Back in a Corrado, Low mileage VR6

[Trickygti 0]

Well after a couple of years almost since I last owned a roadworthy classic VW I figured I'd buy one to throw all my hard earned money at while I'm living in Guernsey.

 

Found myself a nice cheap Corrado VR6 with just 77k on the clock in Jersey, so after many emails to the owner it arrived on the ferry tonight and first impressions were great :D The body is damned near rust free which is a good start although there is a big dent in the drivers door which I'll sort at some point although I think it'll be easier to fit a new door. There's the usual scratches which come with any 18 year old car but I'll be giving it a good clean at some point. The interior needs a good clean too and the hand brake looking at, it wobbles from side to side quite a bit and the center console is a bit loose

 

But on the whole I'm really pleased with it, pulls really well apart from a slight misfire under load but a good service and new plug leads should sort that out.

 

Here's a picture in its natural habitat, the petrol station

 

 

So me and Chris (a fellow Corrado VR6 owner) went for a bit of a blast down the coast road to see how she drove. and to be fair it still handles really well with no nast knocks or bangs, but it does need a rear wheel bearing which I knew about and the cam cover gasket is leaking which again I'll sort soon

 

Then upon heading back to the docks to drop chris off with his golf it began to get slightly warmer than it should and then steam appeared from the N/S headlamp and this happened

 

 

The radiator is leaking, looks like its been sealed up at some point in the past and I've managed to break it! Ah well such is life when it comes to old VW's I'm still so happy with it and looking forward to ripping it pieces and fixing it again

 

Thanks for looking and I'll get some decent pics up soon

[robo22sri 10]

I wonder who bought this! I was bidding on it for the engine lol

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

I wonder who bought this! I was bidding on it for the engine lol

seriously? you would have broken this car for its engine? think there should be an un written rule about breaking corrados for spares! no rust NO break!

theres a guy on here breaking one because of abit lacquer peel and the clutch is gone,i guess nobody likes to put effort in these days.the throw away generation.

anyway shes a beaut rick! and sounds sick! oh yea its chris btw! glad to hear your not breaking it because of the rad ;)

[robo22sri 10]

seriously? you would have broken this car for its engine? think there should be an un written rule about breaking corrados for spares! no rust NO break!

theres a guy on here breaking one because of abit lacquer peel and the clutch is gone,i guess nobody likes to put effort in these days.the throw away generation.

anyway shes a beaut rick! and sounds sick! oh yea its chris btw! glad to hear your not breaking it because of the rad ;)

 

Some must die to much others live! :lol:

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

lol at this rate the corrado is literaly dieing at a daily rate, heres your engine http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-VR6-ENGINE-BREAKING-CORRADOS-CALL-07968619952-/330647883854?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item4cfc26504e

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Cheers Chris and thanks for the help last night. Had a good look over it in the daylight and there's no rust anywhere to be seen.

 

Sorted the electric windows out and the central locking too which turned out to be a 20 amp fuse!

 

Yeah its a real shame at the amount of Corrado's being broken up purely because of small faults or the over inflated prices some people ask for modified ones.

 

Complete overhaul of the cooling system will start tomorrow along with a good service and brakes strip and clean.

 

Can't wait to go for a good drive now :)

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

your welcome,

it was surprising how clean the underside was, when its on the ramps you got to get a shot of it, tbh once the little niggles are sorted this car will be an absolute beaut! its the pefect base car, just wish mine was like this one when i brought it, yea cant wait to get a corrado convoy going ;)

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Yeah I've had a good look today in the daylight underneath and it really is mint, not even any surface rust on the rear axle or anything like that. I'll get some pictures tomorrow when its up on a ramp :) Yeah we'll have to gather a few corrado owners up on the island for a photo shoot :)

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

now that photo shoot is a blady good idea!! only problem is your the only person i know with a corrado :( and im not putting an add in the local paper lol

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haha I'll have an ask around and see who's about with one. I'll even leave notes on peoples Corrado's if I see them haha

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Had quite a productive evening on the Corrado, started by replacing the chavy alloy gear knob for a standard genuine leather one which I had in my tool box for such an occasion :) and also managed to get the handbrake bolted down a bit better, its become apparent that the O/S/R caliper is sticking on so that'll need sorting at some point.

 

 

 

Then got it on a ramp and give it a good check over all round, its all good under there, I'd go as far to say its the best VW I've owned mechanicals wise. The front lower panel is very solid which is a good result, the entire underneath of the car looks spot on.

 

Gave the brakes a bleed as there was no history of a recent change so thought it best to do it.

 

Had a couple of side light bulbs out so sorted that (those front ones are a bit of a bugger) and also found out why there's such an induction note on the old girl

 

 

Gave the slam panel and engine bay a bit of a spruce up and ordered £200 worth of general service bits, plug leads, thermostat, header tank, some gaskets and two rear wheel bearings. All genuine VW parts as I've had trouble in the past with even the most basic parts from non genuine suppliers. And finally managed to get hold of a radiator from a very helpful supplier in the UK http://www.northernradiators.co.uk for £110 plus postage so that will be here wednesday or thursday at the latest so will be fully functional again by the weekend :D

 

 

Thanks for looking

[Trickygti 0]

Not done a massive amount to the Corrado tonight, striped and cleaned the front brakes and cleaned the front wheels, I pushed the pistons back slightly on the front calipers to check they were nice and free and somehow appear to have made the brake pedal spongy? Gonna bleed them again tomorrow and see if it sorts it :-/

 

Few pics of one of the wheels, not bad to say all I had was wheel cleaner and paper towels and good old fashioned elbow grease :D

 

 

 

And after

 

 

 

And heres just a few pics of the car in general as I thought I'd get some while it was in the light, gonna take the rubbing strips off then give the body work a good clean :D

 

 

 

[Pat_McCrotch 0]

Looking good :)

[VR6Rado 0]

Nice C - good find! That makes three of us on the Rock then!

[Trickygti 0]

Cheers guys, VR6Rado where abouts on the island are you? I'm pretty new over here so still getting used to the place.

 

Got the car in to the workshop yesterday to fit the radiator but a couple of bits have put it off the road for the weekend :( I'll get some pics up showing the progress later.

[delfinis38 1]

Cheers guys, VR6Rado where abouts on the island are you? I'm pretty new over here so still getting used to the place.

 

Got the car in to the workshop yesterday to fit the radiator but a couple of bits have put it off the road for the weekend :( I'll get some pics up showing the progress later.

 

nice motor and nice place to Live ! I spend a few month on the island every year in the summer. (on my boat in the marina).

 

I've only ever seen a few rado's in the north of the island (Vale area round by the golf course)... and a silver one parked in St P.

Edited December 3, 2011 by delfinis38

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Well the Corrado is off the road till Monday or Tuesday. We were pretty quiet at work yesterday and my new radiator had just arrived so I booked the afternoon off in the hope to get it all fitted and a few other jobs sorted while it was in pieces.

 

 

So it was soon ripped apart and the old radiator disposed of and while it was in pieces it was recommended by someone to replace the thermostat at the same time so I removed the housing only to find that the seal where it mounts to the block and also the thermostat housing itself had started to fall apart so I had to order one of those as its better to be safe than sorry and dont want to be having to strip it down again later.

 

 

Then set about the cam cover gasket replacement as it has been leaking slightly at the coil pack side and really dont want that failing any time soon.

 

 

Also waiting on my new plug leads to arrive so I've been resigned to drive a Peugeot for the weekend :( But I'm happy with the progress and once back together should be running sweet again and things should be kept nice and cool. Managed to rewrap the wiring loom in a lot of areas to tidy it up a bit too and gave the front lower panel a bit of clean and covered it in WD40 for now until I get some black paint to recover it as its in really good solid condition for a change!

 

 

Using all genuine VW parts too apart from the radiator as the quality is a lot better than some of the suppliers I've used

 

Thanks for looking

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

nice motor and nice place to Live ! I spend a few month on the island every year in the summer. (on my boat in the marina).

 

I've only ever seen a few rado's in the north of the island (Vale area round by the golf course)... and a silver one parked in St P.

i can imagine guernsey to be a realy nice place to visit on holiday especialy moored up in a marina :)

yea in the vale by the golf course theres been 2 corrados sat on the same drive for years which dont seem to get driven, a dark blue one which has a bodykit of some sort and a red one which looks like a 16v , altogether though think there must be atleast 10-15 corrados over here,

 

nice work rick, atleast after next week you shouldnt realy have anything else to do engine/running wise, sourced a door yet?

how does that rad fit? straight swap?

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I havent tried to actually fit the rad yet but it looks spot on and is really good quality by the looks of it. And not badly priced at £110. Havent found a door yet, I'll probably wait till after christmas now before I get one. Yeah there shouldnt be any need to replace anything else for a while all being well.

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

yea that price is a bargain, when i first got mine the previous owner mentioned that i should replace it {tbh the rad was the least of my worrys}, but its been fine apart from the small leak on the elbow join, after seeing yours go like that i think perventative maintenance is the way to go!!, oh yea that airbox!! replaced it for the c's cone filter, wow with the windows down its made my little daily vr sound bad ass on the throttle !! although im now paying for it petrol wise :( sounds similar to my corrado except on the corrado when idle and cruzeing i still get abit of vr purrrr purr which is down to the exhaust..

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Yeah prevention is better than the cure :) haha good to see the daily getting some attention. I'm gonna fit a decat to mine at some point, now the wheel bearing and windows have been sorted its actually really quiet when driving normally, I want a bit of a purr/rumble to it.

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

haha you know i still got my old exhaust :) i recon for a day or 3 you should try it lol

your have to have a blast in mine, the miltek with decat is perfect ish, its perfect in the sense that you dont look like a chav when you put ya foot down and sounds sweet when your cruzing, on idle though doesnt realy sound much, but the sound on idle from the old exhaust was bad ass! just abit loud on full throttle, cant have it all i guess ;)

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Got it all back together and the cooling system bled up (what a pain that is) Got the new plug leads fitted too which I was quite happy to see where red ones when I opened the box! They're genuine VW leads and was expecting them to come black to be honest so it's nice to add a bit of colour under there. Also fitted the new header tank and cap to finish off the cooling system. It now drives so much smoother than it did and all the temperatures are staying where they should!

 

Gave the interior a good clean and polished all the windows (dont think they'd been done in a while!) All thats left is to sort the bodywork and maybe a set of coilovers and I'll be very happy with it.

 

Just a pic of it all going back together.

 

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Well its been a while since I updated this, still having a few running issues, namely a very bad misfire has started first thing in the morning or after its been stood all day. So I assumed the coil pack was on its way out and get a new non genuine one today, fitted it after work and the car does start up better but still has a slight miss when on light throttle up through 2000rpm? Will see how it runs in the morning though fingers crossed.

 

 

Crack in no.5 coil which I'm sure wont have been helping.

 

 

Also fitted a new set of handbrake cables which were a bargain £9 each for genuine ones

 

Fitted a set of genuine carpet mats too for a very reasonable £33 too!

 

Got the wipers working a lot better now with a few tweeks to the arms and blades and just having a general tidyup of the bodywork too.

 

Thanks for looking :)

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

ahh good stuff! just that door and its prety sorted...