James' 1995 Manual CDX V6 Saloon

[James McGrath]

Enter Cav number 5!




She's a 1994 CDX saloon with the mighty C25XE v6 engine and manual gearbox finished in very fetching Diamond Black metallic paint.

So I've known about this car for some time now. It was first up for sale about the time I bought my Dad's CD manual. Only then it was advertised for £2000 and the CD manual was a mere £325. So at the time the decision of which one to buy was a no brainer.
It was only about 4 miles away from me so I kept an eye on it just out of interest. It didn't sell, the price was lowered to £1500 and it was put up for sale again about a year later, once again there was no sale and all went quiet. Until last month when it was listed on eBay for the knock down price of £890. Too good to miss!

I bought it from a lovely chap called Robin Vater who has owned the car since 19th June 2003 (documented in the service history!). During that time it's had no expense spared and has been thoroughly pampered. Unfortunately, due to deteriorating health the car has not been driven much recently, only covering 1100 miles since August 2012.
Apparently, had I not bought it, it was going to get exported so someone overseas who had put in an offer. How true that was though I've no idea.

Anyway, enough history, let me show you around:

The exterior paint is in good condition. There are a few scratches and stone chips about the place but nothing major and better yet, rust free wheel arches!










Water beading up; paintwork must have been polished not too long ago:




The mighty V6, looking very clean:




The alloys are in fair condition but could do with a refurb. Does have a full set of kumho tyres with decent tread though. Here you can also see the V6's uprated front brakes:




All the electrics work. Even the Air-con switches on but doesn't blow cold, I'm hoping it just needs a re-gas.
The air-com was last given a service in 2008 according to the history.




As you can see It has the rare optional trip computer!
unfortunately there are a few dead pixels and it didn't come with a radio. So for now I've just put in a spare SC303 head unit I had.




Leather is in great shape, thought it's crying out for some leather balm:




I was especially impressed that all 3 rear seat belt buckles are intact with no broken clips:




The boot is also super clean:




Some of the car's best bits:

It came with a great service history, nothing older than 2001 unfortunately, but it's very comprehensive after that date. with every MOT certificate and a whole wad of receipts, a good chunk of which are from Vauxhall dealers. Also came with a few oddities like Mr Vater's new keepers supplement from an old V5 dated 19th June 2003:




It came with the two original keys and amazingly the torch still works!




Original unused spare wheel, with chalk still intact:






Original dealer plates, front and rear:




I really thought that it would have been made in Germany, but I was pleasantly surprised.
This is the first Cavalier I've seen with Air-con made at the Luton plant.
Up until now it has always been my understanding that all Air-con Cavs were made in Germany.




And the best extra, some genuine Vauxhall touch up paint!




So as you might expect I've been busy cleaning and fixing the last couple of days. Here are a few things I've done already.

New rubber aerial seal:




As you can see, the headlights were covered in green moss and the nearside unit had quite allot of condensation inside:






Found the original rubber seals:




Good as new after a quick clean up:




Fitted a new nearside indicator and headlight unit and cleaned up the offside:






I've also given it a good clean inside and out. There was a fair amount of 'green' built up around the rubber seals and around the windows but considering it's virtually been sitting still for the last few years it wasn't too bad.

There are a few other things I'd like to get done.
First of all, one of the rear door reflectors needs to be replaced.
The rear boot panel has cracked on the right hand side.
Needs a radio. Preferably the CD300 unit it would have come with originally.
Could really do with some genuine floor mats and new handbrake/gearstick gaiters.

My plans for her are basically just preserve as much as possible and keep her looking standard.
Subtle mods aren't out of the question. X30XE cams have been suggested and I would like a stainless exhaust as the standard one looks a bit too... sleeperish , shall we say.

[Lowrider Dave]

You went for it then! What a bargain, lovely an original condition, rare trip computer too. V6s are rare as they are but in original stock and spec like this, it's an excellent buy. Welcome to the 'mare of V6 engine work!

[James McGrath]

You went for it then! What a bargain, lovely an original condition, rare trip computer too. V6s are rare as they are but in original stock and spec like this, it's an excellent buy. Welcome to the 'mare of V6 engine work!

Thanks Dave. I was tempted by your one but somehow I knew it would sell out of my budget range and I've had my eye on this one for a long time.

Yeah, I did have a look under the engine cover yesterday and my first thought was, nope, not going to do anything there until I know what I'm doing!


Did one little job today. Found out the offside rear door reflector wasn't as bad as I thought.

Before:




After taking it out and removing the selotape, I could see that it was just the lens which had fallen off.
It was only held on in the first place by a dab of hot glue by the looks of things.




So I gave it a good clean up with Autobrite 'Just the Tonic' to get rid of the selotape marks, added a dab of fresh adhesive and bingo, good as new:




Fitting it back wasn't as easy. One of those jobs that just went from bad to worse. Anyway, long story short I ended up modifying the metal clips that hold it in place; basically I bent the ends flat so that they would go back in.

Anyway, it's done now:

[tonyo]

Gosh.. Caffyns receipts. That takes me back to my childhood, although then, they were a BL/Rover dealer IIRC. Tunbridge Wells for Vauxhall was Pipers, used to look at it from my bedroom window..

Awesome in black. In my opinion, the saloon always looks more handsome than the hatch..

I think you need a medal BTW.. Most of us are struggling to keep one or two on the road (for me, the GTE is the less problematic of mine), and there you are with five!

[James McGrath]

Thanks mate.

To be honest I was struggling to find the enthusiasm to look after them properly when I had 4.
What tends to happen is all my attention gets focused on one car at a time and the others are left to wait their turn.
Up until now I've had all of them on the road at the same time. Now though I think it's going to move to a 6 months on 6 months off pattern for at least 2 of them.

Actually what you've done on your Diplomat has been really inspiring and has encouraged me to get out and do some car related jobs on more than one occasion.

[colin1]

Awesome in black. In my opinion, the saloon always looks more handsome than the hatch..

Hmm sort of agree I s'pose
In my own opinion

Saloon for comfort and toys
Hatch for ripping it up

[James McGrath]

Been tinkering around again today.

Looks quite daunting under the engine cover:




These arrived in the post:



I ordered a pack of 10 about 5 years ago and have since used them all up. After what I've put on the cars today I've already only got 6 left!


I've also been looking for the engine codes:

F25 gearbox:




Looks like it's not a X25XE after all. It's using a C25XE block at least:




I went to replace the electric mirror switch thinking I've got 2 different spares, one of them will be the right one.
But no (Original on the right):



Why did they make so may different connectors for one switch?


Anyway, it looked ok behind the door card. Also gave me the opportunity to lubricate the window runners, something I seem to be doing rather allot lately:



Very impressed with the extra foam padding behind the door card. None of my other Cavs have that.

[TurboDan]

That looks really nice, great buy!

The top spec ones like the v6 and turbo's had allot of extra sound deadening. You will find the center console will be coated in foam underneath too which other models don't have.

[Lowrider Dave]

http://www.kirwindesign.co.uk/howto.html

Top PDF link might help

[James McGrath]

Thanks Dan.
The Diplomat has a bit of extra sound deadening, but not as much as this.


Nice one Dave. Some really useful stuff there thanks.

[humbucker]

A cracking car, looks to be in excellent order. Get yourself an Omega Haynes manual, though. The only major physical differences between the X25XE in the Omega and that of the Cavalier is the engine's intake system and ancillaries. The rest of it is pretty much the same, and at least you'll have the correct torque values to hand.

The V6 isn't necessarily 'difficult' to work on, it's just that you'll find yourself doing a lot of jobs twice (due to the twin cylinder head configuration) that you'd only need to do once on a four-pot Griffin. This also increases the cost of a lot of service and maintenance jobs, but the car will reward you with luxury cruising!

As you know, I've owned a V6 CDX of my own, and I have plenty of experience with Omegas. Don't hesitate to shout if you need any advice etc. In the meantime, I suggest you tackle the following at your earliest convenience:

Clean the V6 crankcase breather system. It should be treated as a routine maintenance job really, but nobody ever does it. Blocked hoses prevent pressure from escaping, causing it to force its way out through the cam cover gaskets (hence the complaint that a lot of V6 owners have about constantly leaking cam covers). It's an easy job, just takes time.

Sort the suspension. Just look at that back end! The V6 suffers a lot of body roll and sits ridiculously high at the back. Wallowfest! I put Koni adjustable dampers and Eibach springs on my CDX V6 and my Cavalier Turbo. Even then, the V6 rear end was still notably higher than the front, but at least it was lower than a Frontera!

I have a fair few V6 spares here. Let me know if you need anything. Look forward to seeing more project progress!

[ilovedmymantas]

Lovely clean car. well done, what a bargain !

[James McGrath]

Thanks guys!

Cleaning the crankcase breather system is defiantly going to be my next job. I remember reading about that way back when you first posted up your how to.

I am a total newbie to the V6. In fact this is the first multi valve engine I've worked on so there is going to be a bit of a learning curve for me.

[Cavalier342]

Once you pop off the engine cover panel, it will look really daunting, especially coming from 8 valvers.. I was in the exact same boat myself.

But it's not bad once you take a good look around, it is all just nuts & bolts, cam covers are easy enough to remove, the inlet is fiddly the first time you do it, especially with all the breather pipes and hoses located under the inlet manifold, but it is do-able on your first time, removing the auxiliary cooling fan ducting helps with access ( the long plastic duct that runs from the front slam panel to the side of the engine block), with that gone you can see the temperature sensors on the coolant bridge and the bolts which hold the wiring loom to the side of the engine. Space around the engine isn't fantastic but you can get your hands in and around it. A handy magnetic light would be useful, if you have any, pop it onto the track rod and you can get good illumination to the back of the block. I've learned to work on my old V6 just from getting stuck in and feeling my way around it..

[GLC]

Great buy James can't think of a better home for it. Was watching this one on ebay myself but hadn't the funds or I would have been after it myself.

Got to say a Cavalier CDX in metalic black has to be one of my favourite spec Cavs too.

[James McGrath]

Thanks guys.


I made an attempt to fix the dead pixels on the trip computer today.

Most of the time dead pixels are caused by bad or corroded connections rather than a faulty screen.
Luckily, the clever dick who designed the Cavalier's trip computer resisted the temptation to make it a sealed unit so thankfully everything is assessable.

I started the teardown by removing the 4 screws and prising up the retaining clips to open up the unit.
Inside there are two circuit boards:




The screen and outer circuit board are healed together with an aluminium case with some very simple tabs which you can bend back to release the two.
Once bent back you can remove the aluminium case and remove the screen reveling the conductive rubber strips.
It is these along with the contacts on the circuit board and screen itself that need to be cleaned.



All torn down:




Clean these contacts using some cotton buds and isopropyl rubbing alcohol:

Back of the screen:


Circuit board:



Then all you need to do is put it back together again:



For me this was a partial success:
(Bonus: Look the light for the heater controls works and everything!)




As you can see all the pixels on the top work but the ones on the bottom are still not working.
On closer inspection there is quite a deep scratch in the screen where the dead pixels are so I think they are irretrievably dead. At least all I need now is a screen and not the whole computer. Yay for electronics that you can take apart and fix yourself! Not like those silly sealed electric mirror switches!

[Robsey]

Nice to see someone having a go at fixing things.

It is too easy for people to simple swap out faulty parts.

Nice write up too.
I tend to find it is either dirty or dislodged connector strips. It is rarely component level failure.

My usual quibble on these is the printed menu on the front gets scratched very easily leaving cack illuminated patches all over the display.

[Cavalier342]

I like your LED computer keyboard James, was going to get one of them but my desktop doesn't work properly.. Would make for an awesome feature when it's dark!

[James McGrath]

Robsey:
Yeah, I hate throwing things away without at leat trying to fix them.
Parts wouldn't be in short supply if we all did it.
I find it very therapeutic fixing things too.

Andrei:
I love having nice keyboards. I'll add an update to my PC thread.

[cavalier1990]

James might I ask how you get the headlamp lower rubber trims to sit in on the little lower panel without pushing them back off when you put the light in. I have simply gave up trying to do this as every time I put light in I have to shove it downwards and inwards, which pushes the rubber off, and for trying to pull them back when light is on - go figure!

P.S. good tips with the trip computer, I'll check my dippy and it's the same then at least I know I can strip it and clean it! I'm of the same mind as you, I'll always always attempt to strip something and fix it, usually it is something simple to fix most things, saves a chuck away and the results give you a little satisfying glow (well that might be the beer afterwards )

[James McGrath]

The headlight rubbers are a bit fiddly. So much so that most weren't fitted properly when they left the factory. Seriously look at some promotional photographs and sales brochures, most don't have them at all!

The way I do it is to fit the rubber seal to the front valance first.
Get the headlight roughly in position, give the rubber a final adjustment, then try and rest the headlight on top of the rubber seal and screw it in place.
Then using a small flat head screwdriver, working from one end to the other, I pry the weather strip outwards so that it sits in front of the glass.

[James McGrath]

I've been buying a few new bits and pieces for the cars recently.

Interior dehumidifiers... one for each car:




Torch key bulbs and batteries:




Recent events have also necessitated the expansion of my AutoGlym collection.
Bumper care we've all seen before, but the Alloy wheel protector is for the Diplomat's newly restored alloys and the other two, well you can guess what car they are for:




Few bits from vauxhall-car-parts.co.uk.
Reverse light switch for the Diplomat, GM oil filter because why not and upper inlet manifold gasket for the V6:




I also bought a rather handy chepo car battery charger:

[James McGrath]

Battery charged, key bulbs replaced and cars dehumidified, I got to work on the V6's leather, not forgetting the steering wheel and gear stick too.

Stage 1, Cleaning:

Simply spray on. rub in and then wipe off:








Step 2, Leather balm:

Note the difference in appearance of the wear on the bolster:




This was far easier and quicker than I thought. The care balm is great stuff and smells great; reminds me of a Clarks shoe shop.

[James McGrath]

The next job was the crankcase breather system.

Have to give a big thanks to Dave (Lowriderdave) and Dan (Humbucker) for this.
Their How2's were invaluable for this job.

First I made sure I had everything I needed... and a Danish.




This is something I find extremely useful when working on computers, it's also very helpful when working on cars too.
It's a magnetic parts tray. Just pop in all your unscrewed nuts and bolts and never worry about loosing them.




I also charged the battery at the same time so that gave me the opportunity to inspect the battery tray which thankfully is in pretty good shape:




After a bit of head scratching and a few more cups of tea, the inlet manifold was removed:




The old gasket was in pretty poor shape:






New one on:




At first glance the breather system didn't look too bad.
The smaller breather pipe was clogged but the bigger one looked fine:




The hose however was a different story and I managed to remove what seemed like a gallon of gunk.
The method I used was to stuff a piece of kitchen towel in one end of the hose then, using a long piece of sturdy wire, push it through. Do that several times and all the gunk is soon removed.
I however do not recommend this method as lot's can go wrong.




Took the opportunity to give everything else a good clean up with carb cleaner, including the air inlet valve:




After that there was the simple task of putting it all back together, remembering to tighten up the manifold screws to their rated spec of 20NM:

[Cavalier342]

Very good there James, she'll breathe a little easier now, any gunk in the breather system just reduces efficiency, especially on these larger engines. Not so bad once you've done it once or twice, good effort.