1994 Cavalier LSi C20NE (was C18NZ) Work-horse

[James McGrath]

Nice work. Looks really good.

[Robsey]

I can finally finish putting my dash together.

Just need to find my bowden cables....
Now where did I put them 2 years ago?

Here is how I tested for the best LED positioning.
As you can see the LEDs point towards the outside ends of the top bezel, rather pointing forwards.







Amazing how much space there is behind the clear plastic lens.

For information, they are 3mm LEDs with in-line resistors.

[Robsey]

My car dash fully assembled and working for the first time in about 5 years.



Not too shabby.

The radio is a Dayton VDO sat nav for use at work. (Visiting patients). It works in an identical manner as the Philips Carin units found in 90's pre-facelift Omegas.

For club meets, I will refit the Grundig SC303 for originality.

[Mk3alan]

Very swish! Looks excellent.
(must get round to changing my bulbs)!

Alan

[Robsey]

It is about 90% to my liking...
Just cannot get an even spread of yellow illumination across all the icon windows.
Ah well - it is clearly visible in the dark, so the purpose of the exercise has been achieved.

I had noted that my LED tell tales in the aircon and recirc switches were very dim behind the yellow plastic lenses.
I re-jigged the LEDs so that they butt up against the lenses.
The result is much easier to see LEDs.

Here you go...
Left switch is obviously an unchanged rear window demister switch.

Middle switch (air con) is the bluetooth status LED.
Not too intrusive when driving at night.
The switch itself also answers and ends calls.



And the right hand (recirc) switch is the Meta alarm status LED. Very bright red and easy to see even in day light.



The finished article at dusk.

[Robsey]

Here is a strange one for you...

Regarding my electric mirror switch with yellow tell tale LED.

Since fitting the driver's mirror and switch, I have noticed that the yellow LED does not illuminate when I demist the rear window and mirror glass.

I ran 12 volts across the relevant wires of the switch using a trusty computer power supply unit.

The LED lit up straight away.
Put it back in the car, and again no illumination.
Very baffling

The wires to feed mirror demister and LED are: -
Black / White = +12 volts
Brown = Ground / Chassis

Anyone else had this situation?
Strange thing is that the mirror demister works fine but the LED doesn't light up.

I think that I may have an issue with the black / white wire that links the mirror glass to the switch LED.

I will probably need to run an extra flying lead between the mirror heating element end of the black / white and the switch end.

The circuit is as follows: -

12 volts to Fuse F9.

From the fuse to a relay hidden behind the fuse box.

The centre pin of the relay goes to the X6 floor connector in the UK passenger side floor connector.

From X6 to the door connectors.

From the door connector to the mirror glass demister element + terminal

From the element + terminal to the driver's door mounted switch LED

From the LED to ground.

The demister element and the LED have separate ground wires.

A further point - I stripped my mirror switch, because the mirror was not consistently moving when I used the rocker control.

Opening up the switch revealed large amounts of sticky green verdigris (copper oxide).

A liberal spraying of brake cleaner spray and some rubbing and scraping clean with some cotton buds and a sharp taper tipped knife, soon had the terminals all cleaned up.

On completion of the clean up, the mirror glass now moves predictably and consistantly as it should.

Here is the full cleaning procedure as written by me in Alan's mirror switch thread.


It is a bugger to separate - you need a very thin flat lever to slip the casing off the little wedge shaped tangs.

Once opened, there are three little V shaped caps (like the stereotypical hat worn by Chinese ladies in the rice fields).
These caps sit on the tips of three finger-like projections built into the bottom of the round motor direction switch. Be careful that you do not drop and lose the little caps..

I was able to polish these clean with a cotton bud soaked in brake cleaner.

There is also a strange pair of rounded brass dumbbell type things under the mirror selection rocker switch.
A good polish with the soaked cotton bud cleans them up nicely.

The contact plates underneath usually only require a little rub with the cotton bud.
I spent ages looking for springs that I thought I had lost from the mirror selector switch.. but it appears that there were no springs in there to start with. - well I think so anyway, as it worked fine after reassembly without any springs.

The real problem area is the "box-like" contacts in the switch that the V shaped caps sit inside.
These get as manky as hell and fill with copper oxide and crud.
It is therefore a matter of cleaning up all the green sludgy verdigris that builds up on the copper contacts.
A good spray of contact cleaner, brake cleaner or even carb cleaner will help wash the crud away.
I also use a thin jewellers screwdriver or a taper tipped kitchen knife to scrape away stubborn bits and scrape the metal contacts clean and shiny.
Another quick spray clean and then mop / polish up with a cotton bud.

That will cure most faulty electric mirror switches.
Worked a treat on mine - awesome!!

[Mk3alan]

My mirror switch was in a similar state (well, the up/down part didn't work!) so like you I took it apart and cleaned contacts with a fibreglass pen then flushed with a lubricating contact cleaner, works fine now.
Surprised to find unplated contacts?
My 98 Astra switch contacts are gold plated!

Alan

[Robsey]

Finally collected the rest of my stuff from Troy's unit.

So - weather permitting, I hope to finally finish the car off.
An hour here and an hour there.

Jobs remaining are -
Fit SRi seats and door cards.
Fit front arch liners
Fit the cd changer in the boot now that the parcel shelf has been re-fitted.

Also figured out that water ingress into the boot is via the tail light clusters.
Looks like either fresh seals or bathroom sealant for the win.

That just leaves the rear washer hose repair and third brake light wiring installation.

[Mk3alan]

Almost there! Although there will always be 'that little job' that needs doing.
I managed to fit my CD changer under the passenger seat as I decided it would be more accessible!? (less wiring as well)

Alan

[Robsey]

I sometimes have clumsy rear seat passengers, so didn't want to risk them kicking the cd changer unit.
Besides the changer comes with a 5 metre cable, to allow it to be installed in the boot.

As we all know, Cavaliers like to repay care and attention by allowing something else to break or stop working.

I notice that I had left my near side B pillar lower cover at the unit... bugger!!
So that will have to wait, until I can pop over and collect it.

At the moment my load area and back seat are full of parts to clean and fit.

Could do with some anthracite plastic parts to finish off the job.
I have opened a separate wanted topic -
sadly the black / anthracite parts are the most popular as they are usually associated with the leather interiors and the SRi cloth interiors. So obviously the most sought after colour scheme.

[Robsey]

You may have read this comment from Lowrider Dave's Archer thread regarding a failing ICV (Idle Control Valve). -

I am having the same issue...
When the engine is hot, it fires but dies immediately.
Or it revs at about 500 rpm.
A gentle rev and all is fine.
Light throttle on start-up also seems to work too.
I have taken mine off and cleaned it...
I will refit it for work in the morning.
Fingers crossed.
Not quite sure why these fail, as mine moves freely inside.
I believe the most reliable replacement units are those fitted to the V6 engined car.

Well I sprayed loads and loads of brake cleaner into both hose stubs.
Covered the stubs with my fat thumbs and gave the valve a good shake.

Amazing to see how much brown filth came out from the valve. I presume it is gummed up old oil vapour.
As per my usual cleaning regime at present, I soaked a few cotton buds in brake cleaner fluid and gave everything a good rub.
(This is where Dave would insert the comment Ooh er!! ).

Then repeat the spray, shake and flush routine a few more times.
I then let the fluid drain out.
After about ten minutes, I poured a quantity of clean engine oil into the hose stubs, as I did not want to strip all the lubrication out of the valve's moving components.
Let it bubble about for five minutes, and then drained off the excess.

As it happened the wife wanted a curry for tea, so I was able to refit the valve and drive to the local indian takeaway.

Turned the engine and it stalled straight away. Started the engine with a gentle rev and it idled rougher than a rough thing in roughs-ville.
Hmmm - engine light is on.

Popped the bonnet and had a look for an obvious culpret.

The valve connector was on and secure.
Then it struck me - I had removed and cleaned my Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor.
Dumb-ass here had forgotten to re-connect the MAF sensor plug.
D'oh!!

Connected it all up and fired her up.
Started straight away, and appears to be a bit smoother and a lot more willing than before.

But that could simply be psychological...
I will have another check tomorrow.

[Cabletwitch]

Bloody hell, and here I am hoping one of you buggers is going to have the same issue as every bloody petrol engined Cav I've had so far... the C20NE has a MAP sensor though? Must admit, I've not looked for it as of yet...

[Robsey]

C18NZ and C16NZ / 2 have MAP sensors.
(Single point injections).
Sensor for these is on the back of the bulkhead below the plastic scuttle panel cover.

All multi- points, so all 2.0 litre cavs and V6s have air flow sensors built into the air box on 8 valves, or in the trunking between the air box and throttle body on 16 valves and V6

[Robsey]

Just to confirm also that my ICV is now working great again.
No cutting out on start up and a much smoother idle at approx 700 rpm.

Managed to pinch an hour at lunch time.
So enough time to swap my manky old LSi door cards



for much tidier SRi door cards.



I then swapped my mirror switch on the off chance that the little yellow LED might light up when defrosting the mirror glass.

Lo and behold, the LED worked, but the mirror motors didn't.



Bugger - looks like another switch that needs stripping and cleaning.

Ah well - an ideal opportunity to write a How 2.

[Lowrider Dave]

Excellent work Robsey - great write up on cleaning the switch, I may even attempt mine. Out of interest the LED never lit up on my V6 when I used the de-mister.
I'm still trying my ICV - will give it another clean (although it's pretty new and clean) and perhaps try 'oiling' it.

[Mk3alan]

Excellent workshop for the switch - should have read it before I tackled mine!
Seem to remember the ICV has one or more ball races inside.

Alan

[James McGrath]

Nice work there.

Well done on the mirror switch How2 by the way.
Great to know they can be repaired, I thought they were sealed units.

[Robsey]

I haven't found anything that cannot be stripped and cleaned.
Although I would only work on standard electrical parts with moving internal components.

About 95% of electrical issues are caused by dirty or corroded parts.
The rest are damaged cabling or a loss of power due to loose connectors or blown fuses.

[Robsey]

This may be the last post I ever write...

I have just put my original rear carpet into the washing machine for a wash.

I tried using a hose outside but I was just not getting to the point where the water ran of clear.
Still a strong tinge of brown from 20 years of lugging loads and carry people who have spilt food and body contents whilst under the wife's ownership.
She has known some scruffy people.

If it kills the washing machine, she will probably kill me.
If the machine is fine, and the carpet survives, then I will be a smug git.

I am not a fan of washing the carpet in the bath. Too messy and it drains off everywhere soaking the whole house.

Hopefully a 29 minute cool wash will leave me no worse off.

You may ask why am I fitting the old carpet?

Well - just as Chip Pan Dan was leaving the Cavalier world, he stripped his Cavalier(s) for spares.
From them I bought the front SRi seats, thick plush carpet and a GSi fuel computer.

Well it turns out that the thick plush carpet must be for a saloon, and so from where the carpet rises up to meet the rear seats, it's profile totally changes.

I had to hack bits off it to get it to go round the bench seat pivots, and it doesn't reach far enough along the rear interior sills.

Initially this was fine as I never sat in the back, but as I approach fitting my SRi rear seats, I realised that this would be the best time to swap the carpets to some that fitted - my filthy originals.

And so here we are.
Mid-way through the wash cycle, fingers crossed.

As it happens - only I use the washing machine, so she probably wouldn't be any the wiser either way.

I will report back shortly, if both the washer and carpet survive - eek!!

[James McGrath]

Hopefully it will be ok then, I can just see the headline now, Man killed by own wife after turning white washing gray.

I'd run the machine again empty, just to make sure all the dirt has flushed out.

[Robsey]

Dirty run off water from hand wash



Rear driver's side hand washed.



After machine washing.



Strangely the carpet looked cleaner after hand scrubbing than it did after a 29 minute wash cycle.
Was an absolute bugger to get the thing into and back out of a 7 Kg capacity drum.

Wife never noticed - but karma did.

The carpet dried very quickly after only about 30 minutes on the washing line.

But then the missus decided we were going to the garden centre and cash 'n' carry.
So that was my interior installation postponed yet again.

[Mk3alan]

Crykey! Wouldn't have thought of putting it in the washing m/c (even with permission!) but it seems to have survived.
Nice one, and good day for drying!

Alan

[Steven715]

The dirt was literally pouring out of that carpet. Looking good though.

[Robsey]

Cheers dears....

Well after making evening lunch, I managed to squeeze in an hour on the car.
Pulled all the interior out...
Including centre console, all seats and both sill cover plastics.
This allowed me to pull out the ill-fitting carpet.

Fitting wise, managed to fit the rear seat and back, the freshly washed carpet.
Then the inner sill covers.
That was all for tonight... pah!

Still need to fit the front seats and the centre console.
Hopefully get this done first thing in the morning, before going to work.

So with luck, this time tommorow should see the interior finished.
(All my black door handle parts are due to arrive in the post tomorrow too.)

[Lowrider Dave]

Good job on the cleaning front! Soon you'll be back together again.