Northpole's Vectra C SXI

[northpole]

It got some battle scars I intend to sortout... but first I need to build a temporary spray boot (will built it from pallets in the garden, as I can reuse that after I've disassembled it)

[northpole]

I got some Dipetane to see if it actually does what they state it does, as i had to do an airport run I thought well now is as good a time as any... what I did notice its that the car idles smoother and at a lower rpm, it reacts better to the go pedal... for the price it is actually not half bad... now i already had some Redex diesel additive with some 2 stroke oil in the tank when i added the Dipetane but i've always noticed the injectors being quite loud... they're a lot less noticeable now and at constant speeds the engine is almost silent...

The bottle is good for 4 full tanks so I'll notice soon enough if it actually does clean the soot off also... although when i put my foot down going onto the motorway, i saw a nice cloud of blacksmoke develop behind the car so it must be doing something... It only did it once as on my way back i did the exact same hard pull a few times and haven't seen it again...

I also noticed the usage on that trip was less than it normally would be... so it might just do exactly what they state... but time will tell, for now all i can say is it seems like it is working... and if it stays like this the next tank around i might just skip using 2 stroke and redex.

[northpole]

remember i made the stainless brushed steel irmsher grille myself ( not the grille but the stainless bit)? noticed today that one side was coming out... so took it off and repaired it... this time around i used simple black mastic to hold it in place... it just has a long curing time... previously i used steel putty it held for over 3 years but as i said it's non flexible and the vibrations and road debris must have been the reason for one side to come off...

so this time around i decided to use good old black silicone mastic.... it stinks but it makes nice curves that are easily moldable to the edges, yet be flexible enough to withstand vibrations and the occasional road debris.

[northpole]

yesterday I lubed both the boot- and the door-locks, and replaced all the microswitches on the keyfob's circuit board... i got these of eBay, de-soldered the old broken ones and soldered on the new ones... fob feels like a new one and actually works from a greater distance now...

TIP: don't use the ones with the black round rubber (even if the circuit board originally has them) as the rubber goes soft and actually will get gummy enough to stop the switch from working... i had both the open and boot button go that bad they didn't work any more unless pushed at a certain angle... the newer model switches are way better and last longer.

i had this done before by a car key specialist and they charged me a whopping 20 pounds for something this simple and cheap ( he also did it in less than 5 minutes, it took me 10 minutes as i needed to get some proper light and to wait for the solder iron to get hot)