Andy's awful autos: unfinished projects

[Andyrew]

A quick catch up with an old workmate see us have a little poke and prod of the Ax GT.

A jubilee clip stopped the coolant leak and with it fired up and bleed it seems okay. The fan isn't rigged up so wasn't ran for too long. I had managed to clear all the spares out of the astra and re organise them so the Ax is now packed with its parts. Duplicate parts will be sold on, if they don't sell then they will be binned. I will be meeting up with @Imhotep again soon to collect the remain parts like sunroof glass and wheel arches, carpet etc etc.

with the car running it seemed a good time to chuck it up on the lift and see what we have, and I can report all is good in my opinion.

 

[loserone]

That's an absolute win.  MOT booked for Tuesday?

[Zelandeth]

Can you either ping me a message or post up a list of the relevant AX parts on here?  I've a friend over on Newport Pagnell who has a pair of them, so would like to run it past them see if there's anything they're looking for if we have the opportunity.

[Andyrew]

15 minutes ago, loserone said:

That's an absolute win.  MOT booked for Tuesday?

Not sure when this will get a ticket, it wasn't exactly a planned purchase. 

I do plan on tackling the rot on the window and re installing the sunroof sometime soon ish, as this would get some large items fitted back onto the car, rather than shoved inside it. 

[Andyrew]

11 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Can you either ping me a message or post up a list of the relevant AX parts on here?  I've a friend over on Newport Pagnell who has a pair of them, so would like to run it past them see if there's anything they're looking for if we have the opportunity.

Mostly interior trim bits. 

Lower Door pocket, wine holders, higher spec wine holder door cap trims, roof strips, scuttle panel, parcel shelf fabric type, door mirror, rear lights, pretty decent N.s door, rear interior panels and pockets,  handbrake surround. Manual window regs, x4 

Not really things that go wrong but they are All cheap! 

 

[Andyrew]

Forbidden bran flakes

The quarter panel grot was seen in the advert but what's the rest like?

Having owned land rovers and Suzuki Sjs the rot on this Ax is nothing in comparison, so in my eyes its very solid, the inner wings are the worst bit but really nothing difficult to fabricate (IMO)

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, Andyrew said:

Mostly interior trim bits. 

Lower Door pocket, wine holders, higher spec wine holder door cap trims, roof strips, scuttle panel, parcel shelf fabric type, door mirror, rear lights, pretty decent N.s door, rear interior panels and pockets,  handbrake surround. Manual window regs, x4 

Not really things that go wrong but they are All cheap! 

 

Given that AX interiors aren't exactly the sturdiest things ever that's actually the sort of things he might want to stash away in the garage loft as spares.  I'll ping them a message as it may well be worth their coming down and having a rummage.

[Imhotep]

Once I’m over the lurgy/Covid or whatever ailment I currently have I will arrange collection with you for the rest of the parts!

[Andyrew]

20 hours ago, Andyrew said:

A jubilee clip stopped the coolant leak and with it fired up and bleed it seems okay. 

**checks the now empty coolant tank and squeezes the empty top hose**

Idle, moved, idle, hmmmmmmmm

 

[Imhotep]

May have been a good thing you didn’t buy it for the engine @loserone…

Have dropped you a text Andy, happy to help sort this since I said in the advert ‘is mechanically okay’ (in my defence, we block tested it in May, the last time it ran and it passed). 

[Fabergé Greggs]

On 04/12/2025 at 19:07, loserone said:

MOT booked for Tuesday?

 

16 hours ago, Andyrew said:

 

**checks the now empty coolant tank and squeezes the empty top hose**

Looking more like Wednesday now my dudes 

[Andyrew]

Well the Astra, the car that started this thread has had its first proper failure to start. 

Cranks over normally but no fire, Given it was pissing with rain I've left it to be another day's problem. With no untoward noises, i leaning towards lack of fuel. 

A Normal code reader doesn't connect to this car and engine light has been blanked off by someone in the past so nothing on the dash to go by.

I have the feeling it's wise to start with the little module mounted down by the Fuel pump, which I was told many years ago can be a common failure. The Friend that told me about it used to keep one in the glovebox of his van .

[Andyrew]

Module swapped over from the black car, from my understanding these are plug and play. However it's a no go.

The unit dis however fall appart on the car and pen marks of another reg number show its suffered this before in its life. 

The cover on the floor!

[Andyrew]

And we are back on the road!

Just goes to show that if you keep at it, take logical steps youll find the answer eventually.

After some more poking and proding, a quick phone call and £25 later, sorted.

So who did I call?

 

My insurance company, i switched the policy onto the black Astra. 

I was swapping bits over to try get the silver car to fire up and it just felt a little silly, the black car was purchased years ago with it being the replacement when the time comes and the time is now. 

It's a shame I never got the silver car to 200k (196)  and I will still keep having a poke to work out why it's not getting power to the injector pump mostly out of curiosity and learning as I have assumed ecu/wiring problem , also as its alot easier if it runs even if it is now basically a donor car.

After 5 years and 9 months  of ownership, This car has done 50k with me, never stranded me anywhere, returned around 55-60 mpg average, hauled numerous tat around the country, jump started loads of shite, dragged cars, pushed cars, camping trips, borrowed by friends, used as a workbench, used as a platform when pulling down some trees, tip runs and so on. it's picked up a lot of battle scars over that time but mechanically it's always got what little it did need and more.

With that in mind, it feels like the right time to retire it. 

 

 

 

 

[beko1987]

Can you put the front end up on stands, bypass everything to get it running then let it do 4k sat in the yard one last time? 😂

[Andyrew]

3 hours ago, beko1987 said:

Can you put the front end up on stands, bypass everything to get it running then let it do 4k sat in the yard one last time? 😂

It will stick about for a good while, and Eventually the lump will come out to keep as spares for the black car and I'd probably give the rolling shell  to a chap my mate knows who banger races them. 

Straight up scrapping it so someone can make a few quid feels a bit wrong, I really like the car so it would Be great to see it go out all painted up and in a blaze of glory rather than just bailed straight away.

[UltraWomble]

3 hours ago, Andyrew said:

It will stick about for a good while, and Eventually the lump will come out to keep as spares for the black car and I'd probably give the rolling shell  to a chap my mate knows who banger races them. 

Straight up scrapping it so someone can make a few quid feels a bit wrong, I really like the car so it would Be great to see it go out all painted up and in a blaze of glory rather than just bailed straight away.

From when I scrapped the Silver Astra G of mine the cats for the 1.6 16v make good money.

[ruffgeezer]

If you need any Ax advice or are looking for another home for parts, please drop me a PM, I had dozens of them back in the day.

[LightBulbFun]

On 30/04/2025 at 17:56, SiC said:

These were a game changer in greasing for me:

https://amzn.eu/d/7LzPpsa

GURTECH G.COUPLER is the name of the genuine original one iirc. South African made and really do clamp on properly without puking grease out of the coupling. 

Just screwed onto my regular grease gun after removing the original (crap) attachment. 

Looks to be cheaper on eBay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114285805970

I noticed one of those is for 1/8" BSP while the other is Metric M10, if your looking to get a grease gun, is there a way to tell what thread it might have? so one can order the correct better coupler for it

for example I was looking at picking up one of these things next time I was in halfords and proactively getting the better fitting you recommend, but I realised I have no idea which thread type I would need...

https://www.halfords.com/tools/garage-equipment/garage-essentials/halfords-grease-gun-400cc-823662.html

[Andyrew]

29 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

I noticed one of those is for 1/8" BSP while the other is Metric M10, if your looking to get a grease gun, is there a way to tell what thread it might have? so one can order the correct better coupler for it

for example I was looking at picking up one of these things next time I was in halfords and proactively getting the better fitting you recommend, but I realised I have no idea which thread type I would need...

https://www.halfords.com/tools/garage-equipment/garage-essentials/halfords-grease-gun-400cc-823662.html

I still hate grease guns with a passion, but I have found the pistol grip style far easier to live with, 

 

 

[Irreversal]

If your astra is the 1.7 dti it could well be the fuel pump ecu mounted down the back. I had a 1.7 dti for years and that's the only thing that let me down in 80k. Took it up to 223k. I pulled the ecu (think they call this one the edu?) off and a mate whos handy with a soldering iron sorted out around 4 dry joints. Never gave any trouble again. Apparently very very common. Maybe worth a shot if you keep it.

I'm pretty sure before I had it repaired knocking it with a screwdriver on the casing while cranking would get it going most of the time. 

Appologies if I've skimmed your last posts and its something totally unrelated.

[Andyrew]

1 OUT.

An unfinished project of mine featured earlier in this thread. A few messages with a mate who I met through these Suzukis nearly 20 years ago sees it finding a new home.

These LWB suzukis are very rare nowadays and go for a good chunk of dosh but I've had this car over a decade and sunk tons of money into it trying to make my ideal Samurai and its still not done, but like all unfinished projects if you leave them too long the mojo goes. When the Mojo returns its hard to keep going, because that "new toy" spark is long gone and especially on a modified project, you've changed in the time you had the project lingering ,so you also focus on the things you'd do differently now.

My mate knows these inside out, will have the new toy mojo kicking in and make something very cool with it. He has a target in mind for the end of this month.

That's the key thing here really, he will do something with it,get it on the road and enjoy it, when realistically I wouldnt anytime soon and that's not good for the car or mojo.

Parting with an unfinished project can be a little deflating, as theres the time and finacial loss floating in your brain. I sold it far too cheap, but my mate gets a bargain, the Samurai gets back on the road, I free up some mental space. That to me makes this whole thing a positive.

*Looks at other projects*

Right, who's next on the chopping block?