What did you do to your Vectra/Signum today?

[northpole]

don't talk about it even the standard manual vxr ones (half leather/half cloth, without the embroidery on the headrests) are 500+ pounds it's what I wanted to do at first but managed to do a full heated leather interior for around 100 pounds... a lot more wallet friendly and an upgrade and a half from the cloth, non heated seats it came with. I also pulled out the rear seat headrests and replaced them with the same headrests as the front seats... that way it just looks better (less view through the rear window though)

[FIL 4822]

We’ll decided I needed to tidy up the cosmetics of my brake callipers and discs on the Vectra so ordered some paint and new retainer springs front & rear.
First job was to pressure wash the inner wheel arch of crud and dress the plastics, then I unbolted the front drivers side calliper, removed all the old paint/rust with a wire wheel on an angle grinder which came out really good. Took the calliper bracket off but took it to work so I could shotblast it. Unfortunately, the shotblaster packed up so had to finish that with the wire wheel. Painted them up and refitted minus the retainer spring so the paint had some time to cure.
Today was the rear callipers turn.
Pressure washer out again for a tidy up, first thing I see is needs new discs & pads so got those ordered for collection tomorrow.
Went to remove the retainer spring and it was totally seized into the holes !!! Soaked in WD40 and left it for 30mins. Tried again and it wouldn’t budge, so out come the pliers & a HD screwdriver. Nothing ! Ended up snapping the spring trying to twist it out, it was solid both ends. Got a blow torch on the stubs of the spring and kept heating and cooling them a few times. With a small punch, I taped them out from the other side (eventually).
The carrier bracket bolts are solid so they’re now soaking in WD40 ready for tomorrow’s assault so I can get the disc off & start removing the old paint.
I’m getting there …. Slowly lol.3FA57148-7037-456B-93B1-154E5245B4AF.jpgC2AD0124-0EF3-44C5-92C7-C05F1E65306F.jpg39BF5FF0-6642-4D4F-A7F5-68DDE8908A43.jpg1AACF86A-BD89-4AB2-98D5-ED6B9238ED35.jpg83A33073-93B9-4B32-8FE8-AE0A327A1EA8.jpg

[horaa]

The front brakes looks nice. I wonder how much would it cost to replace hubs to get the bigger brakes installed

[FIL 4822]

A2E8C6C4-6953-4CEE-901E-1F1729A4FBF2.jpg
Calliper bracket bolts came out easily enough after a good soak in WD40 overnight.
New discs are painted and the 1st is on. Painted the calliper bracket and left that to dry for 24 hrs and painted the disc guard while the disc was off.
I’ll put some more pics up of the results when done.

[horaa]

I have refuelled with petrol after 4300kms, consumption of petrol is 0.5% with 90% being cold engine start and city driving .
Meanwhile i saw apuddle of coolant under the car and the front of the engine is wet(?). Radiator is dry, hoses are dry, water pump is dry, everything is dry but there's a leak somewhere. Only when stationary(?) for a short period of time because the leak stops itself. There's not a single thing to leak from the front of the engine under the manifold except outside coolant leak from the headgasket. I jacked up the car, stood under the car 30 minutes to see where it leaks, it's not leaking if the front car is jacked up, only when the car is downhill on the parking space... stop dissapointing me signumareasa, i thought we had a deal.

[Robsey]

I brought my Vectra back from the brink.
I know that sounds very dramatic, but when your MOT smoke test is more than double the prescribed limit.
Limit is 3.00, and our 1.9CDTi 150 was kicking out 6.52!!

The dual mass flywheel is also on it's way out, so no chance of risking rpm surges when using 10k / Lucas inlet manifold cleaner up the intake trunking.

I really struggled to decide what to do, when finances aren't really on my side. Maybe time to scrap the vectra - yeesh.

Eventually I wobbled my brain cells-
Plan was to clean the inlet manifold, (Decoke)
but it is always best to start at the EGR valve first with these crappy Fiat derived CDTi engines.

I also cleaned the turbo-boost sensor.
The EGR is only about 12 months old, so not very dirty.
But still got a quick blast of carb cleaner and wiped out.

The boost sensor was absolutely clogged, so carb cleaner to the rescue.

Anyway - was going to wrap up for the morning, when I discovered two cracked / split vacuum pipes from the turbo vacuum sensor.

Temporary fix with pvc tape. Not brilliant but it helped.



It was pretty hard to find anywhere that sold 3mm vacuum tubing. Even the big guys like GSF, ECP and Halfords were unable to help.
After about ten calls to motor factors in a 15 mile radius from here, I found a tiny random shop that had 3mm bore hose on a roll.
1m for £2... cannot grumble.

What I didn't know was that both pipes had a 3mm stub at one end 5mm at the other - oh poo!

Warmed one end of each hose, and slipped them on... with a bit of effort.



Put everything back together....
Set the phone video camera running, and video'd the exhaust whilst I revved the tonkers out of the car.

Variabled periods over a minute of revving between 1000 and 4000 revs did not produce any plumes of smoke.
And the car is now really responsive and perky.

So I am much more relaxed now, after stressing for the past few days.

[horaa]

Unfortunately the inlet manifold cleaning with liquids does not really help. It just prolongs the time till the error will surface again. If your manifold is not venting around the flaps you can just remove the swirl bar and use superglue to keep the flaps oepened at maximum(i believe it was 10 or 2 clock position). If you plan to clean the inlet manifold don’t forget to get rid of the flaps, tap and insert the screw. Job done for ever, no more issues.

[Robsey]

The swirl flaps have been knackered for well over ten years.

Now that the smoke has cleared, I am no longer worried about cleaning it any further.

[northpole]

The swirl flaps have been knackered for well over ten years.

Now that the smoke has cleared, I am no longer worried about cleaning it any further.

Good man, people tend to scrap these cars for simple things that usually involve a little investigation and in most cases it's simple things like vacuum pipes and a dirty intake that causes the car to not pas the emission test.

[Robsey]

I didn't have a huge choice - I need a car for work, and the wife is highly qualified at spending any spare cash that she can find. So not a chance of buying another car.
Even a heap of cack.

So today....

I put some diesel treatment in the tank for the injectors, valve seats and the cat (CataClean).
I then took the car out for an Italian tune-up.
Threw it up the M67 in 4th gear to ensure a good high revving run.
Did the boring round-town shopping trip and then did another repeat of the smoke check.

Set the phone camera video running and rev the tonkers again.

No sign of any smoke, so hopefully the MOT man will be happy on Wednesday.