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THE DFS WORLD OF CHOD - Running repairs required. 11/10.


dougiefourspeed

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Aye, they do indeed ADTS.

 

In a fit of fuck-knows-what i decided that buying one of these with a fucked head gasket 60 miles from where I lived would be a good idea.

 

I also decided cycling there and driving it home would be "interesting" 

 

In Scotland. 

 

In February.

 

Cycle up was no bother apart from the mild blizzard above Largs (Ayr to Garelochead), stopping to pick up some K-Seal on the way.

 

Arrived to the bemusement of the seller, got changed, handed over some cash and added the K-Seal to the coolant and headed off on my trip home.

 

Fucker boiled up 2 miles later and emptied the coolant system, along with my precious K-Seal. 

 

I lost count of the amount of times I stopped to top it up (not using seawater at all, no siree) until I eventually reached Halfords in Dumbarton.

 

In a shit or bust attempt I bought the angriest sounding block sealer they had (steel Seal or something similar), filled it up, bled it up and headed south with the heater on full to a: thaw me out and b: warn of impending doom.

 

I got all the way to the A77 just outside Ayr when the heater started to blow cold. Limped it back to my lockup and forgot about it for a while. 

 

When I could face the thing again it was one of the easiest head gaskets I'd done, I'm sure I gave it a new timing belt aswell as a skim and it was under £100 all in. Smoked about in it for a while then flogged it on. It was the 3rd 106 I've had, great wee cars. Mostly...

 

Sorry for the hijack, best of luck!

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I was thinking more along the lines of a mid-mounted RWD 3.0 TDV6 HDi out of a 407 Coupe with a Nissan GT-R Hybrid turbo and sequential gearbox from Tim Harvey's 1998 BTCC Peugeot 406 but eBay searches have so far proved fruitless.

 

When eBay fails, Gumtree has the answers

 

$_86.JPG

 

https://www.gumtree.com/p/other-cars/peugeot-106-rear-wheel-drive-3litre-v6-/1270361684

 

(However, not only does this look unfathomably dangerous, it's not worth anywhere near £3.5k)

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When eBay fails, Gumtree has the answers

 

$_86.JPG

 

https://www.gumtree.com/p/other-cars/peugeot-106-rear-wheel-drive-3litre-v6-/1270361684

 

(However, not only does this look unfathomably dangerous, it's not worth anywhere near £3.5k)

Christ, that looks like a right lash up. The shell looks to have been Miami Blue so is an S1 like mine, as is (what remains of) the dash but the front and rear end treatments are S2. The V6 appears to have just been dumped in the boot like a Tesco bag for life.

 

As an aside does anyone know anything about 2.2 HDi 406’s?

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Christ, that looks like a right lash up. The shell looks to have been Miami Blue so is an S1 like mine, as is (what remains of) the dash but the front and rear end treatments are S2. The V6 appears to have just been dumped in the boot like a Tesco bag for life.

As an aside does anyone know anything about 2.2 HDi 406’s?

Agreed. For what should be a huge project, it's terrifying how half arsed it all looks

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Rotten luck that the gasket let go so suddenly but then again looking at the picture of the header tank it did look pretty mayo’d up in there compared to the more usual odd glob of gunk.

I do know the 16vs had the better mls gasket fitted as standard but not sure - I’d say the late 8vs would be the same. At least they are still plentiful and cheap second hand too considering psa kept using them for years in most of their ranges.

Would make for a fun little car on the 1.1 gearbox, even if it was just a 1.4 you used

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Rotten luck that the gasket let go so suddenly but then again looking at the picture of the header tank it did look pretty mayo’d up in there compared to the more usual odd glob of gunk.

I do know the 16vs had the better mls gasket fitted as standard but not sure - I’d say the late 8vs would be the same. At least they are still plentiful and cheap second hand too considering psa kept using them for years in most of their ranges.

Would make for a fun little car on the 1.1 gearbox, even if it was just a 1.4 you used

To be honest I was a little concerned about the mayo in the header tank, especially as my last two TU engine’d cars didn’t suffer with it at all. But everyone I spoke to said it was a case of TADTS. Which is fair enough, because they do seem to.

 

As far as the future of this little car is concerned I will do my best to prevent it from being bridged. The shell is very good and a mate who has a 106 16v he races at Lydden has expressed an interest as his car is getting pretty tired so it may go on to become some kind of WRC Group Z rally championship winner or something.

 

It was my commuting car though so I will need to replace it..

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This might be more of a question for the modern shite section but these cars are getting on a bit now so..

 

Does anyone have experience of the Mercedes C270 CDI circa 2002-onward? I have been pointed in the direction of a rust free example going for £cheap and a nice derv auto cruiser is quite appealing.

 

Motherfourspeed had a bit of a tale of woe with a similar age 220 CDI (injector and HP pump issues) but I understand the 220 and 270 lumps are unrelated? Anything to watch out for apart from the normal mid-00s derv drama?

 

I have attempted a bit of a google this evening but most of the Benz knowledge base seems to be from the US and thus a bit light on tales from the black pump, if you’ll pardon the expression.

 

 

EDIT: or is a 180K petrol a better bet? I’m looking at two. The diesel has 145k on, the petrol 107k.

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So following on from the gasket carry-on the 106 was dragged out of the yard it shat itself in and transported to the Spaztec developments top-secret rural storage facility where it joined the Honda with the slipping clutch and the Ford Ka. I really didn't want to just send it over the bridge as its a good shell and tidy S1's are disappearing now but with the BMW still to get on with and the need to find a new "daily" (eurgh) car for commuting in, I simply don't know when I'm going to get the time to swap the engine out. 

 

I actually do have a TU engine sitting about from my Saxo-owning days, but its a 16v lump and I wouldn't really want to just dump another engine with twice the original power in there and run around on 1.1 brakes, suspension etc. So that would be a lot more work. I could buy a second-hand 1.1 and do the swap over a longer period of time but I have no indoor storage available right now for the car and I don't really fancy having it sat outside all winter and wasting a good shell. 

 

With that in mind, I offered the car and the engine to a good friend of mine who already owns a 16v converted S1 106 track car. He's owned it for a number of years now and sadly the bodywork of his car is starting to let go in the usual places, boot floor, inner wings and so-on. He is going to take the car on and use it to re-shell his racer. So whilst I'm sad to let it go, N246WKP will live on being blasted around the race-tracks of southern England. It would be nice to keep it on the road, but it will be better looked-after as a track car. So whilst its currently hiding in a corner, its not the end for the little Pug!

 

7JjFzH8.jpg

 

Does anybody on here want a Miami blue S1 front bumper? I bought it to replace the one on mine but now won't need it for obvious reasons. In decent used condition, no big cracks or splits. Its a non-fog lamp type. I'll upload a decent photo when I've had chance to get it out of the garage but there is one earlier in the thread. £25 to a shiter, collection from Hastings E. Sussex. 

 

Or... I would swap it for a Style 28 alloy wheel with a decent tyre for my BMW if anybody has one locally? REGARDEZ CETTE PHOTO CI-DESSOUS.

 

5Ojl3tG.jpg

 

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  • 6 months later...

AHOY SHITERS! Long time no speak. Anyone for a KING-SIZED update on proceedings? Well here's one anyway. 

 

Lack of posting hitherto can mainly be put down to three things;

 

  • Workload going completely mental and generally taking up all my time.
  • Pretty low levels of shite-fettling mojo* over the last couple of months
  • Not actually having anything interesting to report vehicle-wise. Up till now that is...

So without further ado. Lets have a catch-up. 

 

PEUGEOT 106

 

As previous readers may remember late last year I was out for an admittedly spirited hoon in my little S1 Pug 106 when it boiled over big time without warning. Fortunately I was actually on my way to see my good pal Stu who is also a professional mechanic. Thus confirming my long-held views on 106's being cars of EXCELLENT CHI. Even when they blow up, they do it in the most convenient place possible! Anyway, this 106 had always had the standard issue TU engine mayo dollops but the considered opinion of anyone I spoke to was that it was pretty normal and not something to stress about. This time however it was pushing great big globs of cafe latte PAST the supposedly sealed rad cap. I was due to go abroad about two days after this happened so I dumped the Puglet in the yard where it had boiled up, cadged a lift back home and asked Stu to take a look at it when he had a moment. 

 

A couple of days later he called with some bad news. The engine had seized! WHAT THE HELL MAN?! To this day I don't know exactly what happened but when the news came through I was 800 miles away up to my eyeballs in French ADMIN. I guess that the engine must have been so hot that when I shut it off it had locked up somehow. Stu drained the sump and cooling system of a metric shitload of coffee cream and refilled the oil and coolant just to see if it would turn but no dice. It wouldn't even budge with big-ass breaker bar on the crank. BOGUS. 

 

Anyway, what I should've done at this point was got myself on eBay and tracked down a replacement engine for this car. You can buy one for 50 sheets and even Stevie Wonder could swap one out in a weekend even if Ray Charles was handing him the tools. But because I'm a MORON and a POOHEAD, I felt that being away from home and having very little spare time on my hands it would take ages to sort this out and because my other car had no V5 or current MOT I couldn't press that into service which was most annoying as I had to have a car for work in the UK. So I called a friend of mine who happens to own a 106 he uses for Rally Cross and had expressed an interest in the Pug when I was done with it as my car had a lovely rot-free body and his did not. "You can have it gratis but you'll have to scoop it up this week on a trailer as it doesn't run." Needless to say he trailered it away the next day and is currently in the process of swapping all the BECAUSE RACECAR bits from his old car to this one. I'm glad it will live on pounding around Lydden Hill or wherever. Even with the kettle carry-on its a strong 131/10 WOULD PEUGEOT 106 AGAIN.

 

BMW E36 COMPACT.

 

A source of DEEP SHAME for me this car. Yes I STILL have it and no it STILL is not on the road. I bought this last year for cheap purely because I'm keen E36-fondler and I didn't want to see a good car get bridged. Unfortunately the car came with no V5 as the previous owner had passed away and his widow did not drive and new nowt about the car let alone any of the paperwork. It's a pretty solid old girl with only 95k on the clock and a couple of previous owners. But because of the 106 going pop and me not being able to MOT or tax the BMW at the time and needing a vehicle for commuting, I laid the E36 up and put it to the back of my mind for the time being. Fast forward to today and I'm hoping to have this MOT'd and on the road by the end of may for reasons I will explain in the next chapter..

 

ASTRA TURBO.

 

As you know, when my 106 went bang I was left without a serviceable car to get to work in and so when I got back to the UK I found this Astra 'H' for sale in the well-known local Mecca of tat that is Bexhill-on-Sea! I went and had a look one evening and the seller seemed sound and the car had clearly been well-loved in his ownership. Belt and water pump changed, serviced on time and only genuine parts used etc, etc. So I threw a bid at him and came away with the car. Here is a bad photo. 

 

34nfyg5.jpg

 

It's a 2005 2.0 SRi Turbo. Apparently this was the top of the range before the VXR version came out, I think this would have been a pretty serious car when it was new. It's got 200ish BHP from the factory although I'm told that Vauxhall-lickers have remapped pretty much all of these now as its really simple. I don't know if they did this one but it feels faster than my old Vectra V6 or BMW 325ti. Whatever, I bought it around October-time and just drove it.

 

I didn't bother posting it up here because I thought it was probably a bit new. But it was a fast, comfy and practical way of getting to and from the office. I was enjoying it, until it all went horribly wrong. 

 

One morning about two weeks ago I got in the car to go to work and got around a mile before the display on the dash lit up with "COOLANT LEVEL!!!" Now, I  had this before with this car and it turned out to be a split header tank, which I replaced no bother. I pulled over and had a look and sure enough the coolant was indeed quite low. I looked for any obvious leaks in the engine bay and under the car but could find nowt so I re-filled the header tank (I always keep a big bottle of water in all my cars) and carried on the 15 miles or so to work being sure to drive gently. The previous owner of this car had also wisely fitted an aftermarket temperature gauge as Vauxhall couldn't be arsed so I kept a watchful eye on that as I drove. Nothing abnormal, it stuck between 85-95 when cruising and was between 100-110 when in traffic, no different to usual. 

 

When I got around 1000m from work, it flashed up again with "COOLANT LEVEL!!!". Thinking I must have a leak, I coasted into the yard by which time I could see some visible steam from the O/S of the bonnet. The temp gauge was still reading normal so I killed the engine and popped the bonnet again and as expected the coolant level was again pretty low. I had a quick look for anything obvious but couldn't see any puddles or leaks. I had a meeting first thing so I had to leave it to cool off. A couple of hours later I explained what had happened to a colleague who came out with me to take a look. I filled the header tank back up again and fired up the engine, it all sounded fine and dandy, HOWEVAH...

 

My colleague beckoned me to the back of the car where some pronounced white/grey smoke was coming from the exhaust. Not what you want to see at the best of times! It wasn't thick clouds like a blown turbo but it was defo more than you'd get from mere condensation etc. I gave it some revs and you could see that there was visible liquid water coming from the exhaust. So there was water in the exhaust, white smoke and low coolant. Clearly this was going to need further investigation than could be done in my office car park. I know this Astra has a water-cooled turbo on it so I didn't want to chance driving it home and end up blowing the turbo and making things even worse! Fortunately a lad I work with has a Discovery and a decent-sized trailer and he agreed to cart the Astra back to Hastings for me for the cost of diesel and a few beers. Whilst we were loading the car onto the trailer I noticed quite a sizeable puddle appearing below the O/S/F of the car which defo wasn't there before. When I inspected from the top, I discovered a split in the underside of the radiator top hose where it is clipped onto the thermostat housing. 

 

So now I knew the source of the low coolant warning I'd been getting, but it didn't account for what was coming from the exhaust. We got the car back to a pre-arranged storage location which was out of my sight to prevent me torching the bastard, and I ordered a new top hose from Vauxhall. I finally had a day off yesterday so I picked the new hose up and went down to fit the new hose and try and work out WTF was going on. I got the hose on and my findings are THUS:

 

  • When you start the car from cold there is no smoke from the exhaust of any colour. It starts to disperse white smoke as the engine warms up.
  • There is water in the exhaust pipe. But no oil or mayo.
  • There is no oil in the header tank or residue on the header tank cap. The coolant in both the rad and stat housing seems clean. 
  • There is no sign of any real mayo on the oil filler cap. There is none on the dipstick either at all. 
  • The engine warms up as normal and does not overheat. Temp sits around 90-95 degrees on the gauge when warm. 
  • Heater is working on both hot and cold as normal.
  • The turbo seems to be working as normal and sounds healthy.
  • The engine itself starts without issue and doesn't run lumpy. 

But I STILL have this smokey exhaust. If the head gasket has failed I would have expected to see at least one of the above things. I'll get a sniff test (FNAAARR!!) done ASAP but in the meantime I'm really stuck for ideas. 

 

Any help/advice would be very much appreciated from anyone who has had dealings with these before. It's a Z20LER engine, which I'm led to believe is basically the same as a Z20LET in an Astra G. 

 

It's doubly annoying as since buying the car I have actually got engaged to my long-term partner and was planning to get the BMW on the road this summer and sell the Astra to contribute to our wedding fund! Which whilst this is all going on is clearly not gonna happen!

 

Well, thanks for reading those that made it this far! And please any suggestions about the cause of my smokey exhaust are gratefully received!

 

THANKZ 4 LISTENING. 

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Welcome back 12/10 for the update. WOULD DOUGIEFOURSPEED AGEN.

 

The Turbos in these are a bit of a weak point although Im not sure if the LEL has a different set up to the older LET. I went to view a MK4 Coupe Turbo in 2009 with similar symptoms. How does it boost? The one I tested didnt and drove like my 2 litre Vectra.

 

I will ask in my local Vauxhall club for you as the membership is about 80% MK5 Astra.

 

Quite a rare one you have there, fairly sure this would have caught the interest of our late Hendry.

 

Will report back.

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Welcome back 12/10 for the update. WOULD DOUGIEFOURSPEED AGEN.

 

The Turbos in these are a bit of a weak point although Im not sure if the LEL has a different set up to the older LET. I went to view a MK4 Coupe Turbo in 2009 with similar symptoms. How does it boost? The one I tested didnt and drove like my 2 litre Vectra.

 

I will ask in my local Vauxhall club for you as the membership is about 80% MK5 Astra.

 

Quite a rare one you have there, fairly sure this would have caught the interest of our late Hendry.

 

Will report back.

Thanks Mr_pin!

 

It boosts like an Oxbridge Entrance Exam. That is to say it’s pretty hard and lasts a long time.

 

The turbo spooling up doesn’t seem to cause more smoking. I have heard of the turbo seals failing on VXR’s but I’d have thought that’d cause blue oily smoke like if the valve stem seals had gone?

 

Indeed I was very sorry to hear about Hendry. Awful news.

 

This evening I’ve pulled the exhaust on this, just to try and drain off any water that might be sitting in the exhaust. It has some sort of stainless cat-back system on it from an outfit called POWERFLOW and I have known aftermarket exhausts to retain a bit of water in the past for some reason. Clutching at straws maybe, but at least this way I’ll be sure the system is as dry as possible before any more fault finding.

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Ok I have asked and I suppose you will already have discounted these things. It also didnt go that well.

 

-Could the water in the exhaust just be from the car sitting? My Rover 75 exhaust, which points down, drips water for about 4 or 5 hours during the day because I have been on holiday and havent been using it.

 

- 3 different answers for burning oil, white, blue and black smoke and now they are arguing amongst themselves about it. So thats inconclusive 100%.

 

I still think it could be the Turbo as I do know that this is a common ZLET issue.

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Ok I have asked and I suppose you will already have discounted these things. It also didnt go that well.

 

-Could the water in the exhaust just be from the car sitting? My Rover 75 exhaust, which points down, drips water for about 4 or 5 hours during the day because I have been on holiday and havent been using it.

 

- 3 different answers for burning oil, white, blue and black smoke and now they are arguing amongst themselves about it. So thats inconclusive 100%.

 

I still think it could be the Turbo as I do know that this is a common ZLET issue.

 

Thank you for your efforts! It would have to be a lot of condensation I have to say. The car was in daily use (30-35 Miles per day) until this occurred. I have done about 6000 Miles in it since I have had it. I have only ever known oil smoke to be blue but I am more than willing to be corrected!

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The ZLET I looked at had about 40,000 miles on it, no boost and a lot of thick white smoke and it was a warm morning too. I knew the next person who bought it and they confirmed that the turbo was indeed toast. However the cooling fan was kicking in and out in 3 second bursts so there could have been another issue there.

 

One other chap has said his Zafira with the same engine as yours has always done this with no other issues. From what you say it drives without issue?

 

I have always liked the MK5 Astra and in particular these early SRi Turbos. Rather than yet another Arden Blue VXR, this is much more interesting. Also, tje 3 door Sporthatch didnt get this engine, only the LEL 170 bhp, making yours even rarer.

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Great to see an update, I was wondering only the other day where you'd gone, being a fellow 106 licker.

Not so great to see the news on the Astra,I hope it's not serious but suspect it may be.

My first thought is head gasket, the cooling system pressurising and hence blowing the top hose off...

I hope not though.

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Great to see an update, I was wondering only the other day where you'd gone, being a fellow 106 licker.

Not so great to see the news on the Astra,I hope it's not serious but suspect it may be.

My first thought is head gasket, the cooling system pressurising and hence blowing the top hose off...

I hope not though.

 

Aye. Pressurising and rupturing the weakest point in the system did cross my mind, everyone else who has looked at the car with me has been doubtful of HGF because of the lack of oil>water mixage and no overheating. But I cannot see any other way that such a quantity of water would be able to enter the exhaust system. I haven't been fording any rivers or owt like that. 

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The ZLET I looked at had about 40,000 miles on it, no boost and a lot of thick white smoke and it was a warm morning too. I knew the next person who bought it and they confirmed that the turbo was indeed toast. However the cooling fan was kicking in and out in 3 second bursts so there could have been another issue there.

 

One other chap has said his Zafira with the same engine as yours has always done this with no other issues. From what you say it drives without issue?

 

I have always liked the MK5 Astra and in particular these early SRi Turbos. Rather than yet another Arden Blue VXR, this is much more interesting. Also, tje 3 door Sporthatch didnt get this engine, only the LEL 170 bhp, making yours even rarer.

 

The cooling fan seems to be behaving itself, actually yesterday I ran the car for 30 mins + and it didn't get warm enough to trip the fan switch so I don't foresee any issues there. 

 

If it had always done this, then fair enough but it has never even shown a puff of smoke up until now! 

 

It's a nice car, and it would have been a real weapon when it was new. But perhaps a little complex for my luddite tastes with its water cooled turbo, digital seats and dual mass trip computer. KNOW WHAT I MEAN???

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Is there a smell of coolant from the Exhaust?

 

I would suggest getting someone to carry out a pressure test on the cooling system to see if it is indeed excessively pressurising. The hoses are pretty robust on these and although the crappy spring clips weaken over time, I have never experienced a rupture in the hose.

 

Not that I want to spend your money but if "the worst" has indeed occurred and the rest of the car is in good condition it might be worth repairing as its a rarish and fast model. The Mk4 SRi Turbo (before the GSi came out) is now increasing in value and I reckon yours will do the same. Plus you had the foresight to fit a temperature gauge so any head skimming can be ruled out as unnecessary.

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Is there a smell of coolant from the Exhaust?

 

I would suggest getting someone to carry out a pressure test on the cooling system to see if it is indeed excessively pressurising. The hoses are pretty robust on these and although the crappy spring clips weaken over time, I have never experienced a rupture in the hose.

 

Not that I want to spend your money but if "the worst" has indeed occurred and the rest of the car is in good condition it might be worth repairing as its a rarish and fast model. The Mk4 SRi Turbo (before the GSi came out) is now increasing in value and I reckon yours will do the same. Plus you had the foresight to fit a temperature gauge so any head skimming can be ruled out as unnecessary.

 

It doesn't smell overly of coolant, although when it split the top hose and dumped it all I only had plain water on hand to refill it with so the mixture in there is pretty weak. 

 

I'm hopefully going to be getting a 'sniff' test done this week to see if there is any carbon monoxide in there which should confirm (or not) HGF. 

 

Either way it'll definitely be getting fixed, when just depends on what exactly is required and how much I will need to spend on it. Once its sorted it'll be up for sale as I should have the E36 on the road by then and I will need the cash for my wedding fund.  

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  • 1 month later...

Hello, good evening and welcome to this weeks episode of "I H8 ALL CARZ WHY DIDN'T I JUST GET A JUKE ON PCP OR SOMETHING?"

 

You may remember that last time around I was on about this Astra Turbot I'd bought thinking that I was being sensible and buying a 'modern' car. As it turns out 2005 is actually THIRTEEN YEARS AGO (who knew?) so despite being the newest vehicle I have ever had my name on the V5 of, its actually not that new. Anyway, here it is looking a bit grubby because I've just come back from France in it. 

astraaaa.jpg

 

Anyway, a while back I was talking about a cooling system issue I was having with this car. See the previous post for the full LOWDOWN, however in a nutshell the top hose had split and lots of coolant came out. No big deal, but at exactly the same time as this happened the car started to puff some white/grey smoke from the exhaust which I have always related to some kind of head gasket related fault. But there was no water or oil contamination so far as I could tell nor had the car overheated at anytime (the previous owner had fitted a temp gauge as Vauxhall didn't.) 

 

I replaced the top hose and dropped the exhaust to ensure that there was no water sitting in the exhaust system causing the white smoke. I then had to go abroad for work for a couple of weeks and the car sat un-used for this time. I then came back to the UK at the end of May and started using the car for commuting again (approx 35 miles a day). I was pleased to see no signs of the smoke and no more coolant leakage so I put it down to a bit of a mystery and moved on with my life. But, its still not right.. It starts, runs and drives about fine. The turbo is boosting fine etc and there are no untoward noises from the engine department. If you put the engine under heavy load, the temp does start to rise though. Before this trouble started it would sit between 90 and 100 degrees in normal driving rising to 110-120 in heavy traffic, the fan would cut in at 120ish and the temp would fall. Now, the temp still sits at 90-100 in normal open road driving, but if you go for an overtake or are driving up a very steep hill then the gauge rises steadily to 125-130. It doesn't do this unless you're giving it some gas but it is definitely happening. I've been essentially driving around the issue for maybe 500 miles now including a trip to northern France last week and as long as you are gentle with the loud pedal its quite happy. But obviously something is still not right and if I'm honest, I've lost interest in the car. Its a nice enough old thing and would have been the bollocks when it was new but if I'm going to be fucking about with cars, I'd rather use my limited time and resources to fuck about with something I really enjoy like something PSA or an old BMW. 

 

This therefore, is a very long and drawn out way of saying I want to offload this Astra. I have no clue what its actually worth in the current state, I paid £1350 for it in October last year. There are no other 200BHP versions that I can find for sale to compare with price-wise. There is a 3dr version on AT with the 168 brake engine (PAH!) for £1500 at a trader and a 5 door 168 on there with 81k on the clock for nearly £3k LOLOLOL. I know few things in life are less rare than an old Astra, but this version does seem quite rare. 

 

Anyway here's the EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.

 

- 2005 (54) Vauxhall Astra 2.0 SRi + Turbo 200 with Exterior pack. This was the top of the line Astra H until the VXR came out. The 200 bhp version only came as a 5 door, the VXR was only a 3 door. 

 

- 6 Speed Manual

 

- 118547 miles as of 15/6/18. Will go up a bit. Might even go down if I can find my QUENTIN WILLSON POWER DRILL.

 

- MOT to 17/03/19. Advisories for front exhaust has minor leak of gases and both rear tyres low. 

 

- Last Service done by me at 117k as it was asking for one. Oil and filter, Air filter, Plugs x4 and rocker cover gasket. Cambelt and w/pump changed by Vauxhall at 91k in 2015. Clutch was done around the same time too. Bags of service history with all books and manuals etc. 

 

THE GOOD. 

 

It's a nice steer, I don't know if it has been chipped or anything like that but it goes like an absolute bastard. Easily quicker than my old 325ti E46. Turbo spools up as it should. Handles very well, with decent grip. A super quick point-to-point car and a bit of a sleeper. It has a VXR front bumper fitted which I'm told is worth about eighty grand and looks suitably 'ard. The 6 speed manual 'M32' gearbox is in fine fettle. They can be a weak point on this gen of Astra and Vectra, but this one seems quite happy, no graunching or owt like that. The last owner had a Powerflow stainless 'cat-back' exhaust system fitted professionally. This is because OEM systems are unique to the 200 Turbo version and were either NLA or very expensive from Vauxhall. The system isn't loud but gives a nice deep tone. It has a posh Kenwood bluetooth CD/Stereo fitted which you can use to ring your Mum on and tell her you love her. Or ring your wife and tell her you don't and you've taken the kids. Whatever suits you. No rust anywhere I can see either above or below decks, its been up on a lift and I've had a good poke about. Oh, it has a nice VXR steering wheel too. 

 

THE SLIGHTLY LESS GOOD.

 

It needs a new coil pack fitting as its got a bit of a splutter around 2.5k which seems to be a common Vauxhall thing at this age. Drivers window does work, but needs a little help up which again isn't unknown on these. There's a bit of a clonk from the NSF suspension, either a droplink or a damper I think. Neither will break the bank. Drivers seat bolster has a small tear like an old BMW. There is a patch of lacquer peel on the NSR wheel arch. One interior door trim has been inexplicably painted blue. The instrument bulbs are blue but the centre console ones are orange. Someone has knackered the mirror bit of the drivers sun visor - but it still blocks out the sun. Alloys could do with a refurb for max concourse points. 

 

THE UGLY.

 

As said, I honestly don't know whats up with the cooling system. Can the car be driven? Yes, I'm using it daily and will be at least until I get paid on the 29th and can then get my Compact MOT'd. Has it overheated? No. It hasn't boiled up at any point nor has the temp warning light come on. Would I drive it to Scotland? Probably not in its current state. It isn't smoking and there is no mayo that I can see in oil or coolant.

 

It could be something simple like a massive air lock, equally it could be the turbo seals starting to go (turbo is water cooled on this). Or it could be the head gasket is starting to go. I simply don't know and owing to the fact that I have more work trips abroad coming up, a garden to landscape and another car to get sorted I really don't have the time or mojo to keep on with this. It's a good car, which is fun to drive and if it was an equivalent Golf GTI or Focus ST it'd probably be worth £2k. 

 

Before I brave the great unwashed on eBay and Bumtree I wanted to sort of offer it up on here because I know that you lot have a the right mindset and many of you could probably fix it with your eyes shut. I've been as honest as I can about the car and its plus and minus points. I will say that if a Shiter does buy it and it does need a HG within three months, I'll pay for the head set and have it sent to you. 

 

I'll take some decent photos over the weekend and add them to the thread. As I said the car won't be available until I have MOT'd the BMW next month. I just wanted to update and see if there is any interest really.

 

It's not easy to gauge a price on this. But on the basis of what I paid for it (£1350), and what it would be worth if it was fixed. I'm going to say £695. That would make it the cheapest SRi Turbo for sale in the UK to my knowledge. The car is located in Hastings, East Sussex. 

 

I appreciate this is probably a bit modern for AS but I figured if there was anyone who could see the potential in this little Ashtray they would be found here so if anyone is interested do let me know.

 

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Some interest in it already, I will pass on details etc if and when.

Excellent. I’m not really in any Vauxhall owners groups/forums (although this is my third one). Drop us a PM if needs be.

 

I took a few better photos today, sadly I have not had time to wash it yet. But you get the idea...

 

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Just to add to the SENSE OF MYSTERY, I’ve been driving this about in town all day today and it has totally behaved itself, even in heavy traffic it didn’t go above 110 degrees.

 

Y U DO DIS VOXULL???

 

In other news I have also found an OE Bosch alternator for one of these in my garage. So whoever buys it can have that an’ all.

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