Vauxhall Corsa 2.0 XE Club

[DaveB]

The coolant temp sensor measures how hot/cold the coolant is. If its colder it puts more fuel in; if its warmer then it puts less in. It's basically an electronic and automatic version of the old skool 'choke' on early cars.

[snowman1]

cheers dave that makes sense, my motor jerks alot when pulling up to junctions or roundabouts even when cold, someone said check the plugs and if they are black then its overfueling, they are black and the fuel consumption is terible

[DaveB]

Valvers are notorious for having fuelling issues. The things to check (generally in this order) are:

CTS (Coolant Temperature Sender) - £7 from autovaux.com for a replacement (check the wiring before you replace)
Lambda Sensor - £30 from www.lambdasensor.com
Check for air leaks in your hoses
Make sure you have a thermostat fitted; if it not then it might not be warming up properly

[DaveB]

Major(ish) update, plenty more to come over the next couple of months:

Set off at 4.50am down to Essex to pick up the rollcage that I'd bought on Ebay and Sparco seat from 'teej' on here. got to Teejs house at a decent time, collected the seat and set off to Richards to get started in cutting the cage out of the corsa shell.

I expected it to take me about 30mins if that, I was wrong. Took me 4 hours, lol. Which included my angel grinder dying and having to go to BnQ to buy a better one, lol.

The cage:



I used various backdoors to get to the welded cage mountings, lol


All the bits I'd got JUST fitted in the golf;


The other bits you may be able to see were; anti-roll bar from the gsi, and rear strut brace also from the gsi.

Once I got home, the car was left packed and I decided to start my jobs on sunday.

First thing first, get the rear strut brace painted and fitted. I'd been pondering what colour to go for for the cage and bar and finally settled on yellow;




(it is REALLY yellow but the camera won't pick it up)

Next up, the rear anti-roll bar.


It goes here:


You insert it one way;


Hammer it into the other side, and bolt it up



Then I wanted to try and save some weight on the front end, until I finally go for a fibreglass bonnet. So I decided to cut out the under-bonnet bracing out with a grinder.


First incision:


All cut out


All off


Quickly painted to prevent rust


And the removed item



Next up, fitting my new oil temp/pressure gauges. I need the relevant 'bolts' tapping as per odders fitting guide, so for the moment I just got the gauges all installed in the car. I removed the MFD on the top of the dashboard and stuck the pod in there for good line of sight:


next up; fitting the new 300lb front springs that I'd got from Chris Astley, unfortunately though I didn't have a swan neck spanner that was suitable to hold the shock, so I didn't finish that job. here's a picture of the FK springs compared to the juicier 300lb ones!


And thats where my day ended. Fitting the two rear bars has made a noticeably difference to the driveability. The car is noticeably 'planted' to the road and feels alot more stable on high speed corners, it should be even better with the front springs on; that'll be done one night this week I hope.

[Benn]

oooo very nice dude, like the cage, love that you cut a hole in the pannel cool,

Have you have the car weighted yet?

[DaveB]

Not yet; don't wnat to be depressed with how muchthe cage weighs. lol, will be done before the start of next years track season. Want it fully 'prepped' before then.

[Ste L]

hollow the doors, and get the hole cutter on the underneath of the door's(like on joblem's budget nova project) to lose the extra weight the cage makes lmao

[DaveB]

That will happen ste; just wiating until I've got some side bars on before I do that

[Ginge]

I love the way this has escalated!

Awesome work Mr B

Ginge

[namkeaps]

looks mint matey! loving the updates!

[Dave Dempsey]

Looking good there Dave, whens the cage getting fitted?

[DaveB]

Fortnight I think it's gonna be Dave; need my fabricator mate to make me some new support mounts for the rear of the cage, the front of the cage, some removable door bars and some extra mounts for the 'up and over' hoop.

had the welds on the cage redone tonight as I wasn't happy with some (read: all of them) so that'll get painted this weekend.

Fitted my 300lb front springs that I got from Chris Astley too, but forgot to mark the struts up so the camber is now arse about tit

[DaveB]

Minor update but no pictures:

Front springs now refitted properly and the camber's been adjusted. 300lb front springs fitted; I highly recommend fitting these to any XE/LET corsa; the difference is immeasureable.

Oil temp/pressure senders all fitted and the gauges work great

Cage has all been painted up and is booked in to be fitted a week on Saturday woooh

[Benn]

Cool cool,
have a tb if you want one...

[DaveB]

First up here's a picture I took a few nights ago when I fitted the 300lb front springs; shows a good comparison between the standard FK (I assume 1litre) springs and the 300lb rated ones:




Went of for several test drives throughout the week to make sure everything was back together properly, thankfully it was. While warming the car up one night this week it cut out; strange I thought as everything that is related to cold-start has been replaced. It restarted OK, but on the drive that night it didn't just feel as happy as it normally did; only one thing for it- time to start fault finding again

After taking advice from JamieFFF I sprayed carb cleaner around the throttle body and inlet. The car hunted abit and a few misfires developed. I jumped in the golf and headed over to autovaux for a few serviceable items;

an ecotec plate gasket
a throttle body-inlet gasket
spark plugs
rocker cover gasket

Got home and whipped of the ecotec plate, nice - NO gasket just loads of green gooo


Whipped of the throttle body...even nicer. 1 stud is missing and NO gasket at all


I gave the TB a clean and refitted the new gaskets along with a new stud:




Then moved onto the rocker cover as it was starting to leak abit at the front


Nice and clean inside which is good, and the camcover has had the ultimate breather done on it, lol


All back together:


Any misfires and judders are now gone, and it idles perfectly now. I'm quick ****ed off about the lack of gaskets to be honest. When you buy a car that has a rebuilt engine in it you don't expect for it to be held together which childrens green slime, cable ties and glue.Whoever built the engine was clearly a fkin cowboy, I just hope they knew how to put rod bolts in right

I hope, i hope that is the last bodge to come on this car. I'm just so glad I've come across all the current issues before I've hit a track yet..

Oh, and a I bought some in-car entertainment - a car battery radio

[Jack]

I'm quick ****ed off about the lack of gaskets to be honest.

Good that you're getting all the little things sorted now though before you start abusing it.

And at least the missing gaskets and a missing stud are an easy fix, easy to find and cheap.

[Benn]

Glad you got the tb ok (this morning i guess)

All sounds good...

[DaveB]

Benn; not arrived yet mate That tb is for the missus's xe tigra. Still suffering from backlogs up here though so will let you know when it arrives

[wazpaz]

Good progress Dave

[Benn]

Bollocks,
Then again we only got post this morning so...

[Ginge]

Benn; not arrived yet mate That tb is for the missus's xe tigra. Still suffering from backlogs up here though so will let you know when it arrives

oooo its not silver is it?

Sorry for thread miss direction...

Ginge

[DaveB]

No mate its black; never been seen on MIG I'm afraid

[DaveB]

New bits ordered today:

Battery Box
QED Alloy Underdrive Single V-Pulley


Just got a problem over winter as to go for fibreglass bonnet/boot/perspex windows or an LSD first.. hmm

[Dave Dempsey]

Get the LSD.

[vxlgsi]

New bits ordered today:

Battery Box
QED Alloy Underdrive Single V-Pulley

Out of interest how much was the pulley?

Just got a problem over winter as to go for fibreglass bonnet/boot/perspex windows or an LSD first.. hmm

Who you using for fiberglass panels?