The £250 Zafira B - Fin. Bean can time!

[beko1987]

That's a great result for you. Nice one!

Have been reading up on g101 it says dilute it down but there are variations in what people do. What did you do ?

A 10parts water to 1 of g101?

I dilute it down, always used to do it by eye, but I got some Autosmart bottles with my order, and that's got the ratios on it for 750ml,think I mixed it 3 to one.

 

I bought some cheap 1.5l pump action garden sprayers which are alright actually, quite impressed, so I need to work out a decent ratio and mark the bottle to make it easy to fill, but the problem with that is G101 will take off pen marks...

[paulscavalier]

Lovely thanks. Will be getting some in for the winter, should help with cleaning the wheelarch and underside of the cars where the salt collects.

[beko1987]

Here we go...

 

[mrbenn]

Great reply there!

[Hendry]

Jesus Christ, what more you expecting at £90 for 4x 18" wheels. Muppet!!

[paulscavalier]

If they were buckled as he says you wouldn't then be getting them balanced .Balancing report my arse!

[twosmoke300]

Never heard of a balancer printing a report yet tho !

[Guest Hooli]

Sounds like a cunt to me.

[tapir]

balancing report! yeah whatever,

great, joy of selling stuff - hope you get it all sorted and like your reply!

[beko1987]

I've had no reply yet. The money's out of my paypal and I'm quite happy to de register my empty bank account a d set up a new PayPal over it!

 

His £90 is spent anyway, amy went shopping with it the other day, fuck him

[beko1987]

"sssssh, can you hear that squealing?" Amy said to me thus afternoon as we drove to the car boot...

 

"oh yea, shut up a minute" as I wound each window down in turn, a bit worried as it was the same sort of noise the xantia made 3 days before it shat its aux belt...

 

"what the fuck are you doing" she shouted as I gently eased the handbrake up at 50,which made the noise stop...

 

"seems the rear brakes are squealing" I said. "oh is that what it is? I did wonder, look, it goes away when I brake" WHUMP emergency stop...

 

Sure enough we got to the car boot and the rear passenger wheel was too hot to touch. Driving back home it was fine though, so I've caught it early I think...

 

7pm I had a look!

 

 

There was a lingering burning smell still

 

 

Eventually, after breaking what is probably the original fugging vauxhall locate, the carrier came off to reveal the pads, whose life can probably be measured in weeks took some levering out!

 

 

The sliders looked just as grim

 

 

Using some Tardis and the last of my wire brush I cleaned them up

 

 

 

Much better! The sliders eventually gave up and pulled free too

 

 

And cleaned up nicely

 

 

And with a bit of lube went back in lovely!

 

 

I put all that back together, and wound the post on back, which gave a nice crack of corrosion as it started, and it all moves very well now!

 

Ill get some pads ordered and some more little wire brushes and do the drivers side and replace the pads I think pretty soon! The discs look OK, their not scored or owt.

 

"next time, tell me when noises happen ffs"

[lisbon_road]

I've had the rear brakes apart on my wife's Zafira.  I don't understand why the rear calipers always seem to have pistons on threads that have to be rotated when the fronts don't?  On ours the seals were in a bad way even before I tried rotating them - in hindsight, I reckon removing the outer dust seals before rotating them might be an idea and greasing the whole lot up with rubber grease. Our pads were about the same as yours though.

[twosmoke300]

It's the self adjusting mechanism for the handbrake

[beko1987]

I've had the rear brakes apart on my wife's Zafira.  I don't understand why the rear calipers always seem to have pistons on threads that have to be rotated when the fronts don't?  On ours the seals were in a bad way even before I tried rotating them - in hindsight, I reckon removing the outer dust seals before rotating them might be an idea and greasing the whole lot up with rubber grease. Our pads were about the same as yours though.

This is what took the time to crack off. In the end I pulled the boots from the carrier, then put a 17mm on the inner bolt and twatted it, then held that and twatted the main bolts with a 13mm and they cracked eventually.

 

What is annoying is the handbrake cable holder gets in the way of the top bolt, so a socket nor the ring part of a spanner will fit on!

[twosmoke300]

I think Lisbon Road means the main piston that you wind back with a special tool , not the slider pins

[beko1987]

Oooh I see! I use my £12 ebay caliper rewind set for that!

[beko1987]

I have parts!

 

Euro Car Parts had Eicher pads for £22 for the rears. Added those, then went off looking for a rocker cover gasket... They listed 2, both brands I had never heard of, and not knowing what it actually looked like the 2 different pictures were not much help. The description was even less helpful. That was about £25 a gasket...

 

Popped onto Autovaux and had a look. Genuine GM gasket with my engine code clearly displayed in the description for £22... fuck it, add to basket. Went and had a look at pads, again, genuine GM for £20 the set... With vat and shipping it was £45. So about a tenner more than ECP with their 30% discount but

 

A - Genuine GM (I fitted an ECP rocker gasket to the Meriva and it was leaking slightly again when it sold to Tabact after 3 years)

B - Some confidence that the gasket is the right one

 

Their prices weren't too bad. They had non genuine stuff a bit cheaper, but I think it was a fair deal, and it's nice to use genuine parts for a change. I did have a look for the gooner and see if there was a similar setup doing genuine parts for a reasonable price but found nothing, so ECP for that!

 

Might get them fitted this weekend, but if not the pads will be fine for a week or so, there's a few MM on them and it's not binding up anymore. Then, Amy mentions a squealing from the engine bay. I think that's the aux belt as it did it after I washed the engine bay and flicked the pressure washer over it. Didn't buy that this time though, even Autovaux made it hard to find the right belt. Another month for that, I'll do the front pads as well as their not ace and I can grease up the front calipers too, if their anything like the rear they will need it too

[paulscavalier]

Autovaux are not too bad price wise I have used them quite a lot. Another good one is gps that's genuine parts search and the do Vauxhall , saab and Chevrolet parts. If you have the part number you type it in their search engine and if there are any available it finds them and gives you a price. I managed to pick up some cavalier body side trims that way. Rare parts to find but I got lucky. For your Zaria you could probably pick up quite a few bits off there.

[beko1987]

Thanks for the heads up! Part numbers are easy to find as Autovaux list them, and if I fear to venture into vauxhall forums for info they usually list them too (then go on about visiting the dealer which is something I can never be bothered to do!)

[beko1987]

Well today was the Zafiras turn, and tbh I didn't take any pictures because the brakes were brakes. Apart from one of the bolts on the drivers side being a twat (a smaller socket did what it should do) it was all groovy. Old pads were pretty much down to the metal, new pads are job jobbed.

 

Rocker cover next

 

 

Wasn't too bad bar some wires with no slack, removing part of the cambelt cover helped there, and confirmed that it does indeed have a cambelt! The old gasket was like plastic and snapped a few times and WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS

 

 

 

 

 

Shiiiit! I've never seen this in the flesh before, just those pictures of a BMW engine that's gone 200k without an oil change! Well serviced my arse, this is making me re-evaluate my service schedule! I picked a few chunks off but didn't prod it too hard so it didn't fall down into the engine... What's the best way to get rid of it, an oil change a month with asda oil? It seems happy enough so I'm not mega worried, but still. Spark plugs are none too healthy either

 

 

But again it runs happily so I'll change those in a few months.

 

If it wasn't £250 I'd be a bit annoyed!

[Hendry]

Just a wee heads up, GPS (Genuine Parts Search) is actually run by Autovaux anyway, but its all overage stock from Vauxhall dealers nationwide that they use GPS website portal to advertise on, you do need to know the part numbers as the search is done by those rather than description and headings, and the stuff is usually distributed directly from the selling dealer.

 

Another good one is www.carpartsconnexion.co.uk for cheap genuine stuff, anything from brake pads to body panels, trim, all sorts. And massively cheaper than RRP, had a few bargains from there.

 

http://www.carpartsconnexion.co.uk/vauxhall/searchresults.asp?f=Vauxhall&m=ZAFIRA-B&y=Any+year&submit=&rf=1&n=10&p=1

 

Glad you ditched the Eicher pads, in my experience they are the worst out there! See if anyone you know can get access to Vauxhall Trade Club at the dealers, you can get genuine parts mega mega cheap. Have a look here, will give you an idea of prices and handy for part numbers of common components.

 

 

https://z22se.co.uk/attachments/tradeclubbook2012-pdf.7545/

 

Aux belt squeals on these 1.8 Vauxhall engines are very common, mine did it on my Astra H as did another couple of guys I knew who had the same engine. 

https://z22se.co.uk/attachments/tradeclubbook2012-pdf.7545/

[beko1987]

I've not had any bother with either discs and pads before, but for the tiny price difference (and not having to drive to ecp) it was worth it!

 

Bloody gasket seeped from somewhere else after fitting it too, so had another go with some hylomar in places. The coal is still there...

[PhilA]

Looks like there's just a stagnant area at the end of the cam box, where not much fluid goes but plenty of vapor, where it cools and settles. Where the oil is flung and flows well you can see is nice and clean. Might just be a quirk of the design. Bear in mind the old adage that the worn out spaces in your engine are filled with dirt and resin, and that's what's keeping them sealed. First time you add in something to clean all that out, that's when it begins to leak and burn.

 

I would go at that work a screwdriver, get the worst out, know the rest you dislodged will end up in the sump and filter, change the oil again in a couple hundred miles with cheap, then again with decent oil after a thousand or so and carry on as normal.

 

Phil

[beko1987]

I was planning to find a £1 shitty hoover and vac alot out and do just that. I'll see how the cover is sealed though, don't fancy faffing with that again! An oil change with cheapo oil and a filter is on the cards though!

[beko1987]

Grrr rocker cover still leaking oil at the cambelt end, at least the leak the other end is fixed now... I can't tighten the bolts down any more either.

 

Tube of tiger seal ordered, Amy said she will live with an oily selling car for a day or two and not drive it much. I'll stick the bastard cover down so hard it won't need a rubber gasket!

[Noel Tidybeard]

did you over tighten the cam cover? prolly only needs a nip and a bit

[beko1987]

No, I tweaked it up until I felt resistance and stopped. Upon removing it again the seal is fine too. I even tightened the bolts down evenly (which took blooming ages) but it's still dribbling out of the one corner. Not loads, just enough to hit the manifold and smoke.

 

Should have bloody left it alone!

[omegod]

They are only supposed to be tightened to 8nm iirc, basically finger tight plus a tweak, have you cleaned out the breather system, if it has one ?, if not it'll just pressurise the cam cover and force oil out. 

[beko1987]

I've not touched any of the breathers bar blowing through the one built into the cover and getting oily lips! It never used to spunk oil out to this degree, a slight dribble but this is a fair bit more.

 

Bolts were tightened by hand to "ah, plus not quite another 1/4 a turn"

 

Ill have a better check of it another day

[paulscavalier]

Just clean out as much of the sludge as you can and keep an eye on it. I had a blocked breather on the cavalier which was probably a lot to do with me making lots of short journeys in the car. The oil pressure built up and started leaking out the dipstick tube gasket. I know now to give the breather system a thorough clean every year. Fortunately on the cavalier it's a fairly simple thing to do. Despite it being serviced every year it appeared the breather system was not part of a service check.