JMo's Facelift 1.9CDTi 150 Auto

[JMo]

So I've been putting off starting a diary on here, because when I got the car I was saving for a house and couldn't afford to do much interesting to it. However now I've moved the Vectra is getting some love, and I'll be updating this thread with what I've done every month or so ( probably not long after pay day ).

Here's the car not long after I got it, at about 37k miles earlier this year (I debadged it and got iSpeed wind deflectors immediately because I can't help myself):
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Since then I fitted a Sony touchscreen head unit, and you can also see my 3D printed Vauxhall logo 12v cap:
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And finally I sprayed the whole V-grill and front VX badge with satin black plastidip one weekend:
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I think at some point I'll be peeling that off and replacing with gloss black spray paint, but it looks great for now so there's no point changing it.

At this point I've done nearly 5k miles in the car so it's just over 41k.

[JMo]

I'm off work for the next week so I'll hopefully be getting a few things done...

First, I picked up a set of really nice 18" Astra Pentas today, complete with VXD centre caps:
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Later in the week they'll be getting balanced and will be going on the car, as the 17s on it at the moment have had a hard life and don't fill the arches quite enough.

Then the car will be up on stands for a few hours having the DPF drilled through and the EGR blanked off in preparation for a visit to Teapot on the 24th, which I'm quite excited for
I'll be posting pictures after the wheels go on.

My plan for the next few months is to change the 12 year old factory original cambelt and water pump that makes me nervous to think about, then get some 45mm lowering springs, 30mm rear / 20mm front spacers, then hopefully 5% limo tints on the back half of the car and maybe a rear wiper delete to complete the look.

Longer term I've got a spare SRi bumper in the garage that needs sanding, filling, painting and a VXR lower section bonding on to convert it (if they ever reappear on eBay - I bought the bumper in anticipation of doing this and the listing for the VXR bit was removed before I could order one). Then I'll be picking up a BTCC rear diffuser, and a VXR wing or something a little more out there. For example, I recently saw a Vectra with an R35 GTR wing bolted on, which fitted surprisingly well and looked surprisingly good. Irmscher wings are also an option I'll be considering.

There will also be a Mishimoto order going in in a few months, including a trans cooler for the auto box, a FMIC, a catch can and some other goodies, but all in good time.

In the super long term I intend to eventually see power figures in the high 200s out of this car, but we'll see if I decide to buy a Japanese coupe before then and spare the poor Vectra. We'll see

[Dog_Book]

Nice, you don’t have to spend loads to do a diary. It’s usefull when people post how they did a job and what they used gives ideas on how to do your own

[JMo]

Nice, you don’t have to spend loads to do a diary. It’s usefull when people post how they did a job and what they used gives ideas on how to do your own

Thanks, good to know, but my last couple of jobs have been on the "screw an eBay bee sting aerial in" sort of scale, so I wasn't sure anyone would be interested.
Next week I'll hopefully have pictures from doing the DPF and EGR anyway, although I'm pretty sure they've been done to death on here.

[northpole]

As said it is a car diary whatever you do you can put up as they are all changes or modifications... hell mine started as a picture diary ... once i started driving it it has become a proper diary... Oke i saved mine from going to the scrappy so had it for almost 9 months before i started diving it.. so in the beginning i made loads of chances.. even when i picked it up i changed the top grill before driving off... that should give you an idea of how small some things can be... I also went for a short antenna but i always use the Honda CRV antenna's as they are shorter and give very good reception... and you don't have to remove them if you can't be bothered and use a machine car wash

[watchman]

Thanks, good to know, but my last couple of jobs have been on the "screw an eBay bee sting aerial in" sort of scale, so I wasn't sure anyone would be interested.

I'm interested

[Sciteacher]

Me too. I agree with Dog Book too. Every little helps (me, usually).

[JMo]

The wheels went on yesterday, and the car got a good wash for the first time in a couple of months:

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Really pleased with how it's looking now, just needs spacers and lowering springs and it'll be perfect Looks like it'll need a full set of tyres after payday as the ones that came on the Pentas are all a bit crap, but I can sell the nearly-new 17s back to the tyre shop and save some £££

[JMo]

So at the weekend I got the car jacked up and took the DPF off to drill straight through it with 12x400mm, 16x400mm and 20x400mm drill bits, stepping up in size as some of the material in the DPF is quite tough.

It was a bit of a pain to get it off as the sensor was rusted on and we didn't want to strip it, so we had to find the plug at the back of the engine bay, cut a ziptie, unplug it and drop it through.

I ended up doing about 3 holes in the middle and chiseled out the gaps in between them - we had originally planned to try and get nearly all the material out but it was raining and we didn't want to spend that much time on it. Then after a quick (surprisingly quiet) test run with no exhaust for some fun, we bolted the DPF back on and the EGR valve got blanked off with a 2mm aly blanking plate off eBay. Thankfully the EGR only took a couple of minutes.

[JMo]

Also forgot to note that after drilling the DPF and emptying it as much as possible, when the car was next run it blew a fair bit of DPF dust out the exhaust in a large white cloud, but this cleared up after 5 mins or so.

On Sunday I got a visit from Teapot who happened to be driving past Sheffield the weekend I said I'd meet him for a remap. DPF, EGR disabled and swirl flaps mapped open.

The map has a few interesting features I wasn't aware were possible before booking, like limiting to almost stock power levels until the coolant gets up to 45°C to prevent breaking anything, and limiting torque to 320NM (I think) in 1st so the wheelspin is a bit more controllable.

The map is supposedly good for 195hp+/400NM and dyno'd at 205 on a similar car the day before which I think still had its DPF, and the car will now happily spin the tyres up in 1st, 2nd and 3rd if I'm not careful (although we haven't had a dry day so far since Sunday, so it's been difficult to put power down) and it's seriously fast.

Loads more torque, the auto doesn't rev up to 3k for no reason anymore, picks lower gears helping economy, and the throttle is more responsive with less of a delay taking off from low speeds.

100% money well spent.