Vectra Wagon: A Spaceships Story

[OrangeBlue]

We (my parents) needed a new wagon...
How things go, this got traded in at work.

'08 Opel Vectra Caravan, 1.9 16V Diesel, 85000km.



Since i can't let my people roll around like that, that happend, be warned it's my moms daily, so nothing too crazy.
Ap Coils

20" Irmscher Evostar



Before:


During:


Done(next day):


Lil' bit camber, 245/30 Falkens, witch are pretty narrow for a 245...

Don't know how much drop it got but it's about 34cm from the hub to the fender and around a hand wide worth of ground clearence.
Also fitted some smoked side indicators, a load space seperator and a skid plate.

Not much planned for 2018, upgrade the foglight surroundings, fix the ac condenser and power mirrors maybe a chip if i can find one...

[DawsonLiri]

Looks great for a daily, nothing too crazy and very simple, I like it!

[OrangeBlue]

Looks great for a daily, nothing too crazy and very simple, I like it!

Thanks, gotta keep one car simple...


Not much done since the first post, it proved itself as a reliable daily.
Good fuel economy.., about 7l/100km (33mpg) not bad with 20s and 245 tires.
The AP coils do well, 10/10 would buy again.

Rear brakes have about a month left, big service is due in 2 months.
Front topheads and some bushings in the rear are on their way out,
which is accapteble after about 140tkm/87tm/10yrs.

The one thing i did was i added steering spacers to the steeringrack since
i had a slight rubbing issue on the frame rail.
Got to address the rubbed off paint some time soon too.

And since no one likes posts without pics...

[OrangeBlue]

Four months past since the last "update"...

Since then i did the service, chased a weird noise and discovered more stuff that needs fixing..,
which means spending money. And who doesn't like to spend money? But one after another...

First of the anual maintance done, everything went fine, put it on stands, removed the skidplate
which (surprisingly) had some scratches in it.., but i guess that's to be expected.

Better then the plastic stuff that's usually there...


Replaced all the filters, fresh c3 gm oil, new drainplug (which is like a banjo bolt, awesome idea Fiat)
because of a messed up head.., no need to chisel it open now.

Smooth sailing.

Then the fuel filter.., i always safe these for last because i **** diesel fuel so much, when i attempted to change that..,
things got sideways... These car have a filter that sits inside a plastic housing, see where this is going?
I got it apart put the new filter inand assembled the housing and went to prime the system.., nothing had happend, yet...

I stand beside the car turn the ignition on, and... fuel, fuel absolutly everywere...
Fortunately the pump inside the tank shuts off after a few (very very long i might say) seconds.
Pulled the whole thing out the engine bay, blow it apart only to find nothing is wrong.

Put it back together and in the bay, primed the system again, and nothing.
No leak whatsoever...
So i ended up not only me beeing covered in diesel fuel but also the engine bay/firewall. For nothing.
Feel me, i do hope so.


While i was under the car i found out where my refrigerant is going. The ac compressor is leaking,
very minor but after about 12 month it's gone.

Not the lines but at the case, good thing it is rather accessible, so add this to the list.


Next was a weird noise comming from the front of the car.
First i thought, ah tophead going bad, checked them, nothing.

So maybe the lca?
Nothing.
Strut itself?
Noting.

After some fiddeling around i check the cv joint/drive shaft, and et voilą.
Not the cv joint is bad but the surport bearing of the inner driveshaft is.
F me.


That all happend on a saturday...


The Sunday after that i wanted to do the rear brakes i mentioned in the last post.
Not that hard, done it many times, have had things happen but not what happend here.

The retaining spring broke of in the caliper, on both sides. Like wtf.
And remember it's sunday, so no stores open.
Long story short after 2 hours i got the remaining pieces out.
Steal springs and alloy calipers don't mix well i guess.

No pics of this deal, covered in brake dust, blood and penetrating oil.
Me no enjoy.


Also put the car in winter mode, since my parents are going on vacation in the mountians.
And while doing so i looked over the tires. And?

The fronts are done.., so it need an alignment.
At some point i need to refinish the wheels (were painted by p/o), they got mangeled, especially the front right..,
curb rash all around. Thanks Dad...
Need to get a new set of wheels for the winter too, the 17 look so shitty, maybe a set of 18s in the same design as the 20s.
We'll see...


Soooo remember the list?

We started with:
-Anual maintance
-Rear brakes
-Rubbed off paint in the wheel arch
-AC Condenser

We crossed of everything besides the rubbed of paint but added ac compressor, front tires and driveshaft surport bearing.

So the new list contains:
-Rubbed of paint
-AC Compressor
-Front tires
-Driveshaft bearing
-Alignment


All in all it might seem like im complaining, but i am not, it's a 10 years old car after all.
It's treading us well, so we do to.
You just gotta stay on top with the maintance.