'95 LS X20XEV Hatchback

[Mort]

I have been here a while, so I thought that it was about time that I put my car into this forum, so that I can keep a record of what has been done to it.

I had a j-reg 1.6 mk3 Astra but it blew it's head gasket. The original plan was to just fix it, but a lack of knowledge on my part and of time on the part of my mate helping me out meant that it was taking too long to get fixed and I needed a replacement car. So I turned on E-bay, searched for cheap Vauxhalls ending that night in the local area, and the first one was an interesting looking 2l Cav about 5 miles away. I went down with my mate to check it out, and it all seemed good, so £325 pounds later I drove it home

(I know that £325 isn't the cheapest that anyone has paid for a Cav on here, but I'm still pretty pleased with the car I got for that money).

Anyway, here are some of the pics of the car from that auction. judging by the dates on them they were taken a few years before I bought the car, and although the paint work is not in that good a condition any more, the rest of the car was the same.

The car came with a pretty nice stereo (that he said had been in another car when it had had a crash), and I discovered later that the CD drive in it is buggered. Still, the bluetooth function is amazing, and it is still a nicer stereo than anything else I would put in there.

[Mort]

Once I had the car and had driven it for a couple of weeks to make sure that it wasn't a lemon, I decided to make some improvements to it. As I had never changed anything more complicated than a headlight bulb on a car before, I started small.

The rear windscreen wiper had the little cover thingy missing, so I replaced the wiper arm.
The driver sun visor wouldn't stay up (someone had stuck a mirror tile to it ) so I replaced it with one from a cdx with the built in mirror. I didn't wire it in, and I didn't get the passenger one, so they don't match at the moment, but if that really starts to bug me I can do something about it later.

By this time I had owned the car for about a month, and the engine light had started to come on whenever I drove it, and the car was always in limp mode. After a bit of digging online (including finding a certain Cav owners forum) I traced the problem to the camshaft sensor. This didn't surprise me as when I bought the car I did see that the sensor was being earthed for some reason (see picture). After one false start where I got the wrong sensor (the one with the old plug) I got the correct sensor and fitted it. The job wasn't too difficult, largely because rather than remove the drive belt and do a proper job of it, I simply pulled back the timing belt cover and worked underneath it. Overall this was not a fantastic idea, and resulted in rather sore hands, and a lot of swearing when the bolt that holds the timing belt cover bolt to the engine sheared as I was trying to screw the whole lot back together. I have since been told that it is stuck in there, resulting in my timing belt cover currently being secured by tape. Not ideal, but it seems to be doing the job for now.

I had also decided that I wanted to wanted to fit a trip computer, so I decided to get behind the glove box and see if I could find my little yellow plug, to see if it was worth my while looking further into the possibility. I was very pleased to find the plug straight away, but much less pleased to see that in the past something had been powered by taking a feed from the glove box light, and that when what ever it was had been cut out the wires had simply been tucked out the way, despite the fact that the end of the live wire was exposed (see photo) Needless to say I striped the lose wires out properly and re-insulated the glove box light wires straight away.

[Colorado]

Youve been busy then? Improving the car as you go along is great as long as you dont uncover old bodges! Had a few on the Turbo when i was restoring it.

[Mort]

Having fixed the camshaft sensor again, the cav has developed a new problem with the engine now (believed to be a sticky valve). As there could be more problems with the engine and suspension I have taken the decision to admit defeat and have bought a m-reg Ford Mondeo. I have a friend who is really into his Fords, and who is able to help me out with cheaper parts and experience to halp me turn it into a reliable runner, which I really need at the moment as I have started a new job and have no money. I'm putting the Cav up for sale as spares or repair, along with a boot load of vaux parts that I have collected over the last couple of years, so have a look in the for sale forum...