Mk3 Cavalier Owners Club | Vauxhall Cavalier Dot Com

Glad you decided to keep it Mike.

Hopefully getting those things done will make it feel a bit better.

Cheers Guys

Righty ho!

Car was put in a local (mates rates) garage yesterday afternoon for the ARB Links and a Track Rod End to be done both of which I know are home jobs but push on ARB links are so much easier with a ramp!

Asked the guys to check over the car for any potential MOT nastiness and unfortunately they found it.

So the old girl now needs 4 bits of welding:

* N/s front rear of wheel arch (quite bad where it meets floor pan)
* O/s rear end of sill
* N/s hole up behind sill in floor
* Seem split in floor at rear of the car probably from harder suspension and a ton of audio in the boot tbh

Garage have quoted me £100 to do all the work which I think is fair, now just got to find the £££ to pay for it.

Also spoke to a friend about a engine cleaner called BG44K which apparently helps decoke engine, lambda and fuelling system as Cav has returned to sub 300 miles a tank territory which I believe is from the short runs I have to do daily coking up the engine.

Overall, it needs yet more work but is due an MOT toward end of January so we'll see how it fares and tbh if it fails on anything to much it will be sold or scraped for something more economical.

So 16th January was M.o.t day for the Cav and tbh I expected a Failure due to emissions more than anything else but instead it got a straight through Pass with No Advisorys



The Emissions were not far below the limit but I kinda expected that due to the car being mostly used around town this past year with very few long / motorway trips.

Now trying to decide what to do, do I hang onto it or do I sell it on??

Reasonable offers to my inbox will be considered btw

And I mean reasonable!

Congrats on the clean MOT pass.

Personally I would keep hold of it after that.
Only sell it if you can find someone who you know will look after it.

James McGrath wrote:Congrats on the clean MOT pass.

Personally I would keep hold of it after that.
Only sell it if you can find someone who you know will look after it.

Yup that is one of my concerns tbh.

Some may remember my mate James who had the modded Cav Turbo that came to a few meets, well he sold it on for it to vanish.

My no.1 would be to garage it for dry use only but garaging around my way is in excess of £100+ a month

See what happens but I do fancy something newer and not so thirsty.

I say keep it as a good one is so hard to find nowadays stuff the fuel costs and modern stuff lol.
Easy for me to say I guess.

Damn no updates since January!!

Oh well I got one today.......

So last time the Cav was properly out was the Southcoast meet and of course the 20 mile or so round trip to work which she seems to take in her stride being the 2 litre 8 valver, also with the increased mileage and even with my lead right foot i'm seeing sensible ish mileage again of 350 ish bearing in mind the reserve is probably 40 mile its close enough to 400 miles to a tank which for my Cav on near 140k now i don't think is all bad.

Had some shocking welding done a few months back for the MOT that already needs redoing, really needs a new O/s sill which I know Dave has after a convo at the last meet but its about pennies at the moment and even with a welder friend he wants around £100 to fit the new sill!!!

Today I had a little catch up with a former member in Andrei (cavalier342 - or should i say no cavalier 342)

Lucky i did really as the convo turned to the Cav and after popping the bonnet and finding a Major ish fault i now know why the Cav has been handling like a bag of monkeys bollocks tbh, the steering arm from the rack to the track rod end has lost its bolt completely where the two join making for a wobbly ride.

Spoke to the ever handy good mate of mine tonight John (Has the red saloon cav down in chichester) and he has tons of spares so is going to sort me out there, just got to work out fitting and re-tracking the bloody thing Yet again!

Otherwise shes still plodding on and have the blue oval club at my work with a couple of fast focus and an old school fiesta running Zetec power but even with their blue ovals the Cav gets a lot of comments and respect off the guys with modded cars at the office which is always nice to receive as keeps me motivated to keep the old boat afloat.

Will grab some pics soon but nothing much visual changed until i have to swap out this steering arm.

Sills will be here when you need them mate, no rush.

Finally Pics....Lmfao

So after thinking the Cav handled a bit weird it turned out the bolt in the Track Rod End of the Steering Arm had sheered off and literally disappeared so there was very little bar the threaded bar holding the Track Rod end on.

Fortunately and thanks to Specialised Motor Components (parkstone) who are lifesavers they managed to get me the N/s arm for £25 within 24 hours unlike Vauxhall who wanted 7-10 days and £85

So giving me old buddy Andrei a call and having some time off we got to work on the Cav on Thursday and actually managed to get the whole job done in under an hour, needless to say this was followed by a blat down the dual carriageway, a country pub and a cheeky burger











Few other bits done as well like tightening the bolts on the strutbrace and checking over other suspension bits but now just some welding to get done.

Was good fun, I do miss it in a way, getting the wrenches and wheel braces out and getting mucky, while sipping a can of scrumpy in the sun.

Job done, and the results seem to be positive. Onto the next adventure..

Nice work.
Good to know it was a simple fix in the end.

So you're thinking of keeping it for the time being?

James McGrath wrote:
So you're thinking of keeping it for the time being?

Who knows James, i'm always on the look out for something newer but its always cashflow that rules unfortunately.

I am aware that the Cav needs a fair bit of welding doing now which isn't going to be cheap so we'll see.

Mikebmth wrote:
I am aware that the Cav needs a fair bit of welding doing now

Don't they always

Bonnet catches a right pain in the

Mine had got to the stage where as hard as you pull the lever nothing happens so required someone to lean on the bonnet to get it open.

So...

Got someone to do so giving me the chance to try and adjust the cable but as per usual the bolt is so rotten that I can't get it undone! Good old Vauxhall design!

So decided for now a cable tie around the end of the cable itself gives enough movement to now pop the bonnet!!

The Cav does keep hesitating at the moment, unsure why but sometimes feels like its not running on all 4 cylinders but just heard of a C20ne with 80k on the engine going locally so maybe time to swap out my tiring 140k lump.

Sounds good, you can always drill out the old screw which clamps the cable down and fit a new shiny one, Robsey just did that on his motor I believe.

Make sure you give the replacement engine a good check-over or get someone to do so, for peace of mind.

Yep -
Drilled out the old self tapping screw, and replaced the crumbly old J nut.

New nut and self tapping screw fitted loosely in place -
Adjusted the cable to remove 10mm of slack and tighten down the clamp plate via the self tapper.

Job done in about 5 minutes flat.
Yayy.

So quick update......

Did previously mention a new engine....

Well....after some thought and a price of £125 for a 88k C20ne lump i questioned the price and they wouldn't budge on it so as my head has issues with the plug ports and 2 plugs being basically rethreaded I have the head from the low mileage lump for £50 inc all of its guts so hopefully this will prolong the life of the unit as the bottom end I believe is pretty strong.

Should be getting this swapped over in coming weeks so will get the pics all done once myself and my mate John get the changes made.

So yet more bad news......

Seems the Cav may have shat its gearbox!!

So we swapped out the Gear selector arm (genuine vaux part) as I basically lost 2nd gear unless you slammed it into gear, this fixed the issue yet a fortnight on and i've lost 2nd again and have a loud knocking coming from the box along with it trying to jump out of gear as soon as you accelerate.

Have my mate John hopefully coming down this week as I am on leave as its meant to be my birthday and i am meant to be enjoying myself not fixing the bloody car! anyway he is going to give the final verdict on the car and the box, we know of a gearbox available but again its costs involved so considering cutting my loses and selling it on asap as i need something more reliable with my random working hours and distances.

Oh eck...
Never rains but it pours

I hope it is a simple / cheap fix.
Be sad to see the Cav go.
Although I do fully understand.
I have thought seriously of letting mine go a few times - usually out of shear frustration at yet another repair being needed.

Get an automatic and solve all problems.

Cavalier342 wrote:Get an automatic and solve all problems.

Nice idea, but not particular cost effective.
It would cost about 5 times as much for the auto-box, module, looms, flex plate, selector box and all the relevant trims and stuff.

Hopefully find a worn pivot pin or something in the gear linkages.
Or better still the linkage being out of adjustment.

I thought the old boxes were pretty bullet proof?

Alan

My F18 is still going strong with 262,000 miles under it's belt.
Which makes me think of it being a linkage or adjustment issue.

Try the rubber bush on the gearlever, mine was shot, also the pin on gear selector, renew that and align the lever with box, which is explained in haynes manual.