Astra SRi-T

[BazW]

After I cooked my Mk3 GSi on a trackday I decided I wanted something a bit newer. I'd been driving my girlfriends 2.2 coupe and quite liked it so decided a Mk4 was the way forward. Only had one thing I was sure of, I wanted a Z20LET so started looking at Coupe turbos first then remembered SRi turbos

Found one with low mileage, lots of history and receipts and checked to see if it was HPI clear. Had a VXR turbo fitted and had the stem seals recently done and looked like a decent car. Everything seemed fine so went to have a look. It drove fine when I tested it but was cold and icy so was a short test. Started it from cold and it had no knocking, smoking or anything else so agreed a price and took it away. Half way home when I got onto the motorway it started popping and farting at around 70 MPH...great. I work for Vauxhall so wasn't worried and spent years with a C20LET in my GTE so misfires I'm used to. I plugged it into tech2 at work and it seemed to be the boost control solenoid so replaced that and it did nothing...not going to be as easy as I thought



The running issues are weird...it drives fine round town and on the back lanes. Get it on the motorway at 70 MPH and it runs like a pig, pops, farts and hesitates when you try to speed up. It does crap MPG, average over a few weeks was 22. It can run fine for days then for no reason start misfiring again. It also turns off the traction control and ABS, when it does this (which is most of the time now) it won't idle properly either, even stalling at times. I thought it was a crap remap that was at fault but that turned out not to be the cause

To do list...this'll no doubt get bigger though as I find things

Mechanical
Remove shonky remap - Checked 20/12/11. According to Tech2 has factory map installed but still manages to run rich and at 15 PSI?
Oil leak from rocker gasket
Oil leak from front breather pipe
Turbo missing stud. Doesn't blow or affect performance for the time being
Crossover pipe needs replacing/repairing
Tidy up...a few wires & cables from old stereo need taking out and could do with a set of hoses
Tracking

Body
Paint front bumper (scratches & chips) and fit new mesh
paint side skirts
Replace wheel arch liners
New griffin boot badge - Done 20/12/11
New turbo badge (undecided yet?) - Done 11/01/12
Paint wheels
Fix dents on NSR quarter and boot lid

Interior
New front drivers seat and valet the rest
Swap cheap crappy boost gauge. It blinds you at night and I'm not convinced it tells the truth - Done 20/12/11, trusty Power Engineering gauge fitted
Replace steering wheel - Done 11/01/12, all black leather turbo wheel

First job was to get rid of the front grill




20/12/2011...

The misfire saga is ongoing, Tech2 says I have the latest factory map installed...my boost gauge says I'm running 15 PSI and my car smells like it's running rich...Tech2 says it's running rich too. need to trace the vac hose to make sue it's not kinked and giving a false reading. It always read correctly in my GTE

...I'm more confused than when I started. Is it only running rich because the boost is blowing the spark out and the fuel isn't getting burned properly? The only way I'll know is to get it on a rolling road and check it properly so that's the next job

Took time out of trying to work that out and fitted the boot badge I'd ordered and swapped the boost gauge for an old Power Engineering one I ran in my GTE turbo and was always accurate and doesn't light the interior up. The idea of getting an SRi-T in the first place was for it to be a bit of a sleeper and not stand out too much. You can't really do that when you've got a gauge in your face that lights you up bright blue so you look like something off Avatar driving down the road.

Thankfully it was easy enough and just need to wire in the backlight and it's good to go. The boot badge was easy enough, the only issue was one of the previous owners had super glued a new style Vaux griffin on but the replacement covered most of it up and it doesn't show too much unless you're looking for it. The other badges have all been taken off and will be staying off apart from the turbo one which I've not decided on yet...yes or no?

10/01/2012

Been busy stripping my Mk3 so not had the time to sort the SRi but still been shopping for a few bits for it





New rocker gasket set to sort the leak, bought genuine as I've bought none-gen before only for them to last a few weeks then start leaking again. I was going to leave the turbo badge off for the sleeper look but seeing as I can't go anywhere without some retard driving 2 inch off my arse it looks like the sleeper idea has fallen flat on it's arse

Mine had a none turbo leather wheel fitted for some reason so I've been looking for a replacement for a while and this turned up in ebay. Stuck a bid on, forgot about it then saw i'd won it for 40 quid...bargain

11/01/2012

Wheel and badge fitted but as usual nothing goes to plan...

Badge was easy enough, quick wipe down with panel wipe and warmed it up and stuck it on (...pics to follow). The steering wheel was a different story. First turns out the tracking is out and whoever fitted the other wheel didn't bother to use the marks to line it up so that's another job for the list. Another thing that came up was when I reconnected the battery and started the car, it wouldn't idle and kept stalling. Kept it running long enough and it eventually it would idle on it's own but still lumpy.

Plugged Tech2 in again to see what codes would come up after it was cleared last time and we got new codes that I've not had before...

P0100 - Mass or volume air flow circuit high output
P1106 - Boost pressure control device malfunction

Air flow meter was replaced last August and the front boost control solenoid last month. Cleared them again, car running fine and left work...got a mile down the road and the traction light came on again and the crap idle came back. The earth repair is the first job, I'm hoping that the fact it throws up different codes is pointing towards a wiring fault. Once that's checked it's a case of eliminating everything else

I've also found out this car has had issues for a long time

Daz's Mk4 Sri-T - Astra Sport and Astra Owners Club - Mk1 | Mk2 | Mk3 | Mk4 | Mk5 | Mk6 | Astra Van | 888 | VXR - All Welcome

From what I've found out so far it's not got a remap, has had the same issues for at least a year and after this guy had it it went to a bell end that bodged it and sold it on

I thought it had a snapped manifold stud, turned out they couldn't be bothered to fit it. Thought the cool running stat wasn't helping, turned out it didn't have a thermostat fitted at all so wasn't getting up to temp...even worse in December. Believe it or not there is a decent car under all the shonky workmanship, just taking a while to find it.

[Benn]

Nice work, nice looking too. White wheels look good with the black.

[BazW]

Getting them painted next week, its not the best paint job to be honest. Getting them done in silver, want it to look original inside and out...just a few changes

[DrewyCoupe]

nice lookin astra mate i have just bought a black coupe turbo

[BazW]

Arse end photo of the new boot badges. Leaving the Vauxhall Astra ones off

[BazW]

Gone are the shonky white rims




Slowly getting there, got a few cosmetic bits to fix and a few dents to take out but the outside isn't far off being done

[BazW]

Something that I hated from day one was the boost gauge...it was a cheap, crappy one that was way too bright and nearly blinded you at night. As well as being naff it was badly fitted with wires melting and kinks in the vac hose so was ripped out straight away. finally got round and fitted the replacement properly. Used some left over loom conduit and heat shrink to hide the pipe and wires and neaten it up. Rather than have it crushed between the trim and dash I drilled a small hole and fed it through




Didn't want the gauge on the top of the dash but seeing as a previous owner had already screwed it there I'd not really got a choice other than to make it as tidy as possible...

[Mark P]

Lovely motor mate

[BazW]

Think I might have found the cause of the high boost reading, the vac pipe has collapsed with the heat in the engine bay. One more job to add to the list...

[BazW]

Treated it to a wash & polish. It's not been done in weeks other than a rinse off last week and seeing as I got stuck behind a gritter the other night it deserved it



One other issue it's developed, and seems to be fairly common when it's cold, is the handbrake freezing up. It's not the shoes, it's the cable that's the problem...it's freezing inside. Been leaving it in gear and 2 clicks on the lever and it's not as bad. Interesting when you forget though and go over a grate and the arse end steps out because one of the wheels locked up

[stuboy]

looking good

[BazW]

Cheers. Only thing slowing me down at the moment is the crap weather

[TomF]

Looking good matey, I think you should get the black headlights for it

[BazW]

They're on the shopping list. Picked yours up yet?

[Melv]

Looking good. What's throwing on the EML?

[BazW]

Looking good. What's throwing on the EML?

The infamous P1106. When I get a free weekend I'm planing on doing the crimp repair and take it from there

[TomF]

They're on the shopping list. Picked yours up yet?

Good stuff, yeh got mine now, will take some pics soon

[Melv]

The infamous P1106. When I get a free weekend I'm planing on doing the crimp repair and take it from there

Is that the "earth mod"? If so do you plan on doing a nice wee step by step?

[BazW]

Can do...just holding out for some half decent weather so it might be a while yet

[BazW]

Printed off the field repair: 2006 and ordered the crimps from work. Seems fairly straight forward and cheap to sort (crimps were 25p each and heatshrink I've already got). Only need 2 but ordered 4 just in case I make an arse of the first one. Hopefully will get it done tomorrow

[BazW]

The field repair wasn't too bad a job, boost hose off, battery and battery tray out. Open the loom up and you'll see this...



The existing crimp was gunged up so had to cut a fair bit out but that meant it's too short to connect. Extended the wiring (good job I got extra crimps), connected the new crimps, new shrink and done...took about half an hour. The only tricky part was down to not having much wire at one end, fiddly but not too much drama. The only other other issues were fault codes for the traction control and airflow meter. It was reading...

C0244 - actual engine torque malfunction
P0100 - air flow meter

Checked it and it seemed to be a fault with the airflow meter causing the traction to turn off. Borrowed one and it drove perfect, no ECU light, no TC light, pulled well and didn't hesitate at all. there's a receipt for an airflow meter from last year but it's a pattern part so this time genuine only and hope that cures that

[Astra Dan]

Nice one. I bought a new but cheap (£30) AFM for my Mk4 X20XEV. It was no better or worse for about 3-4k miles, then started making the car hop about when cold. Switched back to the original and it's fine again. Always worth a genuine one where possible I think.

So is that bunch of wires all grounds? Would it not be a good idea to put another tail in that group and take it straight to the battery -ve? Or is that what the fix is all about? I think soldering it would have been a slightly stronger repair IMO.

[BazW]

The original crimp is a lot smaller than the replacement. Electrics isn't my strong point so can't say why they don't mention soldering but one of the mechanics at work was talking about a field repair on Insignia boot catches that says not to solder the connections, just crimp and heatshrink. It seems to work...for now anyway

[GaryVaux]

soldering would be fine, but they say with vibration the wire can break where it enters/exits the solder. Hence why crimps are recomended. Never heard of this fault before, handy to know.

[Astra Dan]

Yeah I know about the theories of soldering, but I've done enough in many cars to pretty much dismiss them.

So is this crimp just a replacement or do you tie the whole lot to ground, too?