Lord Sterling's fleet of failure - Vectra fail and win

[stripped fred]

Thank you for the lock. Mats would be great. Let me know by PM and we can sort something out. That is an interesting and useful car you have. Perfect for hauling tat!

[Lord Sterling]

11 minutes ago, hairnet said:

^^^ parking thread obvs

mo yer some kinda bollix

 

Aye, a kin park where I feel. I got AVAS.

[Lord Sterling]

2 hours ago, stripped fred said:

Thank you for the lock. Mats would be great. Let me know by PM and we can sort something out. That is an interesting and useful car you have. Perfect for hauling tat!

I was honestly worried the night before whether the tailgate would actually fit. In fact, I left the house with a roll of twine and some packing material in case it needed to go on the roof rails. I needn't have worried though as the tailgate + the rear bumper, spare roof rails and various other bits fitted just fine. It's a great parts hauler and partly the reason why I decided to keep it when I got the Jag. It's earned a place in the keep forever fleet.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Glad to see the Vectra being used properly. They're great load lugging things.

I was actually in Telford last week funnily enough!

[Billy - Medhurst]

4 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

 

Was that Wigston Mo? Looks like the former newsagents and cob shop building near where I used to work.

[Lord Sterling]

7 hours ago, Billy - Medhurst said:

Was that Wigston Mo? Looks like the former newsagents and cob shop building near where I used to work.

'Tis indeed Wigston. That place appears to be have been a newsagents at some point in the past as there is still a 'Leicester Mercury' sign on the side of the building. I noticed it when I was swapping stuff from my passenger seat into the boot.

I passed by the "Pork Pie" library and roundabout on my way to Telford.

[Billy - Medhurst]

3 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

'I passed by the "Pork Pie" library and roundabout on my way to Telford.

Hope you had locking wheel nuts on.........

[Lord Sterling]

As alluded to recently, I managed to find myself a gear kn○b cap to replace the rather poor one in the Vectra. This was one of those "why is this hard to find?" parts. However, through the Vectra B lickers club on Facebook, I managed to source one and get it fitted:

Now my kn0b at least looks better 😉

Today I picked up an Irmscher back box for the Vectra. It wasn't in great condition but it was solid and had the tail pipes required. There is a bit of a dent on one of the tailpipe but it doesn't rattle and for £20 I'm not gonna argue. BTW, this back box came from yam-yam land (Black Country, West Mids) just as the Vectra B mats I recently got (and sold on). Seems like a good place to get parts from then.

When I got back home, I noticed that the passenger-side front bumper was loose, how this happened I don't know, however I did see the old garage I went to badly bodged the front bumper back on when they were removing it and fitting it back on after failing to actually connect the air-con pipework to the condenser. 

FFS 😡 To be fair, the front bumper had previously been removed prior to my ownership and I was warned that it hadn't put back on properly. The garage have just made it worse by drilling a hole to close to the edge, hence the edge has now failed.

It took a few tries to line up the bolt with the outer lip of the wheel arch where I have drilled new holes, but I got there in the end.

The otherside also needed doing, it was amazing to see that the "mechanics" didn't bother removing an old screw that was held on by a retaining nut, the screw was just rattling about. What an absolute joke 😡

So I removed this. Upon removing the grille I noticed there were bolts missing from the bumper holding up in the front. So some of the bolts came out of the side of the bumper to fill the missing gaps. And the side of the bumper had the loose screw removed and put into holding the side on in an already-holed arch part of the bumper.

It'll do until I can either fit it properly (somewhere preferably warm with a ramp which isn't gonna happen) or until I source a better front bumper, which seems more likely these days.

Lastly I noticed that bottom edge of the arch liner was loose, I'm guessing it isn't fitted correctly as it needs to be a bit higher to allow the inner lip with the hole in the middle to sit on top of the inside of the sill where there is another hole and presumably some sort of fastner/bolt to hold it in place.

It's a job for another time.

I gave the drivers window rubbers a lube with white grease as it got stuck to a point where it stopped. Now it glides up and down nicely.

Other jobs that are now required;

• I still need to get the front wheels tracked.

• Sort out the oil leak. It still holds oil well, but it I'd like to get it oil tight.

• There might be some sort of power steering leak as I noticed the level had dropped considerably when steering one time. I can't see any obvious signs apart from an old dried up patch on top of a block underneath a pipe.

[Lord Sterling]

Yesterday I briefly swapped the Vectra for the Micra as it was due an MoT. 

Took it down to;

Unfortunately, it failed, quite badly:

So I'm sat here pondering what to do. I would like to offer it for scrap money to whomever wants to take it on. Otherwise I'll take most of the stuff I've added to it and get the scrap man to pick it up.

I'm am a bit sad. This car has saved all of our backsides. When Ma's blue Micra got smacked up the back I had this for a good month or so by then and this replaced the Bluey for Ma_family/work duties.

However, Ma has had the confidence knocked out of her in driving a few years ago when she suffered from a road rage incident, then later on a knee injury that never really recovered properly just made her decide that driving wasn't for her anymore and she confined herself to pottering to the shops and back.

Then little by little she stopped using it regularly and it got used once a week, then once every few weeks etc...

Ah well, it was a great car and I feel that scrapping it is like shooting a friendly old dog innthe face just because he's old/a bit ill. 

Before anyone says "well, anything can be repaired, just needs a tickle with a welding stick" yes, it can be repaired, but I honestly don't have the skills, don't have the money, neither the space and unfortunately I can't even store it away as I would love to do. So hey ho, it's here, let me know if anyone is interested. 😮‍💨

[24vdiamond]

Thats gutting, I wonder how bad the rot actually is?  

[Split_Pin]

On 02/11/2024 at 17:10, Lord Sterling said:

As alluded to recently, I managed to find myself a gear kn○b cap to replace the rather poor one in the Vectra. This was one of those "why is this hard to find?" parts. However, through the Vectra B lickers club on Facebook, I managed to source one and get it fitted:

Now my kn0b at least looks better 😉

Today I picked up an Irmscher back box for the Vectra. It wasn't in great condition but it was solid and had the tail pipes required. There is a bit of a dent on one of the tailpipe but it doesn't rattle and for £20 I'm not gonna argue. BTW, this back box came from yam-yam land (Black Country, West Mids) just as the Vectra B mats I recently got (and sold on). Seems like a good place to get parts from then.

When I got back home, I noticed that the passenger-side front bumper was loose, how this happened I don't know, however I did see the old garage I went to badly bodged the front bumper back on when they were removing it and fitting it back on after failing to actually connect the air-con pipework to the condenser. 

FFS 😡 To be fair, the front bumper had previously been removed prior to my ownership and I was warned that it hadn't put back on properly. The garage have just made it worse by drilling a hole to close to the edge, hence the edge has now failed.

It took a few tries to line up the bolt with the outer lip of the wheel arch where I have drilled new holes, but I got there in the end.

The otherside also needed doing, it was amazing to see that the "mechanics" didn't bother removing an old screw that was held on by a retaining nut, the screw was just rattling about. What an absolute joke 😡

So I removed this. Upon removing the grille I noticed there were bolts missing from the bumper holding up in the front. So some of the bolts came out of the side of the bumper to fill the missing gaps. And the side of the bumper had the loose screw removed and put into holding the side on in an already-holed arch part of the bumper.

It'll do until I can either fit it properly (somewhere preferably warm with a ramp which isn't gonna happen) or until I source a better front bumper, which seems more likely these days.

Lastly I noticed that bottom edge of the arch liner was loose, I'm guessing it isn't fitted correctly as it needs to be a bit higher to allow the inner lip with the hole in the middle to sit on top of the inside of the sill where there is another hole and presumably some sort of fastner/bolt to hold it in place.

It's a job for another time.

I gave the drivers window rubbers a lube with white grease as it got stuck to a point where it stopped. Now it glides up and down nicely.

Other jobs that are now required;

• I still need to get the front wheels tracked.

• Sort out the oil leak. It still holds oil well, but it I'd like to get it oil tight.

• There might be some sort of power steering leak as I noticed the level had dropped considerably when steering one time. I can't see any obvious signs apart from an old dried up patch on top of a block underneath a pipe.

Y0 LS there's a BFO bolt right inside the bumper, it's actually facing you I.e screwing in towards you if you are sitting facing the side of the bumper. Very strange but if you find its missing then replacing those each side might make the bumper more attached.

[Cookiesouwest]

3 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Ah well, it was a great car and I feel that scrapping it is like shooting a friendly old dog innthe face just because he's old/a bit ill. 

Sometimes when the old dog is end of life, putting it down is the humane thing to do.

So don't feel bad. You gave it a good life.

[Lord Sterling]

Right, so let's get this put the way. There is a 4 SALE thread on it, so I won't bother sticking one up here, but, here are some spots;

When I delivered the Micra back to Ma_Sterling's, I spotted this absolute honey of a Mitsubishi outside, parked right behind my Vectra! Not only was this any old Mitsubishi Space Wagon, it was a GLXi....

Local to me Omega has the same engine as my Vectra, a 2.6;

Some ABSOLUTE WINNAH drives this Suzuki local to me;

This Sierra estate was so clean, it was almost unreal:

Jag that hasn't moved in a long while, it had a removal notice placed on the screen. Shame, it looked fairly clean, possibly gearbox failure?

[Schaefft]

That dark metallic green looks great on a Figaro, whoever chose that has great taste.

[goosey]

The Matiz and C15 belong to my Brother in laws partner’s parents, they’ve had them from new and will probably never sell them 

[Noel Tidybeard]

i can't believe vauxhall/opel over painted an ordinary black gear knob insert silver

it also looks like the original pattern over painted with the later style

if you still have it please do a careful paint removal to reveal the quite rare early type shift pattern

[Lord Sterling]

SO;

Add to that and as previously alluded to in some other thread, during the OMG SNO KAOS we had last week or whenever it was, the wiper on the Jag decided to try and wipe as I switched the car causing the wiper arm to become loose off the motor.

Today I received a couple of packages, I actually bought 2 Jaguar badges costing me, including postage as much as some others were costing just for the badge on its own.

One was very nice and like new with some minor marks on it, the other was passable. I intended to use the nicer one to put on the car and the passable one to see how the actual badge came off the backing plate. 

It came off fairly easy, but it didn't half smell toxic and was quite powdery underneath, yuk 🤢 so then, I decided just to use that one instead and keep the other one as a spare.

However, after some vacuuming of where I was sitting etc... I set off, (eventually) to the car and switched it on to warm it up and set about fixing the badge to its rear again and this time with a liberal application of Gorilla Glue;

On! 😁

Let's call that a win. The other badge can stay and live on my feature wall with the Daimler Double-Six badge I've also got:

Now, the wiper. 

As I started to remove the scuttle panel I noticed that the retaining nut was very loose, I tightened it up a bit but that didn't do anything, so I continued my dismantling.

However, the wiper motor screw was working without any issue, nothing had fallen apart, OK, I probably hadn't screwed the arm back on tightly enough, so I tried that (again) and screwed it on tighter and hey presto, a working wiper!

So now I can use the car in the rain again, if I want to.

[Lord Sterling]

Well, that's it. The Micra has now gone. Thanks massively to @Lankytim for the connection. It's been sold and will likely be banger raced, you can't save them all. However, as I knew where it'd be going, I took out a lot of the stuff I bought for the Micra over the new years we've had it.

I wanted to thank @Cavcraft and @loserone for the opportunity to (sort of) own this car.

It did us well and has saved myself and Ma a fair few times. If I had the money, it'd be on its way for a tickle with a welder, but it wasn't to be and I've too many cars including another Micra. 

The inside was wet from the sunroof which I thought I had sorted, clearly not:

See ya 🙁

[loserone]

@Lankytim any chance of asking your contact for some pictures of it being raced when it gets there?

[Lankytim]

17 hours ago, loserone said:

@Lankytim any chance of asking your contact for some pictures of it being raced when it gets there?

Sure, I’ll ask the question. It’ll just be going into the guys stock pile initially so it might big be for a while. 

[Lord Sterling]

Well, that was interesting. 

A few days ago the MoT was due on the Vectra, however after falling ill at work I decided to take a couple of days off and take it easy. 

During one of those days, the day before the MoT, I popped across to Birmingham to help Ma_Sterling where the power steering decided to fail. I got the rubbish Ma wanted tipping (and got lucky at a local recycling place thay was under another Worcs council when they let me tip there) and phoned the garage to explain the problem. The pipe had been leaking for a while and now decided at that very moment, to fail. The garage told me to drop off the car and they'll see what they could do before the MoT.

Unfortunately the next day, it failed it's MoT on the power steering issue, the anti-roll bar linkage and a CV boot. Linkage and boot were sorted pretty much immediately but as we were hitting a weekend, the garage would closed. 

There were also advisories for the tyres (which were only changed less than a year ago, albeit are the incorrect size) and some rust underneath. I intend of course to get the tyres changed ASAP and the underside will be cleaned off and undersealed in due course.

Yesterday afternoon I got a call to say the car was ready. I decided to pick it up this morning after I finished work. As I'd been ill and was recovering, I was quite tired after my first night back, but it needed to be picked up, I wanted my Vectra back! It's got a pass, not a clean one, but I'll be getting on with other jobs as soon as I can.

The current MoT'd fleet;

The Jag still has a scraping noise emitting from the rear left-hand side brake drum. I've tried the driving in reverse tip as previously suggested here, but it helped only to take me to work and back again. As soon as I got to some rougher ground on the approach to my town, the noise scraping came back again with a vegance. The Jag is booked in to be looked at/repaired as they now know what to be looking for. When I took it in before, they couldn't find the noise.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Congratulations on the pass.

Power steering issues on these seem to be somewhat common. My Granda's let go at one point years ago (when it was relatively new) and mine makes helpful* noises to well me it's working* correctly*.

[Missy Charm]

53 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

Well, that was interesting. 

A few days ago the MoT was due on the Vectra, however after falling ill at work I decided to take a couple of days off and take it easy. 

During one of those days, the day before the MoT, I popped across to Birmingham where the power steering decided to fail. I did what I needed to do and phoned the garage to explain the problem. The pipe had been leaking for a while and now decided at that very moment, to fail. The garage told me to drop off the car and they'll see what they could do.

Unfortunately the next day, it failed it's MoT on the power steering issue, the anti-roll bar linkage and a CV boot. Linkage and boot were sorted pretty much immediately but as we were hitting a weekend, the garage would closed. 

There were also advisories for the tyres (which were only changed less than a year, albeit are the incorrect size) and some rust underneath. I intend of course to get the tyres changed ASAP and the underside will be cleaned off and undersealed in due course.

Yesterday afternoon I got a call to say the car was ready. I decided to pick it up this morning after I finished work. As I'd been ill and was recovering, I was quite tired after my first night back, but it needed to be, I wanted my Vectra back! It's got a pass, not a clean one, but I'll be getting on with other jobs as soon as I can.

The current MoT'd fleet;

The Jag still has a scraping noise emitting from the rear left-hand side brake drum. I've tried the driving in reverse tip as previously suggested here, but it helped only to take me tk work and back again. As soon as I got to some rougher ground on the approach to my town, the noise scraping came back again with a vegance. The Jag is booked in to be looked at/repaired as they now know what to be looking for. When I took it in before, they couldn't find the noise.

Different car, but I managed to cure a mystery scraping noise in my Ford Focus by driving slowly in a figure-eight pattern in an empty car park.  Quite how or why that worked remains opaque, but it did.

[Lord Sterling]

18 hours ago, Missy Charm said:

Different car, but I managed to cure a mystery scraping noise in my Ford Focus by driving slowly in a figure-eight pattern in an empty car park.  Quite how or why that worked remains opaque, but it did.

Sounds like it could have been a stone?

I think something has broken/come loose inside the drum. It's a nice car and deserves to be done properly, plus for me it's also a safety factor, especially as I tend to use it for abroadland jaunts. It's a lot of car to stop.

[horriblemercedes]

11 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Soubds like it could have been a stone?

I think something has broken/come loose inside the drum. It's a nice car and deserves to be done properly, plus for me it's also a safety factor, especially as I tend to use it for abroadland jaunts. It's a lot of car to stop.

I agree that it's a potential safety issue, but this is not the reason. Unless you are using the handbrake to slow the car (not advisable), it doesn't use the mechanism in the drum to slow.

[Lord Sterling]

5 hours ago, horriblemercedes said:

I agree that it's a potential safety issue, but this is not the reason. Unless you are using the handbrake to slow the car (not advisable), it doesn't use the mechanism in the drum to slow.

I hadn't realise I had to provide a correct analysis and diagnosis for preferring not to use my car.

If I'm stopped on a steep hill whilst out driving, I'll be need to use the handbrake.

I'd rather not use the car whilst the issue the there. Simple really.