Mk3 Cavalier Owners Club | Vauxhall Cavalier Dot Com

First drive in the Cavalier Turbo in over 3 months and boy did it put a smile on my face even if it was a bit lively in the wet ha ha. Now into storage until Apr'ish

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I've had to put my cavalier in to storage in the past. All ways felt bad about leaving it and not going near it for months.

Greig

That car is still amazing. The paintwork is what does it for me!

Not done a lot to the car with it being in storage, but I am twitching to get it back now and drive it with the weather changing...

I spotted 4 Speedline's for sale the other day. So I snapped them up and now have 10 including the ones on the car lol. It might sound overkill, but they are hard to get hold of and I have spotted one of the current wheels has picked up a hair line crack and another one has already been repaired. So that is two of the newer ones being used once they have been refurbed, but the old ones are good for spares.

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Starting to collect service parts together for when I get car back. Not exciting I know

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Looks good to me (I have a very similar-looking collection of new ignition components sitting in the garage!).

Collected her from storage and drove her for the first time in 8 months on Monday and it put a smile on my face Although it has now developed a fault with the fuel gauge registering 0 with F displayed on the clock / range. So guessing fuel tank sender at fault? Also the valve caps had corroded on so I had to take them off with a 10mm at the petrol station lol.

Since then I have been getting her ready for PVS on Sunday. Not coming up too bad either.

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Also managed to get her into the garage for the first time. So all of the effort of the garden and shed and clearing the garage was worth while. No more being left out in the bad weather

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Attended PVS on the Performance Vauxhall Stand

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Been having some issues with it holding back around 2 / 2.5K so I changed the plugs and no difference, although it only started happening after I had the exhaust adjusted.

We had it up on the lift and found that it was leaking on two sections and after clamping it up twice only for the front pipe / centre pipe to come apart again I have had to have a new piece welded in along with the join put further down the pipe as there was not enough straight pipe to sit inside the sleeve and new rubbers / hangers that pull it to the centre as it was trying to hit the chassis as the flexi I had welded in at the front was allowing it to move to the wrong position on the old hangers.

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We have also found that the gasket on the exhaust elbow to down pipe is knackered so got the bits to do that at some stage.

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After having the exhaust leak sorted it still wasn't running right and it also stated running like a bag of spanners when you started it from cold. It would go really lean and struggle to run unless you revved it and the revs would keep dipping on their own until it got warm. All signs pointed to the IAV as it had been stood for 9 months.

Removed the IAV and noticed that the cable shielding was broken and wires were touching. So I cleaned the IAV, which was full of junk and because of what a pig it is to get at under the inlet I have extended the pipe work and wiring and sorted the wiring on the plug and bought it to the side of the inlet for easier cleaning in the future.

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Fired it up from cold and it now idles and runs sweet on tick over.

It is still holding back around 2 / 2.5K on normally driving without boost if anyone has any ideas?

Such a fantastic car. I can only hope that mine lives up to the same standard (eventually!). As for holding back, airflow issues? You haven't got any split pipes lurking in the depths of your engine bay, have you?

Found out today by mistake that the aircon switch turns the engine fan on manually. It is something that I have wanted to do for ages, but never got round to it. So that is a result!

humbucker wrote:Such a fantastic car. I can only hope that mine lives up to the same standard (eventually!). As for holding back, airflow issues? You haven't got any split pipes lurking in the depths of your engine bay, have you?

Thanks buddy it is hard to keep it at a high standard with using the car too, but I try my best. I am wondering that too. Maybe an AFM issue? Or a split pipe are you thinking?

Either I guess. I was thinking that perhaps the engine is trying to pull in an increased volume of air as the rpm rises, but isn't getting what it needs, causing it to choke. Swapping the AFM would be an easy way to rule out a faulty unit, although I would have thought you'd get an EML warning (unless your EML light is null and void because of ECU upgrades) if this was the problem. A split pipe would certainly cause the symptoms you describe. If you're lucky, you might even be able to hear air escaping/being sucked in through the split somewhere under the bonnet, although I guess you'd need to open the throttle in order to hit enough rpm for the problem to present itself again. I might be barking up the wrong tree, but I'd start with airflow and boost hose pipe inspections to begin with. Check for loose hose clips too.

If you can discount airflow complaints, then check your ignition components. Of course, you'll more than likely experience a stutter or judder if it's a knackered coilpack, leads etc.

I would agree with air leaks in the induction side.

Failing that the timing could be very slightly out... but still most likely an air leak or vacuum leak.


I still love that paintwork

Still looking fab, hope the induction problems get sorted - these things can be infuriating. Have a good time at VBOA.

The car looked great at PVS and Billing, Mark. A credit to you.

Attended Billing and got put forward for the chair man's cup (car of the show)

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Attended Total Retro Cumbria

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Attended the Fast Car Festival at Donington Park on the Performance Vauxhall stand

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Also found out by mistake that the aircon switch turns the engine fan on manually. It is something that I have wanted to do for ages, but never got round to it. So that is a result!

humbucker wrote:The car looked great at PVS and Billing, Mark. A credit to you.

Thanks Dan

Still looks amazing.

I saw this at billing and voted for you. Looks incredible.

Cannot believe that Vectra won overall ahead of this. Some people just have no taste.

James McGrath wrote:I saw this at billing and voted for you. Looks incredible.

Cannot believe that Vectra won overall ahead of this. Some people just have no taste.

To be fair, the car that won is just one of two red Vectra B ST200s, and it has just undergone a massive no-expense spared restoration!

humbucker wrote:

To be fair, the car that won is just one of two red Vectra B ST200s, and it has just undergone a massive no-expense spared restoration!

Each to their own, but it's really not for me no matter how rare it is.

James McGrath wrote:

humbucker wrote:

To be fair, the car that won is just one of two red Vectra B ST200s, and it has just undergone a massive no-expense spared restoration!

Each to their own, but it's really not for me no matter how rare it is.

Fair enough, although I would have thought you would appreciate the amount of work that goes into restoring and resurrecting a car to that standard irrespective of the make or model of vehicle.

I understand the comments Dan as you work around many marques and models.

But I have to agree - a super rare Vectra-B would not have any effect on me.
But a tidy example of a Cavalier always catches my eye.

And Mark's Cavalier is the same colour as mine... I love a deeply lustrous polished Cavalier in Polar Sea Blue.

A super example of the only car worth being seen in (in my humble opinion).

humbucker wrote: Fair enough, although I would have thought you would appreciate the amount of work that goes into restoring and resurrecting a car to that standard irrespective of the make or model of vehicle.

Yeah I can appreciate the work, I think anyone who commits to such a project deserves to be commended.

But as Rob said, It just didn't do anything for me and there were a good number of other cars in the running that I would have chosen over the Vectra.