As of late i have been pretty dormant with the vectra, so i thought i would have a lil splurry on spending
So i have bought the following goodies,
- New Exhaust
- New VXR real bumper insert
- Toyosport Oil Catcher
- Some silicone Vacum hoses
- Silicone Intake hoses
- EGR valve modification.
Note, I, Vectra-C.com and any other Forum in which this appears accept no responsibility for any damage caused to your vehicle using any of the information provided in the post below or this thread.
First - EGR Modification (1.9 CDTi 150bhp).
The parts:
Tools and bits needed:
Carb Cleaner
10mm Socket
13mm Socket
Simple task,
Remove the electrical module on the EGR - don't turn the ignition on or the fault light will appear and you will have to have it cleared.
Remove the two 13mm bolts
Then remove the four 10mm bolts The two on the left hand side are double nutted theres two nuts holding a bracket on, then two underneath that bracket holding the EGR on. MAKE SURE YOU REMOVE BOTH or when you try to pull the EGR your snap the manifold..
I now cleaned the EGR with carb cleaner, and scooped out the crud from the manifold (Mine wasn't that bad).
Pop the new gaskets in and use a lil gasket sealant if you wish.
Put the EGR on in reverse of above and then ensure you connect the electrical plug on it BEFORE starting the ignition.
Job Done.
N.B On some versions, the firmware for the EGR may trip the fault light after this mod. The simple solution is to remove the small oval shapped gasket.
(mines a 2007 and it DIDN'T trip it)
Second - Silicone Time!!!
Previously installed:
The Hoses:
The small one is the 4mm Vaccum Hose.
The large one around the edge is the 13mm Oil resistant silicone hose for the oil catcher tank.
Fitted:
They just went straight on in place of the old ones, for the vacum hose you only need about 0.5m but its only really possible to get 1metre lengths. therefore i have enough to do another car if anyones interested!
Third - Rear Insert
The bootiful VXR rear bumper insert,
Lovingly sprayed in Sapphire black by me!
(It wasn't finished when that picture taken)
The Exhaust:
Ready for the new exhaust.
Now installed.
The exhaust to go on was a second hand twin exit cat back from a 2.2 vectra.
First i started by removing the rear valance, there are four clips holding it on underneath, which require a push up the middle and a lil tug to get off.
Once there off you can get the unit off, i used a flate bladed screwdriver and slotted between bumper and valance and with a smooth, gentle pusing action eased it out, though this did leave some marks on the bumper, though these will be concealed with the new insert.
Once that was donei jacked the car up.
Personally, i only jacked and supported the passenger side REAR jacking point up. I found this to give me enough room and a good angle to be able to get to everything easily. I left the jack in place but not fully up as a precautionary measure.
Next, i loosened the bolts on the rear silencer bracket, and the bracket on the cat.
i used GT85 [WD40 equivelant] and sprayed the rubber hangers.
This eneabled me to slide them off and with the loosened bracket, ease the rear silencer off.
I found twisting it helped alot rather than just trying to pull it off.
With the silencer off, i then got around to removing the centre section.
with the bolt loosened on the bracket, i removed the two rubbers attached to it. this allowed it do effectively drop down.
From the rear of the car i twisted the pipe whilst pulling and this motion seem to free it up quickly and then it came off.
Now i set about putting the new pipe in.
Firsty i laid the pipe under the car (Make sure its the right way around - don't realise this after you have got the put it in.....)
i used exhaust pasted around the joint, and on the centre pipe a new bracket. i slid it in as much as possible, and then from the rear of the car again, wiggled it whilst pushing, not to hard though!
Next, put the rubbers on the longer hangers on the boxes. The two middle located ones (From memory).
Then the rubbers on the Car on the other two.
I found this to be easier, as tryin to put the manipulate the rubber once its on the car and your trying to put it on the long hangers on th silencers is very hard.
With the rubbers on the car and box, i slid the boxes onto the Y-Piece and into place. (perfect alignement isn't key at this point).
With box boxes on, i set about trying to align them.
i used the jack to prop the boxes in place aligned then tightening the bolts on them more to hold them.
I did this on both boxes, then using the jack again, i propped up the centre pipe, to allow me to get the rubber on (I couldn't physically support the centre pipe and try and get the rubber on at the same time especialy with it being so stiff.
Once the centre pipe was firmly fixed, i checked and re aligned the rear boxes.
At this point i noticed that my left box was hanging to low, i ended up buying a new hanger rubber to fix this.
Once all aligned and fully tightened the rear valance can go on.
From Top:
(Still tryign to get it to click in properly :'(
Info:
I found the old clamps had been spot welded on the old pipe but not on the centre section being installed, therefore i needed a new exhaust clamp.
GT85/WD40 helps millions to get the rubbers on!
IF the exhaust isn't sitting properly check the rubbers, mine wasn't and it turned out it was purely the rubber had got soft and allowed to much down movement.
Parts Required:
New exhaust Clamp (58mm)
Two new rubbers plus one rubber for the new silencer (There were two brackets on my centre pipe, but only one on the one going on)
Exhaust Paste.
Four new Clips that hold the splitter on.
1-2 hours.
Tools Required:
15mm socket.
Jack
Axle Stand
Flat headed screwdriver
Somthing pointy to poke the clips through with (I used a pen)
Oil Catcher:
A bit of a nightmare!
Tryign to find somewhere to fit it was the hardest part, it comes with everything you need bar fixings to the car.
I visited B&Q and spent £9 on washers, bolts/nuts and a Bosch HSS drill bit.
The silicone pipe isn't required as you do get some, my OCD however meant that i didnt like having two different coloured/types of pipe doing the same thing.
So i spent money replacing it with a Silicone one on the input and then the clearer blue one on the output so that i could see if there was too much oiling up inside the pipe.
The parts include a bracket, however in the vectra i could really find an easy place to fit it so i made a bracket up that extended the current one using brackets from Wickes.
I used a angle bracket attached to the provided bracket to secure mine to the car, it is currenly held on by one bolt, though i will double this up and make sure its more secure. Its a pain to put a hole in the necessary places though due to the obstructions.
Available Viable places to fit.
I found the Red Circle the easiest place to install in as it had the most room, but it is the furthest from where it needs to be...
One you have fitted it inside the car, the breather pipe (Highlighted) gets cut and this literally pops in the Circuit for it.
There are other further options on this:
You can ventilate to atmosphere instead of having a closed circuit.
Inserting steel wool inside the catcher to further aide 'catching' the oil as it passes through.
Each option has it's own advantages and disadvantages.
Done!!!
Big thanks to the following:
Gazza4 - for help with the silicone pipes amongst many other vectra things!
OPC - with Oil Catcher Issues
My Gf for putting up with my spray painting in her conservatory/dumping my exhaust in her conservatory/getting up early to go to sheffield and helping with fitting the exhaust.
Parts from: Ebay, GFS, Fiat, Merlin motorsport (online), AP Motorstore (online) and Halfrauds.
Useful Part Numbers:
Gaskets from Fiat:
13205877
13205878
All In £8
Vectra VXR Rear Insert: 9271537 (VX) List price is £50ish
Oil Catcher; Toyo Sport - eBay and many other places - £30 delivered
Silicone Hoses:
Vaccum Hose ~(4mm x 1 metre)- £2 Delivered -Ebay
13mm Oil Resistant Hose (1mtr) - £13 Delivered APMotorstore (online)
90 Degree Bend 55mm downsizer Samco - www.merlinmotorsports.com (Excellent customer service)
Bookmarks