Tatty Corrado - holistic healing continues

[Diamond Hell]

Update from the results of the weekend.

As above - powertrain is back in, the brake servo is also back in, after the wiring went in.  Driveshafts, exhaust etc are all hooked up, ready to go.  The radiator has either rotted out, or been tapped on one end and is now leaking, which is a pain, but less painful than I was expecting to get a new one from ECP.

Anyone got any thoughts on the longevity of the clutch master cylinder - we ran through about half a litre of fluid and there were still the occasional bubbles coming through.  Hopefully a few days with fluid in it again might just tighten up any loose seals (or they'll start to leak).

Then we got on to the nasty stuff: making sure all of the things worked before the dash went back in.

Central locking wasn't working, so I checked the pump on the red Golf - worked fine.  Chuff suggested fitting the flasher relay back, which I did - hey presto - the central locking works again.  Go figure.

Next up was the fuel gauge - not working - we tried the two instrument packs and no joy.  DannyP called and suggested we tried another sender - Dave's tank was still on the floor, so although it has a different connector we jerry-rigged up some wires and shoved them into the fuel sender connector on the Corrado - working fuel gauge!  I'll have to see whether taking it out and making the fuel slosh about brings it back to life, before taking the top of the tank off to investigate.

During this Chuff noticed the temp gauge had popped up to 80Deg C.  This issue was resolved by removing another relay I'd fitted during the central locking issue resolution.

Then things got even nastier - the ABS light was on.  When I got the car the ABS was unplugged/not working/light had been disconnected (I forget which), but I'd had the pump on the bench and checked for the telltale *click* so we were hoping that was OK.  Next up was to run through the wheel sensors.  The connectors for the rear ones are under the rear seat, in case you're wondering.  All of these had a resistance except the front off-side, which read open.  After some scratching around I found a random sensor that had wound up hanging up with the crank position sensors and lambdas on a wall in the workshop.  It had the same plug and gave the same resistance value, so I plugged it in.  The ABS light was still on.  We disconnected the battery and came back a few minutes later and tried it; it was still on.  We disconnected the battery and moved the sensor away from the alternator pulley it had been sitting on; it was still on.  We tried starting the engine, in case it needed to see 'all systems normal' to switch off. Nope.  We were about to start packing up for the day, when I spotted I'd left the NS front sensor disconnected.

DOH!

ABS light out.

I think all systems are now sorted and happy. 

As we'd made progress we then got the dash fitted in and started routing the wiring which went well, but by that time it was time for Chuff to head for the boat and me to head home for dinner.

Many thanks to Chuff and DannyP for the assistance - new rad and an ABS sensor and we could well see this being driven in a couple of weeks. 

[Diamond Hell]

Oh and for those of you busy with GTA5 this weekend who don't have me on Faceplank, here is last night's status update, which will help you understand how this is going:

I've been playing a different game: GFA5 - Grand Fix Auto 5 (the Corrado is the fifth car I have at the moment after the Passat, the two Golfs and the SJ).

I've been playing this game on and off for a couple of years now. This weekend I was playing in a multi-player mode, with Chuff who came online to play this weekend.

Whilst we were playing we did bump into a few other characters in the game. There was one who came into the gameplay for a while, but didn't seem to do very much or move around very much and seemed for repeat the same phrases again and again, so I think he might have been a computer game character - he was called Dave, after all. I think we both considered killing him and robbing him, but figured he wouldn't have any money and neither of us wanted to gain police-stars whilst trying to complete the missions we wanted to nail this weekend.

A couple more players did come in briefly - Jane and Sean in their Yaris, but it turned out they were playing a different game TCA1 - Tiny Camp Auto 1. It didn't look very exciting and the mission they were on had crashed and we had to help them out with some in-game resources.

In GFA5 you work through missions just like you do in GTA5.

This weekend we completed the 'fitting the engine' mission, which was fiendishly complex and had a massively difficult boss - the 'downpipe nuts' part that had to be completed before we could complete the mission.

There was a very short mission after that - the 'starting the engine' mission, but the 'radiator' was leaking, so we haven't successfully completed that mission yet and need more funds to complete it, so I'll have to come back to it later in the game.

Today we worked on another complex mission, which needed both our skillsets, as well as some help from 'the narrator' - a voiceover that comes in from time to time and dispatches abuse and good advice. This character's voice is performed by the well known voice-over artist DannyP

Similarly to the GTA series there are also additional side-missions that must be completed to get to 100% in GFA5. One of these missions yesterday involved a tractor and in today's side-mission I had to go and sort out someone's connection to 'the internet'.

Probably the best thing about GFA is that once I've completed the 'fixing' missions I can move on to the 'driving' missions, which are quite a lot more exciting.

So, if you were playing GTA5 this weekend, don't bother updating us on any of the missions you completed unless they were more interesting and realistic than the GFA missions I was working on...

 

[DubFan]

^ 
Good game.

[Diamond Hell]

Did a whole load on this on Friday evening.  Front end is now back together, with the radiator in.  Minor issue - the bolt to tighten the bonnet release has sheared off and one of the bolts to lock the radiator in place on the tabs has sheared off.

Both are now on the 'PITA' list because both parts are obsolete.

Interior is also now mostly back together - lots of small trim screws back in place, dash pod back in.

Need to fire it up at this point and see we're all still OK.  I did power things up, but the headlights were doing odd things - main beam indicator wouldn't go out.  Someone's said it could be the wrong relay in there, so that's something to check through.

Still need to bleed up the brakes, but the new ABS sensor is on and the light is out, so I'm happy about that.

[Diamond Hell]

BOOM!  Nearly ready for MOT.

If I don't post this, he will, because he thinks it's funny.





BIG grin.

[Dave_IOW]

yeah right, I have only seen him clean one of his Dubs in 3 years.

 

[Seanl]

Better get the thread title changed now! 

[Diamond Hell]

By the first post in this thread I got the car on 19th October 2009.  The list in the first post reads:


Weld the exhaust back box back together with the rest of the system - it was swingin' free at the point of the swap.
Replace the fuel filter as it's leaking
Replace the second lower control arm and get the wheel alignment sorted

The above were crossed off in that post, which was before it was taken off the road.

The following were done before it was taken off the road:

Swap out the struts for OEM ride height units
Refit rear wiper motor.

Which means the following need to be sorted....

Replace the rear beam bushes - the back end is clonky - need to see whether the MOT brings anything up.
Fit new headlight bulbs and relay loom We'll have to see - I had to replace both headlights because I hit a couple of pheasants before it came off the road, which snapped off the mounting tabs.
Investigate the possibility of fitting ISOFix child seat mounts in the back.  I have a set of Passat ISOFix mounting bars that look like they might work. - time that has elapsed now means this is no longer necessary!
Replace KE-Jetronic fuel misting system with ABF EFi set up Check!
Fit tubular exhaust manifold - H'mmmm, maybe.
Replace cat with de-cat or sports cat - well it now has the cat from the Cordoba that supplied the ABF

Investigate non-functioning ABS system - sensor replaced, light comes on, light goes out.  Happy about that!

I also need to check the brake compensator valve is actually working.
Might need to replace the rear discs and pads, as they are nasty and crusty looking
We shall see what the MOT tester says about the front-to-back lines on the car, but they're not terribly healthy looking.
It now has 280mm front rotors, from the Cordoba donor
Electric mirrors aren't working.  Further investigation required,
Heater box doesn't switch through def/face/feet air direction.  May need a replacement.

[SoundillusioN]

Good to this back up top in this section.  Nice surprise, even though I got a heads up. 

[Seanl]

For the direction control for the heater, knowing that your not one to throw money at something so unimportant, you may just decide to put up with it and set the direction at the heater box to windscreen. If its the control itself you'll be lucky to get one under £65.