Mk3 Cavalier Owners Club | Vauxhall Cavalier Dot Com

Not sure if you're anywhere near Hereford but if you are and you get stuck I've got a 70 tonne press in the workshop. Never fails to get bushes out.

3cav3 wrote:Not sure if you're anywhere near Hereford but if you are and you get stuck I've got a 70 tonne press in the workshop. Never fails to get bushes out.

I'm about 200 miles away from you in East Sussex. Shame really as I probably would take you up on your offer otherwise. This is proving to be harder than I thought. Mainly due to lack of access more than anything else; I need a ramp.

The drop links look like the ones my diesel cavalier had fitted. Ball joint type.

Super89 wrote:The drop links look like the ones my diesel cavalier had fitted. Ball joint type.

Yeah, it's a bit strange. When I looked up the part number on ecat24 they were listed as parts for a 1.4

What bush is it giving you trouble James? Anti roll link replacement shouldn't be any problem except when you're putting nut on bottom you have to squeeze washers and nut on as hardly any thread comes through the bushes. Sometimes a jack on ball join to push up arm helps.

It's lack of access and appropriate tools more than anything. Really ought to get a pair of axle stands.

Good news and bad news.

Good news, I replaced both the anti roll bar links:




Bad news, apparently there is a hole in my Air-con evaporator and err, this happened:




Guess where that big trail of coolant in the background came from.

Took it out for a run up the A21, stopped at Halfords to pick up a few bits, by the time I came back it had had a little 'accident' and most of it's coolant was on the floor.

When I left the car the engine was at normal temperature, probably about 95 and the cooling fan was on so it should have cooled itself down.
Just ran the engine for a bit to test if the cooling fan would come on, it ran up to 98 degrees before I chickened out and switched the engine off and the fan didn't come on.
So my prime suspects are the auxiliary water pump and the radiator fan switch.

Any ideas?

Oh dear! My V6 used to run to about 98/99 before fan kicked in, the leveled out at 95.
Both those are possibilities, as I am finding with 'Archer', overheating has a myriad of possible options.

Lots of options here really.

Fill it back up with coolant for testing purposes.

When it is running see where the water is coming from and / or if it is overheating again.

Coolant leaking points could be.

Header tank cap - weak seal
Split coolant hose - could be anywhere
Water pump - trickling from water pump onto wishbone.
Leaky radiator
steam out of exhaust - head gasket.

--------------------

Causes for over-heating

Faulty fan switch
Excess fluid loss.
Blockage in coolant pipe work.
Leak in head gasket.

I've topped it back up with coolant and it's not overheating while the engine is on, the fan kicks in just below 100 and it cools back down to 90.

What happened is that it overheated while the engine was off, the header tank cap was blown off and the coolant boiled over.
The AA man did a sniffer test and it seems the head gaskets are fine thankfully.

To elaborate on the circumstances, I parked the car while the cooling fan was on, the engine temp was probably about 95 degrees at that point.
I switched the engine off, and as is normal for the v6, the cooling fan stayed on so I just left the car and went into Halfords.
By the time I got back, most of the coolant was on the floor. When I checked under the bonnet the header tank cap was lying next to the tank itself. I'm assuming that it was forced off under the pressure. Either that or I left it off after I topped the coolant level up last week.

So my prime suspect would be the auxiliary water pump. Only thing is I have no idea where this is.

Unless I'm mistaken the water pump is, if you imagine looking side on at the business end of the engine, in the middle.
It does sound odd that it would overheat after switching off as the fans normally cool it down - as you say. For the expansion cap to be forced off must be some pressure, does the cap need replacing then?

The cap seems fine. I could be wrong but I think they are designed to come off when the pressure is too great.

There is so much I don’t know about this engine but I think there is an eclectic water pump as well as the normal one. This is supposed to keep the water circulating when the engine is off. No idea what it looks like or where it is though.

I also want to check the cooling fan is working on both speeds.
Am I correct in saying that the fan has a low and high speed?
Is this controlled by a resistor?

IIRC the Aux pump is on the RH side of the radiator...and yes the V6 should have a 2 stage fan and it is controlled by a resistor...i remember something about it being near the battery but don't take that as the truth! 3 pin IIRC. Sorry for being a bit hazy!

The resistor is a small white block, mounted in the N/S front wing.. You can just about see it at the very bottom here - 4 O'clock position from the battery tray..



From my recollection of a conversation with Pete, all A/C cars have the resistor, fan generally runs at half speed when the car is hot, and full speed when the car is hot and the A/C is going.

tonyo wrote:The resistor is a small white block, mounted in the N/S front wing.. You can just about see it at the very bottom here - 4 O'clock position from the battery tray..

Yeah, my Diplomat is the same. The v6 however doesn't have that resistor, must be in a different place.

Typical Vauxhall..
They do love to confuse us mere mortals.

Change, omit or move things about without any rhyme or reason.

Have a look round the fan, as the resistor gets hot it would stand to reason to put it in a place where it would get cooled with the passage of air. (and rain, snow, sand and general dirt!)

Did you get this fixed, James? The black seal inside the coolant expansion tank cap can become compromised with age, refusing to hold pressure and allowing fluid to boil out. The same happened to my VXR (and an Omega before it). A new lid fixed the problem. Nice and cheap.

humbucker wrote:Did you get this fixed, James? The black seal inside the coolant expansion tank cap can become compromised with age, refusing to hold pressure and allowing fluid to boil out. The same happened to my VXR (and an Omega before it). A new lid fixed the problem. Nice and cheap.

Not fixed per se, I've just been driving it normally and it hasn't had any further problems.

I've just been extra careful to allow the engine to cool down before I switch it off.

I did think that the cap may have been the problem so I think I'll do just that. The cap is a bit grimy on the inside anyway.

I still think the electric water pump is the most likely candidate though as it overheated while the engine was switched off and the fan was on. So unless the water wasn't circulating it should have cooled down not boiled over.

Hopefully going to get the air con fixed next week; I've got it booked in on the 12th.

I had previously tried to get it topped up with gas but rather annoyingly I was told that there was a hole in my condenser.

While I was looking for a replacement part, I took the front grill off in an effort to measure the original condenser.

What I found was this (compare the two photos):






As you can see, the radiator has come away from the bracket and there is a good half inch of play.
Yep, that will be what's wrong then!

Anyway, the other day, this arrived which should fix the problem:




I also picked up an evaporator at the same time:




It'll be sods law that once I get it fixed all the hot weather will end.

Well, more bad news.

I went to get the air con condenser replaced and they said they wouldn't do it because the pipe that cools the power steering fluid has corroded and they are worried about it breaking while removing it.

And sure enough it does look quite bad:




Not sure if this is just an excuse or not though.

Anyway, according to ecat24 I need either part number 90495100 or 90473384 but as I can't find either of them anywhere I suppose it's a bit of a moot point.

I'm hoping that a new pipe could be fabricated, it's not exactly space age technology; it's just a pipe with some rings on it.

On a lighter note, sort of. The receiver dryer was a bit knackered too:




You are supposed to replace this every time the system is exposed to the outside air anyway so I went ahead and got a new one, luckily these are quite cheep:




Which amazingly actually fits onto the new condenser... after some coaxing with a pair of mole grips...




More ugly news, I've only just noticed my EML light isn't working.
Doesn't come on at all during the ignition cycle as it should.

So now I'm paranoid that there could be all sorts of hidden problems and as I can't do a paperclip test without an EML light I'm doubly paranoid.
I'm also wondering whether the light was taken out deliberately as I've never known one of these lights to go on it's own accord.

Hmm - Try not to go paranoid over the inactive EML / MIL.
It would be nice to hope that the bulb hasn't been removed to hide a fault.

Although I am as cynical as the next man in these cases.

I hope it hasn't been removed deliberately, the previous owner doesn't seem like the type that would knowingly do that.

I'm going to take the clocks out and have a look. Do you know what type of bulbs they use?

509T aka T5 cap ...

FUUUU*K!!

Just checked it and the bulb had been removed!

Right, down to Halfords to get a new bulb...