New car... non-Corrado, not quite a VW...

[Henny 0]

Well, I've admitted defeat and have put my Corrado up for sale, as well as my B5 Passat estate... I've realised that I'm not going to get chance in the next few years to sort out my Corrado properly, and I can't bear to see it slowly rotting away on my driveway, so this was the sensible thing to do.... It's the end of an era really, I got my first Corrado back in June '98 and then only had 20 months without owning one since then when I bought my first house! :(

 

So, I've gone and bought something to replace both cars in one; big, practical, fast and powerful car...

 

She's a 4x4 estate, with full electric memory leather seats and factory fitted Sat-Nav........ 8)

 

 

 

 

 

 

...oh, and a 300BHP, 4.2litre V8 under the bonnet!!! :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yup, I've gone and bought a late 2001, Irish Green, 96000 mile, Audi A6 Quattro Avant V8... I picked it up a couple of weeks ago, and before anyone says anything about fuel costs, she'd already been LPG converted and is working out to be a rather similar cost to feed as my Passat 1.9TDI was! Weirdly, the insurance was only £50 more than I paid last year on the Passat! :cuckoo:

 

She had a few little niggles to sort out, but for the price I paid for her, I couldn't even have bought the LPG conversion, so I can't grumble!;)

 

Anyway, here's a few pics from when I picked her up... more to follow when I get my arse in gear and take some!! ;)

[OSV 0]

I suspect its the right thing for you, Audi looks great, LPG makes great sense

[Henny 0]

Just seen you've sold yours too, Gareth... Hope you stay around the VAG scene though and that whatever you end up with next brings you as much fun... 8)

 

With any luck we'll meet up at a show sometime in the future... 8)

[bristolbaron 10]

I was trying to work out how 4.2 & sensible were in the same conversation until LPG was mentioned. Looks great.

 

What suspension is on the Rado by the way? not mentioned on the ad or build thread. not that i've been looking.. :eek:

[Henny 0]

to be honest, I'm not 100% sure... I think it's a Koni setup (not coilover) but I've never really investigated...

[Jim 1]

Very nice Henny :) Bet it sounds good under full chat! I'd say LPG is an essential now on an engine that size with fuel prices as they are!

[Henny 0]

I'll find that put tomorrow when I get the exhaust sorted Jim... She sounds like an American muscle car dragster at the moment due to both flexies on the cats blowing! Awesome V8 rumble, and with a 6,800RPM, she just sounds plain evil (and VERY loud!) when giving it some at the moment!!!

 

The LPG means an equivalent running cost to low to mid 40mpg petrol on a run, and high 30s around town... I wouldn't have even looked at it if it didn't have the conversion already done though! ;) 8)

[LJ 0]

Hi Henny

Totally understand your reasoning and like the choice of car :)

My G60 has been laid up in the garage, to the great annoyance of my wife, for far too long.

Still trying to side-step my reality that it needs to be sold :(

 

Chris

[Henny 0]

Well, I just got her back from JP Exhausts in Macclesfield, and, again, I'm impressed with their work... 8)

 

He's cut the old flexies off, welded on a new flange to each down pipe, taken both cats off and checked them over, then welded on new flexies with flanges on to match the new ones on the downpipes and then put it all back together with new joints onto the rest of the system...

 

To say it's fixed it is somewhat of an understatement! The difference is night and day. She now purrs when running with a slight rumble when you give it some, and best of all, it's sorted out the fuel consumption back to something a bit more reasonable from the 13mpg I'd averaged while driving it around town for the last week or so with the blowing exhaust! Should now work out somewhere around the same running cost as a petrol car doing 40ish MPG while on LPG... 8)

 

Oh, and it's also sorted out the slight mis-fire she had (due to the leaks being before the lambda sensors!) and given me her full performance back! :cuckoo:

 

I'm happy now... just need to sort out a few other minor niggles and then get the stone chips and parking dents touched up, and she'll look, sound and go like the £50,000+ car that she was when new! 8)

[Henny 0]

I have a nasty feeling that German Ebay may be the death of me... :lol: There's some interesting things out there for this shape car, and there's only a couple of options this car didn't have from the factory that'd be pretty easy to add on... MUST RESIST!!!

 

In other news, the factory CD changer and Sat-Nav now all work properly as they should (CD changer had been thumped by something and needed some care, and the sat nav needed some cleaning!) and sound awesome through the factory fit BOSE amp, speakers and sub... 8) What's better is that I can now hear it over the fixed exhaust! :lol:

[Henny 0]

Thought it was about time to update this...

 

So, I've now clocked over 10K in "my little green tank" since I bought her with only a few minor problems, and one major one!

 

The major problem was when the viscous coupling that attaches the 12" fan to the engine (and is supposed to allow the fan to free-wheel and not spin quite as fast as the engine) seized up... Not good when doing a full bore take off from a set of lights. It'd just hit 6,500 rpm in second and was changing into third when the fan let go... Imagine a 12" hard plastic fan spinning at around 6500rpm being suddenly decelerated to about 2,000rpm and deciding to let go and, well basically, explode... well, that's what happened! :epicfail:

 

This resulted in large chunks of plastic fan blades being ejected from the front of the engine at high speed, causing 5 large gouges in the radiator, slight damage to the slam panel which caused the bonnet to pop open (thankfully the safety catch caught it!) and, rather madly, a massive surge of acceleration as the engine suddenly freed up a load of power from not having to drive a 12" fan at 6,500rpm any more!!! All happening at around 65mph! :eek:

 

Thankfully, it wasn't too bad damage wise and I managed to get the parts and fix it myself for under £250 all in (brand new radiator, brand new viscous coupling, second hand fan blades from an S8 ) and the car is now running even better than ever thanks to the coupling actually allowing the fan to spin at a reasonable rate, rather than being directly connected to the engine!

 

The minor problems include a couple of electrical gremlins and a pair of seized rear callipers causing the rear brakes to basically be dragging... solving that one added a massive 5mpg average onto my fuel economy (when it was averaging around 15mpg, that's a HUGE change!!!), and cost me the sum total of 3 hours of my time and about £30 in parts! Brake pads were only £12.95 for the rears! I was pleasantly shocked how cheap that was, and that was for a good make too, not cheapo ones! :dance:

 

I also am of the opinion that someone in the cars history has chipped it... I've been out in another car with the same engine, and it's nowhere near as quick as mine, even though it was pretty much identical spec! If it has been chipped, it's likely that it's now 350bhp! :shocked!: :norty:

 

I've not really done much else to it other than drive it due to lack of time... but I've been putting together a small stack of goodies for her which I'm aiming to fit over the next few weeks, including a DVD player (from J-DUB) and interface box to plug into the factory sat-nav, Bluetooth hands-free and an automatic reversing camera... also going to get the LPG system serviced and over-hauled as it's still got a slight (and very annoying) mis-fire when on LPG... Hell, I may even give her a wash at some point soon seeing as I've only done it twice since I owned her! :oops:

[Henny 0]

Woo! Pics time! :) (Crappy phone pics, but pics non-the-less! :lol: )

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Edited June 25, 2013 by Henny

[Jim 1]

Proper sleepers those - love it! :) You must have shown up a few chavs in that thing..

[Henny 0]

I may have left a few Chavs looking like they've selected reverse, and scared the odd Boxster too... ;)

 

The V8 is just mental sounding as it gets higher up in the revs... I'm seriously thinking about getting a different exhaust on it as it's just a little too understated IMHO... I just want to hear a little more of the burble through to the SCREAM she makes on her way up to her 6750rpm limit... it's a seriously addictive sound, but one that hurts the wallet pretty quickly if you keep doing it! :oops::eek: