In between working and sleeping, there’s the cleaning, cooking, washing and car to sort and livestock to feed. Dear me. I found time to tweak the site mind..I’ve been doing a WP one for work and I’m now VERY familiar with wordpress, themes, plugins, includes and so on.
Tiredness apart, I’m still fighting the car. I have a tyre with a slow puncture, and I’m SO glad I bought the diagnostic and reference kit, as I’ve had to use it to clear a few faults. The thermostat is working perfectly, the timing belt is good, the new water pump is also running in nicely. I’ve found out my 2000 X plate car is in fact an April 2001 car (ECU date), I know a hell of a lot about its data flows and sensor interactions, and that EGR valve fault has been sorted I think. I had to put the valve in a vice and use a pair of stilsons on it, then a hammer, a blowtorch, some carb cleaner, some WD40 and some threats, plus a 12v benchpack, but I seem to have revived it. I’ve blanked it on the engine with a plate, and just bolted it off to the side with the plug in.the engine seems happy enough. We’ll see tomorrow.
What else do I need to do..fix this tyre, get a front one replaced or swapped for the spare, new bulb in the boot light, touch in a few scratches, get some new wipers, get the wheelnuts airgunned off and retightened by hand (I HATE it when they’re that tight they don’t come off in an emergency), and for preference strip and grease up the wiper linkage, as it looks quite dry and judders a bit. All minor things.
One oddity is that on paper this Astra-G is a heavier car than the Astra-F..yet on the F I had a 2 week tank..same tank on the G, now a 3 week tank!
I’ve reprogrammed the dash panel as well to turn off the 20000 mile servicing..damn silly. I’ve set it to every 12 months.
Car apart, the cats are fine if a little odd at the moment..Jems still hurling every day..it’s all fairly normal here..heh.
I read your repair guide on Vauhall auto gearbox selector switches. Hugz mate, that’s exactly the fault I’ve got and the local dealer wanted about £400 to fit a new one. I paid £300 for the car which has done ~69,000 miles, and is otherwise in fairly good nick. Thanks again. Mike
Just one last question. I can only see a spray grease advertised at Maplins. Was it one of these you used? There is a white spray grease and a silicone one. But as far as I can see, these are the only ones. I could really do with knowing, as I don’t want to stick the wrong type in and have switch contacts shorting after the grease burns!
I too read your guide on the “Vauhall auto gearbox selector switch fix”. The guide help me fixed my girlfriends 98 Holden Astra. The main problem was a malfunctioned spring in the switch. A few suggestions for updating the guide: 1) show picture of switch connector plug with the red thing pulled out 2) easier to just partially open up the switch like a clam shell to clean it than to completely open it up 3) easier to use spray can to degrease/grease switch.
Just used your fix for the Astra AF13 selector switch. Double winner!, it also fixed a weird power drop during manual upchanges I had learned to live with. Another old car saved!
Brilliantly wrote,your piece on how to fix the flashing” S ” did exactly as you explained,sorted out my problem straight the way.This method worked on my 3.0 V6 Sintra 1999.A car i was about to give up on.Just wanted to say a big THANKYOU.
Kind regards
Des