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Flexing Bulkhead

1K views 16 replies 10 participants last post by  Ed 
#1 ·
A few months ago when I had my MOT due, I took it to a local garage to have it MOTd. When I came to collect the car, I was told it had failedvery badly and they had been laughing at it. This got me very worried, and also very pissed off that they should find this so funny.

Anyway they told me that there was excessive play in the bulkhead. Apparently when the car was stationary with the wheels being steered from left to right there was very visible flexing of the bulkhead. He told me the bilkhead needed strengthing by welding, and that this involved th whole dash etc being removed, and would apparently be very expensive.

I went through days of dispair wondering what to do, scrap it, pay £££ on getting it fixed, sell it, get fake MOT.

Fortunately though the next station I tried said nothing about the bulkhead, and the car only failed on missing split pins and faulty washer jets, so I was very relieved to say the least!

Anyway, my car does seem to flex quite a lot when have the car stationary and steering the wheels. You can see the wings moving. Is this really anything to worry about? Can other Astra owners see if there cars do this.
 
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#2 ·
My old 8 valve GTE did this! Noticed the pedels moving as I was parking one day, got a mate to turn it lock to lock while stationary and the brake servo was bobbing up and down! Looked at a couple of others and all of them with PAS were the same.

Hope this puts your mind a rest a little......

Matt
 
#3 ·
Hope this puts your mind a rest a little......
It shouldn't because it's only a mater of time before the bulkhead splits and imho i wouldn't want to be driving a car thats structuraly weak. You may find that you have a rusty bulkhead and that is why it is weak. A lot of nova's get this when a 16v'er is fitted even when they are seam welded.
 
#4 ·
dodgy bulkhead

my 'h' reg gte 16v had this. i realised something was wrong when i was driving it out of corners. exit one corner and the steering wheel would be straight, exit another and it would be on the p*ss a bit. i thought about this over a couple of weeks, still driving 60 mile a day to work and back, and decided that the only thing that could be moving was the steering rack. i parked up on the drive and got a mate to turn the wheels, and there it was....major movement on the n/s rack mounting bracket. the rubber bush had acyually worn the paint off the rack!
so i pondered wot to do and decided to strip it down and sort it myself. having removed the brake servo and inlet piping and sfi box i could see that the bulkhead had actually TORN!!! at the side of the o/s rack mounting bracket. when it turned the wheels the crack simply opened and closed! :(
this is not as bad as it sounds. i fabricated up a new piece of plate to go over this mounting point. i also chopped off the remains of the existing mount.anyway, the new piece off plate was about 3mm thk, better than the original thin stuff the bulkhead was made from, and into this new piece i welded some decent cap head bolts so i could mount the rack and fit the nuts from the engine side.erm hang on i seem to remember welding a cap head bolt to the bottom hole of the mount and a nut for the top hole. the reason being the servo would clash with a long bolt sticking out on the top hole.
i actually got a welder friend to weld the new bracket to the car and i ladi a load of fire blanket over the engine when he did it. i also laid in the footwell with a water sprray bottle and extinguised any small fires. its only the paint on the inside which can flash off into flames nothing major, a little water spray sorts it.

the end result was a quality chunky bracket, which actaullt sits about 4mm further forward than the existing one but this difference was accomodated in the rubber mounts on the ebnd of the track rod end.
i have been hammering my car for 3 years now and its sound.

dont worry, and DONT SCRAP IT

marty:D
 
#5 ·
the reason it flexes i if u have bigger wheels on there, there is so much grip that the actual bulkhead flexes when u try and turn the wheels... i think that the reason the bulkhead splits is if there is a weak point ie rust then it starts from there and spreads.
 
#9 ·
what Martin kendrew has just described has happened to my car on sunday.

I also passed my MOT on the friday, just two days before.

I'm astonished at your comment that just cause you have the 12 months ticket you are fine. A piece of paper isnt gonna save your face when you get thrown through the windscreen after you loose control of the car on the motorway due to NO steering.

I noticed a while ago that i could feel the pedal box moving when i turned the steering wheel. and i could hear engine noise in the car througn the breach in the steering rack seal on the bulkhead.

Ignorance is not bliss in this case at all. Get it fixed before you end up in a ditch after consuming half an astra by osmosis. Dont forget the astras are so quick/light cause they have no safety features other than a seat belt.
 
#10 ·
Oh and to set the record straight, there is a skin welded to the bulkhead that the rack is mounted to. Its not actually the bulkhead flexing.

The rack/skin is only secured via a seam weld on the left hand side of the engine bay, and a spot weld to the bulkhead just about where teh brake pedal is. Mine has torn off, so now i turn the steering wheel and the rack slides left to right by about 2 inches, and the wheels dont move.
 
#13 ·
bulkheed

odders is right, it needs to be fixed asap.
i was well shocked to see the size of the tear when i stripped it.

i actually looked at fitting some brackets from each end of the rack which could be fixed to the chassis legs. thus stopping any sideways movement of the rack. this would probably be quite easy but i never actually fitted any and like i said its been sound for over three years now
 
#14 ·
To also set the record striaght, I meant I am glad to get the MOT becasue it means I could sell the car with an MOT if need be, I would never get rid of it without the MOT.

To be honest I don't notice any problem with the steering other than seeing the wings move when stationary. I will look for any cracks as advised though.

Another thought of mine is that all cars flex somewhat and the MOT place was just trying to get some money out of me.
 
#17 ·
Yeah, less of the sarcasm!:(

My thinking at the time was if I can just get an MOT I could pass the problem on to someone else. I was so distraught at the time thinking I had a expensive problem on my hands which I just wanted to get rid of it, and not lose out totally on my money.

But now I have the MOT and there is nothing wrong with the way it steers, other than the flex when sationary, and I can see no cracks or anything untoward on the bulkhead.

I am not selling my car, it was just the thought I had that if the car did have a seroius problem I would get rid of it if I was lucky enough to get an MOT. I expected to have to take loads of MOTs before it was not noticed by a MOT tester, but it passed on the second one.

After this I considered selling it, but I was reassured by plenty of people, including mechanics, that this was not a problem and I had nothing to worry about. My mates Astra GSI does the same thing. That's why I still have the car and am not selling it (to set the record straight:cool: )
 
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