Since the dawn of time, I've always seemed to have more cars than strictly necessary and for some reason, said cars always seem to be Mk3 Cavaliers. Probably because the Turbo kept breaking on a regular basis so I'd buy something cheap to use daily whilst it was busy being broken and swallowing all the money in my bank account. The current 'other' car is no different, it was bought probably because I was bored and Dempsey said it was a good idea.
It started back in 1923 or something when I found a totally standard 1995 SRi in white sat in the corner of a dealer’s forecourt looking a bit lost and lonely, so went and asked how much and then went immediately to the cash machine, withdrew £200 and handed it over without even driving it or actually looking at it. I figured it was so cheap, even if it was rubbish I could break it and make money. Turns it was actually pretty decent... taxed, MoT'd and standard.
There were two issues. First was I didn't really need another car as at that stage I had the Turbo and an S70R Volvo and then there was the second issue, which was a bit of a significant one. Namely...
Yes... it had been painted with a rather fetching/gay pearlescent pink flip in the lacquer which was all very nice and all that but hmmm! At this stage, my wee sister had finished ruining my Mum's Clio having just passed her test and so I immediately decided that she needed a Cavalier SRi as her first car. She of course thought that was a brilliant idea. That brilliant idea lasted all of 10 minutes until said Cavalier was deemed way too standard for any self respecting 17 year old. So, cue some changes....
It ran flawlessly for a year or so then some knob decided to break into it, bending the door which in turn meant getting a colour match for a replacement would be nigh on impossible. Plus, the MoT was due, it's needed brakes, it had started smoking from cold and generally needed some TLC. In the end, I decided it wasn't worth the effort and was worth more in bits. So that's what happened.
That left a gap in the 'more cars that necessary' story and left my sister without a car and somewhat disgruntled that I'd broken her beloved Cavalier. So, being a nice chap and all, I flew down to somewhere dreary in middle England to buy another, identical Cavalier SRi 16v in white. I arrived, had a look round and having been told the tapping noise 'will go away when it's warm' I figured for £300 it was cheaper than getting the plane home and I could always break it. Northbound, don't spare the horses. By York the tapping hadn’t gone away so I decided that the best course of action was to try and blow it up on the M1. 5th to 3rd at speed, redline for miles and miles and general abuse....
And the git survived. The next day I'd decided the car was indeed a snotter and promptly sold it for more than I paid for it and decided that there would be no more Cavalier's for the foreseeable future. I was however commissioned to find a car for my sister so cash in hand, off I went. Trying to be sensible, I figured a Corsa SXi would be a great idea and so happy as Larry, returned with this...
...which was all well and lovely, handled like a go-cart but after a month was deemed just too slow, too small and too chav compared to 'her' previous Cavaliers and so, unsurprisingly, it was sold and she got all her money back. Now, by this stage I'd decided that since the Corsa was really nothing to do with me, I should therefore buy another Cavalier for no good reason. Thing is, I was now off playing with Audi Avants so it too wasn't being used which was nice as it meant it was rarely dirty and I could be all forum kudos spec with my must have Team Dynamic ProRace 1.2's and my ridiculously small Momo steering wheel. Bling innit.
I then got bored of that idea really quickly and then got bored of the fact that a -60mm Cavalier on rubber band tyres is about as pleasurable as getting your nuggets tickled by a combine harvester (disclaimer: I haven't tried and suggest you don't either) and so after some time generally treating it like McRae's WRC Impreza...
... I got fed up of it and the fact my sister was complaining that I hadn't found a replacement for her Corsa yet, so gave her the keys and told her to try and keep it under 140mph if she wouldn't mind. Eventually I was offered silly money for it and given the underside was held together with underseal, waved it goodbye and vowed never to buy another Cavalier again. So, needless to say 2 weeks later myself, Dempsey and a hired Fiesta Zetec were en route to Engerlund once again and were soon headed back with this, the current 'other' car in the fleet.
Oddly, I got lucky with this one despite buying it from that weird monster thing from The Goonies. Turned out his description was pretty accurate and it was really clean. It's not mint, no Cavaliers are but it's getting there. In short, it had done 100,000 miles, had service history, new tyres and was totally standard. It even had the obligatory squeaky clutch and passenger side window which was slower than a week in jail. It drove perfectly and so I congratulated myself on a job well done and then immediately decided to take it to pieces...
It got new brakes front and rear, -30mm Eibach springs, Bilsteins, new lower arms, track rod end, top mounts, a full service and the cambelt kit and water pump replaced and a few wee niggles address. I then swapped the tyres for 205/50/R15 Nankangs for that 'Oh, is it winter already' feeling when driving in the dry, in August and then drove it daily. Which it then repaid my generosity by consuming it's head gasket.
Not to worry, replacement head from a Vectra and a few hours in the workshop wondering why the gaskets were on with enough silicone sealant to do a decent sized bathroom and why most the bolts were finger tight... but not to worry. Back up and running it was then immediately deemed unrequired as I'd managed to wangle a company car so rather than have it sat around doing nothing, my sister kindly offered to run it for a while. She then moved to the south of England and the car stayed in Scotland, unused aside for the odd random day out. About 6 months later she needed a car and so a deal was done and the Cavalier was sent 500 miles south to live on the south coast.
About a year later I moved to Bath to work and so being 100 miles or so from the car, needless to say I was enrolled as chief mechanic. Granted, it had survived well with only a couple of electrical issues to worry about but over time it began to old Ecotec erratic idle trick despite already having had the throttle body clean, the mod carried out and a new idle control valve. I hoped it was due to it doing stop start driving but alas, no. I got the car to MoT it and after a week of swearing, swapping throttle bodies, complete inlets, air flow meters and ECU's, it scraped through it's emissions and was sent back to the south coast but also broke it's show virginity at Billing a couple of years back.
Again, it ran fine for a good few months and gave my sister zero troubles aside for a leaky water hose and the ever present slightly erratic idle. Come November last year, it was decided it's needed some TLC and an MoT and with me being back home in Scotland, that threw up an issue. It wouldn't go though it's test due to the emissions and with nobody local to call upon and unwilling to let her hand the keys over to any random kerbside garage, it was pointed north and 500 miles later was back at base camp ready for some TLC. It was MoT'd... and failed. It needed a rear bush and the emissions sorted. So, with three days before it was due to head back south I changed the cambelt, swapped most the sensors, cleaned the throttle body, swapped the bush and hoped for the best. It passed. Great success.
A conference was then held and it was sensibly decided that the Cavalier was just too old, too clean and too difficult to sort if it went wrong 500 miles from base and unwilling to risk it being damaged through the winter months, the sensible card was played and my sister decided an Astra Coupe would make for a better daily driver. Not an issue as I'd just moved and had a garage at the house so the Cavalier was booked in for 6 months accommodation and I went to Manchester to get a Coupe, brought it straight back, did the brakes, cambelt, full service kit and fitted a set of 17" MAS Italy alloys and then drove it to Bristol and waved her and it on their way before flying home. Job done.
Still with me? Excellent! So, said Cavalier was washed, dried and put into the garage under a cover and largely forgotten about. I had the Turbo in a million bits, the Volvo daily driver and had since gone to London to buy a Vectra GSi estate and promptly sold it again as it was a hateful piece of crap and then with the need for two cars, figured the weather was better and the Cavalier was sat doing nowt so in march it was dragged out and used as and when required. Which was about once in a blue moon.
Nothing changed for a good few months and indeed, it looked set to stay in the garage even with Billing looming. A last minute decision came through and it was decided I'd take it down, meet my sister there, swap cars and I'd bring the Coupe back north for an MoT, tyres, service and so on then she'd come up in the Cavalier at a later date and swap back, thus the Cavalier would be back in the garage over winter. That plan never happened but by that stage I'd already swung into action and had the car locked and loaded and the sat nav programmed for Northampton. 1,100 miles later it went, survived trial by flood, M1 idiots, the young team and aside for a wee clutch judder and some blue smoke from cold, it was back home. As it were.
I then decided the loom was to blame for the iffy idle and so set about rewiring half the car, removed the EGR system and lobbed it in the bucket, swapped the throttle position sensor and it seemed to work. So, since then the car’s been used as a second car on the rare occasions that the Volvo is otherwise engaged and as a result, the cavalier’s done about 1,400 miles since this time last year… 1,100 of which were going to Billing. Bit of a shame really but such is life. Progress wise, I repainted the n/s mirror cap and the rear spoiler…
…then stripped, cleaned and painted the brakes…
…and gave it a bit of a tidy up under the bonnet, sorted out some more wiring and tidied up the EGR loom and unused vacuum hoses and so on. Real men don’t have timing belt covers by the way!
We (myself, James and Lugy) also broke a 1993 SRi 16v so that donated a few random bits such as the front door cards, interior mirror and courtesy light and a driver’s side electric mirror so that’s next on my to do list as was sorted the cam sensor wiring and generally keeping it going for the foreseeable future. And on that note, its future remains hanging in the balance. The tax expires soon, the MoT isn’t long after and so it’s a bit of a dilemma as to what to do with it. I don’t really want to spend cash on it and neither does my sister but I also don’t want it sat in the garage, declared SORN with no MoT and nor do I want to it go as it is with short MoT and a couple of issues… ie, it’ll need a clutch soon and it’s burning a bit oil from cold. I had debated going down the C20LET and F28 route but it’s technically my sister’s car now, although I have a pot load of cash in it too so for now it’s business as usual and worry about it when the time comes!
Cheers for reading, hopefully you haven’t committed suicide…
