Author Topic: Swede or Turnip...........  (Read 17544 times)

Offline Seanl

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Swede or Turnip...........
« on: 11 September 2013, 22:03 »
Had one in 2.0t form a few years back and I loved it tbh. Daily duties were being done by an early 1.4 Fabia MPI 8v, which although gave us absolutely no trouble what so ever, was desperately slow, and a touch small with another addition to the family.
Decided we needed something bigger, and after scouring various online car sales websites etc, I couldn't believe how little these were going for. Found one locally which had high mileage, but was a good price for an awful lot of car!

Along I went to a dealer who had taken it in as a PX, had a test drive, handed over a grand, and away I drove.











1.9 TID Vector Sport, so high spec, but its only the 120 bhp version to keep insurance low thanks to her indoors! It actually cost almost exactly the same as the Fabia to insure, and the reason we bought that was because it was so much less to insure than anything else!
The 150bhp types were also surprisingly cheap to insure as well, but this one was local and too cheap to say no to.

In summary; late 2005 (55 plate) 134k, FDSH, Cambelt replaced 2k and 6 months before, Half Leather, Cruise, Dual Climate with ice cold AC, Parking Sensors, 4 almost new tyres,  etc etc......
Easily the most comfortable car I've ever sat in, and was originally registered in Northern Ireland, hence the plate.

Had it about 3 months now and put 6k on it, and in that time a few things have started to go a bit wrong.........

When car gets up to temp, the clutch bite point drops very low.
Water pumps are prone to go and should be replaced with cambelt, but there is no history whatsoever of it ever being replaced............
DMF has got extremely noisy, tend to keep my foot on the clutch at idle to mask the noise.  :grin:
Turbo is noisy on over run, and a bit more smokey than a diseasel should be.

Oh well, I'll run it til it dies for what I paid for it. I'm not spending any money on it, although the MOT is due beginning of next month. If it passes, great. If not, I'll break it for parts. Only thing that would give cause for concern though is emissions as its very solid and having had it on the ramps, everything is as it should be.

This funny thing has been flashing on the infotainment screen for about a month, as well as binging at me in an aircraft tone too. Something about Service due now.  :huh: :lipsrsealed:

Meh, its a diesel, the oil is always that black.............. :whistle:
« Last Edit: 11 September 2013, 22:05 by Seanl »
Classic Green Corrado VR6 Storm | Jetex Cat back | BMC CDA | VT mounts | Bilstein B12 | 288mm front brakes | Mk4 rear brakes | Goodridge braided hoses | BBS RX228s | Shortshifter | Lupo wipers | Uprated headlight loom | All red rears | Refreshed leather | Fresh paint |

Offline JC

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Re: Swede or Turnip...........
« Reply #1 on: 11 September 2013, 22:08 »
you bought a vectra b/c mongrel ........................................  :whistle:

 :laugh:

Offline barrym381

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Re: Swede or Turnip...........
« Reply #2 on: 11 September 2013, 22:09 »
you bought a vectra b/c mongrel ........................................  :whistle:

 :laugh:
1 of the reasons they went bust  :whistle:

Offline Seanl

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Re: Swede or Turnip...........
« Reply #3 on: 12 September 2013, 07:52 »
I did PM someone who may be in the know, but unfortunately he was playing happy campers and couldnt get back to me in time.......... :rolleyes:

Its not a mongrel either, its not as ugly as its half sister. More like a Pedigree Chuff........I mean Chum.  :grin:

Like I said though, its extremely doubtful I could have found a more comfortable and well equipped car for the money.  :wink:
« Last Edit: 12 September 2013, 07:55 by Seanl »
Classic Green Corrado VR6 Storm | Jetex Cat back | BMC CDA | VT mounts | Bilstein B12 | 288mm front brakes | Mk4 rear brakes | Goodridge braided hoses | BBS RX228s | Shortshifter | Lupo wipers | Uprated headlight loom | All red rears | Refreshed leather | Fresh paint |

Offline JC

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Re: Swede or Turnip...........
« Reply #4 on: 12 September 2013, 18:45 »
 :whistle:

aye they are a comfy old smoker alright, and thankfully parts are still readily available ...............

 from your friendly Vauxhall Dealer  :grin:

Offline Seanl

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Re: Swede or Turnip...........
« Reply #5 on: 22 September 2013, 22:36 »
Washed it.
Classic Green Corrado VR6 Storm | Jetex Cat back | BMC CDA | VT mounts | Bilstein B12 | 288mm front brakes | Mk4 rear brakes | Goodridge braided hoses | BBS RX228s | Shortshifter | Lupo wipers | Uprated headlight loom | All red rears | Refreshed leather | Fresh paint |

Offline Seanl

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Re: Swede or Turnip...........
« Reply #6 on: 30 September 2013, 21:29 »
Well it was supposed to go for MOT today. Alas, it didn't make it. On wednesday on the way back from work, I noticed it bucking a little whilst cruising. I put it down to the flywheel getting worse, and just mentioned it to the missus when I got home. She said it had been doing it the day before. She then went shopping, and on the way back the engine warning light came on, and the car went into limp mode.
I cleaned the egr valve and MAF to no avail. It then started belching black smoke, and sounded like it was misfiring. Managed to get it to a specialist not too far away, but it was getting worse and worse all the way there. Sounds like a bag of spanners in a washing machine! He got it on diagnostics, and it came up with a faulty fuel pump. According to the specialist, the pump contains the fpr and an ecu too. A new one is in the region of £800!!!  :sick:  He said it can possibly be refirbed much cheaper, and pointed me in the direction of a place that can test fuel pressure etc.

May get it checked, may get one off a scrapper, may just break it for parts early.  :rolleyes:
Classic Green Corrado VR6 Storm | Jetex Cat back | BMC CDA | VT mounts | Bilstein B12 | 288mm front brakes | Mk4 rear brakes | Goodridge braided hoses | BBS RX228s | Shortshifter | Lupo wipers | Uprated headlight loom | All red rears | Refreshed leather | Fresh paint |

Offline Seanl

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Re: Swede or Turnip...........
« Reply #7 on: 04 October 2013, 19:44 »
Got one of the local lads from the Saab forum to come round and read the codes and it was coming up with codes for low fuel pressure, and egr valve out of tolerance. Cleared the codes and none came back, but its still running like a fat bloke with asthma. He then asked if it had been refuelled before it happened. I wasn't aware it had, but then the missus went, "oh yeah I did as I was leaving asda, it started doing it just after that actually!" She obviously thought she had helped pinpoint the problem!

Diesel engines trying to run on petrol doesn't work..................... :rolleyes:

Draining £50 worth of contaminated fuel and the hassle of changing the filter tomorrow, then hopefully it should be well.  :undecided:  She tried to say that she wouldn't do that, "I know diesel is the Green one!"   Needless to say, she's acting very sheepish now.  :embarrassed:
Classic Green Corrado VR6 Storm | Jetex Cat back | BMC CDA | VT mounts | Bilstein B12 | 288mm front brakes | Mk4 rear brakes | Goodridge braided hoses | BBS RX228s | Shortshifter | Lupo wipers | Uprated headlight loom | All red rears | Refreshed leather | Fresh paint |

Offline Seanl

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Re: Swede or Turnip...........
« Reply #8 on: 05 October 2013, 20:10 »
Drained the fuel today. There is nowhere to physically drain it from underneath, so had to disconnect the inlet to the filter on the bulkhead, and keep priming the engine to get it all out. Took the filter out which took me about an hour and a half just to get the housing out of the bracket, and then about 3 hours to try and get the cap off the housing. Even took it to a local garage to see if they could help, but with their big ass set of grips it wasnt shifting. Bought it back home and trapped it in the vice to almost the point of breaking, and managed to finally get it off. Got a new filter from ECP and chucked that in, but by this time the battery was flat anyway so I'll top it up with DIESEL tomorrow, and give it a run through. Fingers crossed there is no lasting damage.
Classic Green Corrado VR6 Storm | Jetex Cat back | BMC CDA | VT mounts | Bilstein B12 | 288mm front brakes | Mk4 rear brakes | Goodridge braided hoses | BBS RX228s | Shortshifter | Lupo wipers | Uprated headlight loom | All red rears | Refreshed leather | Fresh paint |

Offline Seanl

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Re: Swede or Turnip...........
« Reply #9 on: 06 October 2013, 14:15 »
Fixed. Although I think the battery my be goosed now. Gonna leave it on charge for a couple of days first, then book it back in for MOT.
Classic Green Corrado VR6 Storm | Jetex Cat back | BMC CDA | VT mounts | Bilstein B12 | 288mm front brakes | Mk4 rear brakes | Goodridge braided hoses | BBS RX228s | Shortshifter | Lupo wipers | Uprated headlight loom | All red rears | Refreshed leather | Fresh paint |