James' 1993 Cavalier LS

[Cavalier342]

Clutch cable is nothing. A break down would be the engine dis-integrating or the gearbox locking up or something like that. I'd call that a slight delay. I've had the engine cut out on me a couple of times, got out, open bonnet, oh look, crank sensor plug unplugged itself.... or the dizzy cap lead fell out. Not convenient but hey, it runs

[James McGrath]

Yeah I suppose so. It's just a bit of a shock when you put the clutch down and it feels like your foot goes through the floor!

[planetc]

I'd have driven it home clutchless, lol. Practice it, it's jolly useful when you need it!

[James McGrath]

Got the clutch cable replaced yesterday so I don't have to worry about that anymore.
Only problem was that they got the adjustment all wrong; the biting point was only about 1/4 of an inch up from the bottom of the pedal.
But that was an easy 5 minuet adjustment that I did when I got home.
I would have done the whole thing myself only I couldn’t get the part myself before Monday and I needed the car today.
It only cost £58 including the part and VAT. They appear to have done a good job so I'm happy.

[planetc]

Expensive, but acceptable.

[James McGrath]

Expensive, but acceptable.

Well, I first went to the Vauxhall parts dealer to see if they had one (of course they didn’t) and found out the price for a new one from Vauxhall;

£44!

Just for the cable!

So in that sense to get one fitted for £58 wasn't too bad.
If I had bought one on eBay and fitted it myself I probably would have paid under £10. But I needed it fixed by today.

[planetc]

That's what I meant James, not too stupid. I used to have one on the van, which from memory was about £28. A lot of places will charge an hour fitting, but reality is that it should be more like half an hour.

[Hayward691]

I remember when my clutch cable went.... was a proper pain in the arse!!!
I had to go down the local spares place, paid £28 ish for a new cable, even though i had one stored in swindon :@
Was a bit of a nightmare to fit... But i had no experience of doing the clutch, so was all guess work

Quite easy if im honest

[James McGrath]

I got something done toady, Hussar!!

This time I finally got the wiper linkage done.

On the second attempt to find a decent one (The first one I bought was broken ) I found one on eBay apparently off a GSi that was being broken up.

So armed with my Hanes manual and the usual set of spanners I got to work at 11am this morning.

I got the old one out fairly easily and the problem was clear.



It was completely shot to pieces. God knows how it happened, I can’t believe that it was just wear and tear.

Here it is compared side by side to the new one



After loosing a screw somehow (probably lodge in some part of the chassis) and a trip down the road to get a new one I got the new one fitted and adjusted pretty easily.



It was a little grubby back their so I decided to give it a bit of a clean. As ever I got a little carried away and ended up giving the whole engine bay a good clean and touched up all the black plastic and rubber with Auto Glym Bumper care



I finished off the job at 1:30pm by employing my truly fantastic metal working skills in reshaping and repainting the bonnet. Compare this to my previous photo a month or two ago.



And as you can see there is now plenty of room between my bonnet and the wipers.

To finish of the afternoon and make use of the few remaining hours of sunlight I gave both the Vauxhalls a good scrub down.

[Cavalier-C20LET]

nice work mate just bought a numberplate light

ive got the same problem on my cdx with the wipers , did you use a cally linkage in the end?

[James McGrath]

nice work mate just bought a numberplate light

ive got the same problem on my cdx with the wipers , did you use a cally linkage in the end?

The one I replaced it with was from a 1992 Cavalier GSi. Apparently the linkage is the same on all Vauxhall Cavaliers right across the range so no need to worry what Cavalier it come from as long as it’s from a MK3 it will fit.

Unfortunately though, the Vauxhall Calibra's wiper linkage isn’t quite the same as the Cavalier so they are not interchangeable.

[specks]

they are if you just need a motor and not a complete linkage,just incase that goes in the future

[James McGrath]

For the last few years I've been trying to eliminate a certain engine pinking problem that has been plaguing my cavalier for about the last 10 years. It seems to happen at only at specific accelerative ranges. Basically it only happens when you have your foot down about half way. If you put your foot all the way down it performs brilliantly, if you only have your foot down half and inch it's also fine but anywhere in between it pinks like hell especially up hills and in 5th and 4th gear. It helps if I use 99 octane fuel but it still doesn’t go away completely, It helps if I change the din plug round to 91 octane fuel but even that doesn’t make it go away completely.

After trying every known fix and fuel system cleaning product imaginable I came across one person who had he same problem that was fixed by replacing the EPROM chip in the ECU. So I’ve decided to check it out. More specifically I decided to replace the whole thing.

And today I did just that.

By a stroke of luck there was exactly the right type of ECU on eBay fir only £15, I ordered it yesterday (14th) and it arrived today (15th), Bit of a result I think!

Any way it's a pretty simple job to do when you know how. I did it all in about 15 mins today. Though I must admit the first time I took the ECU out to have a look at it on Tuesday it took me about 3 hours!! But that's only because the instructions on the Haynes manual are so unclear.

As the Haynes manual is so unclear on this matter, I shall attempt to explain how to do it a little better.

First in order to get the drivers side lower footwell trim off you need to remove the plastic sill trim. You don’t need to remover it completely just raise it a few inches. If your doing this yourself it takes quite a pull to get this off so don't be shy. Once you’ve got it up stick a screwdriver or something underneath like I did to keep it up just a few inches. Next, use a flat blade screwdriver to prise the weather seal away from the footwell trim as it has a lip that is tucked underneath the weather seal. The next thing you need to do is, yes you’ve guessed it, give the footwell trim a good yank upwards. But be careful not to pull it sideways remembering if you do you'll probably break the bonnet release leaver which is conveniently in the way. The next step is to simply remove the two, in my case purple, leads that plug into the ECU. These are a bit stiff so a flat blade screwdriver comes in handy to prise them away.


Footwell side trim removed and ECU unplugged:



Next release the two clips on either side of the ECU, pull the ECU out towards the pedals and then pull downwards. This is a bit fiddly but just use you common sense and it shouldn’t be too hard.

Warning! Always remember to disconnect the battery to avoid damage to the ECU!
I know it’s a pain having to reset the clock and put the code into the radio again but it’s a small price to pay in comparison to what could happen if you don’t.

Side by side comparison of the two almost identical ECUs. Old on the right new on the left:



They were pretty similar serial codes; Old = 865389S302044139
New = 865389S201167522

The code suggests that the “New” ECU is in-fact, older… Oh well.


The next step it to put the new one in. It can be a bit of a pain working around all the leads but once again don’t be shy.

Here is the new one in and all connected up.



Result: Everything appears to be running brilliantly! No pinking whatsoever. Although I am a bit dubious still as this could just be the effects of the ECU being put into learn mode after being disconnected for so long. So I’m not getting my hopes up and I’ll report in a few days time to tell you how it goes.

If it doesn’t work I’ll get the injector sonic cleaned/replaced. But after that I’m fresh out of ideas.

[jimmy]

Result its great when things work out like that hope it continues to go well for you fella

[cavboy180]

Well done anyway and I hope it all works out - we all desrve a good result once in a while - makes it all worth it eh?

[James McGrath]

Thanks guys!

But unfortunately I've noticed after driving it for a few days that the pinking hasn’t gone away. It's not as bad as it was, I say it pinks about 50% less, which is pretty good I suppose, certainly worth the £15 I paid for the ECU.

I'm going to try to get my hands on a new injector if I can, then see if that makes much of a difference.

What the engine really needs is to be rebuilt, it has done 173,000 miles now and it's still being used almost everyday to commute to Canterbury and back which is a 80 mile round trip. The problem is the cost; I did get a quote from a company called Southern Engine Services to get it totally professionally rebuilt for £1100 which is practically my entire budget for getting work done this winter.

One peace of good news though; I've booked it in for rust removal and underseal at a place called Underbody Protection in Haywards Heath for £490 in February!

[James McGrath]

Genuine Vauxhall floor mats, Hussar!!

I got these as a Christmas present form my parents.

They are far better quality than the old ones that were bought in the late 90s from Halfords.









Not bad eh? I especially like the rear ones, just a shame the front ones don’t have the same red strip around the edge.

They weigh an absolute ton and they fit like a glove too. So there not going to slide around like the old ones did.

They were bought from http://www.genuinepartsearch.co.uk/ for just over £30.

Part numbers:

Front pair: 91138676
Rear pair: 91138677


They look as if they are old ones that have never been used. Probably stored in a warehouse all these years. Made in Britain as well, which is always good!

[Envoy CDX]

They look really good
Shame the pinking issue is still there, what plugs do you use? New leads?

[James McGrath]

They look really good
Shame the pinking issue is still there, what plugs do you use? New leads?

Thanks!

I'm using Bosch HT leads that I only fitted about 3000 miles ago as well as Bosch super plus plugs fitted at the same time.

You don't think it could be the Crankshaft position sensor do you? Only that my rev counter has been known to go a bit mad sometimes, often jumping up to 5,000 rpm, waving around for a bit and then going back to normal.

[planetc]

I think I would consider pulling the head, decoke and a new set of stem seals for pinking given the mileage. Small amounts of oil in the cylinder can cause pinking and it wouldn't be a wasted effort on an engine with 160k under it's belt even if it's not the answer. Are you sure it is pinking and not a cheap tinny downpipe?

[James McGrath]

I think I would consider pulling the head, decoke and a new set of stem seals for pinking given the mileage. Small amounts of oil in the cylinder can cause pinking and it wouldn't be a wasted effort on an engine with 160k under it's belt even if it's not the answer. Are you sure it is pinking and not a cheap tinny downpipe?

I have absolutely no idea how to do that.

And yeah, it's defiantly pinking. It has been doing it for as long as I can remember really. My parents say it started about 10 years ago when it had only done about 80,000 miles but it has gotten worse in the last 5 years or so recently.

As I said, it is possible to drive so that it doesn’t pink, as long as you either use the accelerator extremely sparingly or put your foot down. And using good quality petrol helps allot as well.

[planetc]

Nuts and bolts James, if you have the tools it's not hard, just a little time consuming.

[James McGrath]

Bit of an update:

I took the Cav in to be looked at by an under sealing specialist in Lindfield on Friday (14th January)

After he had a thorough look underneath and I had a thorough look at a lovely Triumph TR8 that he had just finished, he said that it was in pretty good condition for its age and not much work will be needed before it is under sealed.

It needs two rear springs, the fuel lines and the rear wheel arches. All of which I expected needed doing. So no nasty surprises there!

Once that's all been done, he said he'd be able to get it done in late February!

Really looking forward to this as I've seen some of his work before and it looks fantastic. There are some pictures on his website:
http://www.underbodyprotection.co.uk/index.shtml

I’ve already booked it in to have the wheel arches done on Tuesday this week (17th January) and after that I just need to get my hand on some fuel lines and rear springs and I'll be laughing!

I finally feel as if I'm getting somewhere! The Restoration begins Tuesday!

[Envoy CDX]

I agree with Planet C, a top end rebuild would most likely do it the world of good. And it really isn't all that hard to be fair - I can achieve it

Just need the bits (Head gasket set will provide most of that), a valve lapping stick, some lapping past and a method of compressing the valve spring(s) to remove the valves, collects and springs to change the stem seals.

It's all covered in your Hayne's manual Just allow yourself 2 days to do it for your first one.

[humbucker]

Dont get me wrong, undersealing is great, but is it necessary to cover the cv rubbers and all the sensors, and with such a thick coat of the stuff at that?! Maybe the rationale is that rubber perishes?

http://www.underbodyprotection.co.uk/un ... index.html