[Harvey]

24 July 2016

Had a really good Billing weekend. The Derbyshire region of the Vauxhall Drivers’ Club.

Saturday at 6pm the Vectra ST & ST200 owners had a gathering in the VBOA parade area. I couldn’t stay long as our BBQ was ready and my belly was growling.

Sunday evening and the wifey decided to do a bit of a photo shoot on the canal banking with hers and mine.

 

[Harvey]

24 July 2016

As I left Billing on the Monday I smelt plastic burning and a plastic bag decided to weld itself to my exhaust. It was pure luck really as when I got home and cleaned it off I noticed some oil at the top of the engine. A while later and the top got stripped as the leak was from the rear rocker cover. I had only replaced the darn gasket earlier this year grrr.

All was cleaned up and checked.

I decided to seal it properly like I had on the front cover which has never leaked using some proper RTV sealer.

Boshed another genuine gasket on and smothered on sealer.

Building it back up.

All fitted and left it over a day prior to starting so the sealer is fully set.

 

[Harvey]

6 August 2016

I have a few niggles on the bodywork which I knew required work. Worse bit was bottom of the driver’s door b pillar. I already have a brand new weather strip and b pillar sticker I purchased years ago for when I had it sorted.

Also o/s rear arch rear most with a tiny bubble plus various other touch-ups that looked nasty in my eyes.

Dropped the car off at Fleets Ahead who I’ve used a few times and always had good results with on my other cars. The added bonus is Ben is into his cars and loves his Vauxhalls owning a Calibra and a Vectra himself.

My brand new fuel pump was noisy the other day so I decided it’s time to replace the fuel tank as I believe it’s this causing the pump issue even with the fine filter the pump must be sucking in ****. Sourced a tank from Euro Car Parts with free delivery, arrived in less than 24 hours. I’ll also put a warranty claim in for a another brand new pump and flush the fuel system. Left the tank with Ben at Fleets Fleets Ahead to have it rubber coated for extra protection.

As the car is currently, he’s keeping it as clean as he can by covering it completely but I’ll still have work to do underside when I get it back. At least I know it’s in good hands.

 

[Harvey]

13 August 2016

Collected the car earlier this and let me just say top job. This is the rear of the offside arch that had a tiny scab.

This was the pain for the painter as the bottom of the b pillar had some rot believe it or not so took some time to sort.

Painter got carried away and had filled the hole for the trim clip so I measured up and drilled the 5.5mm hole and got it spot on.

I knew about the rust on the b pillar years ago and had already purchased the necessary for the day I got it sorted, new b pillar vinyl.

I wasn’t looking forward to this but took my time and it all went smoothly and you can’t even tell it’s been replaced.

Along with the new vinyl I had a brand new weather strip to go on.

Rear trim clip for the weather strip and why it has the 5.5mm hole there.

To say I’m pleased with the outcome is an understatement, it all looks superb.

 

[Harvey]

12 September 2016

My Clifford alarm had lost its confirmation chirps but still worked perfectly which was down to the internal siren battery failing. Clifford say it’s not a user replicable part and want £70 for a new siren. I did my usual and had a search around the web and after 10 mins a plan was hatched.

Siren located in my engine bay and unbolted from its mount.

Then I removed the four screws from the main wiring feed.

Next up removed the two screws which secure the siren.

Pop the siren off and recover the rubber weather seal remembering to refit the seal on reassembly. Inside you can see the failed battery secured to the circuit board with trendy zipties.

Carefully feed the main wiring through and slide the circuit board out then remove the battery by cutting the wires one by one close to the battery.

The replacement battery looks huge (top) but is the same voltage with more power than the original (bottom) so will hopefully last longer. It was £10 and is for a Gtech vacuum, you can get them off Amazon or eBay. You could also use two old style cordless 3.6v battery packs and solder them together if you want to keep the same power battery and smaller battery size.

Install spade connectors on the battery wires coming off the circuit board then reinstall back into the siren housing. Tight squeeze not forgetting to pop the plastic sheet under the battery so it doesn’t short on the soldered circuit board contacts.

All done and tested with the confirmation chirps now working on the alarm allowing an audible lock/unlock and alarm programming table confirmation when setting features. This also means the alarm is officially Thatcham 1 approved again as the siren will continue to sound if all wires were to be cut.

 

[Harvey]

15 September 2016

Earlier this week I removed the old fuel tank. Came off far easier than I expected which was nice.

All looking good under there but I plan on sploshing some underseal on so it doesn’t get nasty over time.

This picture if of some blue roll I used to clean up the remaining fuel from inside the tank. After it had dried you can see the rust from inside the tank that was clogging up the pre pump filter. The whole surface inside the tank is the same now all the fuel has evaporated, nasty.

Cleaned up the filler neck and pipework.

Top of the old tank is beginning to look a bit crusty as well as the insides.

Flushed out the fuel pipework to make sure there was no crud in there.

I also cleaned up the pipework around the tank before refitting.

Undersealed.

New tank assembled and ready for fitting with, pump, foam padding and plastic clips to hold the pipework. Got a few more plastic clips to fit once the tank is fitted and I know where I need to attach them.

 

[Harvey]

16 September 2016

Attached the filler pipes to the tank and made sure all was nice and tidy.

The tank straps had a fettle and had a few coats of Hammerite satin black to make them look sexy.

I then set about wrestling with the tank and I’m happy to say that I won and it’s now fitted. I then slopped 20 litres of fuel in and primed the fuel pump by removing the fuel pump relay and bridging the live (red) and pump wire (red/blue). This was to purge the air from the fuel pipes and pressurise the fuel rail. The old girl then fired into life first run of the key and the world was a better place to behold with no nasty rust floating around within the fuel tank and clogging the pre pump filter starving the pump of fuel.

My next job, when I can be bothered, is to remove the rear subframe and give it a good refurbishment. It’s not too bad but does need some Harvey loving.

 

[Harvey]

15 October 2016

Spotted this under the front nearside of the Vec so decided to investigate as I had a good idea of what and where it was coming from.

Today the front bumper came off for a better view and a poke and prod, might get it painted now it’s off.

Obvious when you can see things, darn a/c seal needs replacing.

Dribbling back down the pipe and onto the floor.

 

[Harvey]

25 June 2017

After finding the ac leak after parking the car last year at the receiver/condenser join I also noticed the main compressor body seal was leaking boo hoo. All the remaining gas was extracted by my ac man earlier this week when he was round sorting a couple of my other cars. After all the gas was sucked out the low pressure fill connection had the valve removed to stop any residue gas building pressure.

This is the rear of the compressor and you can see where it’s leaking from the main body seal. My options are to get it refurbished or buy new. I’m planning on making a few calls next week as I’ve priced a new Hella compressor for £210 so it all depends on refurbishment costs.

The top connections are dry so this is why I’ve deduced the main body seal has gone as this is common on compressors.

I had to remove the o/s engine mount and remove the subframe o/s front and middle mounting bolts to give me just enough room. It was very tight but with a wiggle and a twist I just managed it.

I split the leaking join at the receiver/condenser as this needs a couple of new seals.

 

[Harvey]

13 October 2017

After being on back order for a couple of months my new Hella compressor arrived in September.

Checked it over as it was the correct fitment but noticed the loom plug wasn’t right so swapped it over from the old leaky unit.

 

[Harvey]

5 January 2018

Just the single update his time I’m afraid as back in October I got my new compressor installed and the car back on all fours. I’ve decided it’s not coming out this year as I plan on sticking my GTE on the road for a bit of fun time.

 

[Harvey]

21 March 2018

I gave the old girl some loving the other day as I’ve been meaning to remove the dash clocks and discard the ikle MSD speedo sticker for a while. The sticker had gone all wibbly wobbly from the heat which can’t be seen in the picture but it looked pants so it had to go.

Stripped.

All done and back together.

 

[Harvey]

6 April 2020

Having not tinkered with the old motor since going back into hibernation after VBOA 2016 I thought I’d fix the annoying cold start timing belt squeak. A spot of research and chat to those in the know I was recommend to fit a Gates belt so that’s what I bought. The timing pullies were changed in 2016 and having covered around 350 ish miles since then and all felting like new, so just a belt change required.

Started stripping it down and removing the Contitech timing belt.

Fortunately I’ve got a pucka Sykes-Pickavant timing kit so this makes things so much easier, or should do.

New Gates belt installed and timing quadruple checked after finding it a pain to balance the front and rear banks but I won. Bit less here and a bit more there and I’ve got the cam timing marks bang in the centre of where they should be.

All buttoned back up to test another day.

 

[Harvey]

23 June 2020

It’s always bugged me that the PAS pressure sensor plug had a damaged release tab but the connection worked fine. I did some research and found it’s an AMP Superseal Connector so I ordered a genuine replacement for less that £2 delivered for this lot.

This is the damaged part compared with the new replacement.

I then cracked out my cheap as chips yet simply brilliantly useful pin removal tools.

A short time later I’d popped the pins out with ease.

Then shoved the pins into the new plug & the job was complete.

 

[Harvey]

That's it for now folks but I'm sure I'll have more to add next time I'm tinkering and you never know it might get used one day soon.

 

[RobJenko]

Very good read, great to see someone put proper effort in on a car with a only the best will do attitude, well done sir

 

[Harvey]

Thanks for the kind words. Anyone who knows me know I don't mess when it comes to sorting my cars 😉

 

[Harvey]

I’ve decided as my Vectra Supertouring 200 is 25yrs this year I’d make an effort to get it on the road as it was last out in 2016.

Used my fuel can handpump to pop 20L of Shells finest V-Power in the tank before showing it full daylight.

Turned the engine over without the crank sensor plugged in to build oil pressure and all good before it roared into life…then the fun began….

At the next start it refused to do anything and I noted the battery light was on even with the ignition key removed. Bit of head scratching/testing/diagnostics and I traced it to a faulty alternator and suspect rectifier issue. I managed to get the car started by removing the 12v feed from the alternator so it was moved under my carport. A few hours later after a wrestle with the car and numerous items removed the alternator was finally free, square pen round hole springs to mind.

Me being me I wanted to keep the exact same alternator being a Bosch 0123500007 (GM 90508842) 100amp jobbie so I began my research and found a local company in Mansfield who refurbish alternators. Big shout out to Father and Daughter outfit at Rotec Ltd as they tested my alternator for free which confirmed my suspicions of a dead rectifier and believe it or not they had the exact same fully refurbished model ready to go the only one they had so I was extremely lucky. I’ll put this into context as my alternator was only fitted to Vectra V6 1996-98 models so how lucky was I to find one. My plan A was to get them to refurb my alternator but plan B was a winner with a walk-in walk-out exchange plus some pennies.

To remove the alternator you have to remove the driveshaft so I fashioned a bung to stop the gearbox fluid pouring out. Rather happy with my improvisation as I only lost around 50ml so not even worth topping up the fluid.

New alternator fitted and more tool improvisation to get the auxiliary belt on/off as the tensioner is strong on these so you need lots of leverage.

After it was all bolted back together the car was started and I’m very happy to say the idle voltage is good and the issue is sorted. A few more bits to do before it’s on the road but it’s getting there.

 

[Harvey]

Yet more Vectra loving for my Supertouring 200 before it’s fully on the road as I noticed the rear tailgate badge looked loose so I poked it and basically fell off in my hand.

Out came the glue and tape and it’s now sorted, might leave it like this!

During the production build from new they remove the lower rear screen third brake light as it comes integrated in the rear spoiler. The red plastic just gets taped over but it was looking a bit ropey.

I removed the ancient tape, cleaned it up and popped fresh black take on prior to refitting.

AC bloke popped round and pressure tested my system as I fitted a couple of new seals and brand new Hella compressor 4 years ago but had never had it checked. It’s now fully gassed with 900g and boy is it cold when the AC is on. If you’re in the Nottingham/Derby area I can recommend you try ACDC Air Conditioning, he’s fully mobile so will come to your home or business.

Another piece of the car that wasn’t looking great were the handbrake and gear gaiters as the originals had definitely seen better days.

I placed an order for some eBay specials in real leather and promptly swapped them over after a bit of wrestling.

Looking way better now and smells lovely.

 

[Harvey]

I took the Vecta Supertouring 200 for its MOT last Friday but it wasn’t to be.

It failed on a split lower ball joint boot which has only covered about 750 miles and the lambda readings were high due to a slight exhaust blow.

Friday evening, I checked my stock and found I had a spare as new ball joint and exhaust paste so cracked on with sorting fixes.

Jacked it up and popped axle stands under before splitting the blowing join and pasting it up and adding more after reassembly.

Re-test today and…..

We have a pass so I spent more hard-earned cash and it’s now taxed so fully road legal.

A small but fiddly job requiring attention was a damaged rear headrest sleeve.

I managed to source a brand new genuine replacement thanks to Genuine Part Search after dropping them an email.

With a careful extraction I managed to get the damaged goods removed without causing any damage to the seat.

The replacement just clicked into place and all was happy in ST200 land.