Cavalier Coupe Collected

[Barry Cade]

Wait till you see the lads at Kwik Fit run like F*^K when you ask them to do the tracking on it. They are horrible. Nice motor though- guy at work has a turboed 8v and about 3 whole cars in parts dotted around the garage,along with another turbo 8v on a stand ready to go in. He's collecting a v6 tomorrow,so more calibra shennanigans to come next week...

[Essex V6]

Am I the only one who feels cheated by opening the thread and not seeing pics of an actual Cavalier Coupe.

 

This place is not what it was etc, etc.

[KruJoe]

 

[Essex V6]

[Cavcraft]

{BING BONG} New undercrackers to aisle three please, that's new undercrackers to aisle three. Thank you {BING BONG}

 

 

 

[HMC]

One aspect of my number plate OCD is that I have a great memory for plates, and something about YAW rang a bell.....

Excuse the pic I can't figure out how to make things to click onto other threads on this I phone. But there it is in your " cavalier attitude" thread a year ago. It's lost it's old plates and gained a set of vauxhall trimz in the last year by the looks of things.

[Cavcraft]

I probably won't keep it though, just run it for a month or so and then shift on. I keep getting harangued by SWMBO to get a small auto that she can use, which this isn't.

 

 

If that doesn't conclude in a business meeting with our head of Vauxhall apologists at Norton Canes services on a Saturday morning, I'll eat my inedible hat, so I will.

[RobT]

One aspect of my number plate OCD is that I have a great memory for plates, and something about YAW rang a bell.....

image.jpg

Excuse the pic I can't figure out how to make things to click onto other threads on this I phone. But there it is in your " cavalier attitude" thread a year ago. It's lost it's old plates and gained a set of vauxhall trimz in the last year by the looks of things.

Well remembered Matthew! Bit weird how I ended up with a car from my old Cav thread, it was meant to be obviously.

[Timewaster]

I thought J***YAW rang a bell too.

 

Then I remembered is my mates 110 defender.

 

chalk / cheese

[retrogeezer]

I do like a Calibra.  The one we had was blighted with the awful ecotec lump that gave us no end of daft sensor problems but driving it felt gr9.

[Lacquer Peel]

Wait till you see the lads at Kwik Fit run like F*^K when you ask them to do the tracking on it. They are horrible. Nice motor though- guy at work has a turboed 8v and about 3 whole cars in parts dotted around the garage,along with another turbo 8v on a stand ready to go in. He's collecting a v6 tomorrow,so more calibra shennanigans to come next week...

What's the crack with the tracking on these?

Great looking cars, I am ambivalent about Vauxhalls apart from Cavalier TDs, but an unmolested Calibra is very appealing. It just needs* an Isuzu diesel.

[skattrd]

Calibra is very appealing. It just needs* an Isuzu diesel.

 

Now that's a Vauxhall I could live with.

[Rusty_Rocket]

Only issue with doing the tracking is due to the adjuster sections of the steering arms seizing solid in the TRE.

Anything new to me, I remove the track rods (17mm bolts) and free them up in the vice. Easy peasy if you're prepared.

[Cavcraft]

The Isuzu conversion=mega MPG, quite a popular thing to do back in the day. I wouldn't know what Kwik-Fit think of them as I'd just as soon set fire to my bollocks than go to them.

 

Anyhow, if this one is Shrewsbury registered it would have been the Greenhous dealer in town.

[HMC]

I recon this as it stands will be pretty decent on fuel. This ones in spindly tyred 0.26CD low drag spec (all the more upmarked and fatter tyred ones arent quite as slippery)  Bettered only by the audi a2 some years later. That plus the tall gearing on the autobox (plus a lock up torque converter) and I recon for what it is OMGMPG on a long motorway run.

[Bren]

Have you had a butchers underneath it yet? What are the rear chassis legs like?

 

I used to know somebody who had a 4x4 turbo who cut the rear legs off a scrapper and grafted them in place of his doyley like items.

[John F]

Yep, early Calibras (and IRS Cavs) suffered from rusty rear chassis legs... later ones tend to be OK though, and better protected against rust in general e.g. my '94 V6 has still never needed any attention from the MIG fairy and it's 21 years old this month.

 

The tracking adjusters are not that bad to free up - just remove the whole arm, clamp in vice (or workmate), release adjusters with brute force & possibly a bit of heat, clean them up & grease them well before reassembly. After that they should* be easy to adjust in future.

[EssDeeWon]

These are mega thin on the ground now, although saying that I did pass a silver J reg today.

 

My dad had an N reg Calibra about 10 years ago, nice car but it was always losing its gears when in 'Drive'. Cant remember what happened to it now, traded in I think.

[Lacquer Peel]

Do all Calibras have IRS?

[lisbon_road]

Fab car.  Another Vauxhall to prove that Autoshite is in fact a Vauxhall club.  Shall I hide now?

[Cavcraft]

I didn't realise it was spazzmatic. What a shame.

[KruJoe]

I thought the tool eater 8v auto was your dream spec Billy!?

[carlo]

I'm loving that steering wheel too, that spoke at 4 o'clock is just right.

 

Haven't really cared much for any Vauxhall I've driven except the engine - they all seem to have great engines.

[John F]

Lacquer Peel, on 08 Feb 2015 - 5:26 PM, said:

Do all Calibras have IRS?

 

Yep.

[RobT]

Off work today, so I gave the Calibra a thorough clean and rejuvinated the plastics with Autoglym Bumper Care as they were a bit faded. It now looks loads better (sorry for lack of pics). I had a look underneath and the chassis legs look solid, as does everywhere else.

 

The front NS tyre was almost flat this morning and I noticed the valve leaking air, so took it to my local tyre gaff and they replaced the valve pin FOC. I thought that might be the pulling to left problem sorted, but it's still doing it (albeit to a lesser extent) so will have my friendly mechanic have a look at it next month when I'll have some spare cash.

[hairnet]

moar info.......... (niaow)

[hairnet]

too orangey nice for crows billy

[dugong]

Can this one corner? The last Calibra I drove wasn't interested in anything resembling a bend.

[RobT]

Can this one corner? The last Calibra I drove wasn't interested in anything resembling a bend.

I took a few bends quickly on Sunday and it stuck well enough, but it didn't feel particularly nimble, so wouldn't want to push too hard. It's best as a cruiser I reckon, as the tall gearing made for a relaxed journey on fast A-roads and motorways.

[dugong]

I took a few bends quickly on Sunday and it stuck well enough, but it didn't feel particularly nimble, so wouldn't want to push too hard. It's best as a cruiser I reckon, as the tall gearing made for a relaxed journey on fast A-roads and motorways.

To be fair, Calibras make great GTs - especially the V6 models.