ZAFFFF-EEEERRRRAA OF DESTINY, heart transplant, works well!!!!

[vaughant]

So after much non updates I felt it time for, well, an update!!!

I've recently wiped my phone so pics will follow but basically I purchased an Astra for 100 English pounds and paid a lovely man called Piotr to deliver it very carefully from Winchester to my shared unit in Hungerford, I'll find the Shiply link as he was spot on.

Car had been a sort of stereo/sound off vehicle and was in various states of disrepair but was cheap as, after all only the engine* was required.

Turned up and no running, not as described, young loon couldn't find the keys so I attempted some booster pack bodgery to try and at least kick the starter over so I could compression test it.

A lack of suitable room to get the croc clips in without arcing put pay to that idea!!

Eventually young blood finds the keys and leaves me to it, taking his mum to work.

A bit of messing about with cut wiring and the like she turns over and fires up, I'm quite impressed!!!

No rads fitted so I don't leave it run too long but just enough to do the compression test.

Results were good, better than good in fact, 180 plus across all four.

Present 100 groats to young man, await delivery.

 

Getting the engine out was a bit of a faff, mainly because the previous person hadn't actually actually vacated my bay, hence the majority of the work was done outside in the freezing cold, nice. Plus being 2-10 that week I only had a few hours a day to complete it.

Many seized bolts later the lot was out, faffs were gear linkages, couple of subframe bolts and steering u/j.

 

That Saturday, late in the day I managed to get the zaff on the ramp. This removal was more involved as I was dealing with rads, proper removal of pipes etc and probably due to tiredness/rushing/feeling a bit pressured I forgot the steering rack lower u/j bolt and the heater matrix pipes, doh. The latter I did actually remember but they were stubborn buggers and I thought I was being clever.

Once out that was a day called, casualties were only really the steering u/j, Astra provided a decent donor, happy days.

 

A quick word of advice to anyone swapping out this way, I tried to be clever and keep the driveshafts intact as I'd heard horrors that they don't want to come out, this lead to hours of messing about trying to mate engines back with gearboxes and generally getting really frustrated. In the end an extra 30 mins doing it meant the engine and box mated straight up, false economy and a top tip.

 

Despite there only being a year between them, the differences in wiring etc were quite significant. I'm sure it would have ran without swapping looms but certainly not everything would have worked.

 

Also, remember on Vauxhall of this era that you need the unique silver box under the bonnet where the wiring multiplex connections join as that's your immobiliser.

 

After a LOT of faffing, again caused by non removal of driveshafts etc, she was in, another few nights of booking up connects, fuel/water, bleeding clutch and so on and she was good to start.

 

She went, first time, no issues, I didn't expect any but it's always a nervy moment as we all know.

 

Took the time to do discs/pads/track rods, found an u/s lower arm that I'll see if the Astra can donate etc, put the Astra 17" alloys on it and I must say it looks well.

 

Broke the steering clock Spring on first drive but once again the Astra donated his.

 

A lot spoken of how shite vaux of this era are but truth be told it was very well put together and had some good little design features, bolts are of excellent quality and overall I was impressed.

 

I know a thread is worthless without pics so that will be Sunday/next week but I'm pleased to say it drives lovely now, nice throaty engine, still feels quick to me, roomy inside and just such an useful bit of kit.

 

To do list is put gearbox oil in and antifreeze as I suspected it would want to bleed all the water out but actually once I'd run it through it held so now it's on 100% water only.

 

Bit of an edd China job in saying that the car only stands me £6/700 all done but it took at least a week of evenings to sort so if I included labour it owes me one millionty pounds but at least I got the pleasure* of working on it.

 

Enjoy your weekend folks.

[SiC]

Another Zafira A saved! Yay????

 

 

 

 

 

Or nay....

[Pillock]

"My Zafira has a buggered engine"

"Scrap it!"

[......]

"I've put a new engine in it"

 

Well done, proves the worth of having a donor vehicle instead of just buying an engine on a pallet with the amount of spares you needed.

[Pillock]

bloody bloody double post. What is it with this thread?

[Lacquer Peel]

Great work.

I can confirm that buying a donor vehicle is worthwhile, I hope the final stages of my engine swap go well.

[Lacquer Peel]

double post fuddery

[Pillock]

I wonder if it's the emojies in the title causing the forum software to barf.

[Pillock]

Because again, I hit POST and it appeared to do nothing, so it double posted when I pressed it again.

[vaughant]

Good luck with the engine swap on this, our kid.

It's weird how the usefulness of an MPV encourages forgiveness of FTP's. I'm not parting with my Estima any time soon. That's in the UK with most of the fleet, but I'm considering a cheap* 7-seater here in the foreign, and early Zafs have caught my eye, particularly these 2.2's, very much sold as a premium product. Having read some comments above about this 2.2 lump, should I be reconsidering? Are they as much a liability as the 2.2TD Estima is reputed to be?

Hard to say, I think I got unlucky but I'd look for oil leaks, particularly top end. Best bet is to remove the engine cover (easy job) and using a pair of pliers remove the breather pipe, run and rev it, any smoke/breathing walk away.

 

A cliché I know but look for good history. As you stated they were a premium product and seem well loaded, all the gubbins work on mine and from removal of the engine etc they are actually well put together, very well in fact, the use of quality fixings etc proves that.

 

Mine had little in the way of history and as I bought at auction I had to act fast but I got blinded by the fact it was one family owned from new, all original etc, I took a gamble that the guy had serviced it himself hence a slim looking book but truthfully it had probably not been driven too far and kept working hence left alone.

I'd say get one with decent history and maybe higher owners but well looked after.

 

A lot of talk on here of bridging it as their worthless but looking about for a replacement 2.2 pez revealed a working one was £750/800 upwards, a decent one over a grand.

 

Shame for the lack of love as their pure autoshite to me and hopefully* I'll get a good few more years out of it.

[vaughant]

thanks for the replies 100% appreciated.

They take some abuse but tbh it's such a nice car to drive, the 2.2 makes it lazy but nippy too, put anything in it, the flex 7 stuff is good too, front seats flipping flat etc.

Was it worth saving? Depends on a lot of things, I had the ability and for the first time in 7 or 8 years I had a space to do it so I thought fork it, let's do this.

It's a nice feeling when you break something then fix it again.

 

It was a good week actually as there's a lad there with a clio 182 sport thingy that he'd put an engine in with a second hand loom that wasn't the best. I helped him out for a few hours as he was more into the spanners than wiring and we found two or three typically French wiring issues, 2 poor connections and a nasty nasty bodge on both the ecu main feed and fuel pump relay, seriously shit wiring, nobends.

Ran straight up after that.

Next on the list, e36 328i cabby, owned since 2002 but not used in anger since 2008/9. Last on road in 2010 but usual overheating crappy m52 engine, swapped it out for a m50 but not had much use since.

Let the games begin.

[vaughant]

Great work.

I can confirm that buying a donor vehicle is worthwhile, I hope the final stages of my engine swap go well.

I'm sure it will, be methodical and it should be fine.

 

I found I learnt a lot about the vehicle, what jobs are tough and what aren't so bad.

 

Between the two cars I've got a better clutch and air filter etc from the donor but my alternator was better/wiring loom better, loads of bits and bobs.

 

Happy days.

[Kiltox]

Should've bought a donor for my Panda. Well played sir.

[Hendry]

Prestige blue top spec Zafira with irmscher bits, looks really smart!!

 

Im so anal about these things that on a genuine one owner reasonably well looked after car, id have been trying to sort the original engine so it was all original, the engine numbers on the car pass and V5 match up with the engine fitted etc. But well done on sorting it, its different and thats what this place is all about!

 

The Zafira is one of those cars thats totally transformed by a nice colour and being a higher spec model with fogs, colour coding, alloys etc. the Elegances and stuff are like totally different cars to base 1.6 Life in resale silver or doom blue. 

[vaughant]

Prestige blue top spec Zafira with irmscher bits, looks really smart!!

 

Im so anal about these things that on a genuine one owner reasonably well looked after car, id have been trying to sort the original engine so it was all original, the engine numbers on the car pass and V5 match up with the engine fitted etc. But well done on sorting it, its different and thats what this place is all about!

 

The Zafira is one of those cars thats totally transformed by a nice colour and being a higher spec model with fogs, colour coding, alloys etc. the Elegances and stuff are like totally different cars to base 1.6 Life in resale silver or doom blue.

Yeah that would have been the ideal option but to do the engine rebuild properly your talking many £££'s and time, also there's so much that can then go wrong, relying on other peoples machining/used parts etc.

Had it been a cavvy turbo or a mk1 gte I would have but I felt the quickest/easiest option was to swap the lot.

Drove her back yesterday and it's now how it should have been when I first bought it, great response, much better handling/brakes etc and it also has a really decent turn of pace. The Astra had a k&n on it so I shoved that on as my air box link pipe was shot and I will say it makes a nice 90's Vauxhall bark when you toe it now.

 

I couldn't keep myself in suspense any longer either so I stripped down the engine Sunday evening just to see what's what and the compression tester got it spot on, a small piece of the piston on number 3 looked like it had just burned away, certainly can't find it anywhere!!! You can see the back of the ring so probably why it didn't rattle about badly, there's a very small score mark at the top of the bore, probably could be saved but I'm not prepared to pass on that risk so we'll make a table or the like out of it!!

Head looked in great order though, very little coking, no bent valves, all the timing lined up, frustrating.

That maybe worth something second hand, who knows?

[vaughant]

Holy thread update!!!

 

Well it's been a while but today she received a full 12 month MOT certificate from an excellent garage in Swindon called MOT Autocentre up of the cricklade road on the groundwell estate.

 

I'd never been there before, didn't know anyone but everything it failed on was spot on,£25 with a free retest??? Can't go wrong.

 

Car wise it hasn't all gone very well, had a nasty FTP on the M4, clutch pipe popped off. Desperately needing to get to work and in the midst of an horrific storm I foolishly (REALLY FOOLISHLY) bled the system through with some engine oil as that was all I had.

Fair play, the car made it to work despite having only a few mm of clutch travel.

Stupidly drive it about for 2 days then decided to sorry it out and bleed the system through.

After trying for an hour I noted a big puddle of fluid on the floor, FFS, coming from the gearbox, yes worst case scenario, the clutch release bearing had failed, fucking marvellous.

Desperate, I actually bought a seat Leon to get me home but that turned out to be fantastic and I still have it!!!

I left it for a few weeks then tackled the task of getting the box off, truth be told as I've done this a few times now I knew the pitfalls and it was all off in a few hours, happy happy days.

 

Replaced the bearing (£38 from gsf, very pleased), put it back together and realised there was more damage, ended up swapping out the pedal, pipe and bleed valve and then after tons of faffing it started working ok, after yet another pressure bleed the pedal now is lovely. I revisited a lot of silly jobs I either overlooked or just thought "that'll do" like bottom ball joints, rattling exhaust, steering coupling not quite right and now as far as I'm concerned I've got a really well sorted car.

Changing the box oil made a huge difference too, so nice to get into gear now, engine is silent and really good on fuel for a biggish lump.

I've been using it as impromptu sleeping quarters for the last two months (another reason why I didn't rush) and is most likely paid for itself now, really pleased, it's the perfect Stealth camper, nobody suspects a zafira being used as a "day van", it gets under any barriers and because it's a car or warms up quick and the general insulation is good.

 

Time to put some miles on it now, one advisory was rear pads (wrong ones supplied by Euro) so that's another job to do and to fit a traction control off switch as it panics over nothing on the road which is apparently a common trait on these.

 

Otherwise all good.

 

I'll put some pics up after a good wash.

[Twiggy]

A very interesting thread - thank you.

[vaughant]

A very interesting thread - thank you.

Thank you too.

 

Yes a pretty boring car which frankly should have met the bridge the instant the engine started its doom phase but I felt it deserved another chance.

 

Good thing was being vaux (despite all of them being shite) parts were pence for it, the only thing I got stung on really was the starter motor and even then that was only 80 odd sovs (although the donor car starter was perfick). I reckon despite changing most mechanical parts I've struggled to spend more than £400 on it so only owing me £800 tops, perhaps less.

 

Factor in man hours though and it owes me about £1,000,000.01

[Rusty_Rocket]

There's a lot to be said about running a car that's, er, plentiful in scrap yards though!  So few people consider this when buying a banger.

 

My sister has a 2006 Tigra (against my better judgement) but nevertheless, when I discovered a broken front spring 3 hours before its MoT, a 20 minute trip to my local place saw me bag a Corsa-C front strut, already removed and on the shelf, for £20.  Easy, quick fix that got me out of trouble and another clean pass!

Mrs Rusty has a late shape Yaris and they're not plentiful in the yards.  Every new part has to be ordered in or bought online, at 5 times the price and with a week's wait..