1990 Astra GL Diary

[astra216]

After a whole winter of use I was giving it a much needed deep clean this weekend, removed the mats and has a wet drivers floor. Carpet and underlay out of the front to dry out. There wasn't that much water in there and it dried out in the sun on Sunday. We have had a lot of rain and two days of heavy rain last week. There was no surface rust starting so that 's good news.

I felt a bit disheartened about this but need to check all the likely water ingress points. I'm starting with the scuttle as I need to have a look at my blower as it's squealing away!

deffo leave the carpets out untill its 100% sorted. pain in the arse when they keep getting wet.
you might find the dashboard has to come out, depending where its coming from.

the last one i sorted out took me weeks to pin-point its exact spot, as the tiny droplets / runs, came from different points when the car was moving, and when it was still. and to make things more confusing, it wasnt leaking all the time, only in heavy rain.

i pulled all the carpets out, and then took the dash off, and left everything out for about 3 or 4 weeks, whilst i used the car everyday, waiting for it to rain, so i could check. funny looks from people at traffic lights when youve got no dashboard, and wires hanging out everywhere.

i even resorted to taking the car through a petrol station car wash, to try and force it into leaking, which didnt help me. it took ages to find it.
in the end it was the bulkhead to suspension turret seam. a piece of sealant was missing, or it had cracked, and fallen out of place.

i ran a bead of evo-stick sealer into the suspect dip, and along all the surrounding seam joints, inside and outside of the panel, just to make sure. had no trouble again after that.

whats the 220 like to drive by the way ? does it get the thumbs up.

[Chicken2110]

After a whole winter of use I was giving it a much needed deep clean this weekend, removed the mats and has a wet drivers floor. Carpet and underlay out of the front to dry out. There wasn't that much water in there and it dried out in the sun on Sunday. We have had a lot of rain and two days of heavy rain last week. There was no surface rust starting so that 's good news.

I felt a bit disheartened about this but need to check all the likely water ingress points. I'm starting with the scuttle as I need to have a look at my blower as it's squealing away!

http://www.astra-mk2.com/forum/forum/members-section/how-to-s-interesting-modifications/17606-de-whistling-mk2-air-vents

[The Griffin]

deffo leave the carpets out untill its 100% sorted. pain in the arse when they keep getting wet.
you might find the dashboard has to come out, depending where its coming from.

the last one i sorted out took me weeks to pin-point its exact spot, as the tiny droplets / runs, came from different points when the car was moving, and when it was still. and to make things more confusing, it wasnt leaking all the time, only in heavy rain.

i pulled all the carpets out, and then took the dash off, and left everything out for about 3 or 4 weeks, whilst i used the car everyday, waiting for it to rain, so i could check. funny looks from people at traffic lights when youve got no dashboard, and wires hanging out everywhere.

i even resorted to taking the car through a petrol station car wash, to try and force it into leaking, which didnt help me. it took ages to find it.
in the end it was the bulkhead to suspension turret seam. a piece of sealant was missing, or it had cracked, and fallen out of place.

i ran a bead of evo-stick sealer into the suspect dip, and along all the surrounding seam joints, inside and outside of the panel, just to make sure. had no trouble again after that.

whats the 220 like to drive by the way ? does it get the thumbs up.

We had heavy rain for two days before I noticed it so I'll wait for the next heavy rain to sort it. All the bottom of the bulkhead, suspension seams were re-done last year with all the work but something could have been missed, never noticed water in it last year so something could have been disturbed. I hate leaks as they are normally complicated to get sort and can be lots of messing around to sort. I'll get there and thanks for the tips.

The car is dry now, it didn't take long to dry as there wasn't that much water in, just a soggy underlay.

The VX is great fun, you feel so connected to the road and feel everything going on, I'm using it daily at the moment and it makes the commute fun. It is happy being used to pootle about in and surprisingly comfortable, not crashy as long as you avoid the potholes. Not tracked it yet but will do this summer, any excuse to go for a b road blast and I'm out in it. Big thumbs up from me and I still have a smile when I drive it.

[The Griffin]

After much investigating I found a leaking seam, sealed this up but water was still getting in. Had the scuttle off, that was all fine and clear, sorted out the squeaking blower while I was there.

After reading on here I had another look and realised it was the door card plastic letting water past and onto the door seals! Door cards off, removed the old ones which were all still there and no too bad condition, cleaned up the door and made new ones making sure the bottom was tucked into the door as seen on here, can't remember which thread now. All seems good so far and it's been out in the showers all weekend with no water in yet, I'll give it this week and a pressure washing before fitting the interior again.

One other thing I want to look at is extending the sunroof drains whilst I have access so that's what I'm now going to search for as I know I've read a how to on here. A few other small things to sort and I'll be happy again.

[Astra Dan]

Yeah I did that to the 1.3. Not had the door card off the GTE in many years, never for the n/s door actually. Seems to work!

[The Griffin]

I have another leak just when I thought I'd sorted it out and been over it all! It seems to be coming in where the front passenger side sunroof drain pipe runs in the A pillar, it's coming in behind the wiring at the bottom of the pillar, just a small puddle after rain / sleet / hail all evening and night. Anyone else had this? I assume it must be sunroof related?

[Astra Dan]

Are you sure it's not the scuttle drain area that it's running down from? I know I go on about this a lot but it really does kill the passenger floor area.

[The Griffin]

I've had the scuttle off and checked and it all seems fine, the drain is clear. I did think it was related to the end drain hole but couldn't see where it would be entering the car when looking in the wheel arch with the liner out. Is there a hole or something where it could be coming in? Maybe wing removal is the only way to see properly.

[Astra Dan]

It is really. The issue is where the square holes are each end its not them being clear that's the issue it's the seam sealer drying out and cracking so water goes into the join which is folded with the top part inside the side part (bad design) and trickles down behind the trim and carpet soaking the lot. Both my GTE and 1.3 have had leaks here, the 1.3 bad enough (lives outside) to totally ruin the floor twice.

[The Griffin]

I will have to have the wings off and re-seal them up then. The sunroof drains work so I couldn't work out how water was getting in there. Did you remove the old stuff and put use seam sealer? Thanks for your help.

[Astra Dan]

Mine was so bad we ended up gridning the sealer and rust out and welding a small plate in then smothering it with new sealer and layers of paint. I will look for pics.

[The Griffin]

Happy to report that I have a leak free car now, thanks to Astra Dan's help it was indeed the seam sealer on the ends of the scuttle. Resealed them and no more leaks. Luckily no rust there either!

Next job is extend the sunroof drains through the cills and refit the interior.

[The Griffin]

I got offered a Mk5 astra for not much money so ended up buying it for use over the winter to keep the Mk2 off the road which is now living in a carcoon until spring.

I'm still happy the sealing up of the scuttle cured the water which was coming in and I also extended the sunroof drains out of the cills.

The sagging headlining is getting worse, found a local company who do flocking so the next job is to remove it, clean it up. If I remember correctly Darren have done a guide about removing the old covering, so have a read of that and clean it up before getting it nicely finished and keep it off rear passengers heads!

[The Griffin]

Headlining removed and cleaned up and dropped at flockers at start of Jan. After getting messed around for 6 months I finally got my headlining back undamaged but not flocked this weekend!
After months of unanswered calls and messaged I had visions of it being damaged or thrown away, the flocker had left a couple of months ago but my parts were still were I'd left them and as I'd left them, releaved about that part, just annoyed I've lost my deposit.

Now to find a proper company to sort it out for me!

[DarrenH]

bugger had the same problem with the cylinder head on my first GTE. used to go up the unit once a week, peer through the window of the abandoned looking unit, head still sat exactly where i laid it down :/