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Angie says you can have it – sometimes! CAR: VW Corrado VR6 YEAR: 1995 OWNER: Angie Voluti

It’s been a slow month, Corradowise. Having sorted the rear coilovers and taken it for a test-drive, a large company (responsible for water supply) decided that I didn’t actually need my front wheel/tyre and thoughtfully provided a lovely deep (semi-concealed) pot-hole to relieve me of it.

Having sworn (a lot), I fitted the space-saver and drove gingerly home (the impact definitely damaged more than the wheel); I dumped it in the garage and tried to not think about setting light to the damn thing.

But time passes and wounds heal, so in the spirit of cheering myself up, I have approached some of the ‘fun’ jobs that can make a big difference to how ‘useful’ the Corrado is on a day-to-day basis.

Wipers – the standard windscreen wipers are woefully inadequate: a more useless system for cleaning the rain from a screen has never been fitted to a ’80’s vehicle! The stock arms have insufficient spring pressure properly to push the wiper onto the screen; they also have these little lugs as part of the arm that actually PREVENT the arm from providing maximum pressure.

The quick fix is to machine off (dremel) these lugs. That gives a much better ‘wipe’ action but to be honest, even after this creative approach, at anything over 60mph, they just rearrange the water into artistic patterns. However, thanks to some incredibly dedicated people on the Corrado forum, there is a solution (it’s even relatively cheap), and that is to fit VW Lupo and/or Audi TT wipers.

The driver’s side TT arm/wiper is a perfect match for the Corrado driver’s side arm/wiper; so I’ve chosen to use that, along with the passenger side arm from the Lupo, as the driver’s side TT arm is about 50mm short (for the Corrado passenger side).

You can use TT driver’s side arms on both sides of the Corrado but you get a slight overlap, whilst using the Lupo part alleviates this. Using the Lupo arm (with TT wiper) on the passenger side, positions the wiper almost in the stock-Corrado location.

But whichever combination you use, (and far more importantly), they work well and clear screen even at autobahn speed.

Column – the Corrado’s steering column is another part that received less than stellar attention from the VW engineers. The adjustment is via a kind of knuckle joint and whilst I’m sure it might have seemed a good idea at the time, after a few miles’ use, it’s more sloppy than a very sloppy thing!

The fix is a fully solid column; again, those wonderful folks from the Corrado Forum figured it all out years ago (shame you can’t just use Mk2 or Mk3 Golf parts).

In the past I’ve done the ‘solid column mod’ as part of other suspension work, but this is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to drive a VR6 Corrado with the column being the only change and WOW! It takes away most of the vague feeling you get while in the straight ahead and then, as it loads, you get so much more feedback (through the wheel). Please remember this is a safety critical item, so don’t go messing with the steering unless you are confident in your abilities.

SMOOTH OPERATOR

My next ‘play-time’ change is to the factory air-box and throttle-body: these mods have also been well documented (on both the Corrado and Club GTi forums) and give slight power/torque increases along with a little more drivability/smoothness. The air-box is removed from the vehicle and ‘smoothed’ internally; the plastic (internal) pipe-work is heated and ‘bell-mouthed’, then the front lower corner is opened up slightly.

This (along with more air-flow) gives an aurally pleasing ‘VR6 growl’ under acceleration (but quiet when cruising). Slapping on an aftermarket cone filter (apart from losing power due to the ingestion of very hot under-bonnet air – remember this if considering buying one…) results in a lot more (louder) noise.

The throttle-body is smoothed internally (slightly, without touching the machined section) with the water connections removed (and simply re-connected together). There are differences between the various VR6 throttle-bodies (depending if it’s a 2.9 Corrado or early/late Golf 2.8), the key here is not to go mad or you’ll either end up with air leaking through the closed throttle and/or horrible flatspots just off idle – finesse is the key – if in doubt, leave the thing alone!

Do you like aftermarket alarms? I have a love-hate relationship with ’em, inasmuch as I love to hate the damn things… In fairness, it’s usually not the actual alarm that’s at fault but the ‘professional’ that fitted it. Take the alarm in the Corrado. No really, take it, please. It’s of a reasonable make, good features etc. But save me from the ‘qualified’ installer that ‘fitted’ it! Wires twisted together and ‘dabbed’ (I can’t describe it any other way) with some solder, joints that fall apart as soon as you take the copious amounts of electrical tape off, un-terminated wires left dangling.

So, it is no more. I now have a nice clean, repaired, wrapped and clipped internal loom into which I can (PROPERLY) fit a nice modern cat 1 alarm. Needless to say, (for obvious reasons) this won’t be documented/photographed. Whilst ripping the alarm siren out of the engine bay (held in with one rusty self tapper…), I noticed the rad fan has a delightful pink pattern of G13 coolant on it (along with other pink spattering around the bay). Oh deep joy, looks like I need a new radiator as well.

Hmmm… The Corrado BBQ idea is starting to sound like a good idea again!