more of the storm red VR6

[timthetinyhorse 0]

I considered doing that but I had issues painting a few parts that have been treated in the past so decided to do this, the results are spot on so I'm happy.

[Goldie 2]

I use that Poorboys Natural look on interior plastics, big fan...

[timthetinyhorse 0]

Yeah it's great on everything the poorboys

[timthetinyhorse 0]

Well today I decided to show the corado some more love as I had a free day so I snapped a few more pics to document my progress.

 

First up it was time to sort out the shoddy looking door handles.

 

First up a pic of the handle before I started.

 

 

Then a good rub down with 1200 wet and dry.

 

 

Now time for a few thick coats of poorboys natural look (I lay it on thick and allow it to be absorbed between coats and I love the results)

 

 

I did both sides with this method and the aerial base.

 

 

And now onto today's main event, the irritating rust bubble on the arch.

 

A quick pic of my amazing paint booth.

 

 

A pic of the arch before I started the work. The fan heater was used to keep the paint area warm duruing painting but was turned off when actually painting.

 

 

Then get rid of the rust with the dremmel and some wet and dry (pic was taken before I was finished rubbing down)

 

 

Get the area well masked up.

 

 

3 coats of primer were then applied and rubbed down with 800 wet and dry between coats.

 

 

I then applied several coats of paint to the area rubbing down with 1200 wet and dry between coats.

 

 

All of the masking was then removed after the paint had had plenty time to cure and the area was rubbed down and polished to blend in the old and new paint as well as possible, it's not perfect but it's good enough for a short term repair.

 

 

To finish off the day I got all of the satin black parts out and gave them a good polish now the paint had been given a few days to cure properly and this was the result.

 

 

Thanks for looking and as always all comments good or bad are welcome

 

Rob

[timthetinyhorse 0]

Had another go at getting the car to start today but to no avail. Its turning over well and I pulled one of the plugs out to check I had a strong spark and it was strong enough to give me a good belt, pulled all the plugs out and they were soaked in fuel so it would appear the car is over fuelling and flooding when trying to start up.....

 

After giving up for the day on the starting issue I decided to take a couple of brave pills and have a go at machine polishing the bonnet to see if I could delete some of the swirls and other marks and here are the results.

 

 

 

If anyone has a clue as to what is causing my starting issue I would appreciate and advice....is it possible I have done damage to any pipe work or anything when I put the engine back together??

[VW_chris 10]

great work mate on the wing, i could do with starting mine actually, with regards to the starting issue, it sounds very similar to the one i had on the golf, temp senser, had good spark, but was flooding the engine to a point where it just would not start, found that the problem was hardly noticable at first but gradually got worse and worse untill it wouldnt start. other than that the only other thing i can suggest is plugging it in and reading any codes that may be logged

[timthetinyhorse 0]

So I've tried to make a little more progress today with regards to the non running issue however my father passed away on Friday and this has caused me too loose it a bit, fill my van with unleaded and then fall down the flat stairs so all in all it's been a bad few days!

 

Today I managed to put weight on my ancle so I made the effort to get down to the garage and have a look at the fuel pressure regulator vac pipe as recommended by a few people. It's been a lcouple of days since I attempted to run the car so I didn't know what to expect, now there is no actuall wet fuel in the vac line however there is a strong smell of fuel when I sniff the line so I presume fuel has been present.....

 

Also the vac line looks fairly badly perished so I presume this could also cause me an issue??

 

Below are a couple of pics, one of the regulator and one of the vac line to make sure I'm looking at the correct thing.....

 

 

 

Any more info on this issue anyone may have would be great.

 

cheers.

[timthetinyhorse 0]

Managed to take 5 min today to pull the plugs out as I'm waiting for a new fuel pressure regulator coming and they looked fairly black so I'm presuming this means it's rich? Would they be blackened from trying to start as t he aa man cleaned them when they were out when the starting issue first happened but it hasn't run since, pics below show plugs, all we're dry and not wet as I expected to see.........

 

All 6 plugs.

 

 

This was the worst of the lot.

 

 

Gave them a good clean up and need to dig my feelers out to check the gap, I think the Bentley states 0.7mm.

 

 

I'm also trying to think of an appropriate way to remember my dad on the car but it has to be discrete, was perhaps thinking his name on the bottom of my plates or something but not sure if it might look a bot cheap, any ideas let me know :-)

 

Cheers

 

Rob

[timthetinyhorse 0]

Today more progress was made with the non starting issue......I removed the fuel pressure regulator and found that ISPs looking almost brand new so no worries there.......the coil pack however was a different story!!

 

I removed it after noticing a fairly bad crack in the plastic insulation on the left as shown below. The first shot shows the bottom of the coil pack with a few cracks and the 2nd shows the state of the pack after the bolts were removed and the plastic as good as fell off, the metal is exceptionally badly corroded which would tell me this coil is destroyed......

 

 

 

I started to strip the coil down and more plastic was crumbling away and the extent of the mess was pretty clear, the layers of metal were separating and some on the corners had begun to snap off.......

 

 

 

 

So the solution here it would appear is going to be replacing the coil pack and not the fuel regulator as I first thought, not all bad ough as it now means I have a spare regulator :-)

 

Whilst I was busy with the coil pack my mate got busy with the loom wrap and did a bit of tidying the engine up, this meant removing all my plastics again however after working on the car for a few weeks has meant these are looking marked so will most likely be getting painted again.....

 

So here are the sections of loom that we're done, I forgot to take before pics I'm afraid.

 

 

 

 

Not a massive amount of progress I'm sure you will agree but it now feels like I'm getting somewhere :-)

[Idlewillkill 10]

Lovely stuff mate. Have some loom wrap myself, itching to get cracking with it.

 

Attention to detail on this is fantastic, keep up the good work dude

[timthetinyhorse 0]

Thanks :-)

 

Just about to order a new coil pack so fingers crossed I will have the car running by the weekend!!

[timthetinyhorse 0]

So today I checked a few things on the car that I had been advised to check to try and overcome my running issues, first up was to test the resistance over pin 1 & 2 on the crank sensor to make sure that it is working as it should, the good news was that it tested at 516ohm which is just where it should be, I also checked the ecu plugs at both ends and they were both in good condition so that isnt my issue.....

 

The other news from today is after a lot of fighting with the car it started but was very very rough and wouldn't idol, if I tried to hold it a 2k rpm it would drop to 1500 as if it had cut out then pic back up to 2k, drop again and so on,

What I noticed was that the manifold got very hot very very quickly and that there was a very nasty smell at the same time so here is the theory.

I have changed the coil and leads and also checked the plugs and they are good and getting a spark, I have fuel so I'm also happy with that. The car now starts after a min or so but is rough and struggles to build revs unless you give it the boot, I'm thinking that the new coil pack and leads were the solution but due to the flooding I have caused over the past weeks there has been a large amount of fuel in the cat and this has melted it and is now causing a large amount of back pressure not allowing the engine to run properly.

The cat could have been damaged when the aa managed to start it on the old coil pack over a month ago and it was running rich due to the damaged blue temp sender and then all of times the car was trying to fire but not holding it.

I can't prove this until next week now as I'm back to work for 4 days however I'm feeling confident that I'm getting to the root of the problem especially after getting the car to fire today and the large amount of heat that built up so fast in the manifold.

 

Cheers

[sankysvr6 0]

Keep at it, and hope you get all sorted soon. I would also look at the wiring on MAF, as these also can cause running issues.

 

Have you tried sticking the car on Vagcom, not sure if car has the OBD2 port. But it might bring something up if it does have a fault

[timthetinyhorse 0]

Time for another update from the poorly VR6.

 

I still haven't had a look to see if it has an OBD2 port but to be honest I'm enjoying getting to know the car by actually looking for the faults etc.

 

So the update........

 

Today I got out of bed after 4hrs sleep (gotta love working nights) and decided it was time to remove the cat, of course this was not going to be an easy task.....20 years of corrosion on the bolts ment that it was a job for the grinder so I set to work.

 

 

After a hour or two with the grinder and of course the dremmel to get to those hard to reach bolts the cat was out, upon inspection it was clear to see it was totally choked and slightly melted so I'm beginning to think I'm getting cower to the issue at last!

 

 

Pic is poor but if you could see it in the flesh I'm sure you would agree its finished and time to buy a decat pipe.

 

Also I'm going to have to replace the sensor as I had to snip the wires due to the plug being rather stuck.......

 

Cheers

 

Rob

[timthetinyhorse 0]

Got bored today so turned the key to see what would happen with the cat and lambda removed, guess what, it started first turn of the key!!

 

Just need to order a lambda and decat now and I'm go go go.

[timthetinyhorse 0]

So with my mind at rest with regards to running issues and waiting for parts to arrive so I can get my exhaust fitted again I decided it was time to get on with some paint correction as the car was looking a little sorry for itself sat in the garage, it had a good layer of dust covering it, some panels had some bird lime marks and also under the rear badges etc there was some nasty dirt buildup.

 

I started with the passenger wing that was slightly pink and had a bad build up of dirt under the indicator, I started with megs quick detailer to remove the dust and show the pinkness of the paint as below.

 

 

A quick pic to show the hardened dirt under the indicator.

 

 

The harsh dirt was removed using AG tar remover and then the panel polished with a medium pad and MEZ FF polish (can't remember the name properly) and it was looking like this.

 

 

Next stage was a coat of AG super resin polish to remove a little marring that was left from the machine polish then AG HD wax to seal the paint and protect it.

 

 

And also a quick pic of under the indicator.

 

 

The same process as above was then completed over the whole car so here are some more pics.

 

Some nasty water marks under the wing mirror before and after.

 

 

 

And a few more after pics.

 

 

 

You have to excuse the exhaust here I need to fit it.

 

 

Front end is still waiting for the grill to be fitted as I have been painting it.

 

 

Finally got round to painting the rear badge and also finished off the washer jets.

 

 

Last thing in the day was to fit the jets.

 

 

Sorry for the vast amount of photos, just shameless whoring but thought I would share what had been done today :-)

 

Hopefully I will be updating next week to tell you all I have the exhaust fitted and the var is running.

 

Cheers

 

Rob

[sankysvr6 0]

Looks lovely, just not keen on the rear number plate surround.

 

By the way, is your car lowered on coilovers or shocks and sprigs?

[seanl82 23]

Looks great! Can't wait to get started on detailing mine! Gonna take a while to sort the interior first though! :(

[timthetinyhorse 0]

Cheers guys,

 

I'm still in two minds about the plate surround myself, have another one lying about that I'm tempted to do gloss black and see how that looks as I think there is too much red at the back of the car.

 

The car is on coil overs, FK Konigsports to be exact, I need to wind the front down about 1/2 inch as at the moment it has a wee bit too much reverse rake for me but I'm waiting to get the splitter fitted before I do that so I know what clearence I have.

 

I also have a lot to do on the interior as I have been using it to store parts etc, think I will wait uinti I have the decat fitted and all is running well though as if it's still running badly I'm going to hand it over to a garage so there is no point it having an imaculate interior before that.......

 

Rob

[GrahamU 5]

I have the rear plate panel painted red at the mo and I think I'm going to go satin black, it will break it up a bit,

 

I wish mine would come up like that with a polish, unfortunately a previous owner cut mine back to the undercoat in places :(

[timthetinyhorse 0]

Ah nasty! My old 16v had been cut back too far on the arches so was also a nightmare!

 

This has been flashed over in the past so there is a good depth of paint on it and I will only be polishing it once or twice a year as a good coat of wax every now and again should keep the paint healthy along with the fact it covers about 2k miles per year and possibly less this year with the baby arriving in a few weeks!

 

Yeah I think satin or gloss for the plate surround but I'm not quite decided as yet......

 

Rob

[timthetinyhorse 0]

Another small update, this came today but of course the excitement was cut short by the fact it is in fact the wrong length by 150mm.....fear not though my local car parts shop has ordered me an extension to sort me out :-)

 

Hope to get this fitted Monday and I'm good to go (once I tax the car and get all the little details done)

 

 

 

Not much but I'm getting there.

[timthetinyhorse 0]

Just copied a post I have from my technical thread just in case someone reading this thread has had similar issues.

 

Another little update.

 

I fitted the new lambda today and fired the car up, it started up straight away and sat at an idle of 1000rpm,

 

I allowed the car to get warm (Until the fan pulled in) by which time the idol was sat at about 900rpm and still steady, I slowly brought the revs up to around 3000rpm and let them drop slowly using the throttle and they settle again at around 900rpm, I then did the same but let the revs drop off quickly by lifting straight off the throttle, they drop as expected but then the car struggles to hold idol and is lumpy for about 10-20 sec before it settles again.

 

I didn't little experiment with the ISV by trying this with it plugged in and with it unplugged, on both occasions the car behaved in exactly the same way so I'm wondering if this could be my issue? I removed it and cleaned it out, a had a fair bit of dirt come out of it, it was the refitted and tried again and there was no change however the pipe clamps were damaged some could have a vac leek also now.

 

The other thing I noticed was that when I removed the ISV it was about 1/4 open, is this the normal position for the valve or should it be shut? I have put a couple of before and after pics of t he valve from cleaning below this post so you might be able to see what I mean.

 

The other think I noticed was a loud ticking noise when it was cold, this faded as the engine got hot so I'm wondering if I could have a sticky lifter? I'm going to check my oil levels tomorrow once the car has been sat so the oil settles as its possible I presume that if it is low on oil and the oil is cold the lifter may not be getting enough?

 

Thanks for all the help so fat, I feel like I'm getting somewhere now :-)

 

 

 

 

[robrado974 1]

Got a few problems with isv too , anywho , the ticking you can here from cold will be the tappets , they are hydraulic , so they do tap until the oil reaches them .

[timthetinyhorse 0]

Rob does you car run ok other than having an idol issue? What symptoms do you have?

 

Do you still use your car or is it off the road due to the isv?

 

Cheers

 

---------- Post added at 10:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:45 PM ----------

 

Also the autocar quote in your sig, what BMW does it refer too?