JMo's Facelift 1.9CDTi 150 Auto

[JMo]

When my alloy got obliterated at Christmas and I had to grab the spare, I was somewhat surprised to see a small pond in my wheel well, and a nice patch of mould growing under the boot floor:

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It wasn't that surprising actually, as the windows have been almost constantly fogged up since I got the car. Having already replaced the aerial seal with a Mk5 Golf one as suggested on here (CD30 hatch aerial seals for bases with the window washer don't seem to be available online) my next best guess was the rear light seals due to water in one of the boot cubbies, so I pulled the interior and both light units out and inspected the seals.

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The seal on the right light which I thought was leaking actually wasn't that bad, especially considering it was off a preface a good few years older than my car. I replaced the seal on that light with the original off my smashed rear light just to be safe, but it appeared that this was not the source of the leak.

So, I checked under the headliner, and sure enough the roof was soaked with condensation. Looks like the Mk5 Golf aerial seal isn't the best fit after all

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I found this CD40 aerial cheap-ish on eBay, as brand new replacement seals are available on eBay and I wanted a more OEM look than I'd get with an aftermarket sharkfin (and radio reception is nice to still have).

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Here's the aforementioned seal, which took a couple of weeks to arrive in the UK from Poland.

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And all on the car, right before a couple of hours of heavy rain. The huge stock aerial is a bit of an eyesore, but my old beesting one is too wide to fit in the slot on the new aerial base. I might see what alternatives there are - supposedly the Mokka has a shorter version of the stock aerial, but I'm not sure if it fits this base.

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So now for the first time since I've owned it, my Vectra is finally leak free (I checked after the rain stopped and the puddle hasn't re-formed thankfully). Going to leave it a couple of days and dry the roof out before putting the interior back in, then I have to tackle the strong mould smell coming from behind the glovebox from when I had the infamous blocked scuttle panel. Apparently there's soundproofing foam behind the glovebox, which I didn't know to dry out when I sorted that leak ages ago...

[JMo]

Had a friend who was stripping a preface Vectra, so I picked up a bunch of parts before it was going to get crushed.

Firstly, I've been trying to find a boot seal but Vauxhall Superstore list it as over £90 for a 2m strip of rubber! After changing it over, the car got a good clean and I wiped down the frame around the boot for seemingly the first time:
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Next up, there was a set of black tailored floor mats with an SRi logo and red stitching. I've already got OEM "Vectra" mats but they're in need of a deep clean so these new ones can go in for now:
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Nabbed the parcel shelf, and although it was bent and slightly mouldy, I was able to use it to replace the broken hinge and other plastic / rubber bits mine was missing, so my boot finally closes properly!
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Also, he had this black version of the left and right side dash trims:
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Grabbed his leather door cards with the same trim to match, and a leather center armrest, which will all be going in this week when the trim clips arrive. It won't match the SRi interior, but I'm buying full or half leather VXR seats later in the year anyway so that's not an issue.

I also got a preface bonnet strut as I'm considering the conversion to a gas strut as done on here / Facebook Vectra groups as plenty of people have done it at this point and disproven the "it'll bend your bonnet" myth.

And finally a boot light holder / lens, as both of mine have snapped in some way or another. Still need to solder that in when I get chance at the weekend.

In hindsight I wish I'd grabbed the black preface "beltline" exterior trim bits, but I can't complain as the total cost for all of the above was... £0

I also switched to these fancy red load spreader washers and stainless bolts for the strut tops/wings, which I got in a kit from a guy on one of the Facebook groups, as the combo looked amazing on his z157 2.0T before he sold it:
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Still got the show bolts for the slam panel and headlight brackets to fit, but they require some drilling / tapping of the plastic that the screws go into, and I couldn't be bothered when I was done with the strut tops last week

Finally, although this post is already a mile long, some "clean Vectra photos" as it's only just had its first wash of the year:
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[JMo]

My AP coilovers finally arrived, so I spent the other weekend freshening the suspension up on the vec:

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Brand new sachs top mounts, Meyle HD drop links, and AP coilovers have transformed the look and drive of the car. No more monster truck ride height, and it gives so much more confidence in the corners than before!

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After fitting I rushed to get an alignment, as I booked tickets to RWYB at Santa Pod the next weekend and ideally wanted the car to drive in a straight line

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It also turned out I had a broken front right spring, which wasn't noticed by the last 2/3 garages that worked on the car. Plus, the rubber exhaust hanger at the back of the centre pipe had completely snapped, so I pushed the exhaust back up with a trolley jack and replaced the hanger while the car was still on jack stands.

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That just leaves a couple of jobs for the next week, which I'll be entrusting to a local garage. I ordered a stainless front water pipe off a Saab with the same engine, to replace my rusty mild steel one which has been leaking coolant around the bleed screw area for months now. I cleaned it thoroughly, then polished with T-Cut metal polish, so it looks almost as good as new:

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Plus, on eBay I found an uprated stainless bleed screw with an O Ring and a washer, to replace the factory plastic screw and prevent any future leaks.

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Later this week I'll be dropping the car off for the coolant pipe to be replaced, aircon dye tested and FINALLY fixed (it hasn't held gas since at least 2009) then regassed, and also the high pressure fuel pump either reconditioned or replaced.

The fuel pump showed signs of being weak since basically the day after the car was mapped, and between booking tickets for Santa Pod, and the event itself, decided to give up almost completely - resulting in the car running basically stock 1.9 diesel 1/4 mile times, which is quite disappointing. Every upshift after 2nd gear it would lose fuel pressure, hesitate and fall flat on its face, meaning reasonable 60' times followed by a 15/16 second quarter mile...

[JMo]

Just a quick one, while the car is off the road for a bit waiting to get the fuel pump sorted, I finally got round to fitting the DAB aerial for my aftermarket stereo.

Surprisingly, for once this job didn't take hours longer than it should. Just popped the A pillar trim off (pulling out the square clip at the top first):

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The copper (ground) tape on the aerial sticks onto the metal A pillar, and the aerial sticks onto the windscreen after prepping with an alcohol wipe - making sure to keep it out of the way of the trim going back on.

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The glovebox has to come out (3x torx screws at the top, 2x at the bottom) to feed the wire down the A pillar, into the dash and across to the stereo. Then everything goes back together the same way it came apart.

Not a bad job, now getting all the DAB+ stations for just 20mins work

[Jon1796]

What unit did you fit...