Autoshite Christmas present

[lisbon_road]

Anyone else get an autoshite Christmas present?

 

I got this.  198K miles, head gasket gone (I think), horrendous rear arch on one side, generally tatty but runs ok and MOT until August. 

 

Tempting to get it to 200K....

 

 

[Shep Shepherd]

I wish that someone would give me a car as a gift, preferably an XJ40, an XM or a classic Saab 900

[Cavcraft]

It deserves fixing.

[eddyramrod]

Of course it does!  What engine/box combination is involved?

[lisbon_road]

C14SE with five speed wide ratio box.

 

Which isn't bad really.  The C14SE is remarkably economical, and though a bit slow is way better than the spi engine which frankly is a boat anchor. 

 

I've been maintaining this for years for a friend.  Any sane person would obviously weigh it in, but there has been a frustration for years that I have never been able to get enough time to sort it out as she always wanted it back and it was never convenient ..... now it is mine I can put a bit of time into fixing it.

 

Just there isn't any point of course as I don't need it and it is obviously worthless.  But this is autoshite......

 

(Might just have a look round underneath to make sure it isn't too bad)

[Cavcraft]

It won't be. They're like other Vauxhalls of this era, in that they're just about indestructible. What year is it, looks about a late 1994 or 1995?

[lisbon_road]

Late 1994.  It has been living for years on damp grass, so I suspect it isn't so good underneath.  It is a German Astra, quite unusual (like it matters or anyone cares).  The bad arch is really spectacular; I will put a picture up here sometime. 

 

Anyone know how I could insure this as an 'extra' car somehow?  Can I get classic insurance on it as it is over 20 years old?  I already tried a trial of changing my insurance to it and they wanted £260 when the insurance originally cost £140 so they're well out of order.

 

Christmas Eve on the internet, huh?  Well family is all sick and we've delayed going to parents.  It's that or go and see what is on discount at Tesco.

[Lord Sterling]

This is brilliant. A car I would've bought had I not dived into the painful and frustrating world of Rover 800 ownership. I might still buy kne, they are almost all the car you will ever need. I remember my old man driving a brand new one of these in 1993/4.

 

It deserves to live and even stay within the Autoshite family. I like the early ones.

[Parky]

I think head gaskets aren't too tricky to do on these. And a dodgy rear arch is a simple enough fix with chicken wire, fibreglass and isopon.

 

Excellent present because as we all know, all Vauxhalls are great. Or I think that's what we say, isn't it?

[Pillock]

My mum had a mk3 1.7TD GLS as a lease car new in '94. I'll give you the review from the mind of a 15 year old.

 

Pro: Stereo was fab. Dead loud, Ace of Base really kicked hard. Electric windows but then again her Mk2 GL had those. Electric aerial though, that's for winners. Remote radio display looks like something out of THE FUTURE. Has a badge that said "Turbo Intercooler" which makes it dead fast.

 

Cons: Like 63% of Mk3 Astra's it was that metallic turquoise colour. Seats were a bit bland.

 

I really liked it, I was hoping it would still be around when I passed my test, but sadly because I dilly-dallied it had been replaced by a Megane.

[Rusty_Rocket]

C14SE is the one to have- cheap tax, good economy (better than the 14NZ in my experience) and go well. The head gasket is a few hours work but will most likely need a skim if the coolant changes have been neglected! 

You must save this elegant* beauty*!

[explosive-cabbage]

Sorry in advance for high-jacking this thread.

 

Anyone else get an autoshite Christmas present?

 

I bought myself a christmas present.

 

 

Veg-munching 1.9 Pug powered Lada Niva off-roader.

 

And being a Pug powered Lada, I have broken it already.

 

A full thread to follow.

[Hendry]

These mk3 Astra's are ace. I got given my dads '97 R Nautilus Blue 1.6 (X16SZR) LS late model with Sport spec colour coded bumpers, CDX alloys etc as standard. TBH I ruined it because I had plenty of ideas and money then but not the skill to do it, it had a grey interior and I bought a complete black interior/carpets/seats from a Sport spec. CDX rare passenger airbag dash, reverse indiglo dials, rear head rests, top of the range Pioneer Bluetooth stereo when they first came out, a Vectra SRi steering wheel with audio controls, a mk5 flip key, 17" penta alloys from a Corsa D SRi, Irmscher rear spoiler, Vectra V6 288mm disc/pad/caliper set redrilled to 4 stud, James 40mm lowering springs, Courtney Sport panel filter, chrome heater controls and vents, Mono gearknob and handbrake handle, eBay centre armrest, Vectra B chrome interior door handles, FK mesh grille, GSi tail lights, debadged, bump strips removed. Electric door mirrors and electric sunroof upgrade, it wouldve been tasteful and smart if done properly, sadly I was out of my depth and the parts/interior were badly fitted and had poor gaps and rattled and I had enough and traded it in for a £4K piece of shit 206 at Arnold Shark. Wish I had another that I could just tidy up and make OEM+ now I have a bit more knowledge and wisdom and know decent companies who could do a good job of the things I couldn't do.

[UltraWomble]

Some tools and some air fresheners for the car.

 

Ive bought myself a Sony DAB head unit for my birthday (in 2 weeks)

[Station]

I've had a load of mk3's, they're the only car I've never had trouble with ever. You can't diss these cars, they do pretty much everything without trouble.

You can buy cheap arch repair panels on eBay.

Head gasket is a case of undoing eight bolts and loosening the belt. You don't need too skim the head tbh as these run with or without a head gasket failure. If there's whiteness on the oil cap that's normal, all of mine did it.

If the arches are going, unblock the pipes in the bottom of the bumper area, they will be full of water.

[oman5]

Santa left me a HBOL for the allegro! Yay!

[Albert Ross]

Watch for the handbrake cable clamp on the tunnel making a break for freedom, carpets up and weld back on from both sides. Sharpens the lever action up nicely. Also, the rear load valves in the service brake circuits can feck up. They were rather pricey last time I fitted any. Try to find used ones. Watch for differences due to GVW and body configuration. If in doubt, fit the pair off one vehicle, and there's less risk of imbalance in efforts.

[fordperv]

I think head gaskets aren't too tricky to do on these.

 

They are very easy to do, the last one I did, when I removed the head i saw the fire ring on no4 cylinder looked like pacman, the gasket had gone between waterway and cylinder in quite a spectacular manner.

[lisbon_road]

I think they tend to be a bit hard on head gaskets as there is no knock sensor. This one was done and skimmed 10k miles ago. I might check the head depth. Anyway not got it apart yet. Back to Christmas day......

[Skoze]

my mum bought me a grease gun.

 

fucking stoked. 

[cms206]

Got this from the mother in law... SVM BANDED TINNED HERRINGS SDM REDBLOCK JUST KICKED IN YO!

 

[Matt]

Not strictly autoshite but related; the parentals got me a pair of buckets with grit guards, a new wash mitt and my sister got me a set of detailing brushes. I'm going to have one clean ass Suzuki IF IT FUCKING STOPS RAINING EVERY DAY,

[CreepingJesus]

I wouldn't say no to another Mk 3 Ashtray myself. It fixed the utilitarianism of the Mk 2, without being much harder to fix. Major mechanical work is laughably easy, but they do shed rear arches for fun.

My last one was a 1.6 16v GLS, which refused to go over 3000rpm in the end, but was otherwise unkillable! It had some stupid electrical probs which were easily rectified too.

[Fat_Pirate]

I've received 9 identical bars of chocolate even though I don't really care for it, and what I actually require is membership of Weightwatchers.

[Pillock]

I'll pm you my address. I'm also fat but crucially, I don't care.

[New POD]

I think head gaskets aren't too tricky to do on these. And a dodgy rear arch is a simple enough fix with chicken wire, fibreglass and isopon.

 

Excellent present because as we all know, all Vauxhalls are great. Or I think that's what we say, isn't it?

 

VERY easy. The last small block 8V took me about 3 days to do the head gasket. But about 6 hours of real work, including much too long trying to get the crank pulley off so I could get at the cam belt.

 

48 hours waiting for the head to be skimmed, (as a precaution)  IIRC the gasket and bolts, and cam belt and tensioner came in at about 35 quid/ Head skim and pressure test was £40 IIRC.

[lisbon_road]

Well, today we towed the christmas present Astra from its home to our home.  Or more precisely, my neighbours garage as he's away for a while (and is very keen for us to keep a car in his garage and fill his bin up so it looks like someone lives there!  Happy to oblige.....)

 

Towing is always fun (!) but it went ok. 

 

Now tomorrow to get the head off to see what it is like, though friend who helped me tow isn't convinced that it is so serious so perhaps a compression test first.

 

Be better if it wasn't quite so cold and if I didn't have quite so many other things to do - all of which are more important but that's an autoshite secret....

[lisbon_road]

Some good news and some not quite so good.

 

I've done the head gasket.  £7.32 for a set of bolts and £5 for a head gasket - Europarts reduced the price as they were slow getting it.  Very quick and easy, as nothing else needed doing as the gasket was done 10K miles ago.  The new gasket looks stronger than the old one around the area that failed between two cylinders.  It is running beautifully.  Well, it is ok anyway, and for good measure I swapped the imminent failure cam belt tensioner for a very good used one I had 'on the shelf'.

 

So much good news?  Well all I am saying so far is that I would suggest a cursory glance at the underneath for huge holes might be an idea BEFORE repairing the engine.

 

Heigh ho.

[HillmanImp]

Weigh ho.

 

FTFY

[lisbon_road]

Well, got close to the MOT time and I decided to call it a day.  Was running very well indeed but the holes by the rear springs were huge, the front floor was dreadful due to sunroof leaks for years and the bulkhead had holes.  Plus various faults.

 

Good tyres and an excellent runner with 4 days MOT.  But I got £250 which isn't too bad I think.

 

Shame but can't fix them all - and I have another to do.