Andy's awful autos: Vanden-blah

[AnthonyG]

That’s just reminded me - @Andyrew do you need a Haynes BOL for an SJ? Found one in some recent sorting. Can bring to the next FoD meet if you do. 

[Andyrew]

4 minutes ago, AnthonyG said:

That’s just reminded me - @Andyrew do you need a Haynes BOL for an SJ? Found one in some recent sorting. Can bring to the next FoD meet if you do. 

Im good , but thanks for the offer dude. 

Im a bit of a saddo and Know them rather well , i handily have a very very tired original dealer manual book when i forget something. 

[Andyrew]

A few weeks ago i was greeted with a lovely horse shoe nail in the n.s rear tyre.  Yep, my less than 200 mile tyres. Urgh.  In the outter edge, out the bead and stabbing into the rim, bloody low profiles.

This results in 

I ordered a pair as i felt id save the money now when i get another puncture. 

The bush id replaced on the n.s rear also has moved over exactly how the last bush sat. Some eyeballing and i think the upper arm is slightly twisted so ill take a punt on a used arm at 14 quid. This is the side thats taken a knock. But the car is fully aligned.  So i think its just tweeked a bit. 

Should sit central.

Whilst on the ramp with its boots off i gave the rusty discs a quick splodge of paint just to cheer it up. 

 

 

[Andyrew]

With the Razzda still kicking it on the lift with its boots off, i decided to do an oil and filter change.  It was unknown to me exactly when the last change had been done and at less than a tenner to do it, its silly not too. 

VGG approved filter.

Oil was fairly dark, nothing of any concern found. 

Fresh 10w40 chucked in, sounds lovely and smooth now. 

Service manual filled out

Whilst it had been draining id chucked its shoes on, 

Gave the wheels and windscreen a clean, bit of tyre jollop to freshen them up. 

Thats about all i clean on this car, shiney wheels , shabby body. 

Wheel bolts torqued up, and off the lift. 

This was about 9 ish tonight, it wasnt raining but some dark clouds were heading my way.  Sod it, i fancy a bit of a drive so i left the Roof down, heater on a touch and i took the exceptionally long way home, 

Does make me smile this little car. 

 

[Andyrew]

Familiar felicia, up on table.  But what for?

OMG (oily manky gearbox)

OOOOOTTT

Enhance,  Enhance, hmmmm

Dusty

Smooooth

 

Vp watching over in line for its turn on the lift. 

Tomorrows plans involve.

 

 

 

[Andyrew]

Day 2

Flywheel cleaned up and roughed up a bit

Bellhousing de clagged, new thrust bearing in

Clutch in and torqued up.

Then much swearing and sweating as i man handled the box in place. Urgh.

Id stripped all the suspension of as its so simple on these that it takes no time at all, some of the pinch bolts put up a fight so i nipped into work and nabbed some that will do the job. 

Eveything was given a clean up and a bit of copperslip and then a spray over with supertrol wax.  Brake disc was cleaned up and the wee lip it had nipped off. 

Wheels on and drive shaft crown nuts done up to FT.  

Sorted. 

[Andyrew]

Nice evening? Why not.

[Andyrew]

Some minor tinkering this week, on my day off i had a look at the landfill spec zafira and swapped out a  busted coil spring . 

The black Astra had a minor drip from the sump plug,  and whilst the old hadnt long been changed, i have 10w40 in 20ltr barrels and filters in stock for this engine in the workshop so i dropped it out,  let it drip for ages and stuck in a fresh filter along with a new plug and seal.

 

When at low revs or labouring the engine there was a faint sqeak. Beep had mentions a noisey pulley so i took them off to see which was dead. The idler sounded a bit nosiey but nothing too bad.  Need another idler, tensioner and belt to see if that was the noise. 

Yoink!

And lobbed on

Whilst im here, with no history id like to have a nosey at the cambelt. To see what the risk level is between now and fitting a new one. 

"ISUZU" eeep. 125k and 18 years old then. Does look okay really but i think a new one wouldnt be a bad move.

 

[twosmoke300]

Iirc the Vauxhall timing belt kits for these came with Isuzu branded belts so it may* have been done 😬

[Dan302]

I love that you run a sanctuary for retired mk4 Astras its great to see them getting attention, brilliant cars!

[Andyrew]

The slowest cambelt change.

So 7 years ago i and a friend fitted a recon head and belt kit on this wagon after the waterpump collapsed shortly after purchasing the car, it took the belt and valves with it. 

Miles wise its done about 30k since then but given that when it went last time it was fully loaded on a busy road 100miles from home with 3 kids it was not something my sister wants to repeat anytime soon. With a minor coolant leak and the way the stat was looking a new waterpump has now been added to the list. I knew id find other things and with my sister borrowing my OMGMPG black astra theres no rush to get the car done so i can address these issues over a week or So, up we go then.

Right, oil out.  Sump plug appears to have fought a speed bump in the past. Add that to the list. 

Whilst im here i decided to drop the gear oil, 110k on the gearbox, clutch feels a bit meh and its probably got some wear on the diff like my Astra. 

Undo all but two bolts and let it bleed. 

Oil still looked healthy enough

Some heavy heavy wear on the odd tooth. Not grand that , but  given the miles this does per year i think we have a while left. 

The old gasket didnt survive and at 9 quid for a new one, out came the gasket paper and a blade. 

Whilst in the area i whipped out the battery tray, the clamp had done a vauxhall and the captive nut was spinning. I figured id fix this now rather than when the battery probably fails on a rainy day in winter somewhere. 

With the tray out i could see the gearbox mount looking a bit tired.

At £13+vat a new mount went on the list. 

And shoved in

Ill treat that wee bit of surface rust aswell.

 

 

 

[Andyrew]

Takin a leak

From the underside a lighty pink trailer of coolant could be seen. This had been going on for a while and had been left so it could be done at the same time as the belt. 

Alot of green and pink fluff going on here.

Bit hard to tell what wasnt leaking!

OOOOTTT

SERCK unit aquired and the head was cleaned up. 

Surprise at how much corrosion there was in the water tbh. 

The head was cleaned up and there was some heavy pitting so i oppted to at a smear of reinzol to the rubber seal to ensure a good  . . errrr seal. 

 

[Andyrew]

3s a charm.

Being a high performace vehicle the tyres are always kwality. 

With the n.s wheel taking a beating on the daily and the rear N.S having cracks down it,  add to that 2 nails and a screw the the answer was obviously new tyres.

The answer

The n.s front arm had an advisory for minor play in the lower ball joint , ill put the new ones on the rear and the decent two old ones on the front then when the time comes a new arm, two more tyres and tracking will be done in one hit. 

 

[Andyrew]

With the tyres delivered to work, i asked my good friend john ( mentioned previously in this thread) if he could chuck some tyres on for me.  I bring them into work, when he pops in he collects my tat and then drops them back in the following day or two. Which is very handy and greatly appreciated.

The slight issue i have is that im using the Razda whilst the Astra is on loan. 

Two zafira wheels to get from A to B. 

Deflate the tyre and shove savagely into the boot, one down.

The other wrapped in a bag and shoved behind the passengers seat. Roof down action allowed easy loading. 

 

 

[Andyrew]

Pair of new boots, made in japan surprisingly. 

Found the crank seals got a small weep so added one to the list and the water pump is stuck solid in the block. Lame. 

 

[beko1987]

I had to smack the crap out of the water pump I changed in a z16xe when I did it. Scared the shit out of me doing it but when it went and vomited all the coolant out then fell onto the road it was a relief! 

[Floatylight]

2 hours ago, Andyrew said:

Pair of new boots, made in japan surprisingly. 

Found the crank seals got a small weep so added one to the list and the water pump is stuck solid in the block. Lame. 

 

Interestingly I had some Japanese made tyres fitted today, the Falkens I usually get had gone up £20 a corner due to changes on import taxes on Chinese goods apparently...

[Andyrew]

6 hours ago, beko1987 said:

I had to smack the crap out of the water pump I changed in a z16xe when I did it. Scared the shit out of me doing it but when it went and vomited all the coolant out then fell onto the road it was a relief! 

I walked away last night after soaking it with oil so i hope it makes some sort of difference.  

[Andyrew]

3 hours and one broken air chisel later. 

Fuck me. . .

[Alessi P]

On 5/24/2019 at 9:32 PM, Andyrew said:

So at 146600 miles a new Cam belt has been fitted along with a new aux belt 

As we had a nice day yesterday with the sun blazing I decide to smarten up the front corner of the bumper. With the heat and wind the basecoat dried a bit to quick from the Can and most was blown away. so on the corner it's a bit tiger stripey it was done relatively quickly so it's a good enough repair for now. The clear ran but I nibbed this out tonight and whipped over with some 2000 grit and a blob of compound.  

 

 

Whoa, that is vintage. Used to see those everywhere back in my day, now I honestly can’t remember the last time I seen one…

Newspapers, eh?

[Andyrew]

Well what crocks have had a ride on the lift.

The zafira was finished and eventually handed back. I was going to get it back to do some other bits but in the process of getting my car back, ive ended up not wanting anything to do with its owner for the time being.  Not something i like but it is what it is.  

 

This bargainous hunk of silver was purchased for my work. A few days later it came in for a visit to see if 5th could be welcomed back to the party .

End plate was popped of the gearbox, lets just say the oil was a smidge contaminated with metal. 

As mention by a fellow shiter in the advert for the car. The selctor fork was indeed worn out. 

One roll pin tapped out and a circlip. Hub off and new for on. 

I used a vacuum pump to suck out the gear oil due to the lack of a drain plug and filled it with some fresh oil.  A quick test drive down the yard showed all was well and 5th was back in the game!

So with it warmed up a bit the engine oil was sucked out and a new filter lobbed on, with a glug fresh lube. 

The focus can now return its semi daily duties as being abused as a parts delivery car.  Hopefully it survives longer than its previous , it replaces The Almera mentioned here. That was belted into a high kerb making it handle oddly and the ticket expired, scrappy collected it for a tidy 274 quid.

The wee mazda has seen some loving, with the decent weather it got some use but the fart cannons out the back whilst fun on short trips and a blast on b roads on the motorway is a different story.

Me and my good lady took the mazda on a trip to watford and it was rather unpleasant. The exhaust noise wasnt nice either!

So one of these ordered at work.

Remove this

Find this

Order a centre pipe the next day.

Flogged this to a mate which covered the cost of its replacement.

Much better, just a shame it highlighted how much the manifold to downpipe gasket was leaking. 

 

 

 

[Andyrew]

With the gasket blow sounding bloody awful i ordered up a new gasket. The one previously fitted is only a few months old. The exhaust ive fitted is the cheapest of cheap so fitment isnt the best.  Im also missing a clamp through support that the orignal cat had. 

So yeah thats dead.  But the nuts were tight.  When id fitted the cat the the first tme car was on axle stands and enjoy it i did not.  With the car higher now i could see what i was doing more. The flanged nuts i had used had the edges all chewed up which seemed odd. I then took a look at the flange. Maybe a bit of welding spatter? No just a full on weld intruding on the nuts space, both sides

The middle one had enough room just.

Some grinder action ( not like that )  and the nuts now had a nice surface to do up to. 

The new exhaust is a euroflo item and fits like absolute shite, its on but its in all kinds of the wrong place. Some modifaction will be needed.  Sounds alright but its knocking and is just generally shit fitment. 

Garbage. 

 

[Andyrew]

Last night i took a late phone call from a friend asking if my work would have a back box in stock as his neices corsa had the exhaust fall off on the rather dubious corsa she was sold.  He said he would try and help her out as shes had a rough time recently and fit it in the carpark of her home. I suggested he grabs the car and brings it over to bung it on the lift. 

I popped into work this morning to check but we didnt have one in stock, i dropped him a call and he nipped to the local euros, to be honest the prices they have on klaruis items is very reasonable and it was needed asap.

Whilst at work i booked out a load of service items and some other items we had previously spoke about doing to the car to help this young lady out.

Car up on the lift reveals a decent nick centre pipe but its buckled to fuck by a forklift fork. Yet there is no 2nd fork marks elsewhere?!.

Ignoring that, the old bit of tailpipe is unbolted with its very odd welding bodge on it. Whats that all about?

Then we fit the new box in place to find the pipe on the new part is around 5 or so mm larger in diametre.

I google the part number on the centre pipe to have our suspicions confirmed. Its a centre pipe from a scrapper 1.0 3 pot corsa,  the o2 sensor was also cross threaded in aswell. There really are some bodging bellends out there. 

The call was made and the young lass reckoned she had just enough to afford a centre pipe . Another resevation made at euros, in MK this time.  

The vehicle had previously ran painfully low on oil. Requiring 3 litres to top it up to max but with a capacity of something around 3.5ltrs thats really not good. 

With the car in the air we was greeted with a sump pan dripping in oil and most of the underside covered it was clear the sump gasket was toast. Given how quiet the timing chain is i guessed someone cheaped out and skipped dropping the sump. 

I said to my friend that if euros have a gasket in stock, with the exhaust off now is the time to do it and prevent future damage from low oil.

He hopped in the mazda with my nefew and away they went to collect the exhaust! And a sump gasket.

Stripped of the sump, suspicion confirmed. About half a tube of hylomar clagged on.

Popped the oil filter out.  Think its skipped a few services in the past. Crikey.

The oil was concerningly black given its only a few days old , it didnt contain any bits of metal. Old filter has nothing of concern inside it.  Camshafts had about the expected amount of wear for one of these so maybe its survived the lack of oil?  Although being driven 20 odd miles with the light on leads me to believe theres got to be damage somewhere.

Rocker cover gasket was changed as it was leaking everywhere. Pulling the coil pack revealed a coil lead boot wedged on from some other car which made the coil pack a twat to get out and put back. 

New exhaust and gasket on, fresh oil and a couple of filters. A new oil cap and  Some wipers too and away it went hopefully it keeps most of its oil inside it now. 

 

[Dj_efk]

Wow, it was driven with the oil light on (as in, no oil pressure at all) for TWENTY MILES??!

Unbelievable that there’s no damage.

[Andyrew]

2 hours ago, Dj_efk said:

Wow, it was driven with the oil light on (as in, no oil pressure at all) for TWENTY MILES??!

Unbelievable that there’s no damage.

20 miles mostly on NSL roads too! Maybe that helped keep the pressure up of what little oil remained? These are proned to failed oil pressure switches pinging the light on but a 3 litre top up is a big worry.

Its fingers crossed it has survived,  whilst these little Corsa Cs are prone to common issues they certainly can take a beating. Most have a hard life.

We found no bits of metal or anything in the sump unlike the previous corsa mentioned on here a few pages back  (thats still on the road!).

My worry is how black the oil turned over those few days it was in, lack of previous changes or exhaust gases contaminating it from a dash of ring wear? 

We will see, the cars back soon for a check over and to seal up the leaking bulkhead panel thats giving it the usual corsa wet floor feature. 

[Dj_efk]

On 8/17/2021 at 9:39 AM, Andyrew said:

20 miles mostly on NSL roads too! Maybe that helped keep the pressure up of what little oil remained? These are proned to failed oil pressure switches pinging the light on but a 3 litre top up is a big worry.

Its fingers crossed it has survived,  whilst these little Corsa Cs are prone to common issues they certainly can take a beating. Most have a hard life.

We found no bits of metal or anything in the sump unlike the previous corsa mentioned on here a few pages back  (thats still on the road!).

My worry is how black the oil turned over those few days it was in, lack of previous changes or exhaust gases contaminating it from a dash of ring wear? 

We will see, the cars back soon for a check over and to seal up the leaking bulkhead panel thats giving it the usual corsa wet floor feature. 

Both probably - I would recommend a  gentle flush via second oil change within the next 1000 miles and then a third within 3000 miles of that.

Mannol 7715 is very cheap on eBay for 10 or 20 litres and excellent oil if you’re after any suggestions (analysed in a lab by a respected member of the Audi A2 OC and found to be identical to official VAG long-life Qantam - SEE HERE-  the 507 spec  far exceeds what Vauxhall specified). 

[Andyrew]

All about the Timing . . .

The week prior to the FOD weekend i had a mates mondeo in for a few days we tackled the timing belt and water pump and did fuel and oil filters along with a gearbox oil change. 

The subframes also got a liberal spray of supertrol wax.  With the belt done it seems to drive like a new car, we found the floating crank pulley was clocked around in the wrong place and now the car pulls very well. Seems maybe it was off from the factory. Odd but my friends chuffed with it. 

The girls corsa is running like a champ and oil is staying inside the engine where it should be.

 

[Andyrew]

Times 2.

With this hunk of sexiness on the lift i decided over the last few days to get the belt on the mazda done whilst it was stuffed at the back of the work shop.

With a sticker on the slam panel showing the cambelt was change at 60k about 10 years ago i felt a change would be a good idea.  Its a non interference engine but the idea of being stuck somewhere awaiting recovery over 50 quid of parts doesnt seem worth it.  There was also alot of "noise" from the engine in general.  So the best value parts i could order at work were bundled up. Two new aux belts aswell.

Rocker off, nothing of concern found

Cambelt was very loose. And the idler could be rattled about with my finger. Didnt have to undo the tensioner the belt just pulled off.

Power steering pump was removed and the top pulleys pulled off to get the water pump out. A new one went in and the new belt kit was lobbed on and timed up. The already cracked belt Covers went back on.

When the old belts were removed both looked fairly recent but the alt one was worn flat and had melted rubber on to the pulleys. Maybe the alt has locked up at some point in the past?  

This was scraped out, wire brushed and a quick spray of matt black went on. Then onto the car with some new belts 

Rad and everything back in along with a new rocker gasket, some fresh coolant with some de-ionised water left over from the mondeo and we are ready to roll. Its brilliantly quiet now.

Vp rolled out, followed by silver astra, mazda out , black astra in followed by silver astra the vp back on the lift. 

Hungry i nipped to the local tesco express in the mazda for a test drive, a cheeky clutch kick on a quiet junction confirms all is well. 

Cheeky little bugger this car.

[Andyrew]

On 8/20/2021 at 6:29 PM, Dj_efk said:

Both probably - I would recommend a  gentle flush via second oil change within the next 1000 miles and then a third within 3000 miles of that.

Mannol 7715 is very cheap on eBay for 10 or 20 litres and excellent oil if you’re after any suggestions (analysed in a lab by a respected member of the Audi A2 OC and found to be identical to official VAG long-life Qantam - SEE HERE-  the 507 spec  far exceeds what Vauxhall specified). 

A short change interval was planned but the oil has stayed very clean and not dropped at all which is good to hear. 

Mannol oil is very good (the company sales ethics a very shonky) and very cheap, the 10w40 is what i use and i buy it in 20l barrels. 

The oil that went in the corsa was granville oil, made in the uk. 

My job is at a motorfactors so oil cost is very very cheap! Its rather handy.

[Andyrew]

 A good belting?

Yeah, another cam belt.  The black Astra had no history when i purchased it from  @BeEP and given that the cars been pretty spot on over the past 2.5k miles since purchase i felt it was worth while doing the belt, like the mazda at around 46 quid for a kit it made sense even tho the belt looked healthy. Id previously had a nosey at the belt and it had isuzu written on it so assumed original.

With the 6s VP playing on the lift i chucked the car up on  a axle stand with the rear wheel on a my big ol chunk o wewd.

Air box and pipes out, engine mount off aswell ad aux belt. 

Put at tdc and two bolts used to lock the cam and injector pump. Water pump pulley doesnt need to come off but wanted a check on the pump while i was there and it was one less item in the way.

New kit, 

Some faffing about getting the belt on. New Tensioner on,  pinged and torqued up as well as the new idler Then turned over by hand a few times. All the locking bolts went back fine and lined up.

And all back together. 

Just waiting on the front wheel to come back monday from having a puncture fixed and thats about it for this wagon.  Theres nowt else it needs. 

Coming Up some time soon, another cambelt on a vauxhall Astra. I know, exciting stuff!