Andy's awful autos: Vanden-blah

[Slowsilver]

1 hour ago, Andyrew said:

Day 1- the dig

Introducing sister-rews landfill edition zafira. She's an untidy person in general but as a single mother of 3, with no driveway, working hard at the moment as a key worker (pharmacist) the zafira get used and abused daily, parked in various places getting bashed about. So keeping it looking good is a low priority, it gets fixed by me when something breaks, and the occasional service.  It doesn't do alot of miles but does tons of short journeys.

Love the idea of a "landfill edition".
This one may be full of it but not all Vauxhalls are sh*te.
I know, because I have owned the same Zafira for 18 years with no problems.
Oh no, I shouldn't have said that, it will probably break now!
 

[Andyrew]

This one was very tidy when I got it for her about 6 or 7 years ago, think it was about £1300  so it was just in her budget and very local and at the time, good service history with owners trusted mechanic, recent belt and waterpump too just in time for their family holiday they had planned.

Slight wurrrr from the alternator area appeared, but all was functioning. 

In Norfolk for their holiday, it cut out , rattled, dead. 

Turned out the Water pump used was of Mickey mouse quality, collapsed and took out the belt and thus all the valves. Gutted.

Upon removel the Pump was certainly new and had worn through right through the quality control test sticker ironically.  

Mate recons heads for a living so an exchange recon head was fitted, i think genuine pump and belt fitted iirc, been a while since I put it back together. Still have a genuine head gasket here but can't remember why I used an aftermarket one, possibly I'd got a whole headset or something at the time and hadn't received the o.e one when I had everything. 

Still going so I must have done some thing right! Probably due another belt now really based on age. 

 

 

 

 

[Andyrew]

Harness the power, 

Today I adress a couple of stains but also decided I'd like to get one of the doors fixed. Zafira's it seems suffer with the check strap mounting areas failing on the door skin, this in turn stretches the loom and either unplug it or breaks the wires. Both rear doors had this problem, one still locked with the key, one didn't. Both rear windows didn't work. 

Starting with the worst door. The check strap had ripped through and the loom had unplugged then the connector had been trapped in the door numerous times.

Female socket had detached from the door skin and the hole it locks into had been buckled in. 

Access here is a right arse and I didn't overly want to take the door panel off with clips that always want to break etc etc, but I needed better access, so a torx key a hammer and some long nose mole grips results in this.

[Andyrew]

Check this out, 

When removing the door and wanting to leave the door panel on I had to disconnect the check strap from the b pillar, to prevent it falling into the door I put a torx key (like and allen key but torx, if you dont have some get some they are great) into the bolt hole. This lasted all of about 4 nanoseconds and into the door it went. Bumfudge. 

After a bit of youtube to find all the hidden screws, The door panel came off and the check strap was removed. But the key had disappeared, I rolled the door, shook the door, nothing. Searched the garden in case it had fell out. Nowt. 

 Sliced some more of the membrane and wedged my face in the door voids only To see this, wtf. 

 

[rickvw72]

I’ve got an old Zafira I use as a van / shed. It’s actually worse than yours on a cleanliness scale too.

Damn things gonna last forever it seems. Cost 100 quid four years ago, and is now on 226k miles.

Ive owned it four years, and I don’t have one picture of it! 

[Andyrew]

With the door card off and the speaker out I could now get to the back of the hole for the connector, so with an very long 1/2 inch extension and a hammer the hole was knocked roughly back into shape.

Whilst these things don't seem to rust I thought I slap some thing on to a least give it a chance.

Errr, close enough

After this the plug was fed back through, then I added a dolop of silicone behind it just to give it a smidge of help and stop the plug rotating out again.

With the door put back on, I got some large ish repair washers and beat the edges over in the vice, this gave the washer a bit of strength to help with it to bridge the void across the ripped out mounting holes. 

Ideally I'd have welded in a new mounting plate but as I'm doing this on the driveway and not at the workshop this will do and I'm sure it will be fine. 

[mitsisigma01]

On 4/4/2020 at 11:50 PM, Andyrew said:

 

What is this magical APC, Great before and after photos ?

[purplebargeken]

Grand cleaning job!

[Andyrew]

53 minutes ago, mitsisigma01 said:

What is this magical APC, Great before and after photos ?

Ha! Those seats are a nightmare to photo, in real life the colours somewhere inbetween the two. 

[beko1987]

Awesome! 

[Andyrew]

On the doors, 

With the drivers rear door now connected up, the c/l functioned but the rear windows were a no go, both sides. A bit of Google and it seems the wires can break, and to check fuses aswell, a fuse had indeed popped, this fixed the driver side the passengers needed investigating. 

Well that's an easy fix, managed to find some bullet connectors and used some side cutters to crimp them on. Will solder them when I can get it to the workshop in the future as these are not ideal given the flexing going in that area.

With that done, we now have 4 functioning windows. 

 

[Andyrew]

The passengers side rear had also busted through on the check strap so required some washed the same as the drivers 

[Andyrew]

With no hose pipe to hand and only very basic cleaning stuff when it started to rain yesterday evening I used the opportunity to give the car a scrub, and that way I wouldn't need to dry it off and can let nature do the rinsing for me. I skipped the wheels as that was a job that would take some time. 

Today i tackled them, a strong mix of APC, some brushes and thankfully the dust hadn't bonded badly at all so they came up pretty good considering it's probably been over a 8 months since it was last washed. 

The tyres get a scrub aswell,

 

[Andyrew]

Ceramics, 

A while back I bought a small bundle of some ceramic coating uber cheap to try out of curiosity.  I gave two away on here and and kept two for myself, but I found it's a bit of a faff and I mainly use it for sealing plastic headlights after polishing them.  

I had tried it on some plastic trim before and figured I'd used some on the zafira which has a full trim all the way around that is made of Vauxhalls famous fading plastics. 

Then I got a bit carried away. . . 

[Andyrew]

Having used some before on my discos damaged bonnet to see What it was like ok found it was good for filling and hiding laquer damage, light scratches of sun damage. The zafira has alot of damage to the panels, And I didn't have any compound or a rotary on me to polish it with.

When applying these coating, IPA should be used to wipe after the paintwork has been corrected and contaminates removed. Then kept in a dry place for 24hours it seems.

Well Wiping the car over with glass cleaner and a old old t-shirt in the front garden and hoping it doesnt rain for a while is all i could offer so meh, why the flip not.

A 50/50 on the bonnet

 

[Andyrew]

The car had been keyed before before purchase and I had tried to machine polish it out but it's fairly deep. The coating hides the worst of it quite well

Smear On, buff off.

 

A couple of hours later, trims coated and the whole car. The light spots on the doors trims and front bumper are from previous incidents. The n.s doors are both buckled after it rubbed shoulders with an AA van, and the front wing is from a breakers after a 7.5ton lorry reversed into it crushing the front in. Looking good I think.

[beko1987]

I did what you did to the rear door loom. Lasted 3 months of heavy use... 

Ended up chopping the loom back to behind the B pillar where it enters the car and re running new wires to the door and re wrapping the loom. Was fine forever after that 

 

Forever being 8 months before the car went 

[tapir]

Nice work on the Zaf - is this the ceramic coating you used?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anti-scratch-Detailing-Glasscoat-Motocycle-Hydrophobic/dp/B075GFYZQQ

 

[Andyrew]

4 hours ago, tapir said:

Nice work on the Zaf - is this the ceramic coating you used?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anti-scratch-Detailing-Glasscoat-Motocycle-Hydrophobic/dp/B075GFYZQQ

 

Yeah that's the stuff, you have to check it's not fake, it seems the real stuff doesn't ignite the fake one is flammable.

 

[Andyrew]

On 4/18/2020 at 7:42 PM, beko1987 said:

I did what you did to the rear door loom. Lasted 3 months of heavy use... 

Ended up chopping the loom back to behind the B pillar where it enters the car and re running new wires to the door and re wrapping the loom. Was fine forever after that 

 

Forever being 8 months before the car went 

I think that's what I'll have to do at a later date, some of the other had signs of splitting on the insulation. 

[Andyrew]

Before the zaf finished it's 4 days of pampering I chucked some new discs and pads on the front. They had plenty of meat left on them but rather pitted around the outter on the inside face and the pads about half worn but very glazed. 

I feel that little bit of corrosion at the top was part of the issue.

Only minor corrosion on the hub face.

Hub cleaned up 

Lobbed back together. Brakefit discs and apec pads. Hmmmm graunchy. 

Juddering has ceased to be.

Whilst I was there I whipped the caning filter out and stuffed a new one in, just in case this was adding to any smells in the car. It was a carbon GM part so I'd guess it was the original. 

 

Seperated  the plastic bits off the end of the original one as the aftermarket one doesnt have these and figured it's no harm is fitting them rather than in the bin.

All done, Astra returned , and the zafira is now back to being destroyed by the little monsters.

[beko1987]

35 minutes ago, Andyrew said:

I think that's what I'll have to do at a later date, some of the other had signs of splitting on the insulation. 

On the B once you get the B pillar trim off there's loads of room, presuming it's the same on the A too

[Slowsilver]

16 hours ago, Andyrew said:

Cracking job.
What did you use to clean this up? Apart from the mark around the edge it looks like new. I would have just given it a quick wire brushing and it would still have looked horrible.
 

[Andyrew]

2 hours ago, Slowsilver said:

Cracking job.
What did you use to clean this up? Apart from the mark around the edge it looks like new. I would have just given it a quick wire brushing and it would still have looked horrible.
 

I get the most off with a wire brush, then I give it a spray of penetrating oil and set to it with some oily 120 grit Emery paper. 

It's overkill really but like most things mechanical, cleaner the better. 

[Andyrew]

Unfinished business

Many pages back I had changed the n.s caliper as it was sticking slightly.  I get these calipers rather cheap so had decided to do the pair. Today I finally done the drivers side, a nice simple job. 

Old one whipped off, gave the pads a quick clean up. I had previously used Apec brake grease on there but as the tube if that is miles away copper slip it gets.

Caliper back on, time for a quick bleed. All I had to hand was a bit of tube and some old cups that had been festering in the disco from a previous Costco trip, its all High tech stuff here. I find it much easier to shove a long length of pipe on the nipple and go straight up and loop it over a coil. I then give the pedal a minor push and just let it bleed the fluid itself, the fluid travels up the tube on its own, nice and easy if doing this solo. 

 

Nipple nipped, cover on, it's time to chuck a wheel on.  

 

 

[Andyrew]

See where I've been,

Many months ago the rear wiper decided that after 17 years and 150k+ miles it had had enough,

I was going to get one from the scrappy or eBay at some point but it was just one of those things you forget about.  Then the legend that is is @mitsisigma01 put up a post in the  @purplebargeken Astra post mentioning an Astra that was being cubed. 

He kindly nabbed the wiper motor and posted it to me. Top bloke. 

Right Then, off with the trim panel.

With the panel removed and the wiper arm already taken off outside. we gain access to the motor, this is retained with three bolts. But once undone, the room to pull the motor out is a bit snug against the lock assembly. 

Pulling the motor back clashes slightly with the lock

You could probably wiggle it out somehow but for the sake of two clips and two nuts to get the lock out I just took that route. 

Quick check they are both the same, looks good.

Wang it all back together and . . .

[mitsisigma01]

A happy shiter hopefully ??

[Andyrew]

The Astra eco4, 

That's right you sexy people, this beauty has been with me for a year and approx 9k miles. bought through the forum from a top shitter, lacking brakes on a driveway a few hours from home. It was Fixed enough to drive home and the rest is history.

In that time its had ALOT of new parts. Some where needed, like the subframe that had rusted through, a dead shock and busted spring and the rear brakes from the collection. Alot of the stuff ive changed has been more an investment in reliability and driveability. With a job as a parts dude, the avalibitly of parts at cost price +vat  makes some stuff so silly cheap if it was a bit worn it was replaced and everything was done in pairs so it wasn't an issue in the future as I expect to keep the car for a few years and travel to various ends of the country for weekends away.

The car Then,  the digestive biscuit of cars, the Raleigh shopper of cars, the Nokia 3310 of cars. 

 cool? Sexy? Inspirational? 

Nope not in the slightest, could it be bigger, faster, have more gadgets inside? Certainly, but as it is it gets the job done, doesn't complain and fulfils its duty no more no less and for that I love it. 

 

[Andyrew]

Chain-ging things up.

Previously in this thread Mother_rews  skoda felicia was featured. Being a 1.3mpi skoda engine the chain has rattled like a bastard for years. I had got the parts to change it years ago but it was finding the time when the car wasn't needed for shuttling grandkids the next day as I expected something to crop up when doing it. 

Years ago as expected with these engines the head gasket went ,pressurising the system and Causing the expansion tank to well... errr Expand.

At the time I replaced the head gasket, and chucked a new rad in as the old one had a leak from the bottom corner, it all seemed fine for a good while, coolant didnt drop.  

Few years later The car had an overheating moment when the car was stuck in traffic and the fan didn't kick in as it had seized. Coolant level seemed to drop sometimes but fine most of the time. The rad now had some crustyness but no visible leaks. I decided to k seal it, this I now regret but it seemed to cure the problem and the coolant level stayed where it was. As it's a push rod engine I may just bung a new HG on and get a skim done if the level varies after the following work.

We have plenty of other issues that need to be addressed, I went with a do them all at once approach

We have the following know issues 

Rattling chain, leaking crank seal, slightly crusty rad, bulging expansion tank, leaking push rod inspection cover, weeping rocker cover, temp gauge reads wrong.  

Right then, let's get started. 

 

[Andyrew]

Coolant carefully drained out into a bucket, because cats. Then the rad can come out, it looks a tad crusty in the corner but not what I'd call bad, possibly corrosion from a leaking previous fan switch. The rad is about 10 years old but was about 29 quid then so probably not the best quality. I pick up a new skoda one on eBay for £23 delivered! So just changed it anyway . 

With the old one out the fan was swapped over. As was the fan switch which is actually for a ford Granada, Id searched the catalogue at work to find something that fits but has a lower temp range to get the fan to kick in more often to prevent the motor seizing up again.

With the rad out still,  I wanted to address the push rod cover plate that was leaking all down the side of the block. Hmmm oily.

For this to come off the aux belt tensioner/idler/ps pump/alternator all in one bracket has to come off. what a shit after thought design it is. With the belt removed a quick check was done on anything that spins, yep that's toasted.