My Corrado G60 to AHU swap.

baja_brewer

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Jun 5, 2011
Location
RI
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1980 Rabbit Pickup (1.6 IDI), 1990 Corrado TDI, 2010 Audi A5
Hey Matt, PM me a price and how long its been sitting. I'm hoping to get mine out this week.... I have 2 MK3 ones sitting around and they have been sitting as long as the Corrado one did so I'm curious about reliability after they haven't been used.

I also have another thought on what the issue might be but need to do some reading that I haven't had time for. I can't remember if I used that air tube between the boots... Would that cause a minor leak and mean the rack isn't bad??
 

baja_brewer

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Location
RI
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1980 Rabbit Pickup (1.6 IDI), 1990 Corrado TDI, 2010 Audi A5
so what is going on with this build. Really enjoying the read as im about to begine the process on my acquired corrado.
Hey SkyRyder, I just said hi in your build thread. This is stagnant - the car is on blocks for the winter with the k-frame dropped and the engine supported. I need to replace a ball joint, drop the CV's from the flanges and make sure everything is properly torqued, and replace the power steering rack.

I'm taking 9 grad credits this semester on top of my job. Garage time is like free-time, non-existent :(

This is giving me a bit of free time to rebuild some funds - I need a new hood-release, and might get the nice Aluminum (stainless) one from spoonfedtuning.
 
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G60ING

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 5, 2001
Location
MD
TDI
No TDIs Currently, I have an R36 Corrado. I've had an ALH Corrado swap, AHU Corrado swap and 2003 TDI Jetta
Any updates? Steven and I were talking about this car on Instgram when I brought up a list of what might make you a corrado owner.

http://instagram.com/p/x0dkucHwlv/

You might be a #corrado owner if:

-your corrado doesn't require car insurance because it hasn't seen the road in a year.
-you've given up worrying about flat spotted tires
-there is no need to worry about circulating the fluids when there aren't any, there isn't even an engine in the car
-you spend more on shipping for corrado parts than gas (or diesel ;) ) during most years.
-you've attended more car shows without your corrado than with.
-you hear everybody talk about AAA Platinum for it's 200 miles free but think why waste the annual fee when odds are that your corrado won't leave the driveway.
-you are willing to pay $500 for roof strips, e-codes or $2,000+ for a VSR, hell I want to buy a VSR and I don't even have a VR6.
-you have owned more than one corrado at one time, odds are that there were multiple times both weren't operational
-you drive with tools and spare parts
-you make statements about when it's done or finished and people laugh
 
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SkyRyder55

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2012
Location
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
TDI
1998 Jetta TDI, 1990 Corrado G60 (AHU soon)
-You have enough spare parts to build multiple cars but not one of them runs
-you have 2 cars in your garage. A shell without an engine and a pile of parts that used to be a car
 

baja_brewer

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Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Location
RI
TDI
1980 Rabbit Pickup (1.6 IDI), 1990 Corrado TDI, 2010 Audi A5
Awesome- I understand all of those!

Okay- I really slacked off last summer. I had a nightmare of a time with the power steering rack but got that sorted and everything seated back in place by October.

I have a list of items to do to make the car roadworthy (with a trunk full of tools and parts, mind) which starts with hooking up the HVAC- Hopefully this weekend, as I just got the Corrado's battery back out of my Caddy.

New years resolution was to have the car on the road for commuting by summer (and upgrading my AAA service) which was received with much eye rolling by the GF.

I'll do a real update when I'm not on my phone.
 

G60ING

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 5, 2001
Location
MD
TDI
No TDIs Currently, I have an R36 Corrado. I've had an ALH Corrado swap, AHU Corrado swap and 2003 TDI Jetta
That car has given me more headaches on the ps rack than any other car.
 

G60ING

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 5, 2001
Location
MD
TDI
No TDIs Currently, I have an R36 Corrado. I've had an ALH Corrado swap, AHU Corrado swap and 2003 TDI Jetta
Here is your car in 1998
 

baja_brewer

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Location
RI
TDI
1980 Rabbit Pickup (1.6 IDI), 1990 Corrado TDI, 2010 Audi A5
....sooooo not much different than 2015.
Haha.hey now, the engine is in and the car is (getting flat spots) on all 4 wheels.

I didn't work on the car last weekend because I went skiing instead.
 

baja_brewer

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Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Location
RI
TDI
1980 Rabbit Pickup (1.6 IDI), 1990 Corrado TDI, 2010 Audi A5
So I swapped the wiper motor with one from an mk3 since mine didn't want to work. Lovely job for cold hands in tight spaces.

The fresh air fan isnt working. I checked fuses, and the relay appears to be brand new. I've just chased the HVAC wiring backwards and forwards - and everything seems to be hooked up except that I found I have a plug on the harness that is just floating in the passenger footwell that carries power but has no obvious place to plug in:





Wondering if that or the 4 position switch are my culprits. Anyone had a switch go bad on them before? It appears that it is supposed to vary in resistance to give different voltages to the blower - yeah? I guess I can give the blower ~12V directly and see if it comes on....



Also discovered that I missed the drain tube when I reinstalled the air box way back after doing the heater core, so I might be pulling the dash again...
 
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baja_brewer

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Jun 5, 2011
Location
RI
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1980 Rabbit Pickup (1.6 IDI), 1990 Corrado TDI, 2010 Audi A5
So I promised a real update at some point - finishing the car to have it on the road this summer is my new years resolution - so I'm going to make this happen.

I had a fiasco with a power steering rack over the summer which took far too long to get sorted out with FCP Euro. In the end they were great and took the wrong part they gave me back while paying shipping and getting my core back to me, but I was frustrated because the whole thing could have been avoided if I had just inspected the damn thing when handing over my core. Lesson learned.

I have a list of "required" and "desired" items for getting the car on the road:

Required:
Wiper motor (done)
HVAC working (in progress)
Radiator Fans working (next)
(new) Pull dash and get HVAC drain tube correctly aligned
Head light wiring 100%
New Hood Release Cable and Hardware
Rain tray cover
Reconnect boost tubes
Put fluids back in it
Tires/alignment

Desired:
Get wing working
Replace cracked fog light
Nicely welded boost return pipe
Paint Bumper and Fit lower Grill
roof molding/windshield molding
11mm pump - currently sitting around - need to get my bracket back from the shop at work since its been sitting there 2 years.

As you can see a few of the required items are last minute put it on the road things, so not a big deal. The wiring is the sort of stuff that can take 10 minutes or 10 days worth of work. Frustrating. The alignment needs to happen and I might as well get tires at the same point, but I want to get those when I know they won't be sitting getting flat spots. A few things require throwing a bit of money at so I'll be going through the garage to sell some more old parts, including finishing parting out the other G60 block I have.

I hope to put time into this here and there but don't expect to really make much progress before the end of March. We'll see.
 
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Houpty GT

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 31, 2008
Location
South Carolina
TDI
Corrado TDI, 2000 Golf, 1996 B4 Variant
Good luck with the Corrado. That is not the right wiring diagram. There is a supplement for AC towards the back of the Bentley that shows the diagram with the AC relay that is used to control speed 4 on the fan.
 

G60ING

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 5, 2001
Location
MD
TDI
No TDIs Currently, I have an R36 Corrado. I've had an ALH Corrado swap, AHU Corrado swap and 2003 TDI Jetta
IRRC the fan gets its power from a green plug that goes into the back of the fuse panel, its a 1 wire wide plug with about 5 or 6 wires going into it. 1 wire is for speed 4 and then the other 3 speeds go thru the resistor pack. I think this is where I got power for my radio setup in my AHU corrado but then again i swapped to a mk3 radio wiring harness on my corrado.

yes get familiar wiring diagrams

I used the G60 a/c and fan control wiring for my TDI because its so simple but on the Corrado its often eaten up by battery acid.

The afterrun fan is controlled by an aux. relay on the fuseblock. My fan will cycle on and off after my car is shut off on hot days for up to an hour. It can be annoying but it works well and has never killed my battery. Its just annoying because my spal fan is loud. The factory fan is quiet on its low speed and thus goes unnoticed.
 

baja_brewer

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Location
RI
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1980 Rabbit Pickup (1.6 IDI), 1990 Corrado TDI, 2010 Audi A5
Got the drain tube lined up in the right place, took longer than I wanted and my dash is mostly apart again. No fun.

Good luck with the Corrado. That is not the right wiring diagram. There is a supplement for AC towards the back of the Bentley that shows the diagram with the AC relay that is used to control speed 4 on the fan.
Turns out it was the right diagram for my problem, but it didn't help with my problem - heh, see below.

IRRC the fan gets its power from a green plug that goes into the back of the fuse panel, its a 1 wire wide plug with about 5 or 6 wires going into it. 1 wire is for speed 4 and then the other 3 speeds go thru the resistor pack. I think this is where I got power for my radio setup in my AHU corrado but then again i swapped to a mk3 radio wiring harness on my corrado.

yes get familiar wiring diagrams
So heres the deal - I traced that pink/white wire back to my switch - and did a continuity test, yup same wire. Pulled the switch apart and it has a "+" on the back, should be power. Then I traced the black and red wire back to Q/2 (six pin blue) in the block: "Fresh Air Fan/AC Switch or Climatronic Unit" - tested the voltage: 12V

Jumped that connection, turned the switch - fans came on. Son of a.... so - I'm kind of stuck. I pulled out all of my boxes of wiring, no shorting plugs or anything. I assume that pink and black also takes power somewhere, I could just make a shorting plug but that seems sort of sketchy.

What say ye gurus?
 

hopcarolina

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 20, 2012
Location
Huntersville, NC
TDI
2000 Jetta, 1990 Corrado TDI
I've been on that road!

Interesting, I'll keep that in mind when I go to install the 11mm pump I have. VWMikel has been awesome with prompt communication and top notch support, and his price was super fair for the work he did.

Car drove great coming home today. Its pretty interesting coming from driving the Passat and (not so much recently) the Rabbit. With the Rabbit I feel a lot of control, what with it having a pretty low center of gravity, weight over the front wheels, manual steering rack and small steering wheel but noooo power. The Passat is no slouch in terms of get up and go, has creature comforts, but isn't all that exciting. I'm adjusting to the AHU engine - the 1.6IDI in the rabbit has to be driven hard to get it to go anywhere, the 2.0TDI in the Passat with the DPF/SRC can be jammed on without smoking but won't suffer if you don't drive hard. I'm finding that the Corrado responds better if I ease onto the throttle (less smoke and still builds boost just as quickly) and oh MAN does the handing feel good compared to the other two.

I really ripped into this corner below today; its my favorite on my ride. I got up to the speed where the Passat really starts to lean and feel unwieldy, but the Corrado seemed fine so I gave it some more - all of a sudden the LSD was just pulling me into the corner. Awesome!!!





Its on the list! Doesn't currently work from the switch.

Hey now!
Just reading through your thread.... I am building a 90 G60 AHU Corrado (God help me)

Anyway, my wife is from Old Lyme and we vacation up to Block Island every year. Travel that way to point Judith. Thought it looked familiar. Very cool.

I was reading some of the ECU issues. I fear I have no idea what im up against when I get to that point. My interior is all out and I have tried to verify all the pin outs but DANG... My next order of business is to wire in the OBDII connector. I need the K line or L line? Would you be able to advise?

Thanks man
John

Do you still the corrado?
 

G60ING

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 5, 2001
Location
MD
TDI
No TDIs Currently, I have an R36 Corrado. I've had an ALH Corrado swap, AHU Corrado swap and 2003 TDI Jetta
Do you still the corrado?


I hope he chimes in lets us know if he still has the corrado, I think about this specific corrado from time to time ?
 

v-dub-u

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Joined
Apr 17, 2010
Location
greensboro nc
TDI
02 jetta tdi 2010 jetta tdi, 92 corrado tdi
I hope he chimes in lets us know if he still has the corrado, I think about this specific corrado from time to time ?
Ditto! I believe both frank and myself will always have a soft spot for this old car!
 

baja_brewer

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Location
RI
TDI
1980 Rabbit Pickup (1.6 IDI), 1990 Corrado TDI, 2010 Audi A5
I hope he chimes in lets us know if he still has the corrado, I think about this specific corrado from time to time ?
Ditto! I believe both frank and myself will always have a soft spot for this old car!
Hey guys, don't worry - she's safe and sound... in the garage. Coming up on 4 years as a project, I know that I'm not even close to being in the running for longest Corrado project ;) maybe for this particular one, though.

I had it out and took it for a drive around the neighborhood in the fall after re-assembling the dash and getting the HVAC working (it seems there was some sort of shorting plug missing as I traced the supposed power circuit all over the place and only found one place where it seemed a connection was absent) - since its been a long time between working on it, I had a bit of a mishap when I went to leave the driveway - some of the lugs were loose and I stripped the spot for the one of those H&R adapter plates for the 4x100 to 5x130 conversion. I ended up picking up a set of Raceland adapters, which are 20mm thick rather than 25mm - hoping I don't regret that.

I have a few goodies to toss on then I will probably be post up more as I try and drive it. I do have AAA Plus now, which means 100 mile tows are a possibility :cool:

Hey now!
Just reading through your thread.... I am building a 90 G60 AHU Corrado (God help me)

Anyway, my wife is from Old Lyme and we vacation up to Block Island every year. Travel that way to point Judith. Thought it looked familiar. Very cool.

I was reading some of the ECU issues. I fear I have no idea what im up against when I get to that point. My interior is all out and I have tried to verify all the pin outs but DANG... My next order of business is to wire in the OBDII connector. I need the K line or L line? Would you be able to advise?

Thanks man
John

Do you still the corrado?
John - sorry I'm pretty late on getting back to you.

That is a fun corner - I'm always wishing whatever I drive is a bit lower so I could pull harder through the corner - there is a rough stop in the middle of the road that is getting worse, though.

I'm having a hard time remembering on the wiring. A quick look at the schematic I'm able to pull up on my computer tells me that the K line is for the "Multifunction Light" (Check engine) - so.... L? If you don't have an answer yet, let me know and I'll try and take a better look.

Summer is coming, I want to drive this - I just need to prioritize it!
 

G60ING

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 5, 2001
Location
MD
TDI
No TDIs Currently, I have an R36 Corrado. I've had an ALH Corrado swap, AHU Corrado swap and 2003 TDI Jetta
I owned that car from 1995-2009 and only racked up 80k miles. It was a garage queen. I did more builds than I care to mention on that car. Let me know if you ever get to the point of throwing in the towel. In a couple years my 7yr old son and I will need a corrado to build
 

Houpty GT

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 31, 2008
Location
South Carolina
TDI
Corrado TDI, 2000 Golf, 1996 B4 Variant
I owned that car from 1995-2009 and only racked up 80k miles. It was a garage queen. I did more builds than I care to mention on that car. Let me know if you ever get to the point of throwing in the towel. In a couple years my 7yr old son and I will need a corrado to build
^Hereditary Corrado disease ;)
 
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