Thought I should introduce my Cavalier properly.
I bought this via ebay in May, having missed out on it when it first came up for sale on ebay last autumn , when it looked like this- completely standard and in pretty good condition apart from some minor scrapes and scratches. It had been off the road for quite a while, but was sold with a full MOT.
September 2017- sweet!
It re-appeared in April with a dreadful ad with little information and a couple of bad pics (taken through the house window!). The seller sent me some better pics. It would be sold with the original wheels- fine by me!
April 2018- not so sweet!
All the new owner had done was fit new leads, cap and rotor arm and then fitted lowered springs, shocks and those alloys. He hadn't kept the original springs, unfortunately. He'd also acquired all the seats and door cards from a later SRi, which filled the back of the car.
So at the start of May I travelled over to Lincoln on the train (well, 3 trains), handed over the cash, sorted out the tax online and drove the car back home.
That was interesting! The steering was horrible above 60- shaking steering wheel/vague feel- and it was really hard to get into/out of 3rd/4th gears. And the water temp gauge didn't work. Nor the interior blower (first 2 speed settings awol). And the heater was stuck on hot. And the brakes seemed to pull a bit to one side.
But I made it home!
The plan was now to use the remaining 3 months of MOT to get it ready for the next MOT.
The first job was to check the tyre pressures- they were way low and uneven across the axles- that probably explained part of the interesting steering. I also noticed that all the tyres bar one were shot. They were cracking very badly and the sidewalls were crazed. I decided they would do, as I wasn't going to go far in the car. I also took the wheel trims off at this point, as I knew the wheel would be on and off quite a bit (and I couldn't actually get them on again!).
Next job was to check the brakes all round. Rear brakes were like new, but the discs were really pitted from standing. I decided to buy new discs and pads, and clean up and copper grease the caliper sliding surfaces. Before fitting the new discs I checked with the garage next door and they thought the discs and pads were ok- just needed to be used. So I sent the discs and pads back- bit of money saved there!
Whilst the wheels were off I could see that one of the track rod end boots was split, and that the rubber bushes on the anti-roll bar drop links were utterly knackered. So I replaced these items and got the tracking done. Big improvement to the steering, but there was still a light knocking sound, which was either the suspension arms or the lowered springs rattling.
Next job was an oil and air filter change. Air filter was probably good for another year or 2, but the oil was very black, so new oil would do it some good.
A new water temp sender brought the temp gauge back to life.
I turned to the interior now- it was rather dirty and a bit whiffy, so I gave it good vacuum, cleaned the surfaces, then gave all the seats a shampoo- it now smelled better.
Next job was to investigate the non-working heater control. It turned out that the brown plastic end of the cable at the slider arm was broken. I tried plastic glue but it wouldn't hold. Fortunately, genuinepartsearch could supply a new one for a tenner, and a few days later the new one was fitted and normal heater service was resumed.
I now had to do a bit of welding on the RH front wheel arch- it had rotted a fair way around the rear edge. I now understood why the guy I bought the car off was surprised it had passed its last MOT...
I cut out the rusted steel, treated the surface rust behind and then welded in a new section. It took a few hours, but I was pleased with the result.
So now for the MOT I just had to get new tyres, wiper blades all round and unblock a windscreen washer jet.
I decided it was time to sort out the rusty wheels. I cleaned and lightly sanded the rims, masked off the tyres with playing cards then sprayed all the rims satin black. Another big visual improvement. Of course, I didn't want to scratch the paint so didn't bother putting the wheel trims back on. So the car now looked like this.
After a week or so I got some Nexen N'Blue summer tyres for the front, as they seemed a decent tyre. They are quiet and grip fine, so I can recommend these. A month later I did the rear tyres- this time I got some cheap Tracmax Privilo tyres. They are quiet too and grip seems fine.
I had read about how changing the front wiper blades is a bit tricky, but I found that there is enough space on a wiper blade that you can change them without needing to take the arms off. That said, I will probably fit later arms as the spring on the drivers side arm twangs against the windscreen seal- harmless but annoying.
It was now time to sort out the brown coolant, which meant the thermostat had to come off to give it a good flush through. I Plus Gased the bolts and then began carefully undoing the bolts...
Snap!
One of the bolts sheared off and there was no access to drill it out, so the cam belt had to come off to be able to then remove the whole thermostat housing. Deep joy.
The water pump was stuck fast too- kind of crucial as this is the timing belt tensioner too. However, some thumping with a long piece of hardwood got it moving (eventually) and it popped out- it was in decent nick, so I got a new O-ring for when it was time to refit it.
The garage man snapped off an easy-out whilst drilling out the snapped bolt. So I had to find an engineering firm nearby that could drill it out. A few days, and £10 lighter, I got the housing back on, fitted the water pump with new O-ring and put a new timing belt back on.
Then I stripped one of the thermostat bolt threads when tightening up the 3 thermostat bolts, so the stat housing had to come off again. It wasn't me being ham-fisted as they only get tightened to 6 lb ft- but the thread had been damaged when extracting the snapped-off bolt. So I had a Time-Sert fitted by a different firm. Finally got it all back together and running again.
However, I had managed to squash the front to back plastic fuel pipe with a jack just enough to restrict the fuel supply and cause a failure to start and flattened the battery in the process. Cue new fuel pipe.
It seemed like a good time to fit a fuel filter into the fuel line before the fuel pump too. Finally, the car was in one piece and running again.
I still hadn't completed the coolant flush though...
This was when it decided to not start- a bit nerve-wracking as the MOT was going to expire and you need a running car for an MOT test! Original thread here
I had no choice but to cancel the MOT and try to get it running again. I tried a new coil, ignition amplifier and second-hand MSTS unit- none of them made a difference.
The car then decided it would start again, and I re-booked the MOT for 2 days' time. On the morning of the MOT it wouldn't start, then eventually ran, but idled roughly- some carb cleaner helped and so I went for a blast along the local bypass and then left it at the garage for its MOT.
I was nervous, as it was quite possible that it would not start for them. After a couple of hours, I checked online and the result was:
And no advisories!
The garage couldn't find anything of concern with the suspension, so thought the knocking noise was just the lowered springs rubbing against each other. Indeed, now that I have the peace of mind that an MOT pass brings, you can indeed hear a kind of squeaky/twangy/knocking noise as the spring coils move. Lesson- don't fit lowered springs!
I went for a couple of drives in the car and also ordered up a replacement HT lead (the one from coil to distributor), as the one fitted was way too long- the correct one has a Bosch part number of 0 986 356 229 and is 30cm long so fits perfectly.
Unfortunately, I can't test if the new lead has made a difference, as the car has gone back to sulking and won't start at all- just turning over and not catching- like before.
So today, I decided to take the carb out and clean it properly inside. I was expecting lots of dirt or corrosion in the float bowl, but it was near spotless- even the little cone-shaped filter in the fuel inlet was clean too. I still used nearly a full can of carb cleaner going through every jet and orifice I could find!
The carb is back on now, so tomorrow I will have another go at starting the car to see if there has been any change.
