Bought a frontera sport SWB

[garellikatia]

So I saw a cheaply advertised frontera sport. MOT until November,  it had recently  a new radiator head gasket,  alternator, exhaust  and cam belt

The old boy seemed legit about servicing so thought sod it, for the price I will take a punt. It has the typical gaffer touches like matt brushed on paint , and steering wheel cover, not to mention the front wheel is the spare. The flat is mounted to the back of the boot,  and It came with a spare tyre to replace the damaged one. 

I can hear the fan belt bearing whirling away so that will need replacing soon and the belt is old, which makes no sense as the alternator is new. I'd have done them in a pair. Overall it stinks of fags and dead pigeons but I'm going to give it a deep clean and sanitise it, then do some TLC, probably run it and see how she goes. Pics here: 

What do you reckon guys? 🤔

 

[stuboy]

always liked the latter 2.2 dti lwb ..

[Garythesnail]

3 door smoll 4WD with petrol engine  . . . . must be rubbish😉.

Looks tidy enough and smells OK from my couch. How does it go/stop?

I have a petrol 3d Freelander. Fronteras are proper 4WDs, aren't they?

[horriblemercedes]

I've always liked the Frontera. If it's half decent, why not! 

 

My grandparents had an early Frontera Sport which was a 2.0i. I thought it was cool. They probably were, back then! 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

That's lovely! It seemed like a large percentage of these ended their days a few years back as green laners, along with Pajeros, Hilux Surfs and the remaining SJs. All are now thin on the ground. 

It looks solid and straight enough- what's it like underneath? I love the fact the rear arches look as though they have some Nova DNA in them!  It's a much better looking truck than the Freelander of the same era too. 

[AnthonyG]

It was the Frontera’s 30th birthday recently, it’s a proper classic now: https://gb-media.vauxhall.co.uk/en-gb/03-15-frontera-30-years?idtok=14d9dbbb5415. 

Blame boredom at work, I went down a Vauxhall corporate-website-rabbit-hole after reading the new electric van news…they do have some nice stuff in their heritage collection. 

[garellikatia]

8 hours ago, Garythesnail said:

3 door smoll 4WD with petrol engine  . . . . must be rubbish😉.

Looks tidy enough and smells OK from my couch. How does it go/stop?

I have a petrol 3d Freelander. Fronteras are proper 4WDs, aren't they?

Haha yea the smell Is the worst to be honest, but the interior is actually quite well preserved , the seats don't have any tears or anything,  just needs a damn goof clean. Yea he mentioned that it could be chucked into 4WD whilst driving it, without the need to stop, which seemed decent. I heard some 4x4s you have to stop which would lose a lot of momentum. She drives horribly tbh, but I think that was the general consensus from new haha very bouncy and has a lot of body roll, but I think it's just getting used to It.

[garellikatia]

7 hours ago, horriblemercedes said:

I've always liked the Frontera. If it's half decent, why not! 

 

My grandparents had an early Frontera Sport which was a 2.0i. I thought it was cool. They probably were, back then! 

Did you ever take the back off it? They look cool in the summer as a semi convertible 

[garellikatia]

7 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

That's lovely! It seemed like a large percentage of these ended their days a few years back as green laners, along with Pajeros, Hilux Surfs and the remaining SJs. All are now thin on the ground. 

It looks solid and straight enough- what's it like underneath? I love the fact the rear arches look as though they have some Nova DNA in them!  It's a much better looking truck than the Freelander of the same era too. 

Aye its not too bad underneath tbh, a bit of an oil leak, not sure where from, but it was picked up on the last MOT as an advisory, so something I will investigate. Not a great deal of rot or rust, but I kept having to remind myself it was £450  and I shouldn't expect a minter. Could have probably got it cheaper,  but it seemed  a fair price.  Yea I'm not a massive fan of the freelander, they're probably brilliant cars, but they just don't look as robust in places. 

[dollywobbler]

Looks good. I think they'd made them pretty decent by this stage, but people were starting to tire of 4x4s actually feeling like 4x4s as the SUV fake 4x4 market took off.

[bunglebus]

My ex wife had a Frontera A 2.0i Sport. I was generally quite impressed with it, not exactly fast and felt pretty vague in terms of handling and feedback, but you knew you wouldn't break it. Proper 4x4 with low range, you could drive up the side of a house in it. I liked the beefy sump and fuel tank guards, just don't drop them on your fingers.

Maintenance was generally easy as I just slid underneath without jacking it up. Changed the clutch on it, gearbox stayed on the jack under the car, just slid it back. Fixing rusty fuel pipes above the fuel tank was less fun.

You may want a bigger jack if you only have a two ton, mine struggled a bit

 

[omegod]

Quite a sought after engine for the Corsa boys if it all goes tits up, rocker cover likely culprit for the leak 

[Garythesnail]

8 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

It's a much better looking truck than the Freelander of the same era too. 

I resemble that remark!🤪

 

*may be biased

[UltraWomble]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-21087633

Capable off road - personally Id ditch the bull bars, but thats just me.

Noice.

[garellikatia]

16 hours ago, AnthonyG said:

It was the Frontera’s 30th birthday recently, it’s a proper classic now: https://gb-media.vauxhall.co.uk/en-gb/03-15-frontera-30-years?idtok=14d9dbbb5415. 

Blame boredom at work, I went down a Vauxhall corporate-website-rabbit-hole after reading the new electric van news…they do have some nice stuff in their heritage collection. 

Thanks mate I will give that a read 

[garellikatia]

8 hours ago, bunglebus said:

My ex wife had a Frontera A 2.0i Sport. I was generally quite impressed with it, not exactly fast and felt pretty vague in terms of handling and feedback, but you knew you wouldn't break it. Proper 4x4 with low range, you could drive up the side of a house in it. I liked the beefy sump and fuel tank guards, just don't drop them on your fingers.

Maintenance was generally easy as I just slid underneath without jacking it up. Changed the clutch on it, gearbox stayed on the jack under the car, just slid it back. Fixing rusty fuel pipes above the fuel tank was less fun.

You may want a bigger jack if you only have a two ton, mine struggled a bit

 

Thanks for the tip,  It looks pretty easy to work on, did it take long to do the clutch? 

[garellikatia]

8 hours ago, UltraWomble said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-21087633

Capable off road - personally Id ditch the bull bars, but thats just me.

Noice.

That's some going that isn't it! 

[bunglebus]

10 minutes ago, garellikatia said:

Thanks for the tip,  It looks pretty easy to work on, did it take long to do the clutch? 

Not especially - should have been a day at home on the drive except my (then) step son ignored my advice to "lube it up and work it back and forth", so snapped some crossmember bolts. My side came out without a problem because I'm not an idiot who goes at everything at full speed, damn the consequences. Guess who had to extract the broken bolts?

[Ian_Fearn]

Feel like I’ve been waiting years for someone on here to buy one of these! Well bought.

Is the 2.2 petrol in these any relation to the 2.2 fitted to the Vectra? 

[warch]

One of these managed to make it up Snowdon several times, the authorities were getting (understandably) pissed off about it though. Very good trucks and decent off road too.

[tom13]

This will clean up so nice.

[AnthonyG]

Best Frontera fact* courtesy of Wikipedia is that the original Isuzu it’s based on is known as the ‘MU’ in Japan. 

MU stands for ‘Mysterious Utility’ 👍

[bangernomics]

Taking the nudge bar off the front knocks years off them. It’s almost like you don’t recognise it without one.

[Peter C]

Love it. Any interior pics?

[Hogie]

I got a Frontera last Nov,  it's been my lockdown project. Still plenty to do, it needs a tickle with the welder on the passanger rear sill before it MOT this Aug. 

I wasnt expecting much but they are in fact okay, not brilliant, just okay. It drives like an old truck but honestly that is part of the charm for me.  

Regarding your one, for £450, well bought sir. If it anything like the A series they are simple to work on.

If you need spares there is a guy in Kent, Greg from Frontyspares I think, he breaks them.

This is mine, pictures flatter it, 2.8 TDI Diamond.

 

[Hogie]

13 hours ago, bunglebus said:

My ex wife had a Frontera A 2.0i Sport. I was generally quite impressed with it, not exactly fast and felt pretty vague in terms of handling and feedback, but you knew you wouldn't break it. Proper 4x4 with low range, you could drive up the side of a house in it. I liked the beefy sump and fuel tank guards, just don't drop them on your fingers.

Maintenance was generally easy as I just slid underneath without jacking it up. Changed the clutch on it, gearbox stayed on the jack under the car, just slid it back. Fixing rusty fuel pipes above the fuel tank was less fun.

You may want a bigger jack if you only have a two ton, mine struggled a bit

 

There is someone on Facebook trying to sell one just like that, I think he wants 7k.

 

[garellikatia]

5 hours ago, Ian_Fearn said:

Feel like I’ve been waiting years for someone on here to buy one of these! Well bought.

Is the 2.2 petrol in these any relation to the 2.2 fitted to the Vectra? 

Haha, thanks! Tbh I'm not that sure,  I will have to do some digging and find out

 

[garellikatia]

2 hours ago, bangernomics said:

Taking the nudge bar off the front knocks years off them. It’s almost like you don’t recognise it without one.

Tbh, I actually quite like the look of it and it was fairly useful to orientation of the vehicle at times when manoeuvring about haha

[garellikatia]

1 hour ago, Peter C said:

Love it. Any interior pics?

It's just parked up at work at the minute,  but I will be sure to get some tomorrow. 

[garellikatia]

1 hour ago, Hogie said:

I got a Frontera last Nov,  it's been my lockdown project. Still plenty to do, it needs a tickle with the welder on the passanger rear sill before it MOT this Aug. 

I wasnt expecting much but they are in fact okay, not brilliant, just okay. It drives like an old truck but honestly that is part of the charm for me.  

Regarding your one, for £450, well bought sir. If it anything like the A series they are simple to work on.

If you need spares there is a guy in Kent, Greg from Frontyspares I think, he breaks them.

This is mine, pictures flatter it, 2.8 TDI Diamond.

 

She's a beauty mate thanks for the heads up I will bear that in mind,  if it needs anything. What are your plans for it? Any modifications or off roading? I know what your mean about the handling,  the only thing I can compare it to is the RIV fire truck we used to have in the RAF haha