AnnoyingPentium's *an Vectra*: MaxGiffer with Added Spannering

[Split_Pin]

Here was mine:

2.0 LS with CDX leathers and wheels, letterbox exhaust, SRi centre console, black B and C pillars.

It decided to shit its steering rack right when we were skint and expecting our son. I kept it in a lock up for a year but a massive fuck up by EDF energy and resultant enormous bill meant it had to be scrapped. It needed a timing belt and the PAS pipes were also rotten.  I took off all the nice bits and sold them separately.

I'd have another!

[Cheezey]

It could have been a very early 2000 car. He bought it summer 2001 from the short lived Caledonian Motors where Nelson’s Honda / Shell garage was. It had slightly unusual alloys on it. I’ve got a corrupt external hard drive on my desk taunting me that has pictures of it on it. I’ll see if I can find a hard copy picture later. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

  On 05/11/2024 at 12:45, Split_Pin said:

Now that's confused me! I always thought a Club was a post 2000 model only and there were definitely no GLS's made after that date. Seems it was an intermediate model between LS and GLS then!

Dougie Rankine would know for sure!

Expand  

My 2000 brochure lists Club between LS and GLS at the time.

Weird your Dad's didn't have rear headrests @Cheezey as I always thought that was an Envoy only thing.

Mind you, my Granda's LS had four electric windows... 

[Cheezey]

A very quick photo of a photo

[AnnoyingPentium]

Thanks to a relatively mild* December, there hasn't been much presence of gritters down this way. As a result, I've not really put this into hibernation like I had planned on doing to keep it away from the road salt.

It's been used less since the return of the Fabia, but still enjoyable regardless. Longest trip it has done for a little while was to Glasgow and back today.

Looks deceptively clean here as well, thankfully.

One of my mates had come up from the Lakes and we met up with another from up the coast a bit, sometimes it's nice not to have the slowest car.  (even if the combined age of the Fabia and the Swift is still less than the Vectra)

There's something soothing about driving this car, I feel very much at home anywhere I go. It still retains the 'Vauxhall smell' which is oh-so familiar to me. Everything about it is just the way I remember these being. it's daft being nostalgic over a bloody Vectra, but it's a good 'un.

It just keeps on going, and going, and going. Keep thinking about what I'd want to do with it long-term, and I'm not sure really. It's great, but I keep seeing better spec ones and thinking I'd like a slice of that... he says as he's writing a note to put on a BASE Envoy tomorrow. Problem is, it's increasingly difficult to find another clean one, as such I'm just as well sticking to what I've got and know. Anyway, have some artsy shots...

[Wibble]

I’d stick with what you’ve got Ryan. It’s clearly a good one and, as for that Vauxhall smell, my Senator still has it too.

[AnnoyingPentium]

  On 18/12/2024 at 23:34, Wibble said:

I’d stick with what you’ve got Ryan. It’s clearly a good one and, as for that Vauxhall smell, my Senator still has it too.

Expand  

I'm inclined to agree really, it's had the big ticket jobs done and it isn't rotten, so it's one up on quite a few others.

[AnnoyingPentium]

As the lead car on Mission Nexia, this performed spectacularly. Reckon it averaged 38mpg on the way down, and about 46mpg (just over 10 miles to the litre) using my fag packet calculations.

Quality!

[AnnoyingPentium]

Since the last post I threw some steel wheels and mismatched Halfords trims at it for MaxGiffer spec.

However, I've not really gelled with them, so the alloys have been refitted.

Been gathering up the parts I need to get her completely sound again. Needs shock absorbers, bushes in various places, the auxiliary belt tensioner I've been putting off for ages (nearly two years), timing belt and water pump, rear drop links,  some front and rear discs and pads (rears are original from 1998!), and I'll do the idle control valve on Saturday. 

Overall, not a bad wee list to work through. I'll get there once the Fabia has been MOT'd.

[Imhotep]

Looks a lot smarter on the alloys regardless mind, would be leaving those on for sure.

[AnnoyingPentium]

  On 13/02/2025 at 21:43, Imhotep said:

Looks a lot smarter on the alloys regardless mind, would be leaving those on for sure.

Expand  

Agreed. The steels are always handy next winter, mind you. I didn't pay much for them, £50 for seven wheels, reckon I'd get some of that back by weighing in the extra three.

[Imhotep]

  On 13/02/2025 at 21:52, AnnoyingPentium said:

Agreed. The steels are always handy next winter, mind you. I didn't pay much for them, £50 for seven wheels, reckon I'd get some of that back by weighing in the extra three.

Expand  

Aye, useful as winter wheels. I need some for the MG myself for next year, but it’s getting warmer thankfully, so enjoy the car looking better 😎

[Lord Sterling]

  On 18/12/2024 at 23:34, Wibble said:

I’d stick with what you’ve got Ryan. It’s clearly a good one and, as for that Vauxhall smell, my Senator still has it too.

Expand  

I'm with Wibz on this. It's a great car and has had the big ticket stuff done as you said. It's great so stick with it. The likelihood is, if you sell, it might never see the road again or become modded so badly like a Frankenmotor, then probably left for dead and scrapped. They're still not really seen as classic motors and sadly that negative Clarkson stigma still sticks with these cars.

  On 13/02/2025 at 21:43, Imhotep said:

Looks a lot smarter on the alloys regardless mind, would be leaving those on for sure.

Expand  

Aaaand again, I'm with Imhotep on this one. I was surprised to see it on steelies and cheapo poundland wheel trims! You might have liked them a bit better had they been period-correct wheel trims because deep down I think you know it deserves the best.

[AnnoyingPentium]

  On 14/02/2025 at 14:55, Lord Sterling said:

I'm with Wibz on this. It's a great car and has had the big ticket stuff done as you said. It's great so stick with it. The likelihood is, if you sell, it might never see the road again or become modded so badly like a Frankenmotor, het left for dead and scrapped. They're still not really seen as classic motors and sadly that negative Clarkson stigma still sticks with these cars.

Aaaand again, I'm with Imhotep on this one. I was surprised to see it on steelies and cheapo poundland wheel trims! You might have liked them a bit better had they been period-correct wheel trims because deep down I think you know it deserves the best.

Expand  

100% on all fronts, Mo.

It'll definitely stay a long time yet. It's not really put a foot wrong in 34,000 miles.

[tooSavvy]

  On 14/02/2025 at 17:26, AnnoyingPentium said:

100% on all fronts, Mo.

It'll definitely stay a long time yet. It's not really put a foot wrong in 34,000 miles.

Expand  

AVAS agrees..... 🎉

🚙💨

[Lord Sterling]

  On 14/02/2025 at 17:39, tooSavvy said:

AVAS agrees..... 🎉

🚙💨

Expand  

AVAS..... 🎊 🎊 🎊 🎊 🎊

🚙💨

[Rustybullethole]

  On 13/02/2025 at 21:52, AnnoyingPentium said:

Agreed. The steels are always handy next winter, mind you. I didn't pay much for them, £50 for seven wheels, reckon I'd get some of that back by weighing in the extra three.

Expand  

Some places will give a better price for steel wheels as #1 shearing. Not a great deal of wonga in them though better than nowt. 

So is a Vectra a Cav or a Carlton? I've lost touch. 

Looks tidy👍🏽

[AnnoyingPentium]

  On 14/02/2025 at 18:16, Rustybullethole said:

Some places will give a better price for steel wheels as #1 shearing. Not a great deal of wonga in them though better than nowt. 

So is a Vectra a Cav or a Carlton? I've lost touch. 

Looks tidy👍🏽

Expand  

Aye, I offered them up on here at one point too, but regardless a little bit back on the extras is fine.

Underneath it's an adapted version of the GM2900 platform used on the Mk3 Cavalier. @Ghosty and I agreed it's clear the Vectra B is a development of the Cavalier, rather than an all-new car. Good either way. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

Vectra parts impulsively acquired. Many, many, many thanks to @Lord Sterling and @davidfowler2000 for sorting out the complex logistics, and further thanks to David for battling the wind and rain as well.

Next job is to get the silver bumper, and white wing, to be painted in the correct blue, and get them on the motor. Hopefully to rectify the damage caused from the incidents left in the driving fuckups thread...

[AnnoyingPentium]

Many things have been happening, peoples!

As outlined in the thread about the ICV (Idle Control Valve), I replaced it, it shed a bolt SOMEWHERE, then I fixed* it.

Job jobbed, no problems there.

I've since had it away for front and rear shock absorbers, a PAS pump (courtesy of @JMotor), rear anti roll bar bushes, and a pair of rear droplinks also. It rides a lot nicer now, thankfully.

Decided, since there was some good weather, I'd try and force myself into doing some spannering - as I've had a bit of a crisis of confidence and a lack of motivation recently. Have to say, changing the front discs and pads on this was actually quite easy. Reminding myself I'm not too much of an incompetent oaf some of the time.

 

 

Brembo discs and Pagid pads (as Brembo pads were not available from ECP) to try and give the woeful brakes more stoppyness*, quality.

Looks good, wash and wax was done the other day as well.

Might even try to fix the air conditioning next!

[beko1987]

Looks good, can't beat bolting shiny onto it 👍

[Marshall2810]

  On 22/03/2025 at 17:58, beko1987 said:

Looks good, can't beat bolting shiny onto it 👍

Expand  

Old car + New bits is the best

[AnnoyingPentium]

Nothing quite beats the satisfaction of completing work on an old car, even though it likely demanded a blood sacrifice - I know mine did today.

[JMotor]

I hasten to add I was only the provider of some parts 😆.

That poor old Estate I had, helped another Veccy B. 

When the car was dropped off it was in need of a wash. Well! I thought it did! 

Not the fault of the owner. Just time of year and fondness of road salt about these parts. Snow foamed. Rinsed and washed with Autosmart Duet wash and wax. 

Came up good enough I thought.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Now sadly up for sale. Would love to see this go to a good home.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Had the car tracked today. The rear was pretty much in-spec, but the front was on the piss as I expected.

Now that's sorted, it feels a lot better. So far, I just have my time wasted advertising on Facebook. Handy that.

If it doesn't sell by the end of this month I'll SORN it until my financial situation has improved somewhat, and see how everything stands by then. Whenever that may be. I don't mind if it doesn't go, as I've got somewhere it can sit, however it would be nice if it did sell.

A little while ago, I believed I mentioned that there's one other Vectra kicking about this area. A base model Envoy, no less. Today I finally went and spoke to the owner, and gave him my details, should he want to get rid. It's an AS spec one - 1.6 8v, windy windows all round, proper poverty.

Here's a photo from ~December 2023. Do I win anything for the length of the shadow, or? 🤣

[Lord Sterling]

I'm gonna sound like a bit of a dick here, but I really hope you don't sell the Vectra and do end up storing it. I said this before, but I believe it's forever home is with you (yeah, I know, that sounded a but 'twee').

Sometimes, cars do have a habit of getting under your skin. I'll admit that even the Peugeot 407 I had was starting to go that way. I was searching for ways to get the air-con sorted, however with that, I always felt that it wouldn't be with me for too long and it decided to take itself out of the picture before I could do anything about it.

[Mrcento]

+1 on hoping you keep it and the insurance situation can be resolved.

I'd keep trying on the insurance quotes, maybe even worth a phone call or 2, i routinely get stung to almost nonsensical levels (Even a yaris for me can return nonsense quotes north of a grand for no reason), I just ran a quote on this out of curiosity and got £510. Sometimes there's just weird blips in algorithms where they return absolute batshit numbers pulled from the sky for something that for whatever reason has probably flagged something on their systems where AN car with AN engine or trim level = GTF price (I always assume someone with a car like it just caused a big payout causing underwriters to throw a red flag), but an otherwise identical one with a different engine = no problem, and a few days on for no reason they suddenly line up more closely again.

[AnnoyingPentium]

  On 05/04/2025 at 02:12, Lord Sterling said:

I'm gonna sound like a bit of a dick here, but I really hope you don't sell the Vectra and do end up storing it. I said this before, but I believe it's forever home is with you (yeah, I know, that sounded a but 'twee').

Sometimes, cars do have a habit of getting under your skin. I'll admit that even the Peugeot 407 I had was starting to go that way. I was searching for ways to get the air-con sorted, however with that, I always felt that it wouldn't be with me for too long and it decided to take itself out of the picture before I could do anything about it.

Expand  

 

  On 05/04/2025 at 02:41, Mrcento said:

+1 on hoping you keep it and the insurance situation can be resolved.

I'd keep trying on the insurance quotes, maybe even worth a phone call or 2, i routinely get stung to almost nonsensical levels (Even a yaris for me can return nonsense quotes north of a grand for no reason), I just ran a quote on this out of curiosity and got £510. Sometimes there's just weird blips in algorithms where they return absolute batshit numbers pulled from the sky for something that for whatever reason has probably flagged something on their systems where AN car with AN engine or trim level = GTF price (I always assume someone with a car like it just caused a big payout causing underwriters to throw a red flag), but an otherwise identical one with a different engine = no problem, and a few days on for no reason they suddenly line up more closely again.

Expand  

Thanks guys, I've been messing about with quotes again, and swatting away Facebook idiots, because I don't want it to go really. It's coming down a wee bit, thankfully. Just need to get it down to a similar price as a V6 one is (about £700 a year).

If it doesn't sell by sometime into this month I'll run it till the end of the month and SORN it, as I've sorted somewhere free for it to sit, which is nice.

I suppose we'll see what happens, main thing is getting a new job at the moment, as 15 hours a week barely above minimum wage isn't quite cutting it.

[tooSavvy]

  On 22/03/2025 at 18:01, Marshall2810 said:

Old car + New bits is the best

Expand  

Sometimes old car + *older bits can be cool...

02 Omega 16x7 😋

🚙💨