The Wife's Vectra-C - The other battle wagon

[iangsi]

What's the difference between that & the old one ?

[Robsey]

The difference is VERY subtle.

The original griffin badge is flat...
But the Sport / Elegance version has a more domed / rounded profile when viewed from the side.
Otherwise, they are identical...

Of course the new one does not have four holes and a crack in it.
And the chrome embelishment is still securely attached.

[Robsey]

Next job...
Glow plugs -
We have been getting the spanner light on the supplementary display, that stays on for about 3 minutes.

I am an expert on this symptom as we had the same thing about 6 years ago.

A very easy job to do as long as the plugs don't seize up in the head.
Lucky for me, mine came out easy enough despite being buried deep in the head.

The easy to navigate head of the engine.



And two of the old plugs next to a new one.



All done, and no more spanner display.

[3cav3]

You're lucky they came out ok, before it was written off I tried to change them in my wife's car and never did manage to get the one to move. I put as much pressure on as I dared, anymore and it would of snapped. 3 replaced did help but it was still a sod to start on very cold mornings.

[Mk3alan]

Well done getting them all out, didn't realise they were so long!
New ones with a little bit of copper slip?
I know there are companies whose sole function is removing stuck glow plugs/injectors.

Alan

[Robsey]

I read a tip of - very slightly tightening the plugs before unscrewing them from the head.

I may take them out again on Sunday, to get access to the swirl-valve actuator link rod.

Mine fell off years ago, but I have a brass-bush modified link rod in my kennel.

I noticed that there was a lot better access to the gulley of the inlet manifold when the plugs and wiring were set out of the way.

[Robsey]

Well that was a huge waste of time, money and sweat.

I fitted the swirl valve link rod on Monday afternoon, and killed the Vectra.

A very expensive mistake to make on a diesel.

As mentioned, I took the glow plugs out, set the wiring out of the way, which just gave enough space to get in with some long nosed pliers.

[Robsey]

You can see the tops of the glow plugs in the image above.

Swirl valves 1 and 4 were solid and their linkage nipples were in the 5 o'clock position.
No2 was moving freely and number 3 (the motorised valve) was in the 11 o'clock position.
Freed off 1 and 4 enough to get them to spin at the end of a spline ended allen key.

Now came the disaster...
I had unplugged the fuel rail inlet valve wiring for extra access.
I tried to start the car and realised my error.
Only a brief crank but enough to lose all fuel pressure.

Connecting the fuel rail wiring and further cranking failed to start the car.
Battery now almost flat.

A call out to the AA furthered the pain.
Our membership had lapsed in January, and it cost me £99 for the call out.

Battery pack plus jump leads from the van plus copious amounts of easy start up the intake pipe got the car to start - eventually.

That was the end of the saga - or so I thought.
On the way home, the engine light came on and stayed on. Unable to rev above 3,300 rpm on the motorway.
The car was holding back giving a heavy accelerator pedal.
Experience tells me that the swirl mechanism is seized.
1 or 4 sticking again
Only one solution -
Remove the swirl valve linkage and turn the valves back to their original positions.

That should restore the engine power and revs... plus put out the engine light - hopefully.

The only proper fix is a new manifold plus gaskets etc... about £200 plus 4 hours labour for an experienced mechanic.
Yikes !!

Even a blanking kit would require the manifold to be removed, blanked and refitted. So still 4 hours labour.

Robsey's law strikes again.

[3cav3]

I've never quite understood what the swirl flaps do, but I've heard that the Vectra suffers with problems.
With the aa instead of paying a call out couldn't you of just rung them and signed up as a new member? A friend recently did that ( he wasn't up till then a member) and they came out within an hour to try and fix his car on the day if joining. When they failed to get going, the aa then recovered them home. The years membership was less than a cost of being towed home.

[Robsey]

I've never quite understood what the swirl flaps do, but I've heard that the Vectra suffers with problems.

It gives a better swirl of the induction gasses to ensure a more efficient burn, producing less smoke.

Prior to fitting the link rod, the Vectra smoked badly on full throttle.
Now it doesn't smoke, but it is as flat as hell.

With the aa instead of paying a call out couldn't you of just rung them and signed up as a new member? A friend recently did that ( he wasn't up till then a member) and they came out within an hour to try and fix his car on the day if joining. When they failed to get going, the aa then recovered them home. The years membership was less than a cost of being towed home.

I did that... must be a change of rules, but it came as a new membership premium of £8 per month plus an "instant use call out fee" of £99.

[Robsey]

Swirl Flap Linkage removed, and "Smokey Joe" is back to rude health again.

Engine light has gone off, and there is no holding back, resistance or hesitation.

[Robsey]

I am sure that I mentioned it somewhere, but the Vectra has seen a lot of "use" since March 2020.
It is my daily hack since taking the Cavalier off the road last year.

Unsurprisingly I had to change three tyres after one got worn so bald, that it deflated itself on my home carpark.

Also at Christmas time, I got a stone chip.
Not a problem, as it is a free fix through the insurance.
Sadly that was not the case.. before I had chance to get it fixed, an 18" (45cm) long crack developed about 6" (15cm) above the bottom edge of the screen.

As you know things have been a bit tight, so I put off getting the screen sorted... until yesterday.

It appears that the window companies are going the way of GPs.
You cannot get an appointment for 2 weeks, and you are not allowed to 'see' the technician.

Now - the MOT will expire on Friday. So I was racing against the clock, otherwise I will be without a car for work.
The only way I could get the glass done this week, was to make the 90 mile round-trip to Leeds yesterday.
Job done... I had new wipers fitted too whilst I was there.
The driver's side had been shredded by the edges of the crack.
I stopped off for tea at KFC like you do, when I noticed that the wiper blades did not look seated properly.
2 minutes later, all was refitted correctly.

Now the MOT is just as big a nightmare.
I tried booking an appointment last week for inspection this week. No go.
Tried again yesterday... squeeze the car in tomorrow morning.

Just for good measure, the engine light came on last night - all the way home.
I am convinced that this will be the usual sticking EGR valve syndrome.

Valve cleaned this morning... wow, soot everywhere around thd engine bay, being billowed out from my swirl valve spindles no doubt.

Engine light has not gone off yet.. it is a bit like Russian Roulette with the Vectra, you never know which light will be illuminated on the dash... engine light for the EGR valve, or the spanner light due to a CAN communications issue.

It makes you love early auto electrics so much more.

[cavalier1990]

There does seem to be a slightly Russian communistic ambience to the way things are operating at the moment, bread lines, booking appointments and "show your papers" type of thing is all the rage at the moment!

Sounds like you've had a bit of a nightmare with the vectra, bit like spinning plates when you have more than one car and you're trying to keep them on the road, or get one fixed and use the other one then that breaks down!

[Robsey]

The Vectra is now road legal again.
Thank chuff for that.

Four days without a car.
There is a lot of truth about not missing something until it is gone... even if it was only for one extended weekend.

The other shock is that it has covered nearly 9,000 miles during a year of "lock-down".

(Mileage updated - I got my maths wrong).

[Envoy CDX]

that's a fair chunk of miles considering.

[3cav3]

Great news on another pass. Just checked my vehicles and between them I clocked about 15k and my wife did a further 12k. Before anyone criticises me though apart from a few hundred when the restrictions lifted around August time they were all essential as I can't relistically work from home due to the sheer weight of hydraulic breakers and she is a key worker.

[vexorg]

of hydraulic breakers

Where do you work?

[Robsey]

Well it IS that time of year...
It is that period where we are surrounded by cars with dead batteries.

The battery on our Vectra died ages ago.
The Cavalier hasn't been used for nearly two years and so as a temporary measure, and being a tight arse, I simply used the comparatively deminutive battery from the Cavalier for the Vectra.

I was convinced that the cav battery was the uprated 075, but alas it was the boggo standard 063.

The Vectra on the other hand, being a 1.9cdti (diesel) normally uses a steaming great bus battery.
A type 110 -
approx 4" (10cm) longer than the 063.

Late last week the 4 year old 063 battery started to struggle to crank the car until finally two days ago I actually lost all power when driving down the hill from my home.
All lights gone from the dash and no power steering.

Bloody hell, these cars are heavy without the EHPS.

A combination of recent cold weather, attempting to jump start my nephew's Focus a week earlier and a slightly loose battery cable all seemed to indicate that we had reached the point of no recovery.

Right Rob you tight git - get your hand in yer pocket and dig deep.

An hour later, I had a shiny new 110 battery from Euro Car Parts. A no brainer when sold with a huge 40% discount.

Suffice to say the car is much happier.

I had to clear about 15 DTCs (diagnostic trouble codes) many of which were due to low system voltages or the effects of it.

Just to take the pee, half way through a re-scan using VauxCom, my laptop battery died.
The laptop had only been on for ten minutes.

Enough time to boot up,
Find and run the program,
Scan DTCs, Save DTC summary, Clear DTCs, and partially rescan.
Oh no, here we go again.!!

Ah well poop happens -

Suffice to say, ensure that your battery terminals are clean and tight, and if necessary, give your batteries a good recharge if you are not doing so many miles these days.

[Envoy CDX]

Aye, milage is massively short of what it used to be for me.

[3cav3]

Its funny you should say that, I went to take the Cavalier out on Sunday and its battery was almost flat, its been on charge for the last couple of days now. Fingers crossed that I dont have to buy a new battery yet.

[thomas]

Timely reminder to me to get the battery out of the bike, but forgot to SORN it end October so have another month tax before I forget again, then it's mothballs till March-April. Otherwise it (battery not bike, don't give me ideas) would have been indoors and on an occasional maintenance charge

Bit of a saga with two different pairs of new (much cheapness) heated-grips, neither of which I would fit having tried and failed, the issues being they were both ill-designed and frankly dangerous. So I continue with one heated left grip and one unheated right grip (mashed in the crash replaced with std. Suzuki grip). Crunch year for the Yellow Gel MOTOBATT battery, its seventh or eighth year, it has outlasted, so far, any splishy-sploshy wet type.

[Robsey]

I put my Cavalier battery back on charge - it took all of five seconds for the charger to illuminate it's green "charged" led.

Therefore my old faithfull 063 is now toast.
Even though the little battery condition window shows the battery to be okay.
Green blob with a red spot in the centre.
A duff battery should have a white blob in it.

[3cav3]

Batteries always seem to fail at the most inconvenient time. I find with modern ones you rarely seem to get any warning either.

[Robsey]

The Vectra strikes again.
Just driving home tonight after bringing the missus home from an appointment at the eye hospital.

Got about 300 yards from our home when there was a strong smell of gloss paint.
Seconds later the car died - hmm, did it just stall?

Cranked and it fired again for about 3 seconds before dying again.

I tried to roll the car back to the off-side kerb but the steering was stupidly heavy and the car wedged itself against the kerb completely blocking half of the road.

It was then that we could see a stream of diesel on the nearside lane of the road.
Bugger ! Burst fuel line!!
So I rang the AA and the wife rang the local plod to report the skid risk to other road users caused by the ejected diesel oil.
Plod arrived first and helped me to get the car to the kerb.
They also arranged for the local highways chaps to come out and throw down some sand.

After a short break, the AA patrol chap arrived and it was quickly found that the high pressure diesel hose had ruptured (between the pump and filter) - cranking the engine sent a wide jet of diesel over the off-side front wing onto the pavement.

The use of self-amalgamating tape and a plastic covering wrap failed to stem the leak.

So we ended up being towed the final 300 yards home.

Fortunately I have two days off from work, but I have no idea how quickly I can get the car fixed.
Depends how quickly the garage can obtain and fit the new pipe.
Sadly it is not a simple pipe - it looks very similar to the power steering hose that ruptured on the Cavalier.
Metal and rubber pipes joined by crimped connectors.
And then there are the quick-release connectors on the ends.
I hate cars!!!

[ilovedmymantas]

Cars eh? What are they like

I'm sure you'll be successful searching for a new hose in case the garage has difficulties.

I don't know if you've replaced the battery but if it's not been killed by trying to start you can 'kangaroo' it to the kerb using the starter in first or second gear.
Took me 20 years to find that out!