Mk3 Cavalier Owners Club | Vauxhall Cavalier Dot Com

Thanks Troy. The Matrix that blew was the original GM part, the replacement certainly is an aftermarket part.

I've got two scenarios floating round my head. First is a blocked matrix - the resulting back pressure blew it. Second (and more likely in my opinion) is that the HG has failed. Block test will certainly prove that. Then, I guess the next question is why. I keep coming back to a blocked Cat here. The few days before the blow, it had been refusing to rev over 4k, or accelerate hard, which is Why I changed the Fuel filer. Now I think about it, it also had started rattling underneath too. So Blocked Cat + New HG & resealed valves = Increased back pressure failing the new HG, and causing an overpressure on the cooling system. I may be wrong (I usually am according to my wife!), but to me it makes sense.

Once the new matrix is in, and I can block test it and move it into the garage, then I'll get a better clue. Thankfully I'm really lucky to have the Insigni-barge as a workhorse, ad the GTE for fun, so it really doesn't matter how long it takes to get it back on the road, I'd rather be sure I've cracked the problem than rush.

Dave - It wasn't bad. I also spotted some air adjustable shocks, which Pete and I desperately tried to work out whether they were Cav or Carlton. On chatting to the seller, he wanted £120 for the pair - a fair price if I could be sure they would work, but too much of a risk to take a punt on.

BTW are you doing Beaulieu this year? We've always crossed paths but never met. Would be good to put a face to the name.

looking at the cylinder head and block, piston 4 looks like it has an oil control issue.
my pistons on my xe were exactly the same, it has been fuel damaged which scored the bores and damaged the rings.
had to hone the bores and fit new rings.
the oily exhaust gas could quite easily block the cat and blow anywhere before at the weakest point, head gasket included!

Yes, Tony I'm doing Beaulieu. I had something else already booked in for that day but if fell through the other day so now I'm going. I'm sure we'll cross paths - look for a bloke with glasses and a large camera!

Good spot on the photos Troy, and thanks for the idea. I'd assumed that the old HG was leaking a bit of oil into number 4. If the HG has to be replaced, I'll have another look.

As I'm getting 'heat' about the entire Cav interior in the conservatory, I'm going to slowly start putting it back together whilst I try to diagnose the issues.

Started off with a now dry cabin.



First things, put the rear air piping back in place, after giving them a little extra..




They shouldn't move under the carpet, but if they do, no rattling noises!

Next, get some extra sound padding in there. The plan isn't to add on top of the VX stuff, just to put it where the factory didn't. The only exception is the rear floors, where the sticky Bitumen layer between the carpets and the underlay had gone. The front has very thick underlay, so I also didn't worry there.





Glued the underlay back down in the back.



With my helper making sure it was all stuck down well.



The Front and rear carpets went back in easily.





The Carpet really has benefited from being pressure washed. As have the mats. They look almost new.

Over the last week, I've been slowly starting to reassemble stuff..

Got the matrix foamed and fitted (very tightly!) back into the airbox..




Refilled the system, and started the car.. So far so good..

Waited for a while until the fan came in (at an indicated 95deg), and went back off again (at about 82deg) Seemed to be rather a large range and amount of time for the fan to be cut in for.

Anyway, prepared the block tester, and plugged it in to the coolant cap with the car running.



2-3 minutes, and about 30 pumps of the tester later, and the fluid is still blue.



Great! This means that there is no exhaust gasses in the coolant.

30 seconds after I took that last photo though, it violently boiled over. Just managed to get my hand out the way before it erupted..

That's interesting.. And shifted my focus here:



Should open at 92C. Had it boiling in a pan, and it didn't open till the thermometer read 101.5C. OK, so I may have a lazy thermostat, that may answer the boiling issue. Wondering now if the thermostat isn't reacting quickly enough and causing the system to sink heat into the block.. Anyway, new (Genuine) thermostat on its way from Germany.

So, gave up in the engine bay until things arrive. Back to the interior.

I needed to pull out the centre vent hose, as it took a lot of steam, and I thought it may be damaged.

Yep!




That got re foamed..

So, I cracked on and re-foamed the connector pipes.



I then refitted all of the covers to the matrix and heater box, and got the lower distribution pipe in place.

Fitted the connectors..



The Bracket that holds the lower trims in place was looking a bit worse for wear..

It should be bare metal, but I've cleaned it back and painted it in an attempt to slow the deterioration down.




And fitted..



Had a prod at the Cat, as this is one of the suspects in the running and heating issues.. Giving it a tap with the handle of my long extension bar, it rattles like it's full of gravel!

So, new Cataclysmic Convertor delivered..



Got some of the mid dash felted and refitted..



Took delivery of more bits. May as well whilst it's drained.. It's gonna get flushed too before I finish..

Looking good, Bet you cant wait to start driving it again.

Cheers Super.. I'm rather looking forward to it, the Insignia is taking all the normal mileage at the moment, and the idea was to keep the miles off it to improve trade in. I've still got the Astra for Kicks, but it's not an 'all occasion' car really..

Started the day today with a little work up front.. As the battery had been off to charge it showed the mess the battery tray was in..



A bit of a clean and it looks better.. I'm not fussed about having it sparkling, it's not that sort of car. There are also a couple of rust spots on the tray, which is standard fit on a Mk3 Cav as far as I've seen. These will get attended to at some point, for now, they've had rust stopper painted in them, I've got other issues to attend to..



Before starting to put the shrouds back together, I took the opportunity to switch the ignition barrel to the new one from the lock set I got at Billing.

The removal was easy, but the replacement wouldn't fit, due to differences (I think) in the casing. The old unit had a large 'nose' that appeared to engage with a secondary retaining lock inside the barrel..



The above photo is mid-swap, to remove the lock from the casing, you need to push this pin back, and turn the key further, remembering to catch the little pin, as it will shoot out once released.



Refitting is the reverse of removal.

It was a bit fiddly, but allowed me to fit the new ignition to the car..



Whilst in there I found this, which had been AWOL since I bought the car..



Another job before putting the column shrouds back on was to clean the rather disgusting looking stalk rubbers..

Before



After removal of 20 years of skin, bogeys and god-knows-what..



Minty:



Finished off with more small bits of trim, felting and foaming as I went..



The rest of the locks will get changed out in due course, although I don't need to carry two keys.. The old drivers door lock is so worn, that the new key will not only work the ignition, it'll lock and unlock the car too.. How very 90's Vauxhall..

For the ignition cover i used a vectra one as its a all in one and it stops the old cavalier rubber ring disappear down into the coloum covers ,good workso far glad to see it going back together

Great progress you're making here.

I have to say your updates have been a real inspiration for me to get more stuff done on my Cavs.

Keep up the good work!

Great work Tony. What felt are you using to help stop the squeaks?

Great work Tony. What felt are you using to help stop the squeaks?

Different direction tonight..

I wanted to attend to the seats before they went back, the drivers in particular,



First thing was to strip off the runners (carefully!)




Yuk! Clean, then oil and grease the runners so that 'er indoors can pull the seat forwards to almost touching the dash.. She's only got dinky legs see..

Also, grease the height adjuster by shoving a load of multipurpose goop into these threads..



On to the seat itself.. The Bolsters were looking quite sorry..





So, clean the seat, leather colourant, and conditioner later, and it's not looking quite so bad..






Re assemble, and leave to dry.. The conditioner almost soaked straight in to the leather, so I'm guessing that it's never really been treated. I'm going to continue to feed it conditioner until it can take no more, and hopefully, that will make the seats more supple too..

lowrider dave wrote:Great work Tony. What felt are you using to help stop the squeaks?

I'm just using a sheet of self adhesive stuff found on E-bay for a couple of quid Dave.

Thanks Tony, I've been mulling over doing something similar.

Managed to get a whole day on it today.

First up, as it was pouring with rain, Clean, colour and condition the backseats.

Not as bad, but still worn..



Three hours later..




Then, on to the exhaust.. The new Cat had arrived a week or so ago, when I took the old one off last weekend, about a dozen bits of the catalyst fell out, and there's still some large lumps rattling around inside, so I got a bit more confident that it was the cause of the running problems.

Old, and new.



New one is a non-type approved, as the car doesn't need it, in fact it's just early enough (92) not to need a cat at all, but I wanted one on there anyway to be correct.



The other issue I'd had was the (what looked to be quite new) centre section on the car, it had been making a clicking and rattling for a few weeks before the matrix went, and on investigation , even though it appeared quite new, I found this..



So, it was replaced with a genuine Centre section from the great people at Genuine Parts Search. £10 cheaper than a pattern part from online motor factors!!




It was at this point the 'drying' weather took a turn, and I stood in shelter pleased that Id recently fitted a new mohair roof the the GTE, meaning I didn't have to worry about it getting wet



Bobble-tastic.

Back to the Cav.. Bolted the exhaust back on fully, and couldn't wait to see if it had cured the running issues. Took it for a quick spin, and once warm got 5.5k rpm away from a junction in 1st and 2nd. The weeks before the burst had seen it struggle to make 4k, so I'm hoping that I've cracked it..

Full of enthusiasm, I bolted the rear seats back in..



And then set about fitting more interior. The Button for the trip computer had always worked loose and tried to escape since Pete had fitted it...



So, solved it with a little hot-melt glue.



Stays put nicely now.

The only other point to note was the top tray. It's always rattled, as it fits into the top of the glovebox opening, but is only held in place by a couple of clips at the rear, free to move about in the void. Solved it with two thick bits of foam.



Does not budge now!

Packed up for the evening with only the passenger seat left to clean, colour and condition tonight. Hopefully able to fit tomorrow..


Here it is in technicolour.





Very pleased.

Top mincing! Loving the foam strip action, must do that to mine!

Another very small win tonight..

After changing the lockset last week, the Migweb SC guys commented that the boot opened almost to the point of hitting the rear screen, and that there was rubber buffers missing that should stop this..

The Problem




A quick call to the people fast becoming my new best friends - Genuine Parts Search, £12.50, and a package arrived next day. Still sealed in the dealer bag.





Fitted in seconds, and now the boot opens and gently rebounds when it hits the new rubber stops.

Loving all the little bits your sorting out. Going to be one nice cavalier once your done. top work!

Just registered on the forum, but i'm following this project for some time already .. Impressive attention to details, you're giving a new life for this Cavalier!

Thanks for the encouragement gents..

Last weekend, I got a tip off that there was a Diplomat in a scrappy in Chichester, so I headed down with a couple of Miggers. As the Dippy came into view, the signs were ominous as the rear windows were down, meaning that the rear window mechanisms had already gone. Nadgers.. Opening it up, the entire interior had been stripped out, along with the best part of the inlet system, and the gearbox had been cleaned out too. Most of the needed parts had been stripped, or busted, so we set about salvaging what useful parts there were..





Then, today, my latest find on E-bay arrived. Really decent seller, and well packaged.. He'd got three dash's for sale advertised to fit Astra/Cavalier. In reality, he'd got two Astra dashes and one Cavalier (2 with 50l fuel guage, and 1 with a 60l)..

Anyway, when it turned up, it was a real minter, the fuel guage background not showing any signs of bubbling like the one on the car, and even the speedo face was in good shape. Added to whch, the plastic on the front is positively minty compared to the one on the car.. Some major swapping to do..



Firstly, stripped the guages out..



And then took the face off the speedo.. I know it seems a little pedantic, but being a Cav speedo face the number is correct. The Astra face is marked W=1773 and the Cav is W=1742. I'm sure no-one else will ever notice, but I'll know its correct.

Stripped and ready to go..



Hopefully some time tomorrow will see it fitted. I'm geting so used to taking the instruments out of the cav, I think I could do it whilst asleep..

Pulled the dash out tonight.. Swapped the speedo face in the same way as back at the start..

Then removed the Old temp and fuel guage, noting just how bad it is..



Then replaced with the new one, which I hadn't spotted must have gone through a revision between 92 and 95 (the marked date on the replacement). See if you can spot it..



Back together, and fitted in the car for use tomorrow..

Makes a big difference all the small bits do.

110!

Good mincing.

Another small improvement tonight.

Had a package arrive for me..



Replacing these..



With These..



Photo with the Offside changed to try and compare.



We used to use these on the Rallycars, and they were pretty good at extending range and better illumination. Totally Road legal, same wattage as the standard bulbs, just a clearer, whiter light.

Nice updates.

tonyo wrote:Then replaced with the new one, which I hadn't spotted must have gone through a revision between 92 and 95 (the marked date on the replacement). See if you can spot it..

Yeah that's another little oddity.

My CD auto (September 1990), LS (June 1993) and Diplomat (August 1993) all have the older style one which has 110°C at the red and my CD manual (November 1993) has the later style with 100°C at the 3/4 mark.

So must have been sometime in late 1993 that they changed it. Why? Who knows.