We bought the car in November 2009. Although we bought it from a dealer, I ended up meeting the guy who had it originally via the vxr forum. You could see it was well looked after and was his second car, and looking at his wip thread on the vxr forum we could see why. Also only having 22k was a reasonably low example.
In the forecourt as it came in that morning.
Outside me ma’s & pa’s
Apart from the obvious servicing and washing it didn’t get a lot of the ‘modifying’ treatment and shortly after we bought our first house. It got a k&n panel filter that I won on ebay for a reasonable £20. Turned out it was brand new in the box.
October 2010 I fitted a ‘restrictor’ bolt that few company’s sell to reduce the oil pressure going into the turbo. Apparently this gets rid of the smell of oil when you pull up at traffic lights etc. Debatable and not sure whether it was the right think to do, but was at the time.
March 2011 the paint started cracking on the back arch so went into Sherwoods (a main dealer where we bought the car) to get repaired. Although it is a common problem wasn’t nice to see. Caused by the rear bumper rubbing on the arch, They ended up having it 2 weeks and had to ‘redo’ it 3 times till I was happy.
Under the car one day I noticed this.
Reading the forum I found out there was a revised oil return pipe that improved the oil return to the block. Originally from the diesel I think I bought one.
PVS came round and decided to go in the VXR as I wasn’t happy with the cavalier.
Camp Darlo sat with its younger GSi brother
Bit of photoshop fun
August 2010, Still having this ‘oily smell’ I thought I would investigate further. Unfortunately the revised pipe didn’t cure the cause as the oil was coming from higher up. Decided to split the turbo and try find its cause. It seemed as if the oil was coming from the exhaust housing. With there being no movement in the turbo itself, wasn’t burning oil and no noticeble lack in performance I sealed it and put it back together.
First time I realised how much a cat restricts the engine
October 2010, I eventually got round to sorted the a/c out that stopped working. Another common problem the bottom falls out of the rad doh!
Nice New one
Favourite Photo taking place. These were taking at the same time I took the ones that I sent in for hall of fame with the Cavalier.
December 2011, Still not curing the problem of the burning oil smell I decided to buy a new turbo after seeing this advert in Total Vauxhall one month. (Not really sure whether the turbo was the cause of the oil leaking or wherever it was/is a problem else where that forcing the oil to leak)
If only they bolted onto a c20let…
Waiting till after xmas seen as thou I had to replace 2 tyres after they had only covered 6k
& seen as the car was coming upto 40k I thought I would change cambelt & water pump at the same time. Also bought a set of Insignia washer jets, which spray a fine mist over the window instead of a jet. (Really good mod) and a set of boot struts it got an ‘intense’ 40k service, including oil, filter, plugs etc…Astra ones on left, Insignia on right
Bolted on
New Belt & Water Pump fitted
April 2012 I got a good deal on a set of wind deflectors for both the Cavalier and Astra.
I also bought a set of stainless steel bolts for the rocker cover, which started me wanting more for the engine bay.
Looking on the VXR forum there was a guy that did the stainless steel heat shields. £25 thank you very much which I didn’t think was bad since I was considering buying a new GM on for £30.
Before
After & with a clean
June 2012, decided to set about the car with a clay bay and give it a fresh coat of Autoglym HD wax. Good stuff! While I was at PVS I bought a Courtenay Sport Rocker Cover Pipe.
Nice Beads
Set of boost hoses to match my new Courtenay Sport hose cropped up on eBay so bought them for a bargain £55 and fitted them today.
Cheers for reading guys, more updates as and when.
