Astra mk3 Arctic 1.6 8v to 3.0 24v build

[Harvey]

what are those pebbles all about !!

Ask Highways England or whoever thought it would be a good idea to litrally stick them to a road surface. They were everywhere & I got a fist full out the side skirts when we got home. Found them all over the GTE as I drove it down that year unfortunately

[Harvey]

Dug the Astra mk3 from its hibernation and gave it the once over in readiness for going back on the road next month.







Just to prove my custom made dash and the engine work I did a little vid. Can’t wait to actually drive it again as it’s been way too long, that is if I can get the keys off the wife as it is her car after all.

[Harvey]

Finally, the mk3 is taxed and on the road now the weather has turned for the better, that was until it wasn’t last Sunday. Decided to pop into Derbyshire and the heavens opened but fear not it’s a car to use, until it isn’t and I found the front o/s brake caliper was sticking

You see it does get used in the rain. This wet stuff is from the sky and not a hosepipe!



Lovely beading on the roof.



The V6 rear bank 1 lambda popped the EML on a couple of times so I’ve cleared the codes and not seen it since. Got a spare brand-new Bosch on the shelf just in case I need to swap it out.



On Monday evening the car resumed default position, on axle stands.



I removed and stripped both front calipers as there’s simply no point servicing just one for such a safety critical component. I had to use a punch through the brake line hole to get the piston out of the o/s caliper, it was tight. The n/s wasn’t so bad but was close to sticking.





Non-patented anti-drip braided line tool installed, old silicone sealer kept knowing it would come in handy one day for something.



Piston cleaned up well with no pitting.



Issue was the section between the inner and out seals had corroded even though the outer seal wasn’t damaged. I blame this on me assembling them last time using just brake fluid possibly causing it to dry out with moisture trapped, lesson learnt silicone grease assembly method only from here on.



Cleaned up the corrosion with my trusty Dremel and without seals in place the piston dropped in/out smoothly as it should.



Alfresco dining with a dirty mk3 anyone?

[Harvey]

Seal kit ordered along with new banjo crush. Seal kit was from Brake Stop Lid and is excellent quality and comes with silicone piston seal assembly grease and red rubber grease for the caliper body sliders. Everything ordered Monday and arrived yesterday.



Assembly time using only the silicone grease for the seals and a good smearing around the now not rusty section. Inner wiper seal in place.



Outer weather seal stretched over the piston.



Weather seal located in the groove and gently but firmly pushed into place passed the inner seal before finally making sure the seal locates in the outer piston groove.







Refitted and bled the brakes using my wonderful assistant (the wife) as it was quicker than messing with Eezibleed.



Test drive success and car washed.



Then back to bed until next use.

[Harvey]

I’ve managed to acquire a couple of perfect mk3 top mount caps from a mate as my existing ones were drilled to accommodate the mk2 Koni top adjusters which are no longer fitted (leaking) having changed to the mk3 Koni.

Looks neater instead of having holes drilled unnecessarily.

[Harvey]

As the car is running my hybrid mk2/mk3 LCD dash I’ve finally got a fully working oil pressure gauge after messing with a few different sensors both new and used, all faulty for various reasons. In the end a brand new Intermotor 53850 sensor with adaptor loom so no cutting of the OE loom plug necessary works perfectly. The sensor offers 2x oil pressure feeds; 0-5 bar variable gauge, plus 0.30 bar oil warning light. Most Vauxhalls only come fitted with an oil warning light sensor and not the dual sensor that I have fitted for the LCD dash.



While on a fix it mission I had noted the ambient air temp was reading a tad high on the trip computer so rummaged through my spares stash and found three GM temp sensors. One being faulty so got binned and the other two working perfectly and giving a proper ambient temp. Turns out I was right as the originally was ready 5C high all the time, so also got binned.

[Harvey]

I thought it was about time I had the AC health checked on the mk3 as it was last done early 2017. It’s still working fine but didn’t seem to be as cold as it should be so I booked in with Stay Kool who are home based in the South Derby area. I arrived at my allotted time & Mark set about connecting his kit. We had a chat about the total gas weight & after double checking his documentation it was as I initially thought & should be 900g for the series 2 mk3. Pressure test passed & old gas removed it only had 360g left, no wonder it was cool & not cold. Re-gassed with dye added just in case any future leaks developed & I was on my way happy & cold in the knowledge the AC was in tip top condition.

[Harvey]

I found a crack in the intermediate drive shaft bearing support bracket last year and applied a temporary fix until I could source a replacement, more on that later. After a Sunday only attendance at VBOA the other week I obtained a bargain replacement within the depths of the trade stands for a whole ?10, winning! Here it is with the support bracket removed.



I only required the alloy bracket but the drive shaft was decent & noted the bearings sounded dry. I thought to myself “I wonder?” then began pulling it apart to investigate.



Outer orange and inner black muck/dust seals removed.



Bearings found to be a perfect but dry condition.



Repacked with LM2 grease prior to reassembly.









The temporary fix on the left as the bolt wouldn’t tighten fully in the bracket thread and just span. You can see the crack in the bracket which was caused by the starter motor hitting as it attempted to make a break for freedom when the bolts worked loose, eek. Replacement on the right tested and full torque of 18Nm is achievable.



Part number for the alloy bracket is 90375925 which is used on Calibra/Cavalier C25XE/X25XE as well as Vectra B X25XE/Y26XE. Even the date stamp of 96 matched both brackets, spooky.



Replacement ready for fitting. Old bracket gone but keeping the old shaft as it makes a sturdy hitting stick. The 23mm spacers are due to the V6 being narrower than a 4 pot when using an F28 gearbox.



Jacked the Astra mk3 up from the drivers side and lost no gearbox fluid during the swap over. Pictured from underside looking up with rag on left to catch any drips but nothing came out.



While I was poking around, I fixed the rear end clunk that was occasionally heard on very bumper roads. Turned out to be the exhaust kissing the beam so a permanent fix was applied using a length of thick wall fuel hose slit down its length.

[Harvey]

Not really used the Astra mk3 V6 much of late so it got some fettling at the weekend. The cruise control has always been hit and miss but is an easy system so after double checking all my wiring the culprit was found. Dash righthand side stripped so I could get to the top of the fuse box and wire routing with the air vent assembly removed.



The issue being the main ignition 12v feed from the fuse box for the cruise control. The loom plug I installed had an intermittent contact, re-crimp and all sorted. Note to self, with the cc requiring a 10amp fused feed I tagged off fuse 6 I installed for the ABS.



Cleaning up the slam panel I caught one of the removal panel bolts and the paint flaked off, most annoying.



Bolt removed and keyed with sandpaper then etch primed.



Painted and lacquered.



Refitted after the lacquer had hardened, back to as it should look.



To say we were only going to keep it a couple more years after I had converted it the wife and I enjoy it way too much to let it go anytime soon. Took it for a blast yesterday into Derbyshire and both came back with a smile on our faces, need I say more. Yes, of course the cruise control works perfectly now I fixed my own issue

[Harvey]

Yearly vehicle health check, MOT in other words, was due for the Astra mk3 V6 last week so used by local favourite indy.



In she goes but alas my quality control skills failed me this year.



It failed on a r/h split ball joint boot which I had probably caused when I swapped the shocks earlier this year, sob sob boo hoo.



I also got an advisory on the l/h ball joint boot as it had started to deteriorate so me being me obviously took the decision to replace both sides.



Luckily, I’d got a pair of brand spanking new Febi ball joints part no. 05170 sitting on my shelf just in case as you never know get out of jail fit and forget spares, winning!



I suppose I could have sourced new rubber boots but I know Febi quality so ground off the rivets and bolted on the newbies.





It’s now got a fresh MOT pass having only covered 402 miles this year but it was an enjoyable experience thanks to the toned-down exhaust with all the little niggles having been ironed out. I’ve SORNed it and the Winter hibernation has begun having driven it back from the MOT re-check on fumes thanks to the current fuel crisis.

[Harvey]

The Astra mk3 V6 was dug out of its Winter hibernation as I had a couple of jobs lined up having now covered 60,777 miles. If you missed the custom LCD dash conversion that I made see here.



First one was to remove the rear nearside door card to figure out where an annoying rattle was coming from.





A bit more poking, prodding and slapping and I found this loose in the bottom door, dried up sound deadening goop.



Also noted the central locking pushrod was loose so applied a tried and tested motorsport fix.





With that faffy job sorted the door card was popped back on.



Next job was to sort the screen wash tubing as the pipes were showing their age having gone through a few heat cycles under the hood and had a small weep. I removed both pipes and cut them back before soaking them in boiling water so they were supple enough to be pushed on for a nice snug fit.



Last job was to try and figure out why the gearbox level plug was still weeping after fitting a crush washer which they don’t normally have anyway. Jacked the car up on its side and removed the level plug.



After a good inspection I noted a slight deformation of the alloy casing when the level plug should sit snuggly, if you zoom in you can see the dent.



The old M18 crush washer outer diameter wasn’t quite large enough to cover the damage so oil could just sneak past. I bought an M17 crush washer which was 24mm OD instead of the M18 22mm OD, filed the ID so it was a tight squeeze over the threaded section of the level plug and then added thread lock to the rear ID of the crush washer. I could have messed with chemical metal to get the mating face smooth but access is tight and I would have had to remove the drive shaft, I’m hoping my fix has sorted it so time will tell.





Level plug torqued to spec being 50Nm and as you can see the new crush washer covers the mating face damage and coupled with the thread lock fingers crossed no more damp patch reappearing.

[Harvey]

The Astra mk3 V6 has been re-homed and relegated to on-trailer storage after a shuffle round with the cars.



The cars covered a few miles this year and I’m happy to report my F28 oil level plug fix has worked with no more fluid weeping.



I’ve also deploying a version 2 fix for the clunking exhaust which only happens on very bumpy roads which in a firm riding lowered mk3 Astra is most roads. A long rubber hose with heat shielding to stop the exhaust burning through.





Another slight annoyance is the central locking as the driver’s door locks via the alarm remote but then unlocks itself, lock it again and it’s fine. I decided it could be the c/l motor so had a good spare which I tested and proved to be working. Driver door card removed, excuse the tape it’s when I installed elec windows as a povo spec Arctic 2 don’t have them.



Door locking mechanism was surprisingly easy to remove as I was expecting a battle.



I swapped the suspect c/l motor (bottom) with the tested good spare (top) so the original door mechanism was refitted.



Bolted back in without a fuss, tested working so popped the genuine mk3 leather door card back on.





I stripped the suspect c/l motor but couldn’t figure out why it was doing what it was. Could be the microswitch was being activated with the plastic sliding part bouncing into side, but no idea so stuck it in my spares pile as a working but dodgy spare.



Astra at rest covered back up.

[Clive]

As always Harvey great detailed updates and always informative reading

[Harvey]

Popped down to Sywell Aerodrome for the annual VBOA show last weekend and took my Vectra ST200 and the wife’s Astra V6. Loaded and ready for the off, nice uneventful drive both ways and we got a few thumbs up from other drivers.




We had planned on camping Sat and Sun but decided we had burnt enough so scooted home on Sun afternoon. Great weekend and nice catching up with all the fellow club members both new and old.




The Astra was looking half decent in the bright sun to say we couldn’t be bothered to clean it when we got there.




On the way home the Astra cruise Control stopped working which I later diagnosed to the clutch pedal switch. The switch didn’t have sufficient travel so a lovely motorsport fix sorted that one using a slit 6mm fuel hose and ziptie, now working again.






In other news a mate spotted a wanted add so after making contact I’ve sold my huge Vauxhall sign I’ve had stashed away for 12 years. I had planned on mounting it to my garage ceiling backlit but never got round to it. It was 138cm (4 foot 6 inch) diameter so a bit of a monster size. The new owner is very pleased so that’s the main thing.

[Harvey]

Popped to a small local meet at the weekend in the blistering sunshine, I’m so glad I persevered with the Astra mk3 AC it was a wonderful cool drive out. The meet was at www.griffinsheadnottingham.co.uk I was expecting a larger turnout but it is holiday season and was hot hot hot. My mate came along in his Astra mk4 SRi Turbo so we parked together. Great mix of all sorts so I’ll let the pics do the talking.