT.

This picture was the now discontinued official VW "fix" for fuel pump leakdown:

unfortunately that's all I seem to have on it - the original thread with the dealer bulletin seems to be long gone, but the NRV part definitely looks more OEM.

12 hours ago, Dox said:

Confused with the NRV, can you post a wider angle pic?

It goes on the fuel feed line to the engine to stop the loss of residual pressure down the line back into the pump. It can be a bit hard to make out from the photos, I'll see if I can fine a picture from when I did it.

Yeah, I remember a long time ago that when fitting Bilsteins you need to change the spring plate depending on the year of the car - this may have been your issue.

That Porsche pump looks to be 3 bar, not 4 bar if you compare it on other sites - just something worth confirming with the supplier before ordering if it is for a VR6 you that you are getting g it for.

@cressa - will PM you. Nice to have for the archives seeing as the Canadian forum is gone - there is still one for dash out on vagdrivers.net

Watch out for the shouldered studs that secure the matrix and ducting to the bulkhead - these do not like to turn easily, or when they do will just spin in place without coming out. I had to remove on after lots of different methods by wedging a spanner in place on the nut on the engine size, and then using a large socket on it in the footwell - hopefully yours will come out easy.

For the heater box flaps I used self-adhesive foam like Cressa above  - available in A4 sheets from most arts and hobby shops. You can also cut it into strips to make up the seals - another idea I came across was to use draft excluder door seal strips from DIY stores and cut them to size.

You can buy the neoprene in sheets with an adhesive backing and then use a template to cut yout seal with a craft knife - that's how those seals are made, except by machine, not by hand.

Be very careful to make sure the control cables are properly attached to the box before refitting, as it's a pain to get to them afterwards - then hook them up to the controls and make sure they move freely, even with a bend on the cable before putting it back into the car.

I tend to agree with the 15 or 16 brigade - anything bigger tends to result in an awful lot of compromises in terms of handling, ride quality vs optics and stance.

I run 15" OE speedlines or Golf VR6 BBS for daily duties - I think you could definitely drum up interest for some more 5 stud 16" Speedlines (or they may even still have some in stock or be able to get them at short notice as a result of the last group buy) or a replica of the 16" VW Motorsport Vento Cup Speedlines, but not sure about anything bigger.

Good tips there - there is also a drain plug on the bottom left of the "crack" pipe, water pump side - you can get to it from underneath. This is the official way of draining the system as it's technically the lowest point, but depending on how old the pipe is it may be seized or will break when you try and open it.  To be honest if we are at the full lfush stage, I would advise replacing the pipe and the thermostat housing and thermostat if not done already.

I usually fill via the header tank, it will drop quickly when the stat opens and you will need to add more, and work the air out by squeezing the radiator hoses. Some of it will come out via the tank overflow anyway. Then top up, go for a short run at temperature, let it cool and top up again to between min and max marks. Whatever you do don't remove the expansion tank cap when hot as it's pressurised.

I'd go for 50/50 too.

That must be coming from somewhere, or it could be residual pooling of sludge - I'd check the heater matrix and the thermostat. I guess you would need to check every single pipe and hose. Might also be worth putting some actual rad flush/cleaner through it first - the bare metal will develop surface patina in a couple of hours if it's wet. Most important would be that the cooling system is acutally working to spec - what tends to happen is that if you swap out one part of the system with new, this puts additional pressure on the rest and causes a failure somewhere else.

Well - took about 5 hours over 2 days, but I finally managed to remove and replace the black heater control cable that operated the defrost/heat flap! This is the one that runs from the control on the left with the two cables, over and around the matrix and attacehes to the flap lever in the drivers footwell, not too far from the clutch pedal - an absolute nightmare to get to. Those metal clips are tricky, and the one on the flap end is well nigh impossible to get to, and the hardest part was getting the cable attached securely again.

But after lots of swearing, breaks and contortions I have a nicely working and smooth heaer control again that doesn't stick and feel like it is about to break. Debating now on whether to remove the metal clip for the positions stops, although mine seems to work pretty well, and the second cable is moving freely. The heater control box was reconditioned and all the flaps relined not too long ago.

Next job on the list is the foliage seal cover....

5 hours ago, Dox said:

The clutch fork can crack.

 

 

Good call as well, but that would usually have been picked up on during a clutch change - happens to all cars too, I had them go on a Mk2 and Mk5 Golf, so not VR6 specific. I now tend to ask them to check it and replace if needed as a precaution.

Never heard this before - the master/slave clutch arrangement is used on lots of other cars, and was standard on the Passat and later Golfs - so tried and tested. The actual clutch on the VR is considered to be rateed well over what is required for the VR and it is not uncommon for them to go well over 100k, even 150k on an unmodified car.

Your problem is most likely to do with the gear linkage which might need adjustment or a rebuild - some of the plastic busjes and linkages are prone to wear.

My first step would be to change the gear box oil with some Redline MT90 or equivalent if this hasn't been done recently, and do a proper adjustment. After that investigate refurbishing the linkage and shift tower bushings - some even upgrade to a later mech from a MkIV or Polo and have never had any issues since.

Do as search here on shift linkage adjustment etc and the procedure will come up - there is  a special VAG tool for it, but it is not needed, it simply centres the gear lever while you adjust the linkage in the engine bay, but a friend can do this duty for you.

One interesting variation was the "Aktiv" speaker system, these were Nokia speakers that were directly powered, active units - paired with a head unit that had not active pre-amp out stage, so wouldn't work with normal speakers. There was a rare Gamma CD unit designed for the Aktiv system, that as far as I know was the only CD head unit from that era, probably because losing the amplification stage made some extra room for the older CD mechanism - the rest all had casette units with CD changers.

It's pretty rare to see now, comes up in the odd Golf Cabrio, but I have seen evidence of a couple of Corrados being fitted with it. It didn't necessarily sound any better, but an interesting oddity nonetheless.

12 hours ago, g0ldf1ng3r said:

having read this thread - would i be best to rewire my JL audio 6.5" front direct to head unit?

AFAIK they are connected to a thicker audio wire which comes out of the door

as such i dont know if this looping to tweeters is still in place - if im honest i didnt even know the wiring did that lol

Can you heae the tweeters working?

I remember reading somehwere that there was actually a cross-over of some kind in the factory tweeters, but not sure if that's true - I guess the real reason is that the factory stereos jsut have 4x speaker output, so needs to be wired that way.

Would you really be bothered putting the old original tweeters back in? They weren't that great to begin with and will have suffered the ravages of time at this stage. Small tweeter/speaker technology has really come on since then, and you should be able to to find something modern that fits and actually works - once the trim is on you won't see a difference.

Another alternative is jsut to fit decent components in the doors and leave the dash ones empty - although I do get wanting to have everything back to factory 100%. although I've never heard of a show where a judge asks you to lift the speaker grille to check for the Nokia logo! Nokia were better at making phones anyway, and even that didn't last.. (actually they made way more selling backbone carrier and mast equipment and firewalls - don't ask me how I know).

Hey, that's some great research and tinkering there - this could be the solution. Will have a good read. Thanks for the effort and the sharing!

1 hour ago, oneohtwo said:

Did you ever have any luck finding a replacement?

Never - the odd time they come up on US eBay as part of a whole throttle body, but the asking price was never worth it just to get the one part.  In the end I gave it all a good clean, replaced the throttle cable and fixed any air leaks (ISV damper, PCV valve) and replaced the cam sensor as well, and that seemed to fix my issues for the time being.

Probably the cable got slack over the years, or stretched a bit. Nice easy result.

The dashpot is actually an Audi part - almost impossible to get hold of, NLA and only ever seems to come up as part of a breaker's throttle body - it's also OBD1 specific.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-volkswagen-audi-parts/dashpot/034133283/

I remember spending a long time scouring the interwebs looking for one a few years back.

Wheel bearing?

Also check the bearings on  all the pulleys and the main tensioner for the aux belt.

That's a good price if he actually has it - I think I tried to order one off them before and it never shipped and had to get a refund in the end.