'88 Scirocco Scala

[jjmartin349571]

Haha yes I'm slowly building up stock, I reckon between all of them I should be able to raise enough money to buy a half decent car we have two Volkswagens, 2 Accords, a Prelude and a Shitron Xsara. I think my problem is I get bored quickly

I felt very guilty this evening as I walked up the drive, I know it's an inanimate object but I can't help but think the Accord GSi must've felt rejected that not only did I not drive it all weekend, I also didn't take it to work today I'll drive it again soon, I promise!

As for the Scirocco, it's been running fine today, it just can't manage long journeys. My girlfriend drove it this evening, and I haven't seen her laughing and smiling that much whilst driving a car since she used to drive the Prelude It's a fun car this one, but I definitely wouldn't recommend one for anything other than rolling around town or local B roads. I like my Accord for cruising around, much more comfortable!

Action plan for the Rocco then: replace fuel filler neck with a plastic one from a 3 series. Enlarge holes in fuel pre filter, and fit an inline fuel filter where there should be one but it isn't there Fit a GTi cam shaft to compliment the Weber carb conversion and hopefully return to or even exceed the stock 90BHP (at 3300 RPM ). Fix the leaking rear window washer jet. Rag it around until Prelude is fixed

Unfortunately it was a bit late for taking photos by the time I got out this evening Although when you're a 24 year old VW, the darkness is your friend

[jjmartin349571]

Tonight I decided to sort out the fact that my Scirocco has no stereo. To make matters complicated, a previous owner had hacked the loom up

So, firstly I traced all the wires from the speakers, and wrote them down on the wiring diagram from my Haynes manual. I had to do this as the colours of my wires were different to what the manual said they should be. The remaining few wires were the correct colours fortunately! The next step was to cut off the existing bullet connectors, strip fresh bits off the wires and connect some insulated female spade sockets. It sounds simple but the wires for the rear speakers were a nightmare! They were really short so I couldn't get them out the dash to use my crimping tool to strip them, instead I had to use a pair of wire cutters very carefully by poking the wire through the slot into the cubbyhole below.

After the connectors were fitted:


Next step was to split the constant live into 2 wires. This would enable me to connect it to the switched live on my head unit as well as the constant live. You have to do this as the Scirocco has no switched live as standard. I made a tiny loom from 2 bits of wire and three spade connectors. In the future I'll take a switched live from the heater controls above, but for now this will do:



Couldn't find my red wire so had to use black

I didn't fancy buying a new ISO adapter, so I just cut up a spare Honda one I had. I fitted male spade connectors to all the wires on this so that I could plug it into the Scirocco loom.



Not an awful lot of space in there!!

From here it was simple, just fitted the stereo cage I had, and slotted in a spare head unit I somehow made it this far without any injuries, so of course I managed to take a load of skin off my thumb on the cage

Moment of truth:





So I now have a stereo, and I've got to say after the amount of hassle it was to fit it kind of makes me appreciate it more than on the easier installs I've done. Just a shame it's blue and not green to match the dash!



Whilst I was playing around with the sound system I thought it would be a good chance to fit a leftover set of speakers I had from my Golf, as the parcel shelf speakers in the Golf fit the door cards and parcel shelf of the Scirocco, and my door speakers were in tatters.




Just need speaker covers now for the front and rear, then I can leave it all alone for a bit.

Next up on the list is find out why my windscreen wash function has died again. First time it was a dead pump, which I replaced and it fixed the problem. Now I reckon it's the relay that's let go.

Another small problem I fixed today, and with the help of my lovely girlfriend, was my sticking throttle. A few minutes spent adjusting the cable seems to have sorted everything out I now have a Scirocco that starts and drives on a Pierburg 2E2 carb, even in the freezing cold - something that's a bit of a rarity at the best of times

[Sailor]

Nice car mate. How many cars have you got now? Is there a competition on LG for the most non running cars lol

We probably can't compete, but at the moment we've got:-
V ATR (daily driver)
X Ninja 600 (daily rider)
A Daihatsu Charade (daily driver)
R 5G Lude (non-running - immobiliser problems, we think)
R BMW 318iS Coupe (deer-damaged, probably write-off)
F Rover Mini (now 1275cc - laid up for winter)

+ 4 bicycles, 2 lawn mowers, 2.5 chainsaws and who knows how many R/C cars and aircraft, mostly in bits

[jjmartin349571]

Well, the sun was out a bit recently, so I took some photos of the Scirocco in all it's shitty glory











I know it's not to everyone's taste, but with a bit of straightening out I think it has the potential to be a really nice car

In other news it passed it's MOT earlier this month It initially failed on a snapped ARB bracket and emissions, so I replaced the bracket and adjusted the idle fuel mixture and she got her ticket. I have an advisory list as long as my arm though most of the components underneath are rotten, plus some other faults I can't remember. Luckily parts are cheap for these cars so I'll just gradually replace all the running gear/brake lines/fuel lines and then it should all be sweet.

Speaking of fuelling, I've installed and set up a spare carburettor (a Pierburg 2E2 ) and the car runs a lot better now. It's also running on it's OEM autochoke rather than the muffin manual choke a previous owner fitted. Only problem is, due to the lean fuel mixture I've got going for the MOT, she is troublesome to start from cold. Pump the throttle, start her up and don't stop for a couple of streets and it's sorted though, and seeing as I'm getting decent fuel economy I'm inclined to leave it on this mixture. I think my thermo time valve isn't working properly anyway which is making things worse, so I'll swap that out soon.

All in all I've been pretty busy with this car enjoying it though, for a measly 90BHP engine it's a surprisingly fun car! I've not had any understeer yet, even when I've pushed it just to see where the limit is it's quite nippy too, as it weighs sweet f a and has a short ratio gearbox - you can drive at 25 in 5th and the engine doesn't falter whatsoever when you push the throttle. Motorway speeds are a no go though, iirc 70mph is in excess of 4k rpm in 5th

Next on my to do list is clean out the fuel tank and fuel lines, then replace the fuel filler neck with the one I got from a 3 series. Still not quite warm enough for that job yet though

[si import]

always liked these. my aunt use to have a black one .
looks in pretty good condition in pics

[wurlycorner]

Did it come with all the rear interior missing, or have you taken it out?

[jjmartin349571]

I took it out, one bracket on the bench had snapped so it wasn't secure and I was concerned it'd fail it's MOT. Plus the front seats are from a Corrado, and didn't match the bench. Shame, as the Scala models had a special colour coded upholstery, here's mine which was standard on Helios blue Scala's:



I have the parcel shelf and boot liner in the cupboard, I'm just waiting for someone to break another Helios blue Scala so I can get the full interior. Could be a long wait

[vtectom]

17 yrs old with a 2 week old licence & my school friend lets me drive his dad's tuned mk1 scirocco storm -
135mph on local dual carriageway, my friend says 'don't go any faster!'

loved the mk1 - mk2 never looked as good - sorry

[jjmartin349571]

those storms are meant to be beasts. By modern standards these cars feel so dangerous that I feel uncomfortable driving my Scirocco at 70 though, it feels so flimsy

Its the other way round for me looks wise, the front end of the Mk1 never looked right to my eye, not fond of the round lights on such a boxy car. Same goes for my Mk2 Golf, when I find the parts for a sensible price then I'll be fitting a Mk2 Jetta slam panel, grille and headlights to the Golf

Interestingly the Mk1 and Mk2 Scirocco are built on the same chassis, the Mk1 Golf platform. They share loads of parts as a result, and the Mk2 is more like a radical facelift. This does mean though that the Mk2 was effectively built on a redundant platform, as it was produced at the same time as the Mk2 Golf

[Angus]

I had a couple of Sciroccos before my Celicas - loved them. Had a black 2.0i (I think, from memory), and this Chilli Red 1.8 GT. That was the first car we drove to Hungary in - ended up stuck at the Czech border crossing in a queue of traffic for a couple of hours. It was at that point that I realised that the next year we'd have to get a car with air conditioning!

Absolutely loved my wee Scirocco - ended up selling it with 147K on the clock to a Tornado pilot from Lossiemouth.





Before anyone says anything about the hair - it's much longer nowadays!

I also had a couple of Audi Coupes immediately before the Sciroccos. I seem to remember they were both 2 litre jobs, though it's been a few years now!