Mk3 Cavalier Owners Club | Vauxhall Cavalier Dot Com

I though it was about time I wrote up a proper WIP for our third Cav which we purchased back in February for £500 with 6 months tax and MOT until November!

Well here she is!

A 1993 2.0 8v (C20NE) Diplomat saloon in 72L satin red!

This was taken on the day be bought it next to our LS:



Being a Diplomat she has all the toys;

4x Electric windows
Electric sunroof
Electric heated seats
Fog lights
Fan blade alloys
Air conditioning and recirculation

Unfortunately though it doesn't have the Leather interior which is supposed to come with Diplomat as standard and instead has the same grey Ascot velour interior as our CD.

As far as history goes, I know practically nothing.

I know it was sold on eBay in October 2012 to the person I bought it from and I have the last mot which was free from advisories apart from a CV boot and a receipt for a cam belt replacement that was done a mere 1,000 miles ago.

The engine is as sweet as anything at 145,000 and feels just ran in with no signs of ever having an oil leek anywhere. Underneath is immaculate, and it has been undersealed at some point and as far as I can tell it's rust free which is one of the main reasons we bought her over so many other Cavaliers we saw.

Apart from being lowered -40mm it's all original including the very fetching Fan blades but it does have bad points, especially the interior.

The headlining is falling off, the air-con doesn't work, it smells like cigarettes inside and the head rests are disgustingly filthy.

Amazingly however, I found out that it had GM wiper blades and GM spark plugs! So maybe it used to be serviced at an Vauxhall garage by one of it's previous owners perhaps? It also has signs of being polished/waxed regularly at some point as there are still some white marks along door edges ect, however water does not bead on the paintwork so it's been some time since it was last done.

It has it's good points and bad points like any car, but it's a bit of an oddity in some ways probably due to different owners treating her differently.

I think it's the type of car that was very well looked after... once, long ago.

My plans are pretty much to keep her as she is. I'm pondering over whether to return her to standard suspension or not, I think it sits really well with -40mm and handles really well, but the ride quality is frankly awful on the pot hole full roads of East Sussex. Were going to get a bit of body work done, most notably the bonnet which is machine gunned in stone chips and obviously that roof lining. I'd also like to recondition the alloys as they are a bit flaky in places. It's basically going to be used as a daily runner during the winter to save some wear and tear from my LS during the winter.

Anyway, I washed her for the first time in 3 months, no polish or wax, just a simple wash and underneath all that dirt there is actually some nice paint! So I shall leave you, for now, with some photos taken today out and about in the sunshine.

Enjoy:











More pics to follow...

Looks very smart that, Maybe try and find some nice leather seats?

Looks good to go in standard guise mate & for £500 quid , it's a steal ! Good luck with it

Thanks guys!

Leather is something to think about but my Dad doesn't like it and I quite like the velour interior.
I like the idea of headlamp washers and a trip computer though.

I forgot to mention another of the main reasons we bough it was it also has a full set of practically new Michelin energy tyres which is over £300 worth of rubber alone!

I'll get some pics up of the engine and interior tomorrow.

Some more photos for you all.


First of all, the interior:

Unfortunately, as you can see it only has the analogue clock and there is no yellow plug for a trip computer, I've looked.

I installed the SC804 radio I previously had in my LS, I thought it was more fitting for the Diplomat it have it.




Front a rear seats are in reasonable condition, there is a nasty cigarette burn on the rear nearside seat though. No where near as nice as the CDs interior unfortunately.

The front headrests are nothing short of disgusting though. One of the pervious owners obviously liked to put allot of brillcream or something in his hair.






Here is the obvious head lining problem, its coming away at the back too.




I need to replace the clutch pedal rubber at some point.
Are these original? Dealer fit possibly or just after market?





Now on to the good points!

Probably the best looking engine out of our three Cavs, no signs of any previous oil leaks unlike the CD and LS which are both caked in black burnt on oil. It runs well too.




GM spark plugs fitted; someone looked after it at one point!




Made by a man called Adam apparently.




Now probably this cars best feature, the underside. However, I think some clot put standard shock absorbers on with the lowering springs.










The alloys aren’t bad, but I'd like to get them refurbished at some point.




Electric aerial and sunroof work perfectly thankfully as I know they are both weak spots.




I need to get a new boot panel at some point.




And finally my least favourite feature of the whole car, the third brake light.



Would that be dealer fit perhaps?


So there you have it. not the finest car on 4 wheels but certainly a good base for a project.

Looks good
If you google mot history check... There's something on the .gov website where you put in the mot number and it gives you a full report of previous mots...
If its failed and what on and any advisories...
It only goes back so far though... I always do it, gives me an idea of what will brake next lol

Vauxhall dealer fit, 3rd brake light : 91146456 GPS about £14

Like the one i have in my topic..

Looking good did u get this from near Bury st Edmunds? As if you did i was thinking of buying it but not having leather i left it alone!

Hayward691 wrote:Looks good
If you google mot history check... There's something on the .gov website where you put in the mot number and it gives you a full report of previous mots...
If its failed and what on and any advisories...
It only goes back so far though... I always do it, gives me an idea of what will brake next lol

Interesting, thanks for that, it's come up with some fascinating stuff:

Looking at where it was MOT'd I would guess that the original owner had it up until 2009 having it MOT'd at "A J PALMER" in Bury St Edmunds and seems to be well looked after having all the advisories seen to including both N/S and O/S sills replaced in 2009.

The second owner had up until it was sold on ebay in October 2012. It was MOT'd at "L G SERVICING LTD" also in Bury St. Edmunds, not much info for this as no advisories were given for both years it was MOT'd there.

It was last MOT'd in October 2012 at NORTHGATE MOTORS once again in Bury St. Edmunds in October 2012. Whether or not this was the 2nd owner or the 3rd I don't know as it was sold to the 3rd owner around this time. This time the advisories were not seen to and it failed on a fractured offside front anti-roll bar linkage how that happened I don't know, big pothole maybe? The advisories are basically a CV boot and a brake pipe slightly corroded.

None of the 3 owners seem to have done many miles as it's only done 15,000 since 2006.

Super89 wrote:Vauxhall dealer fit, 3rd brake light : 91146456 GPS about £14

Like the one i have in my topic..

So your saying it's not dealer fit?

5853moore wrote:Looking good did u get this from near Bury st Edmunds? As if you did i was thinking of buying it but not having leather i left it alone!

I bought it from Milton Keynes. It was on ebay in October 2012, the third owner didn't have it very long.

Super89 wrote:Vauxhall dealer fit, 3rd brake light : 91146456 GPS about £14

Like the one i have in my topic..

So your saying it's not dealer fit?

No, Dont look like it is

James McGrath wrote:

Super89 wrote:Vauxhall dealer fit, 3rd brake light : 91146456 GPS about £14

Like the one i have in my topic..

So your saying it's not dealer fit?

Def 100% not dealer fit, i used to sell them at a car parts shop i used to work at. Leds weren't really about in 95.

Plus blocks of wood arnt exactly oem

Gaz wrote:
Def 100% not dealer fit, i used to sell them at a car parts shop i used to work at. Leds weren't really about in 95.

Plus blocks of wood arnt exactly oem

They're not blocks of wood... they're plastic.

Dealer fit accessory lamp up until 2002 was one that stuck to the screen, and it didn't look like that.

It will be getting lost sometime in the not too distant future then.

James McGrath wrote:It will be getting lost sometime in the not too distant future then.

Give it to Andrei, you might even be able to persuade him to pay you for it, lol

Bit of an update.

I went to the scrap yard the other day and picked up a few useful items:




I went in hope of finding a roof/head lining but came back with a full set of door seals, a centre console for the LS and a full set of spare switches, so not too bad.

The I'll be taking the GSi rear lamps to Beaulieu if anyone wants them as I have no need for them. I was going to put them in our new CD auto but as that is so original I think it would be a crime to change anything on it.

Anyway, this was the state of the old door seals:






Removed and a quick wipe over:




New seals fitted:






A couple of things I did before I posted the WIP up:

Dash dismantled just to replace the bulb:




Needed a new heater motor resistor only it wasn't the usual one it was this strange metal one I've not seen before. took ne a while to find the right one as it actually has the same part number as the normal plastic one. Probably different due the car being made in Germany instead of England:




Cleaned out the boot the other day, pleased to see it was relatively rust free. Also has the colour coded sound proofing unlike my LS and the two CDs :




It did have this rust spot though. Luckily not to serious so I just gave it a rub down and painted it with Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 rust converter:








I also got rid of this ghastly bit of tat that the previous owner had put on:




Much better:




New Aerial rubber fitted. The old one was quite bad, probably the original one and it was disintegrating. No point pointing out which is the old and which is the new!




One thing I forgot to show earlier was the old style griffin handbooks and Opel audio manual despite the fact that it is newer than my LS which has the new style griffin handbooks.




Last thing was a good wash:




I love those Diplomat badges.


Part numbers used in this post:

Aerial rubber seal: 90407367

Heater motor resistor 2.0i with air con: 90383817

Get under the arch and catch that rust there too as it starts on the outside and works inwards on that section

planetc wrote:Get under the arch and catch that rust there too as it starts on the outside and works inwards on that section

Thanks for the tip.

I'll have a good look underneath and see what I can find.

Might be a bit difficult to see though as it's been undersealed.

It's that time of year again...

Yes that's right, It's time for me to get terribly excited about no much at all!!!

Brand new GM boot panel!!! Hussar!!!

Lots of photos!!!










I always feel slightly guilty about opening new Cavalier parts. Feels like they should be preserved in their original packaging for all time.






Looks so good I actually considered putting it on the LS.




I bought it from Vauxhall car parts for £30 including postage. Bit of a bargain as it wasn't listed on their website and the last new one on eBay sold for about £50.

I'll probably fit it to the Diplomat tomorrow as a couple of the screws that hold the old one on have been stripped so I'll have to drill them out.

Good find, Cant beat seen that GM sticker on parts! love it

Nice, good find!

car is looking good guys.

my new rear panel came like that from probably the same place, was ages ago now. a good find indeed.

Diplomats rule.

Fitted the panel today.

I had to totally destroy the old one just to get it off.

I couldn't just drill the head off the old hex screws because, number 1, it would have taken forever with a slightly blunt drill bit and number 2, I was working upside-down.



All because of two stripped hex screws.

I could have just torn it off instead of drilling through the plastic but I was afraid that the boot lid might get damaged.

Anyway, old panel removed and no nasty surprises underneath. Needed a little bit of paint where I had been clumsy with the drill and scratched through to bare metal, but apart from that nothing needed doing. I half expected there to be loads of rust or something.



New Panel fitted with some nice new normal screws:





Just needs a jolly good clean now and some Auto-Glym bumper care to match up the old plastic.

"I always feel slightly guilty about opening new Cavalier parts. Feels like they should be preserved in their original packaging for all time."

Haha yes I know exactly what you mean! Good find, NLS OE FTW!

They should be changed to "NLSBHHTA"


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