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1

Car Parts, bits For Sale & Wanted / Winter tyres on elite alloys for sale

« on: 22 January 2013, 13:44:52 »

Hi,

My beloved Elite is finally leaving me, probably via a scrapper . It has good winter tyres on the 16" standard pre-facelift elite alloys though which surely could go to a good home. They are Minerva (hadn't heard of them before to be honest) which I bought over here in Norway. Cost me about 650 quid over here which was almost the same as some Vredsteins I was gonna get but they weren't in stock in the size, so given the price difference they would be 450ish quid fitted tyres in UK. Certainly performed very well over last winter over here then the Meggy went back home to UK where my bro occasionally borrowed it. They have done a few thousand miles so have good tread on - 5mm at least. I need to keep the car mobile really for getting rid, so the deal would be to go and swap them for some ropey set of old steelies with bald tyres or something. Yours for a bargain 200 quid for the wheels and tyres, so you can run winter and summer tyres without it looking like someone knicked your alloys .

2

Cars for Sale & wanted / For sale: 98 mini-facelift 3.0 Elite in Bedford

« on: 14 January 2013, 10:00:57 »

Hi,

Hopefully my trusty Omega (or parts of it) can live on with somebody else . I owned it for over 7 years and gave it to my brother to use as a second car last summer when I replaced it. With his new baby he can't afford to run the beast so it's time to move it on and get what I can for it to help out my bro.

Unfortunately the MOT and tax expired over christmas period although it has always passed and I reckon it would pass again if required - I always looked after it mechanically. So I'd say its for spares/repair. It's a 98 3.0 Elite auto mini-facelift in dark green (like BRG) with cream/brown leather interior and all usual Elite goodies. About 140,000 miles. Car located in Bedford

Good parts:
Lemforder front wishbones only done a few thousand miles
New steering idler arm
New rear springs
Good winter tyres on the 16" elite alloys only done about 3000 miles
Cambelt and rocker gaskets done about 4000 miles ago
All elite toys work except drivers seat heating
Geometry by WIM

Not so good:
Bodywork has a few scrapes/dings (although no real rust)
Cheap pattern back box I bought in a moment of weakness is a bit boomy compared to OEM

If I wasn't in Norway working I'd break it myself, but my bro hasn't the knowledge or time, so if you're interested come and take it away. Open to offers.

Cheers

3

General Car Chat / Finally moving on from the Omega. Is it worth owt?

« on: 09 January 2013, 14:59:03 »

Hi folks,

Been a while since I posted on here as in May last year I replaced the Elite after 7+ years of ownership and entered the world of E39s (not sure what we think of those over here ) and moved it over to Norway where I'm now living/working. Decided to donate the Elite to my bro for him to use and so I could borrow it on trips to UK but now it is finally going to go, as with a new baby he just can't afford to run the 3 litre beast as a second car .

I'd like to get him something for it if possible to help him out, but what I'm wondering is, is it actually worth anything or is the £150 he'll get from a scrapper the best bet?

I'm sure it might have been worth a bit taxed and tested, but unfortunately (and against my advice - grrr) he let the tax and MOT lapse over the x-mas period, which means it can't technically be driven away which is why I think it's probably literally worthless now . Is that about right?

Are bits like Xenon headlights, Bose bits, etc worth anything to anybody these days? My bro is no mechanic so can't take bits off unless it's really easy, but maybe somebody would be interested in taking a few bits, I dunno?

The best thing it has, I guess, is winter tyres on the Elite alloys with only a couple 1000 miles. Maybe somebody would be interested in going over and swapping those with some old steelies with knackered tyres for a bargain?

I think that's where it's headed - maybe try get a bit for the wheels and have the rest taken away for scrap? Any thoughts or interest, folks? Worth an ad in the for sale section? It's a 98 MFL Elite in dark green/cream by the way.

Anyway, been a pleasure - the meggy was awesome for 7+ years and thanks to everyone who helped me through the adventure which peaked with a pretty impressive valve bending disaster which was all sorted for about 250 quid thanks to people on here! I'm sure I will still lurk for the foreseable future.

Cheers,

Liam

4

Omega General Help / Battery light on, hmmmmmm

« on: 25 July 2011, 10:18:41 »

Hi folks,

Quick Q. Battery light on this morning. No sign of it on a longish drive yesterday. Starts OK, though not for long, I guess, if it really isn't charging . Battery itself is pretty new. I haven't had a chance to look under the bonnet yet, but am pretty certain I still have a belt or I'd have overheating and no power steering. Can't check voltage to confirm at the moment either as I dont have my multimeter with me.

So question is, is there a fuse I can look at, or do I immediately assume my alternator is dead and add another job to my list of jobs to take up my week off work ?

Cheers

5

Omega General Help / Steering idler arm or kit??

« on: 29 March 2011, 10:52:58 »

Hi there,

Failed MOT on vertical play in the steering idler arm. Looked at the guide here and all seems very straight forward. Unfortunately I'm working away from home and for the first time will have to get a garage to do the work (also including sorting an exhaust leak). Anyway - I know I could get the arm for £42 from Vauxhall at TC prices, or a Lemforder one from my decent local motor factor for the same price. Garage is quoting a silly price of over £100 for the part - but I think that must be for the whole idler kit - the arm and the part that bolts to the car with the pivot on it.

Question is is it always just the arm that needs replacing or can the other part wear too? Seems the people on here only change the arm, but I'd be a bit embarassed if I instruct the garage to get only the arm, or supply it myself, and the other part needs changing too.

Any advice appreciated. Cheers,

Liam

6

Omega General Help / Cloudy headlights and MOT

« on: 08 March 2011, 13:17:18 »

Hi there folks,

The meggy went in for MOT today. Guy at the garage was decent enough to phone me after I dropped it off and tell me it'll definately fail before taking my money. One of the reasons is the headlights are apparently excessively cloudy. Hasn't been a problem in the past, but this isn't my normal friendly, understanding garage, and maybe it's gotten worse in the last year.

So any idea what can be done? I'm tempted to try T-cut and polish, although looking closely they seem to be very finely cracked with age, so maybe that's all the way through and it wont T-cut out? Anyone had any luck with this?

If not, then is it possible to buy new covers only and disassemble/reassemble the units myself? Anyone got an idea of source/price?

Or am I stuck buying whole new units (xenons ) or finding a breaker?

Any advice appreciated. Cheers,

Liam

7

Omega General Help / Which crank sensor

« on: 11 November 2010, 20:58:45 »

Hello...

Still getting my code 19 so gonna change my crank sensor and hope my car idles properly. Phoned autovaux and they said there's an option of three parts. Gave them my reg and they said that narrows it down to one - the square connector one. However I know I have the oval connector. Apparently there are two options for oval connector that look identical. One is more expensive than the other. Anyone know how I'd tell which one short of removing the old one and looking for a number on it which I can't do for a while, but wanted to get the replacement ready? It's a 98 R mini-facelift 3.0 auto elite if that helps.

Cheers!

8

Omega General Help / Engine woes continue...

« on: 13 October 2010, 12:59:09 »

Hello folks,

Some may recall I've been having some engine trouble recently! To cut a long story short, one camshaft pulley came loose, met its neighbour, they ate each other a little bit, locked into mesh, stripped several teeth off the cambelt and bent some valves.

Compression test said I got away with it on one bank so I did just one head swap. Taken me ages on and off to get it done, having other things to do and finding other little things needing replacing like a faulty hydraulic lifter etc etc. New cambelt timing checked and checked and rechecked.

Finally got it reassembled a few weeks ago now and started her up. Never started a car after such major work before but sort of had an idea what to expect. Took a lot of cranking before fuel came through and it finally fired up. I guess not helped by the fact I serviced the lifters on the head i swapped so they must have taken a while to pump up and actually be able to move the valves a decent amount.

Started up on 5 by the sounds of it, soon started running on all 6, sounded like a bag of spanners at the top end, but quietened down when the lifters pumped up. All was good I thought. However as it warmed up it started briefly dropping out every 5-10 seconds or so, this got worse then it cut out.

That's where I am today. It can idle initially, but as soon as it's warmed up a little and the 'choke' (warmup enrichment) backs off and idle speed wants to drop to normal, it just cuts out. I can keep it going if I hold some throttle on and it is smooth and can rev. Just can't idle.

There's a slightly worrying sound though I can hear seemingly from the top end/plenum area. Every now and then, normally when I come off throttle a little, a metallic sort of sucking/scraping sound. Ch ch ch ch - a bit like a turbo wastegate chuffing. Definate metallic ring to it though, and I'm really not sure if it's a scrape (hope not) or a suck.

If it's a suck perhaps I have an air leak somewhere? That could also explain why it can't idle, maybe? Be buggered if I know where it's from though. I didn't replace inlet manifold/plenum seals but haven't in the past either and have been fine. I have the plenum off now - didn't miss an o-ring which i was hoping could be an obvious cause.

Idle control valve? Was fine before but maybe not now? I can blow through it easily off the car - should it be closed by 'default' when disconnected, or maybe it's stuck open? How to tell?

I'm also convinced it sounds a bit more rumbly than before. Exhaust blockage? Family of mice moved in while it's been off the road? Any idea how to tell?

Any advice greatly appreciated! I'll be damned if I'm putting all this time and money into my baby and failing to fix it!! But a little lost as to what to investigate next

Cheers,

Liam

9

Omega General Help / DOH! another head swap setback

« on: 21 August 2010, 20:43:30 »

Sigh. Finally get some dry weather to continue my head swap after The Incident so on goes the breather box and the head. Doing up the bolts I find a couple of them feel much tighter than the others. Dawns on me that in my noobness I never checked the bolt holes for oil/water so I'm worried I'm going to hydraulic the block. Bottle it and take the head off again . Good job I have a spare set of bolts as I had to buy a whole set of 16.

Funny thing is the tightest bolt came out completely dry so I dont think the hole could have been full of fluid? Any ideas? Ah well I'll clean out all the holes and have another go tomorrow. The main question is, had I better get a new gasket too as I've crushed this first one, albeit only for 10 minutes or so? Some of the red line of seal on the gasket seems to have been disturbed/damaged.

10

Omega General Help / Quick question - 1 or 2 downpipe gaskets?

« on: 21 August 2010, 16:18:41 »

Hi there,

Putting my head back I notice I've been supplied 2 exhaust manifold to downpipe gaskets. Are two supposed to be used or have they just given me a spare for some reason?

Cheers,

Liam

11

Omega General Help / Broken spring in follower

« on: 07 August 2010, 16:19:40 »

Hello...

Darn - hoped to have my head swap finished today. Decided to service the hydraulic followers, and one of them seems to have a broken spring and doesn't return .

Anyone know where to get hold of one? Anyone got one kicking about ? How much from Vaux?

Grrr I'm half tempted to put it all together anyway. I mean what function does this spring actually serve? The follower is pumped up by oil pressure, not the spring, and I can't see a broken spring preventing this, plus it was working fine before. Still guess it's there for a reason. Someone tell me not to cut corners and do it properly please

Cheers

12

Omega General Help / Head swap noob advice

« on: 29 July 2010, 19:38:06 »

Well thanks to Elite Pete for supplying a replacement head and the two pulleys that ate each other, the head swap is now under way. Never done one before so need some noob advice...

How clean to the mating surfaces need to be? Are we talking shiny new metal clean, which will take some rubbing with fine wet and dry, or is that too aggressive for the ally head? If so is a crap-scraped-off-and-degreaser-clean level sufficient?

Other than that all going good so far. Pete I managed to drill out that broken exhaust manifold stud at work today.

Oh - I was reading the maintenance guide on the headgasket replacement which is very handy, and it references a guide by Mark DTM on servicing the hydraulic followers. But I can't find that guide?? What can/needs to be done on those? They look pretty unserviceable at first glance other than checking the little hole isn't full of crap which they aren't.

Cheers,

Liam

13

Omega General Help / Major engine death

« on: 03 July 2010, 18:44:14 »

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Meggy has committed suicide - why would she do this??

Was cruising down to London when the wife noticed a funny sound (she's pretty good at noticing odd sounds/smells/sights before major failures ). Open the windows and wow! Nasty scraping metal sound totally rev related so definately the engine, but still running fine. Parked asap figuring bearing of some auxiliary belt item self destructing. Just decided to keep it running to have a little look/listen to identify the cause. Noise was deafening but couldn't see anything amiss. As soon as it occured to me 'oh sh*t it could be the cambelt tensioner - switch off NOW' the noise got briefly worse and the engine stopped .

Had to be the cambelt I thought - it's just gone over 40,000 and was top of list of things to do, but given that vaux thought they could get away with 80,000 for a while I didn't think I was sailing that close to the wind, but was cursing my stupidity all the same. Got recovered home and started to survey the damage.

First thing I noticed was that the belt was intact but fairly slack around the cam pulleys and a nice covering of fine metal shavings everywhere which wasn't quite what I was expecting...



Belt tensioners and idlers all seem fine - not loose at all. Then I notice this...



Yup - those pulley are touching!! That's the source of the shavings...



So what in the name of greek bu**ery can cause that to happen??!!  The camshaft must literally have eaten it's bearings and moved over 5mm or so! How could that possibly happen?? Never run it low on oil, though that bank does have a bit of a gasket leak which was also on the list of things to do. Never seen anything like it in my life - anyone else??

Totally gutted - love the car and just treated it to new lemforder wishbones and new rear springs . 98 Elite and only done 125,000. Weighing up my options now - repair, engine swap, break, or sell/scrap in one piece. Couple of years ago I'd have jumped straight into the repair, but freshly married and renovating a house I have very little spare time right now. What does anyone else think - worth the work, or maybe the Omega dream is over

Oh well - just wanted to share the misery. Sympathy and e-pats on back please! Maybe there'll be a project or breaker for sale on here soon (though I probably dont have enough posts for that do I - sigh).

Liam

14

Omega General Help / Few jobs to do - any advice appreciated!

« on: 07 June 2010, 20:11:22 »

Hi guys.

Was all excited about my first trip to Wheels In Motion on saturday to cure my tyre destroying alignment problem .  So i was gutted that instead of sorting it all out, he told me to rebook when I've replaced the front wishbones and a snapped rear spring .  Still most places would have probably taken my money anyway and made the car worse!  May as well take it off the road for a little while as it's also cambelt and rocker cover gasket time again.  Anyway - have a few questions.

1.  Rear spring - how easy is the job?  Had a little ook through Mark DTMs guide and was suprised to see the shock coming off and subframe dropped   Is it not possible to get the blighter out with just spring compressors?

2.  Any good source for the spring?  Autovaux?  Ebay?  Do you have to change both sides at the same time?  WIM guy said the other one looks much newer so was maybe already broken and changed by the previous owner.

3.  I seem to get around 18 months - 2 years out of ebay-special wishbones.  If i recall vaux are stupid money, but is there a happy medium?  Prices seem to vary a fair bit on ebay, but are they all the same cheap parts, and if you choose to pay more are you just lining the pockets of a bolder ebayer who claims his wishbones are fantastic and 'not like all the other cheap tat on ebay'?

4.  I remember discussion ages ago about looking for a source of quality bushes to rebush the bones (using BMW 5 series bushes maybe??).  Was this ever resolved?  Anyone got supplier/prices of good bushes, and will these really last much longer than those on the ebay special bones?  Not really looking for hard poly bushes or owt like that.

5.  Will do my cambelt myself again.  Does anyone here lend/hire the locking kit out nowadays?  Or did autovaux do it (though I want to get the kit from my local motor factors)?

6.  Autovaux rocker cover gaskets gone one side in under a year I think - doh!  So much for them being genuine.  Could somebody remind me how much the genuine ones are again? .

Any advice much appreciated.  Cheers!

15

Omega General Help / Self levelling suspension symptoms...

« on: 23 September 2008, 21:51:04 »

Hi folks,

If I put the symptoms of my self leveling suspension down, some clever person will most likely know exactly what's wrong ...

When I turn the ignition on, I often notice the compressor running for a few seconds.  Sounds nice and compressory as if all's well.  In fact cos of this I've always assumed it works properly - however it doesn't .  If i disconnect the sensor linkage and manually move the sensor to try the jacking up trick - nothing.  Not a dickie bird.

Fuse is fine, and if i remove the fuse, a few seconds later the nearby relay starts clicking frantically until I put the fuse back.  So there's power present at least till the fuse/relay box.

So, er, reckon the level sensor's knackered, or something else?  Anyone care to take out their fuse and see if they get the clicking I get?  Or even better, anyone in the Bedford area fancy lending me their sensor to see if that fixes it .

Any help appreciated,

Liam