Love this car, attention to detail is brilliant. Need some arty pics next to the 200 though 
-
VBOA National Rally Booking now Open
Want to remove ads? Become a MK3OC Club Member today!
Astra mk3 Arctic 3.0 V6 + F28 with Quaife
- Thread starter harvey
- Start date
harvey
Club Member
Love this car, attention to detail is brilliant. Need some arty pics next to the 200 though
Thanks for the kind words. Sorry but the Vectra ST200 will not be out this year as it prefers to hibernate in my garage plus the a/c compressor requires a refurb which I CBA to remove at the moment as it's another subframe off jobbie to get to it grrr
eBay use Febi part number '03080' only £7.72 from this seller click me. I don't know what engine you run but I would recommend you also run a cool stat if running on track of you push the engine hard. They can be had very cheap off eBay instead of paying double or triple the cost from the tuners click me or search for Quinton Hazel part number 'QTH600K/82'. These stats can also be fitted to the X25XE and X30XE V6 as that's what the wifes mk3 is running.
good to see someone putting in some real attention to detail to the car, really good effort mate! i'm sure i remember seeing this at billing, top motor. is it at vboa show this year?
harvey
Club Member
Why thank you. Yes it'll be at VBOA on the Vauxhall Drivers Club stand in the Derbyshire Region. It'll also be at PV next week as wifey & I thought we'd attend as it's been 8 years since we last went.
pvs sucks lol, as a club we made a decision not to attend this year as it has become the arden blue vxr show. national vboa rally is where the real cars are at!
harvey
Club Member
Last weekend I heard a clunk somewhere from the front end but couldn’t figure it out as it only occurred twice. I had a closer poke and prod this evening and found it. The nearside ring nut that retains the shock absorber cartridge had worked loose.
Strut removed as I didn’t have enough room in the arch to get to it.
Just enough room between the spring coils to get my stilsons in there. It had loosened off a number of turns so I was lucky to find it if I’m honest.
Tightly tightened so hopefully it won’t come loose again. Glad I found it prior to the 200 mile round trip to PV this Sunday.
On another good note the side trims seem to be holding tight and not peeling at the ends, whoop whoop.
All done and back to bed until Sunday.
Strut removed as I didn’t have enough room in the arch to get to it.
Just enough room between the spring coils to get my stilsons in there. It had loosened off a number of turns so I was lucky to find it if I’m honest.
Tightly tightened so hopefully it won’t come loose again. Glad I found it prior to the 200 mile round trip to PV this Sunday.
On another good note the side trims seem to be holding tight and not peeling at the ends, whoop whoop.
All done and back to bed until Sunday.
Last edited:
I've seen those strut retaining nuts come loose before, not good! I think I will be putting some threadlock on mine when I re-assemble them.
harvey
Club Member
It's darn tight now so no chance of it happening again, Haynes states 200Nm so as I said darn tight. First time I've ever had it happen in all the struts I've rebuilt. I'd recommend a small amount of threadlock Andy or just darn tight
harvey
Club Member
Got the a/c man booked for next Wednesday so I can get the leaky hi/low pressure switch replaced and just in case he doesn't have any o-rings I bought a set of these.
The car made it there and back to Santa Pod on Sunday but after Future Publishing screwed up my stand pass we ended up in the individual parking area which was nice and quiet so not that bad. Show was OK but same old same old so won't be heading back anytime soon. I have however booked the new PV Rockingham show on 15th Oct so here's hoping it'll be better than Santa Pod. Can't be worse as the facilities at the circuit are so much better as I've been to Rockingham for numerious events over the years.
The car made it there and back to Santa Pod on Sunday but after Future Publishing screwed up my stand pass we ended up in the individual parking area which was nice and quiet so not that bad. Show was OK but same old same old so won't be heading back anytime soon. I have however booked the new PV Rockingham show on 15th Oct so here's hoping it'll be better than Santa Pod. Can't be worse as the facilities at the circuit are so much better as I've been to Rockingham for numerious events over the years.
Last edited:
200nm is more than I expected!
Not doing the switch yourself? It won't lose any gas, it's on a valve which closes as soon as you unbolt it.
Not doing the switch yourself? It won't lose any gas, it's on a valve which closes as soon as you unbolt it.
harvey
Club Member
Yes I'll be swapping the switch over but need the gas fill quantity checking as it should be 700g for the mk3. Also have a couple of my other motors with a/c to sort so getting them all done in one hit.
Ah yeah, forgot yours is the one that leaked out, it's not faulty electrically lol. Fair enough
harvey
Club Member
I had the ac man booked in for today so last night swapped over the hi/low ac switch. I held the main body with a ½ inch spanner and used a 14mm to loosen the switch. The fitting has a valve so you don’t lose any refrigerant when you swap them over.
You can clearly see where the old switch was leaking on the left.
New switch fitted.
If you’re in the Nottingham/Derby area he comes highly recommend and is mobile so comes to you, website here.
Gas pressure being checked and we only required a small top up as there was plenty still in there. I’m hoping it won’t be intermittently working now when we press the magic stay cool button in the car.
You can clearly see where the old switch was leaking on the left.
New switch fitted.
If you’re in the Nottingham/Derby area he comes highly recommend and is mobile so comes to you, website here.
Gas pressure being checked and we only required a small top up as there was plenty still in there. I’m hoping it won’t be intermittently working now when we press the magic stay cool button in the car.
Last edited:
TubaMagna8
Club Member
Just spent my evening reading this diary, Love it. I think the ABS TC is such a cool mod. Hopefully see it at VBOA.
harvey
Club Member
Just spent my evening reading this diary, Love it. I think the ABS TC is such a cool mod. Hopefully see it at VBOA.
Thank you for your comments. The ABS+TC was a labour of love but I got there in the end as I never let things beat me. The wife & I are enjoying the car more this year as its not been on axle stands as often! It'll be at VBOA but not on this club stand I'm afraid as we'll be on Vauxhall Drivers Club in the Derbyshire Region.
harvey
Club Member
On a bad note I killed my ever so faithful Opcom (v5 hardware) that I’ve had since 2007 but this must have been a sign as I bought a new one and it can communicate with the ECUs my previous one couldn’t namely the Astra mk3 airbag, Vectra ABS and Vectra cruise control. I’ve previous been forced to use my Delphi DS150e for these.
I had another eureka moment last weekend as the cruise control has never worked on the mk3 so I spent a day trouble shooting and double checked my wiring which was perfect, I’m darn good at wiring even if I do say so myself. I did find the cruise control motor wouldn’t talk with my Opcom so tested another spare and it communicated straight away. In addition to this I found I had incorrectly fitted the clutch switch so instead of being compressed with the clutch pedal at rest it was uncompressed breaking the circuit and not allowing the cruise to activate. A few hours battling in a rather confined foot well had it sorted. Test drove last night and it all works lovely.
Sorry no pictures as I’m still figuring out what to do with my Photobucket and this darn blocking of 3rd party hosting malarkey.
I had another eureka moment last weekend as the cruise control has never worked on the mk3 so I spent a day trouble shooting and double checked my wiring which was perfect, I’m darn good at wiring even if I do say so myself. I did find the cruise control motor wouldn’t talk with my Opcom so tested another spare and it communicated straight away. In addition to this I found I had incorrectly fitted the clutch switch so instead of being compressed with the clutch pedal at rest it was uncompressed breaking the circuit and not allowing the cruise to activate. A few hours battling in a rather confined foot well had it sorted. Test drove last night and it all works lovely.
Sorry no pictures as I’m still figuring out what to do with my Photobucket and this darn blocking of 3rd party hosting malarkey.
become a club member and you can upload straight to our forum, unlimited space aswell! makes it loads easier and will always be safe!
