Does this qualify as Shite?

[lisbon_road]

Well, took the aux belt off - no difference, so not alternator.  Asked a professional and he said the cambelt tensioner or something similar.  Took it all apart and it seemed to have play, so replaced cambelt, tensioner, idlers.  Er, no difference.

 

Had a look under the top and all lifters look fine.  No end float in the cams.  Wondering about water pump, which seemed to have a little play in it - but not much.  The noise is definitely from the cambelt end.

 

Got 120 mile journey leaving at 5.30 am tomorrow. 

[lisbon_road]

So took it all apart again and replaced water pump.  Nice and quiet now.

 

Don't you love that bit in the Haynes manual 'water pump may require tapping with a soft hide mallet to remove'.  Yeah right.  How about a long steel bar and a lump hammer.  Had to do one once that was so stuck in that I ended up drilling and chiseling chunks out.

 

But at least it is done now. 

[Rusty_Rocket]

Good job you caught the water pump before it got worse and threw off the belt!  (I'm a glass half-full guy)

 

The worst one I ever saw was on a 12NZ Nova.  The blasted thing was so stuck to the block, my pal had been smashing away at it for two days.  It had broken up but the remains of the outer ring were still totally fused to the block.  The only thing left was to remove the hose at the back of the engine and get the chisel and hammer in from behind.

It was a total nightmare and the final insult was a further day's work cleaning up the now-battered block for the new pump to sit tightly onto   

[lisbon_road]

I have had to do something similar too.  I thumped it until the impeller and gear and surrounding casting all fell off and left the outer casting there, and drilled holes in that and chiselled away until it fell off.  Much like yours. 

 

Probably the worst aspect of the engines, which otherwise don't seem to give much hassle.

[New POD]

I replaced the head gasket in my 1.6 8V.  Piece of piss, except the alternator belt pulley bolt is a torx and wouldn't budge. .....Until I took the plugs out and got my wife to give it a quick spin on the starter, whilst I held the tools in Place. CRacK... 

[lisbon_road]

Mine is an automatic.  I did the crankshaft bolt (presume that's the one you mean) the same way.  I use a breaker bar with an E18 socket and if there is a bit of wood under the end of the bar, it all works nicely.  Don't stand close by though.

 

Got it tightened by a local garage with a windy, no charge. 

[Lord Sterling]

Looks great. I've always thought these Astras were pretty solid and reliable. FATHA_Sterling rented one of these in saloon flavour when we used to visit Syria years ago. Took us all over the place. I really would consider one of these again.

 

Just remembered. When i was young and stupid, me and a equally stupid mate went halves on a Mk3 Astra 'Cesaro'. I've got a pic somewhere. It was all Max powered up with stupidly big alloys and a smooth tailgate, but the clutch was almost non-existant and the tyres were bald/ruined. Of course non of us held a licence then.