Discussion
Bought as a (semi-) shed two years ago for £2k at 130k miles.
Is my daily driver (and commuter), so nothing radical, but have slowly being making it more my own.
Here's how it was when bought:
Complete with 3 different brands of ditch finders, barry-boy slotted and drilled discs and cardboard brake pads, a leaking oil cooler, and a cracked coilpack. All in all though, fairly tidy for the mileage. It also had upgraded front speakers and some 6x9s in the back shelf; these actually sound quite good, so have kept them - ICE isn't exactly my thing though!
Almost immediately I changed the lethal tyres (Hankook R-S2 all round) - dark wheels came later though:
Got used to driving it and had a fun trip up to Snowdonia:
At the first service, I changed:
usual oil/filters/plugs
oil cooler gasket (fiddly job, but cheap)
replaced the sticky thermostat, and refilled with G12++
New HT leads
Replaced throttle cable (stiff), front top mounts, lower ball joints
and a few other bits and bobs.
Next up were the dreadful lights - new Osram Nightbreaker bulbs all round and a DIY relayed headlight loom soon sorted out that problem.
Over the next few months, I replace the coilpack (solved dodgy damp weather performance), replaced the gearbox oil, and changed the front brakes for plain discs and Mintex 1144 pads (fantastic).
The car then had the usual servicing etc (new tie rod ends, wheel bearings etc).
Good changes other than the usual were:
Golf diesel gearbox mount
Poly (80A) fron engine mount
Polybushed front wishbones
Yellowstuff rear pads (and new discs)
KW v1 coilovers (set quite high - found the ride and handling so much better this way than when low)
Slightly tinted front lights
Black badges
Milltek catback exhaust
Powder-coated wheels anthracite
Posey 'TOW' stickers F&R...
Momo suede 320mm steering wheel.
Corbeau drivers fixed-bucket seat on custom (modified) VW Polo subframe
It now looks like this:
The car has been fantastic - a 33mpg cruiser for commuting and also being great down a B-road. Sounds fantastic, has great steering (for FWD - as a back road blaster as opposed to track toy, a bias towards power-understeer isn't necessarily a bad thing!), and is just fun.
It hasn't had the chains done (to the best of my knowledge), and is coming up for a clutch change. Engine is healthy, uses very little oil, and produced 189bhp on the SRR rollers a couple of months back, so bang on OEM.
I have just bought another set of OEM wheels (Solitudes) for the princely sum of £16, and a set of Hankook Icebear W300s for them; the R-S2s weren't great in the snow and frost last year:
so...
I may take out he back seats and stuff again - I did it temporarily when moving house and lost about 30kg, which was definitely noticeable. However, I'd want to do it properly, blanking out the boot space and carpeting the bare metal I think.
Sorry for the haphazard post -hope you like!
Is my daily driver (and commuter), so nothing radical, but have slowly being making it more my own.
Here's how it was when bought:
Complete with 3 different brands of ditch finders, barry-boy slotted and drilled discs and cardboard brake pads, a leaking oil cooler, and a cracked coilpack. All in all though, fairly tidy for the mileage. It also had upgraded front speakers and some 6x9s in the back shelf; these actually sound quite good, so have kept them - ICE isn't exactly my thing though!
Almost immediately I changed the lethal tyres (Hankook R-S2 all round) - dark wheels came later though:
Got used to driving it and had a fun trip up to Snowdonia:
At the first service, I changed:
usual oil/filters/plugs
oil cooler gasket (fiddly job, but cheap)
replaced the sticky thermostat, and refilled with G12++
New HT leads
Replaced throttle cable (stiff), front top mounts, lower ball joints
and a few other bits and bobs.
Next up were the dreadful lights - new Osram Nightbreaker bulbs all round and a DIY relayed headlight loom soon sorted out that problem.
Over the next few months, I replace the coilpack (solved dodgy damp weather performance), replaced the gearbox oil, and changed the front brakes for plain discs and Mintex 1144 pads (fantastic).
The car then had the usual servicing etc (new tie rod ends, wheel bearings etc).
Good changes other than the usual were:
Golf diesel gearbox mount
Poly (80A) fron engine mount
Polybushed front wishbones
Yellowstuff rear pads (and new discs)
KW v1 coilovers (set quite high - found the ride and handling so much better this way than when low)
Slightly tinted front lights
Black badges
Milltek catback exhaust
Powder-coated wheels anthracite
Posey 'TOW' stickers F&R...
Momo suede 320mm steering wheel.
Corbeau drivers fixed-bucket seat on custom (modified) VW Polo subframe
It now looks like this:
The car has been fantastic - a 33mpg cruiser for commuting and also being great down a B-road. Sounds fantastic, has great steering (for FWD - as a back road blaster as opposed to track toy, a bias towards power-understeer isn't necessarily a bad thing!), and is just fun.
It hasn't had the chains done (to the best of my knowledge), and is coming up for a clutch change. Engine is healthy, uses very little oil, and produced 189bhp on the SRR rollers a couple of months back, so bang on OEM.
I have just bought another set of OEM wheels (Solitudes) for the princely sum of £16, and a set of Hankook Icebear W300s for them; the R-S2s weren't great in the snow and frost last year:
so...
I may take out he back seats and stuff again - I did it temporarily when moving house and lost about 30kg, which was definitely noticeable. However, I'd want to do it properly, blanking out the boot space and carpeting the bare metal I think.
Sorry for the haphazard post -hope you like!
snotrag said:
rob1234 said:
a 33mpg cruiser for commuting
Seriously? 
Glad my mileage is the most interesting bit...
Sonofabeesting said:
ImDesigner said:
I'm not keen on the TOW stickers but otherwise, it's rather nice. How do you find the Osram Nightbreakers? A pointless outlay in my experience.
Corrado headlights are totally useless. Anything to help. Replaced them at the same time as I did the loom, so can't really be sure. They were a gift, so can't comment on cost!
Had Philips 100w bulbs on my 106 Rallye - which were great, FWIW.
I am very impressed with the MPG figures, mine gets very close to 30 if i drive using next to no throttle.
If i'm honest the only 2 design faults of the corrado are the headlights and wipers. If you havent already done so, mk4 golf, TT, Lupo wiper arms fit and allow aero wipers to be fitter.
dave
If i'm honest the only 2 design faults of the corrado are the headlights and wipers. If you havent already done so, mk4 golf, TT, Lupo wiper arms fit and allow aero wipers to be fitter.
dave
Sonofabeesting said:
ImDesigner said:
I'm not keen on the TOW stickers but otherwise, it's rather nice. How do you find the Osram Nightbreakers? A pointless outlay in my experience.
Corrado headlights are totally useless. Anything to help. Nice 'rado
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