Mk3 Cavalier Owners Club | Vauxhall Cavalier Dot Com

Hi i've not long bought a 1990 Vauxhall Cavalier from Classic Car Auctions. It has only 12,000 from new and is in showroom condition. The only problem i have found is that the power steering is heavy, i was unsure if it had power steering but it has. What could be the reason behind this?

Hello there, welcome to the site!

What are you comparing it to?
Is this your first Cavalier?

Hello. I had a Cavalier 1.6l back in 1990 which had no power steering. After that I had cars with power steering. My most recent car was a 2012 Ford Focus.

Cavalier power steering is no way near as powerful as a modern car and it will feel very heavy by comparison.

As long as you can turn the wheel without straining your arms then it's probably working just fine.

What's your rough location by the way?

Birmingham, the steering feels quite heavy, I noticed it the other day when parallel parking, may get it looked at in a local garage.

Heathrow86 wrote:Birmingham

With a username like yours, I don't know how James didn't get that.

But, but, Heathrow is in London!

Confused face.

Try a fresh fluid change.
A full fluid service should put things right.

Maybe he is 86 miles from Heathrow - lol

Tyre pressures too low? If you turn the steering quickly when parked up does the steering bite back and become really heavy? If so maybe look at fluid levels and tightness of power steering belt. You can also check the effectiveness of power steering by trying to rotate the steering left to right then turn on engine at same time, you should feel a significant decrease in pressure to turn, but if there is little difference then something's not working right.

OK thanks all, I'll give them all a try. As for the name Heathrow its where I used to drive to regularly with work and that was the run name. I'll get pictures up of car once I've worked out how to.

Heathrow86 wrote:I'll get pictures up of car once I've worked out how to.

Have a look at our tutorial buddy.

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=14778

Fiinally got the picture up!

Nice. Those hub caps are so distinctive. Classic Cavalier kit!

That looks absolutely gorgeous.

Any plans for it?

No, nothing special, just use it as an everyday car, frequent washes. I love driving it.

Cool, look after it buddy, It's practically a museum piece with that mileage.

Very tidy looking Cav that, nice to see one in such good nick.

Hey guys, Only had the car a few months already problems. When driving it starts to cut out, particularly when cold, when i take my foot off the throttle. It drops its revs to way below 1000. it runs ok when the engine is hot. Popped to local garage he reckons its the automatic choke playing up, he recommends an choke conversion kit and maybe make it a manual choke. Any ideas on price or should i look at another solution?

Heathrow86 wrote:Hey guys, Only had the car a few months already problems. When driving it starts to cut out, particularly when cold, when i take my foot off the throttle. It drops its revs to way below 1000. it runs ok when the engine is hot. Popped to local garage he reckons its the automatic choke playing up, he recommends an choke conversion kit and maybe make it a manual choke. Any ideas on price or should i look at another solution?

I'd be wary about fitting manual choke, while you'll be able to control the choke it's just masking another problem, plus it's going to destroy the originality of the car lowering any potential resale value. I take it the car has been recently serviced or at least checked over? As it is low miles and 26 years old, it's more likely things would deteriorate over time like fuel filter, spark plugs, leads, distributor. It might also be a sticky choke operation. Maybe have a look at round the carb area and let it heat up from cold and see if anything looks suspect. Put some redex in and give it a blast down the mway.

Thanks according to the service book it was last serviced in April, when it had the cambelt changed. Its been regularly serviced as the service book shows. Just to be on safe side, I've booked it into a local garage on Wednesday for a mini service and asked then to check it over. Drove it today and it was fine, it does have trouble starting at times, not first thing but say after popping to shops, where its been left for a short time.

Heathrow86 wrote:Thanks according to the service book it was last serviced in April, when it had the cambelt changed. Its been regularly serviced as the service book shows. Just to be on safe side, I've booked it into a local garage on Wednesday for a mini service and asked then to check it over. Drove it today and it was fine, it does have trouble starting at times, not first thing but say after popping to shops, where its been left for a short time.

With that low a mileage you'll find that while the bodywork etc. are in good condition that things like fuel system, carbs, brakes etc. will fur up unless it's been totally dry stored and fluids changed at regular intervals. My dad had a little citreon AX out where they stay in Portugal, he hardly ever used it and many times when it was started it would chug and splutter for a while then eventually clear out and run perfect. Just due to lack of use, which is the worst thing for a car.

See how it goes after the service and as I said maybe fling some redex in it and take it a good run.

Unfortunately the cavalier had its cambelt slip off on me a few weeks ago. The car got repaired ok, but it has been cutting out since the belt was replaced. The garage is baffled as to why it is doing this. Therefore as I need a reliable car I've decided to sell the cavalier.

No car is totally reliable, doesn't matter about the price tag or manufacturer.

A little bit of work goes a long way, a well maintained 20 year old car is more reliable than some new piece of plastic computerized crap that is for sale. The main reason being = new cars haven't had the time to get reliable. Once they go wrong they get super-expensive. And usually it's not a case of nuts and bolts job to get repaired.

My advice is to just do some research, especially through this extremely useful forum, and get the car sorted. Remember, just because something is new, it don't mean it'll work all the time.

Either the timing belt is set wrong, or they may have snagged the crank angle sensor cable that runs around the back and bottom of the rear timing belt cover plastic.

I may be biased, but agree to an extent.
The cav is older so more prone to age related failures.
A good maintenance regime will spot 90% of potential problems long before they fail.
And most repairs are quite cheap to do.

New cars full of electronics may be reliable on the whole, but when they fail, they fail in an expensive way. And often require an expensive diagnostics session to identify many issues - although these session can often be inconclusive.

I am sympathetic to a degree.
Driving a Cavalier as an every day car, even one with only 12,000 miles on the clock, is becoming increasingly difficult.
I certainty wouldn't recommend it to anyone other than an enthusiast.

If you are selling it though, get it fixed first. Just so that it has the best chance of finding it's way into good hands, at that low mileage it deserves to be looked after.