vw rule

I've had 17" rims on mine, still got them in the garage as my Corrado is off the road, never again though 17" with 40 profile the ride is just too harsh, it's not bad on half decent roads but just makes the suspension feel too hard. But the grip is amazing but just too much on the firm side, mind you I bought them when I was 25, now I'm 44 old git 🤫😆 I'm tempted to go back to 15" or possibly some BBS 16" not sure yet. I'd go 16" rim's max but no more, if you can stay with original 15" size, it suits the car better and with 50 profile you have some stiffness but not too much. With the 45 profile it'll be firmer but should be ok I think. It really comes down to your personal taste how you want your overall suspension to feel. Si

Here's that website to some of the info regarding the original VW wheels on the Golf and Corrado. For some reason it didn't upload on my previous post. https://www.myturbodiesel.com/d2/1000q/wheels/15-16-VW-wheel-gallery-4x100.htm Si

Great looking cars there guys and the wheels aren't bad either 👍 I found this website with good info regarding some of the original VW wheels. I think possibly with 16" wheels you'd want 215/45R16 for 7J might even be able to fit 225/45R16 ? Tyre with a 40 profile will create a fairly hard ride, maybe too hard ? 50 profile on 16" rims might possibly be too much, i.e clearance issues ?? Si

Tug of war 😆 Seriously though Dox it might work never tried it myself. Si

Oh fair play you've got them in 👍 Yeah they can be a bit of a turd to fit, the trick really is to use a load of lubrication it makes fitting most bushes a lot easier. Si

Hello there, I did mine a few years ago and used an old cylinder head bolt I had laying around, plus a couple of large washers, a nut, and a very large socket to spread the weight but mainly to pull the old bushes into. The new OEM bushes I sprayed a little with WD40 and small amount of EP grease, and they pulled into place without any real hassle. The only other thing I used to assist me was a medium sized flat ended screw driver, simply to aid fitment by pushing slightly on the side that was starting to tilt, that's about it really. Photos below when I fitted mine. Hope this helps Si

👍 Si

Hello there, looks like both gearboxes are 02Q which is 6 speed and have similar specs, in fact they appear to have the same gear ratio set up range between them. 1st gear 49 : 13 = 3.769 2nd gear 48 : 23 = 2.087 3rd gear 45 : 34 = 1.324 4th gear 42 : 43 = 0.977 5th gear 39 : 40 = 0.975 6th gear 35 : 43 = 0.814 Reverse gear 36 : 23 x 13 : 14 = 4.549 Final drive for (1st to 4th gear) 69 : 20 = 3.450 Final drive for (5th to 6th gear) 69 : 25 = 2.760 Code JLU (2006 onwards) = oil capacity 2.3 litres Code HDV (2004 onwards) = oil capacity 2.3 liters PDF file of the workshop manual for the 02Q gearbox with code HDV, which has all torque settings. Attachment below. Hope this helps Si 6-speed_manual_gearbox_02Q.pdf

Hello there, there's some good advice on this thread below from 2018. Link attached. Also I think VW Heritage do the Febi timing chain kit for roughly £307 And like you say there's others on Ebay which you'll probably have to double check where they're selling from, as mentioned in the above link. Hope this helps Si

Good to see you on here VEEDUBBED 👍 I don't always get the time to be on here but do try to when I'm free, there's still activity on here but yes it has reduced from when it first started back in 2002. I remember looking on this forum back in roughly 2007, and reading some of the great build threads and loads of photos, and other helpful tips and thinking oh that VW part will fit the Corrado, and that's where you buy it from. I've owned my Corrado since early 2002 but didn't have the opportunity to join up on here until 2013, and yes my Corrado is still off the road and in bits also 😆 Si

Yeah realistically that's not going to help the air to fuel ratio with warn cylinders or rings, but possibly you might have had an issue in the past or still do slightly, to of caused cylinders 2 and 4 to wear that much more then 1 and 3, possibly over fueling or other issues in the past have caused the rings or bores to wear out sooner ? Like I say on the 16v and some G60 Corrado's they have the exhaust emissions inspection tube, attached to the back of exhaust manifold allowing you to test/check the emissions before the catalytic converter, there is also some adjustment from the CO/air temp sensor but I wouldn't touch that unless the car was hooked up to the proper equipment. I suppose you could put a small amount of oil down the bores to aid lubrication, it wouldn't hurt as you do have some compression still from the rings in cylinders 2 and 4, but how long that oil would last I don't know. Your engine possibly is burning some oil, you don't always have to see blue/grey smoke out your exhaust, plus the extra boost air pressure from your supercharger in the cylinders, might be keeping some of the oil at bay, as some of that boost will be escaping past the rings. Ideally you'd want a slightly richer fuel mixture as it'll be diluted more due to being supercharged anyway, i.e loads more air being forced in. Plus the smell you mentioned in one of your earlier posts from your spark plugs, is the smell more of a burning one as the plugs do look very slightly on the hot side, but only very slightly, like I said before it does look like soot around the edge of plug which normally just brushes off with your finger, that might leave like a charcoal mark but will clear. If it had oil residual within the soot, it'll leave more of a congealed mark on your finger, that won't clear off so easily if you know what I mean, plus you'll possibly smell the oil residual from plug ? Regarding the ABA short engine is that from an Audi, those blocks might be similar to the 9A block, but I'm not 100% sure though. Si

You do have then half decent compression going by your readings, it's dropped a bit from 165 to 174 PSI from when the engine was new, but that is to be expected a reading of 140 PSI + or - 15 PSI is pretty good and shows the compression between the cylinders is fairly close. Basically then cylinders 2 and 4 are producing compression and holding it in cylinder for that short amount of time up until the power stroke umpteen times a minute, but those two cylinders in question can't hold pressure long term during leak down test, so possibly is wear in those two cylinders and or piston rings, especially if you can hear air escaping into crank case via dip stick tube. Thinking about it I'm sure there's two TDC sequences that happens during full cylinder cycle 1) is the compression stroke when valves will be closed. 2) is on the power stroke when the exhaust valve will be open or partially open. So ideally you should do the leak down test I think at TDC on the compression stroke and follow the firing order of 1, 3 , 4, 2 to aid testing on the correct compression cycle for the other cylinders, so to speak. Because if not you may get false readings during test and thinking you have air escaping into exhaust or inlet manifold, when actually you might have a valve open if at TDC on the power stroke. But from what you've mentioned you can't hear any air escaping into exhaust or inlet manifolds so that tells me you're on the correct TDC sequence. You could carry out the test again to be 100% sure, but it does look like the engine is wearing in cylinders 2 and 4, I think you could possibly use a tea spoon or table spoon topped with engine oil, and carefully drip it into those cylinders, during the leak down test the air pressure should push the tea/table spoonful of oil to the sides of cylinder, and try and force it out of the weakest point, in your case past the rings, so for a few seconds the escaping air should stop possibly, which would then confirm your problem. On your piston I think you'll have 3 rings, top and middle will be compression rings, and the bottom is your oil ring, the oil ring allows oil droplets to sit in it's cavities to penetrate up the cylinder to aid lubrication, but it's the two compression rings that normally get a hammering. You've mentioned that your engine isn't smoking but has a small misfire on startup, that clears after a few minutes or once up to temperature. Also I think running an engine on a fairly lean air to fuel ratio long term, can possibly generate more heat into piston's resulting in damage over time. Si

Ok and how long ago did you say you had a compression test done on all 4 cylinders, did you say they were very similar readings between all 4 ? According to the Bentley manual the compression should be between 116 & 174 PSI (8 to 12 bar) difference allowed between cylinders is 43.5 PSI (3 bar) Wear limit it states is 87 PSI (6 bar) but realistically if your readings are close to 90 or 95 PSI then your engine will have weak performance. Si

Yeah it does point to the piston rings possibly if you say you can definitely hear air escaping out of dip stick tube, that's definitely by pass pressure getting into crank case, you'll always have a small amount which gets collected in crack case breather which is recirculated back into inlet via air filter or inlet manifold. In that case then you'll probably hear the air escaping with oil filler cap removed and your thumb over dip stick tube opening. Could also be a head gasket but it's escaping from two cylinders and they're not next to one another, plus I think the larger oil ports are near cylinders 1 and 4 so like you say could well be rings, if it was a piston gone it probably would be smoking out the exhaust, and possibly misfiring. Si 👍

Ok so looking at your readings then cylinders 1 and 3 are within acceptable range which is I think 20% or under. But cylinders 2 and 4 are miles out of range 😱 Q: Can you hear any air escaping into crank case or hear/feel any with the breather hose or oil filler cap removed ? If so then this could well be rings worn. Or can you hear any air escaping into exhaust or inlet manifold/s. Exhaust you might be able to remove the blue plug off the exhaust emission probe tester tube, that's sometimes fitted to 16v and G60 exhaust manifolds, check for any air escaping out. Regarding the inlet manifold again listen for any echoing sound escaping air, you might have to remove the air inlet pipe to throttle body to feel for any air escaping, or isn't there a breather hose that connects close to the CO/air temp sensor in the inlet pipe to throttle body, just to gain access for any mass air escaping. At TDC or close to it both the inlet and exhaust valves should be closed, on cylinder 1, I think the cam lobes will be pointing upwards but out at roughly 45 degree angle, (valve 1 exhaust) (valve 2 inlet) 20% leak down test reading so valves and rings possibly ok for mileage, I think 20% or under is within range. At TDC on cylinder 2 I think the cam lobes will be pointing down wards but out at roughly 45 degree angle so should be closed (valve 3 exhaust) (valve 4 inlet) 50% leak down test so could be damaged warn valves or rings. At TDC on cylinder 3 the came lobes I think will be pointing upwards but out at roughly 45 degree angle, again valves should be closed (valve 5 exhaust) (valve 6 inlet) 20% leak down test reading so valves and rings possibly ok for mileage. Then on cylinder 4 at TDC the cam lobes will be I think pointing down wards but out at roughly 45 degree angle, so again the valves should be closed. (valve 7 exhaust) (valve 8 inlet) 40% leak down test so could be damaged valves or rings. So you definitely had the same PSI of air going into each cylinder when your leak down tester was connected using compressed air via compressor ? I think you want roughly 80 PSI which is about 5.5 bar of air pressure, plus I don't think you can complete the test in about 5 minutes, I think it can take up to roughly 30 to 40 minutes per each cylinder, to be 100% sure the cylinder is holding pressure long term, and not just for 1 or 2 minutes. Were the valves 100% closed on cylinders 2 and 4 as that is one hell of a reading 40% & 50% Apologies mate I just want to be sure you're testing correctly 👍 Hope this helps Si