signumareasa

[horaa]

Hi folks. Greetings from Romania. Old time member of opels and a active member of the opel community forum aswell.
So my opel history:
Back in 2009 before i got my driving license my mum had a old crappy dacia with only 3 working gears. It was a complete junk but it was what it was.
In 2009 my uncle sold us a opel astra g caravan 1.7 dti. It wasn't the perfect car around the parking lot but since we paid like next to nothing for the car and over the course of ayear monthly payment with no loan it was what we needed at that time to replace to dacia.
Jumping forward to 2010 when i got my driving license. The car started to crumble on itself, age and romanian roads. It was a reliable(ish) car tho. Lots of trips with different girlfriends and good memories alltogether. The first issue i started googling was the known ECU diesel issue. I found the issue online, bought a new pump valve myself, repaired the ECU (not me because i'm not skilled in that domain), drilled some drains on the ECU connection sockets and job done. This was the first time started browsing and fixing things on cars. Then i replaced the engine cover gasket, then the rear drum brakes.
Jumping forward to 2013 when i had my first big car crash. The astra g was tottalled by a mercedes S klasse driven by a moron. Life happens.
Got the insurrance money, sold the junk, bought a opel astra h 1.9 DTJ with xenon afl and a very nice heavy duty rear shocks, girthy but very expensive and very rare(it wasn't IDS). Over the years i have tinkered on it on different ocasion. New alternator, i think i was among the firsts on opel romania to come with a definitive and cheap fix for the airintake swirl flap tutorial and rear door cable fixing, new front brakes, new rear brakes, and a few miscelanious. I still regret selling this car but for me having a diesel for city driving it's not suitable.
Jumping forward to 2020 and covid. Got married in 2019 so in 2020 me and wife ditched the rural near the city (lived with my parents) and rented a flat. Sold the opel astra h because it was pointless for me having a diesel if i live in the city and no more commute. Bought a astra J 1.4 turbo NET sportstourer, a "beast" of engine that barely moves the very heavy body but man o man that engine can run for ever and the mileage is so low that i still don't understand why peoples were buying diesel. Very nice trim, heated seats, heated steering wheel, xenon+afl, cupholders (LOTS OF THEM), electric e-brake, rear back seats foldable with flexfold 2 piece, flex organizer etc. Overall very nice trim and very hard to find. On that car i have only replaced the front brakepads wich needed the car to be on jacks. I have also tinkered with the crappy pcv system where i modded the air intake as cheap as possible and it worked, replaced valve cover and the old one i tore apart to replace the pcv membrane as a back up for the future. March 2022 the car was totalled because of a moron, the luck heh...
April 2022 bought a signum from holland after a very extensive search because my heart was yelling buy a opel astra h 2.0 don't be stupid, but the price for a engine like that is what's bothering me... The auction house really screwed me over(it was the same auction house website i bought the astra j from germany...) because it says that the car was trouble free so i bought it for 2200 euros + shipping+fees ending up at 2800 at my door. The moment i saw it on the trailer it was gushing oil so my heart started to sunk but now it was too late as this engine is very rare and i couldn't sell the car on the profit so i decided to replace everything that is broken or on the verge to brake in a year or two. I didn't want a opel vectra c combi because it's too long for my needs and i don't like the saloon so the best fitment in the opel 4.6m size was obviously the signum as a opel fan (xenon AFL users knows why ) even tho i can buy a vectra c wih the same engine for like 1000 euros cheaper but it doesn't have that touch of awkardness the signum has.

The issues:
1. balance shaft chain issue, we all know it, a broken slider and chain tensioner
2. driver door strap broken
3. lots of oil from the valve cover gasket and the vacuum pump
4. front right wheel bearing
5. brake discs all around
6. rear calipers stuck(i only found this when i changed my brake discs so now maybe i will replace them calipers aswell with ATE 200 euros a piece)
7. no working IDS, the rear ones were completely shot, the front ones were working except for the IDS wich was not engaging(maybe the gas inside the ball leaked) and it had a different springs than OEM ones according to VIN
8. two broken springs, one in the front, one in the back hooray
9. rear axle bushings are gone, metal on metal
10. the a/c was blowing cold but it was leaking
11. a rattling clutch master cylinder but i won't fix it untill it breaks for sure
12. broken flexi exhaust

The car itself it's very nice. Black color with black leather interior, no cooling seats unfortunately but they are heated. Z20NET (B207R) engine with almost 120k miles on the odo, 6 speed F40 gearbox, IDS, retrofit trailer hitch, cruise control, auto lights, rain sensor, foldable mirrors
What i have fixed on the car so far on my own: brakes all around except for the rear calipers atm(302 in the front and 292 in the back wich are air cooled for whatever reason), front shocks+springs, rear shocks+springs, the vacuum pump wich is apparently leaking again, the door strap is due to be fixed tomorrow and the thermostat, replaced the wipers and replaced the washing nozzles with the insignia ones

What the mechanics have fixed on the car: the timing chains, a lpg conversion, a/c compressor, the rear bushing is due next week as i can't do at home since i don't have bushing tools to pressfit them into place unfortunately, the flexi exhaust.

Current issues that bothers me: leaking vacuum pump, heating up hard a weird issue that noone can explain it, master cilinder clutch noise, and a unsteady idle that sometimes drops to around 500 RPM and if it happens to drop the 500 RPM when i steer+brake at low speed the engine cuts off(this only happens after the chain replacement).
And that's about it as far i can remember of the important bits.

2800 euros for the car, already 3000 euros into it and still not done yet
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[bibu16v]

Welcome @horaa! Funny nickname of your ride!!!Unfortunately I can't translate it for everyone's enjoy...
Long story...as well as for your Siggy and not done yet, unfortunately for you...
Very simillar specs to mine except IDS, full-leather interior...and of course engine

[horaa]

Oh yea, honestly thinking backward considering that the car was only 2200 i can't really blame the scammers and if it weren't for a polish guy i could have bought it for 1800 but he kept on betting. Even if the issues would have been advertised best case scenario the car would have been cheaper with a few hundreds that's all it's not like i can find signum's 2.0t everyday on the internet, it is a must have, this or 1.9 DTJ/DTH but no diesel for me anymore
And yes, the engine is a marvel piece of swedish engineerig. Puurs like a kitten, no vibration and it's so easy to drive especially since it has 260 NM torque.

[bibu16v]

When I bought mine I was thinking for 2.0T too...but I knew maintenance wouldn't be cheap...and who have bought such an engine it would have been possible to treat it with no mercy...for me engine's reliability is a must, low costs maintenance as well...practically no go for me wanting a low mileage too...they're relatively rare...and a bit more expensive at aquisition...

[soulman]

Welcome to the forum ,enjoy your stay here, loved the Signum ,great car.

[northpole]

Welcome, you got told what the problem is with the waterpump but you won't believe me... anyway looks like a diamond that needs some polishing... Nice spec too... ps your front brakes should be 314mm with the bigger calipers... so the previous owner.must have swapped them. Its 292 vented in the back and that is correct with your engine... so if it was my car I would hunt down either the 314mm disks, calipers and carriers or the opc 345 front ones... especially if you are going to tune the engine to give out way more power.

[Dog_Book]

Front brakes are correct at 302, 314 will improve it no end but even better 345. My friend who had one followed this route as he ended up with my old vectra’s brakes on it and with a tuned 2.0t I helped no end

[horaa]

The opc ones are very expensive+calipers, it's just doesn't worth the issue. I bought the front disk according to my VIN plate and there was no 314 unfortunately listed for it and since the internet didn't tell that it was a 100% match replacement for 302 i didn't buy them. Now i suppose it's too late since i have already replaced the front disks with ATE wich wasn't cheap to begin with. It is a diamond but i won't polish the car as i don't care about the exterior. As long there is no rust on the bodywork i don't care how it looks, we live in romania, the new paint won't last a week untill some monkey will chip the paint with it's door.
Now i want to get it fixed. So far my biggest 2 concerns are the cooling issue-water pump(i still need to find a garage with the tool for the water pump sprocket) and a unsteady idle wich makes the engine to cut off sometimes especially when the idles drop to about 500 rpm and i brake+steer. One mechanic said it was the mass airflow sensor because it reads too much on the opcom when idling but i find that trash talk so i need more opinions on that one. The idle issue and the cooling only came after the timing chain replacement. Also apparently when i steer the voltage drops to 12.6-12.9 sometimes, i have already put another ground on the engine, so next thing that i'm thinking of is to have a look at the + on the alternator.
This is a video of my idling, ignore the revving, that was me but the idle is fluctuating.