I'm not bitter, it's just my cars a complete lemon...

[Bs6VR6 10]

Hey,

 

Having previously owned three mk2 golfs none of which exceding 1.6l, the jump up for my fourth car was something i'd been looking forward to for a long time. So having just handed over 2,500 of my hard earned monies I was now the proud owner of a black VR6 with black leather interior and full vwsh, happy days. or so i thought.

Alarm bells should of begun to ring on the way home as the temperature rose to 100 and the fans suddenly kicked into overdrive, sounding more like a jet engine. well the owner assured me that they were curved fans, much louder but also much more efficient than there flat-bladed counterparts, muggins here lapped it up, its a VR6, it runs hot, what's there to worry about......

 

Anyway, a quick snapshot of my corrado ownership in its first four months:

first two weeks, develops horrible mis-fire, needs new coil, get new plugs and leads to go along with it.

whilst in the garage they notice some tool has wired a direct feed from the fans to the alternator (alarm bells), meaning that as soon as the engine hits 70degrees the fans come on at stage 3, hench the rediculous noise.......curved blades my ass.....

two days after getting it back, alternator packs up.

twoish weeks later, low coolant light come on on my way to bristol volksfest, eats three litres there and back.

new waterpump is needed, old one leaking.

four days after getting that fitted, huge billowing clouds of steam, radiator has now got inch split.

fit new radiator, on drive back from mates, two pipes at the front of engine blow, transfer pipe and oil cooler pipe garage told me.

get them fitted, one week later, huge amount of steam pouring out of dash, vents, glove box, very wet carpets next morning.

need new heater matrix, just by-passed it for now.

Has in the past two weeks developed a slight knocking, grinding from the front end.

 

In that time, I seriously wondered if it has ever had any new part bought for it in all of its 156,000 miles, just lots of services.

Considered selling it and looking for another, but sinse i've owned it, it has always needed something buying to make it road worthy, and before i realised i was to financially comitted to even consider selling it.

So. Its staying. and even with all the above i love it, the noise and power and looks of the thing, genuinly make it worth while. I've bought and fitted a set of fk highsport coilovers, keskin kt1's with 9 out back, getting the interior halfway finished, got the re-trimmed escort rs recaros waiting.

Just got a new front sub-frame and rear beam blasted and static painted along with a set of 288mk3 golf fronts. ordered all the droplinks, balljoints bushes to rebuild both the front and rear end, so she's on her way to being back to her best. Even if i am in financial ruin. I think i'd be in relationship ruin as well if the missus had any idea how much 'that bloody car' had cost me recently.

 

wow, long message, might of got a bit carried away, but wanted to let my eventful few months of corrado ownership be know.

 

Regards,

 

Max,

[GCDG60 0]

sounds crazy....alot of us have been through this, hopefully after all the hard work and your wallet gets a bit lighter you'll have some good times!

[4eyes2wheels 0]

They are total b@st@rds for this sort of thing. I also think the parts fail in series - a new water pump works better than the old one which puts more pressure on the rest of the parts so the weakness in the radiator suddenly splits etc etc. Although that is probably tosh! But hopefully like others you get to a steady state where things generally do work and you only replace one or two things a month!

[carrots 1]

i had months of things going wrong.its still not perfect but getting a lot beter.you just have to get on with it and turn off when people say scrap it and get a newer car your wasteing your money

[OllieVR6 0]

well the owner assured me that they were curved fans, much louder but also much more efficient than there flat-bladed counterparts,

 

This is quality, I will have to remember that :thumbleft:

 

All Corrados regardless of mileage or service history will need money thrown at them and it sounds like you've had some bad luck by having to do a fair few bits in a short time frame. Nevertheless, the parts you have done should last you another 15+ years and these cars deserve it.

 

I think it's great that you are sticking with it and not just selling it on, besides even if you got another one you only risk having the same problems again :)

[daves16v 1]

Nothing to worry about, I've had stuff fail one after the other and so have a lot of people on here. They're getting on a bit now so expect problems, you'll have em all fixed soon albeit with very empty pockets and wallet. Chin up.

[1xshaunx1 27]

i think alot of cars on the market need money spending on them, the owner grows tired of spending or runs out of funds to spend with. myself, i am inbetween bouts of spending. i've tried to restrain myself for the last 6 months while i take stock, respray next i think and all the bists of rubber and plastic that go with that, fortunately not touched the engine yet bar, a service and a sensor and rolling road says 2 horses have run off, so i'll leave that alone for now. like 4eyes says when you get to the bottom of the major stuff you can just fix little things as they come up or when your ready. Good luck my feriend

[robo22sri 10]

God this sounds the same as me!!

 

I just can't be arsed with it! So it's sitting on my drive leaking oil out the rear crank seal!

[24V Renshaw 0]

I think its the Corrado "brand" weeding out the real enthusiast owners from the giver upers. Stick with it and you will end up with something special while all the others fall by the wayside :)

 

Jay

[owen g60 10]

^^ what he said :D

 

Look at some of the Members rides threads and see the lengths some have gone to, all to keep their 'Rado on the road.... as annoying and testing as it is, in the long run the effort and expandature is worth it for when it all comes together

[dragon green 5]

I think its the Corrado "brand" weeding out the real enthusiast owners from the giver upers. Stick with it and you will end up with something special while all the others fall by the wayside :)

 

Jay

 

Jays right,most of us have experienced what you have,one way or another !

The only advice I can give,is stick with it,once everything is replaced, you won't regret owning a Corrado !

[Critical_Mass 10]

Chin up mate. Its happened to us all. i know how you feel when one thing after another breaks - ive considered selling a few times. But if you sell up and get another you dont know what problems that one will have. At least with this one you've spent money on it and you're getting the problems sorted on it.

 

Just keep at it fella :D

[Bs6VR6 10]

Haha, looks like i'm not on my own with this situation then, not sure if that's reasurring or not, lol.

Appreciate the encouragement though guy's, but not to worry i'm not even angry or dejected with the car, almost feel a sense of stubborness and commitement, this car will not beat me. I couldn't agree mor ewith the comments about selling up, exactly like you said, no assurance i won't have to go through it all again. besides, everything that i (or the garage) has fixed so far has been fine sinse, like someone said, hopefully good for another 15+ years.

Currently re-trimming the headlining in black polar fleece, as the sunroof had never works, bought new sunroof ubframe with new cables and thought as the headling is out might as well try and change all that horrible grubby grey for nice new black. (reading on here looks like its been done a fair few times, there goes me thinking i was being original, lol) she's getting there, but before a spray or anything like that i just want to get it mechanically perfect, go from ther.

Anyway, thanks for all the replys people, seems to be a great forum look forward to spending some time here.

Regards,

 

Max

 

 

P.s agree completely with whoever said about components breaking in series, in my limited experience it appears that replacing one component for new(ie, waterpump)just stresses the old componants finding weak areas and making them fail. seems to be true from what i've seen.

Edited September 29, 2011 by Bs6VR6

[tony_ack 0]

Stages of Corrado ownership:

 

1. Wow, this is fun

2. Time to sort out a few of the niggles

3. Oh, I wasn't expecting that

4. This problem appears to be worse than I thought

5. While I'm changing that, I may as well change...

6. Now I've fixed that, it's made something else break

7. Finally got the whole (cooling/oil/brakes/exhaust/suspesnion*) system renewed and working (* delete as appropriate)

8. Ah, I missed that bit, but now it really is working properly - good times!

9. Oh ffs now what's wrong

10. Repeat stages 4 to 8

11. Finally it's done, surely nothing else can go wrong (I)

12. Now what's wrong with it???

13. Finally it's done, surely nothing else can go wrong (II)

14. Smug warm feelings when everything is working as it should and the car is a joy to own and drive

[Butterfly 0]

You missed no15.

Having spent so much time and effort and MONEY on it you dare not leave it outside or park in a supermarket so buy a cheap run around, stick the C in a garage and hardly ever use it.

:)

[Stonejag 10]

Stages of Corrado ownership:

Ahahahaha. Well said that man! In my case ('95 VR6): Bought with no driver's door handle, 'a slight leak from the oil cooler but I've fixed it', only one side of the spoiler lifting, electric mirrors on the blink ('L' moves both, 'R' moves just right - ashamed to say I adjusted them once and then left it!), boot lock seized, sunroof tilts but inches along while sliding. Had to spend £80 on petrol within ten minutes of owning it - test drive was on fumes, apparently. Coolant gauge failed on the way home.

 

Went in for an oil change, new spoiler mech and blingy rear lights swapped for standard ones. New boot lock, sunroof motor and yellow sender acquired - motor and sender both turned out to be faulty. Two new tyres, £175.

 

The day before it went in again for the fixed suspension to be swapped for coilovers and a few bits, one of the bonnet catches jammed, and the cable snapped when I tried to release it.

 

Got cable replaced, suspension and oil cooler done (because previous owner told me a big fat lie) and boot lock swapped over - but it couldn't be tumbled due to a seized wafer. Got it realigned after the suspension job and also had my perished rear beam seals pointing out - but that can wait until I swap the rear calipers. Also one of the bolts was missing from the subframe (!). My replacement steering wheel wouldn't fit the existing boss so I bought a new one - which didn't quite make contact with the horn's slip ring. Once it was fitted I found the horn button didn't fit anyway...ended up swapping in a stock one. Then one of the wires on the MAF snapped off which made it run terribly - I managed to solder it back together but got a new connector to make good at a later date - and it's for a different type of MAF!

 

Yesterday I took it to the local stealers to get some of the fabled magic sunroof grease - not only did the grease not fix the sunroof, but all the coolant fell out when I got home. Now I'm waiting for a new thermostat housing, billet crack pipe, thermostat, three senders and aux water pump so they can all be done at once.

 

Notice I haven't mentioned the interior yet! :eek: Oh, and my torque converter needs rebuilding - which will be £300, or £1250 if the gearbox needs doing too.

 

So no, it's not just you! :bonk: Still love the old girl though, and that's the main thing. At least, that's what I'm telling my gf...

 

Stone

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Every used car needs work. Cars, houses and boats are the 3 main purchases in life where potentially several people have owned it before you have. Not all of us are lucky enough to own brand new cars, so having to fix previous botches is par for the course, it's expected. It's why we barter, is it not?

 

Humans are curious. We moan like hell about s/hand a cars being less than perfect but we never jump onto a forum and complain that the house we've just bought needs new gutters and the previous owner botched the back door and lied about the boiler :D

[Bs6VR6 10]

Stonejag:

Alright mate, sounds like you've had quite an eventful time of it as well. I love how everyone still seems very positive even with all the dramas and hurdles they seem to encounter, makes me think it'll all be worth it in the end..what was it stage 14, lol!

 

Humans are curious. We moan like hell about s/hand a cars being less than perfect but we never jump onto a forum and complain that the house we've just bought needs new gutters and the previous owner botched the back door and lied about the boiler

 

haha, a very valid point mate, yet i'm sure if you were to frequent any DIY forum i'm sure you'll find a plethora of homeowners enthusiastically bitching and moaning about the state of their gutters and cursing the cowboy who had previousl bodged their boiler:scratch:

Besides I wasn't really complaining(maybe a bit), just sharing my experience, having only ever owned old volkswagens, this corrado being the newest of the lot, i'm no stranger to issues, problems and down-right disasters, all part of the adventure, lol!

Thanks again for all the encouragement though guys, picked up the new subframe at the weekend with the rear beam, feel really motivated to get cracking with it now. was thinking of putting some photo's up of the car so far, is it ok to do that on this thread???

 

Regards,

 

Max,

Edited October 3, 2011 by Bs6VR6

[1xshaunx1 27]

go for it, while your motivated

[Critical_Mass 10]

Good point kev. I think we moan about the car more though as the house wont leave you stranded on the M1 or unable to get to work. :(

[monzablau16v 0]

:) ahh the memories....

 

 

document the journey, i mean maintainence in the member's gallery. That way it keeps everything in one place and you can just add to it if (when) the next big job you need to do comes up!

 

http://the-corrado.net/forumdisplay.php?16-Members-Gallery