Pitstoppete's C20XE Cavalier Diplomat Saloon - Update Thread

[Pitstoppete]

easter update...it's been a while.

been nut deep into it all day, basically, I have got to have the Aircon working now we have some nice weather, so cracked on.

Got my bought at spares day new A/C compressor out of the box, measured it up, compared to the one on the car, all looks good. seems a 92-98 astra one is much the same as a normal cavalier one.......not so!. all the same size and design it seems but suction and pressure connections take a slightly different design seal/hose assembly, the rear housing is different. sod it, but should be able to swap the rear casing over for a spare cavalier one so it's not going to waste.

Wanted to fit that new one, but have 4 compressors in all, so cleaned up one I got from a XE calibra (Shauns) in Portsmouth, one that Benn had an engine out of IIRC. drained the leak detector/oil mix out of it, syringed in the correct amount of fresh PAG oil, exercised it a bit and bolted it on.
Also changed the 2 switches on the A/C lines just in case they were causing a problem. Had some low mileage ones from the calibra XE I broke.

Plugged on my gauges and evacuated for half an hour. all was good. recharged it from my RS24 stash, the A/C light was kinda half glowing and something was drawing a lot of current judging by the DVM. Turned it off and investigated the wiring to the compressor which I had repaired nicely a few years ago.
Unfortunately it had been rattling about in fresh air a bit near the rad and the two joins that I had carefully heat shrunk over had been touching and clearly rubbing themselves up a bit, and would you believe it one tiny strand of one conductor was touching the other one so sorted that out and started it again. light on properly now, A/C doing its thing, got the pressure right and went for a test drive. Lovely jubbly! all chilly and stuff.

But, have it has the CEL on and its sounding and smelling rich and doesnt like to start, cold or hot. what could I have done? thats gotta be CTS related?
Flashed the codes, as well as A/C relay high volts (have had this before, swapping relays about seems to help) I also have CTS high volts.
Pulled the plug off the CTS and one of the tiny contacts in the plug is kinda pushed over to one side and is looking like its not making contact correctly. It must have been for the last couple of months after I fitted a new CTS, and now its got a bit of corrosion in there too, which fely like it started last week some time, which I sorted with the end of my scriber and all is now ok. Phew.

Went out again for a mini roar to test the coldness of the leatherrrrr and fairly swiftly i have to turn the fan down to the middle setting as I'm getting frigging chilly.....filled her up at Morrisons, worked out the mpgs at 38 average and noted the mileage is almost on 180000 miles and trundled back all cold and stuff.

Whats next?
A drivers seat to subframe bolt has also just dropped out! so i'm going careful as the seat is a rocking about a bit, so thats coming out tomorrow for some re-attachement and some nutlock no doubt, then a bit of a wash and polish then if I have time, fit the white ST rims and tyres ready for the summer, then keep ragging it to work I suppose!

Keep your chins up folks!

[Astra Dan]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww yeah. A/C FTMFW. Well done Pedro.

[alistairolsen]

Sounds like good work Pete, glad to see it's still getting the love and attention required!

[rc]

Good work, not many cavalier owners can boast aircon, let alone working air con

[GTE 16v]

Sweeet. nice work.

[Pitstoppete]

it's lovely.
and cold

[humbucker]

cav + aircon = win. welcome to the club old fruit

[Pitstoppete]

bring on some real hot weather I say. let it earn its stripes

[Jack]

Nice to hear an update. Nice work sir.

[Benn]

Good work dude.

[Pitstoppete]

swift evening mince has sorted a few things-
seat bolt replaced, no longer flopping about,
drivers seat jolloped up with more black schmoo to try to keep it nice,
fluffy Diplomat interior mats refitted for the summer,
A/C relay swapped out for a newer one and its still getting well hot, still have ECU light, code 88 iirc, high volts at A/C relay,
probly needs more beans on the commute route...

[Pitstoppete]

oh yes, must get the white wheels back on asap, as I much prefer it like this -

[tonyo]

oh yes, must get the white wheels back on asap

Must be summertime if the white wheels are going back on. Looking forward to seeing it back on them very much..

[evertonjb]

I'm from Brazil, is the first post that I do, congratulations on the car, I have a vectra gsi c20xe, but the cars have many different details

[Pitstoppete]

hello and welcome to MIG

cavalier now on 186500 miles and counting.

[Pitstoppete]

successful day at the garage.

Car has been off the road for a couple of weeks pending time and a sunny day for Dan and I to get stuck into it.

Cracked on today, buzzed out the wiring from ecu plug to everything! before we cold started it and came to the conclusion as there were no fault codes when it was running on 3 before, it was "a mechanical" problem, not sensor related. This we rolled with and started to check everything we could, even taking the cams out and checking all was well under the tappets, which I wanted to change anyway, as I had a rattly one for ages and had a new set ready to go.
Went for a cold start and it's still on 3 when cold or hot and compression was again good. No# 4 is just burning.

Had another brew and fired it up again, wtf..
Gentle sucking noise from around the inlet manifold area, hard to hear with the open air flow meter giving it large, sucking away too.
Shoved digit near the gasket join.....O bugger, it's sucked in my vinyl glove!
Gosh! wheres the inlet manifold gasket gone from around no# 4 runner?




sucked in the cylinder no doubt!

Note to self and others - dont use std nuts on the inlet manifold, use locking nuts like VX intended....

Loose manifold=knackered gasket=air leak=poor running and lots of scratching of heads.

Now it's back to it's old self and is a rocket-ship once again...well, at least compared to a 1.6 auto one it is anyway.

thanks for the help and comments guys and well done Dan for the buzzin out and spannerings.

[Th0m45]

lovely cav mate! well looked after

[Benn]

Yay you've fixed the weapon.. Wanna use my bore scope to check the bore? lol

[tonyo]

That's all it was? Jeesh..

Glad the fix wasn't too serious or expensive. At least you know there's nothing seriously wrong with the engine.

Does this mean it'll be doing the commute to work again now, or will the 1600Auto still be the article of choice for the winter?

[Pitstoppete]

Yay you've fixed the weapon.. Wanna use my bore scope to check the bore? lol

bit late noow

[Pitstoppete]

That's all it was? Jeesh..

Glad the fix wasn't too serious or expensive. At least you know there's nothing seriously wrong with the engine.

Does this mean it'll be doing the commute to work again now, or will the 1600Auto still be the article of choice for the winter?

Going to roar in to work in the blue one forra bit see how she goes, then decide what to do before the end of the month at "tax them both or not time"...

Most probable is keep the red slaughtomagic for the worst weather, parp about in the Dippy with the A/C in the summer/autumn.
When exactly to do the big old "SORN one/tax one" caper, have not decided as yet. Really would like a 8 and 4 month split really. nov/dec/jan/feb in the red one, the rest on the blue one sounds sensible, but she does need some continuing restoration and some paint work doing, so all that could change.
One things for sure, have about 8 sets of wheels and tyres here split across both, so should be easy enough to keep them both legal if necessary..

[Pitstoppete]

and,

my word does it go well again...
new lambda and tappets then a gasket that actually seals the joint!

[tonyo]

Going to roar in to work in the blue one forra bit see how she goes, then decide what to do before the end of the month at "tax them both or not time"...

Yeah saw it in the other carpark mid-morning. Felt all warm and fuzzy inside to see it back in use, and presumably rude health.

[Pitstoppete]

pretty warm and fuzzy on the way home from work too, at warppp factor 12.
it's better than ever.

[Pitstoppete]

Going to roar in to work in the blue one forra bit see how she goes, then decide what to do before the end of the month at "tax them both or not time"...

Most probable is keep the red slaughtomagic for the worst weather, parp about in the Dippy with the A/C in the summer/autumn.
When exactly to do the big old "SORN one/tax one" caper, have not decided as yet. Really would like a 8 and 4 month split really. nov/dec/jan/feb in the red one, the rest on the blue one sounds sensible, but she does need some continuing restoration and some paint work doing, so all that could change.
One things for sure, have about 8 sets of wheels and tyres here split across both, so should be easy enough to keep them both legal if necessary..

Well,
a day full of win as she has a fresh MOT so is ready for tax next week.
Still have some stuff to deal with though that are a bit borderline/beyond the testers book.

Front braided brake hoses could do with some rubber hose split and tie wrapped on them, as when it hits a bump and its on lock, it hits the bottom spring pan, as they are so stiff and much further out than a std cav one, due to the 308s I suspect. easy enough to sort and a good idea I thought, will attend to that.
Also, although not technically a fail and not something I had seen before, my MOT man found the little dome shaped coil spring locator on the rear beam spring pan has rusted off and is stuck in the very tired spring. Easy enough to sort with a clean up and a weld on of something new and un rusty, or a different beam. Just about to order some new springs anyway, so will be under there very soon to sort that too.

Not driven it for 3 months.

gosh its rapid compared to the 1.6 auto, and it stops.

Back to commute duties very soon