Sciteacher's Vectra SRI CDTI 150 Estate

[Sciteacher]

Evening all. I've done a few posts on here, but I've never done a car diary. The wife thinks that it would be helpful to have someone else to share the pain of Vectra ownership so here we go.

It's silver, comfy, big and quite quick (the car not the wife). I've had it for nearly a year of trouble free motoring, apart from a caliper, but the God of cars thinks enough is enough. SO, after reading Dog Books diary and dreaming it into a VXR, reality bit. Hard. A small suspension tweak (front spring , rear bushes, two front tyres (the Toyo Proxes, new on purchase, lasted 6,000 miles. Really.) and a £500 MOT later and back to square one.

The satnav ariel has ceased to be and this afternoon, picking my youngest up from his friends BANG. The window winder on the drivers side stopped, although the motor still seems to spin. Oh well, I'll check the forum and fix that. Then coming down the hill, no particular power on and she's chucking out white smoke. Not lots, but enough to make me wonder "Does this car want to die?" but no, not yet. I'm a Sciteacher, retiring, so I'll sort it. Sciteacher means you know lots about nothing of any real use, by the way.

So step one is to take my ratchet, short extension bar and Torx 20 mounted in a socket to get the panel off.

Electric window switch out. Remove plug. Remove plug. It won't move. 30 minutes later after a brew and much prising, it's off! Remove handle trim. First two screws out- er, no. Top one is east, but the recess for the bottom is too deep for my Torx bit. I need a Torx screwdriver, probably a set of them. Slide the window up, it's loose, so it looks shut, lock the Veccy and go indoors for Spanish Chicken.

B*****d thing. I hate cars. I'm going vegan.

The to do list, then.

Fix the window
Fix the satnav (thanks Woody).
Oil, filters.
Fix roof ribbon ( a real treat)
Fix passenger mirror so that it fully functions.
Refurbish grotty alloy wheels
Fit new ariel seal and mast (thats going a bit manky too)
Paint all brake lines (they've been replaced but not protected
Paint calipers (on the car - it can be done(?))
Refurb headlights (slightly scratched)
Find out how to take pictures with phone.
Find out how to upload pictures from phone (teenage boys can do that).
Take car to a show to see others that REALLY look good.
Sulk

I'll keep you posted. If your reading this.

[Sciteacher]

After a lot of reading and much headscratching, I thought I'd go for a quick/easy fix for the white smoke thing. I do lots of small trips and work ain't far, which fits as a cause of DPF nastiness. So, I bought some Wynns DPF cleaner stuf, put it into the tank and drove up into the hills in third gear, so she stayed at 2500 revs+. SO far, this afternoon, on the way back, I had no more smoke. If this works, I'm going to put another Wynns batch in on the next fill up and then every 3 months (about 1500mls for me, normally). We shall see.

[northpole]

nice to see the result of another product, the last one i used was cataclean and to make a long story short it helped clean my engine out as during the mot test the car passed with absolutely no emissions at all the reading was 0. and i used it 3 months before the MOT test.

[Sciteacher]

So two days in and the fix seems to have worked a treat. I was all up for selling the beast, but it's love again. I'm going to use the stuff again on my next fill up and then every 3 months. Now for the rest of the list. But, the weather is breaking, I have no garage, so I might have to do a service next, if only to sort of reinforce the Wynns stuff. I reckon I am going to go back to their engine flush this time. I know views are a bit polarised on here, but the guy who looks after the bits I can't do always engine flushes before new oil.

[Sciteacher]

I should also say that just before the MOT, I did a Forte fuel system flush. I sort of lost that when she started a smokescreen, but I reckon that the throttle response is better than it was before. Worth a try I think, maybe annually. Any thoughts?

[Sciteacher]

Well, there is much to be said for Wynns DPF cleaner. My GPS has started working again too! Cunning people at Wynns. On a more serious note, has a GPS dropout happened to anyone else recently, sort of North Staffs/Peak district area?

[Sciteacher]

So, last week, my local garage fitted a new window mech to the front drivers door. I had started to pull it apart myself, then the weather broke and I wasn't sure of the part number, so I booked it in. I had removed the switch block, but didn't know that there was a little lever which meant i sort of broke a bit off the plug housing. When I got it back, the guys told me that I had broken the switch and needed a new one, which I duly got from ebay. I fitted it today, dropped the window and....it wouldn't go back up. The garage was shut. So I went home, pulled the switch, cleaned the contacts and...bingo. I have both front windows working, mirrors that move and (new to me) anti-hijack locking (you don't get many hijacks in the Moorlands, but....). Now, before I cleaned the new block I popped the old block in. Broken? Nope. Now, I had intended to clean it up anyway, but, even if the new block was cheap, I didn't really need it. So a lesson learned. Even the most trusted garage can get it a bit wrong.

I also swapped the u/s passenger switch and that now works. The previous owner said that his garage couldn't find the fault!!

Now I am beginning to wonder about the roof ribbon. I'm going to clean up as many contacts as I can find and see what happens. What do you guys think (if you're reading this)?

[LastOne]

What do you guys think (if you're reading this)?

Nope, we're waiting for the pictures.

[Sciteacher]

Ah. The tough bit eh? I'll get the teenagers on it....

[Dog_Book]

Whats the problem with it? Its an 11 year old car not everything can last and be like new can it. What science do you teach? I understand physics best, well what relates to the real world in engineering.
And what's the problem with uploading photos? Do it properly on a PC and not on a stupid phone like all the FB lovers love.