Heres a few pictures of my car, one of a pair I purchased from fleabay a month ago.
It was purchased at a knock down price due to a "head gasket fault" but when I arrived down in Kent to collect the vehicle the chap who was selling it
mentioned that he thought a coolant pipe had split on the back of the engine, he even mentioned it was connected to a valve for the heater matrix and he
said he had cut the pipe to repair the split and reconnected it, but it was still using coolant and steaming from under the bonnet. Plus I noticed that
the windscreen and side windows would steam up quite badly if the windows were shut. Also there was quite a bad build up of emulsified oil and water in
the oil filler tube so I reckon these three things led the previous owner to the conclusion there were serious issues with the cooling system.
The car drove back from Kent without issue and we stopped once en-route to check the coolant level but it hadnt dropped at all, I discovered over the next few
days that the leak only seemed to happen whilst the engine was warming up and once the engine was up to temperature the leak stopped. As soon as I had the time
I stripped down the scuttle to access the h.b.v. the pipe that had been repaired still looked sound and I was expecting to see some sort of residue from the
coolant leak either a white crystal formation or possibly rusty water marks but everything looked fine. I disconnected the pipes from the h.b.v. and pulled it
out for a closer look...
...you can just make out that the casing is split where the lower pipe attaches.
I also discovered why the interior was so prone to misting up, the pollen filter was clogged.
My local Vauxhall Dealer charged £40.18 inclusive for the by-pass valve (90566947) and £13.28 for the pollen filter (93165208).
Another issue I noticed with the car was the brakes, although they did manage to pull the car up to a halt quickly the pedal travel was excessive,
also there was no feel to the pedal either. I didn't really think there was too much of a problem with them for the first three weeks that I had the car
but looking back now I realize that that was due to the weather, it had rained virtually every day since I had got the car and that meant lots of opportunity
to perfect my 'low speed vehicle handling techniques', but as soon as the rain stoped then the drier road conditions allowed for slightly higher speeds which
showed up a minor problem. The brakes stopped working if you used them hard more than three times in a row! I checked the brake fluid and it was just a little
below the maximum mark but it was virtually black in colour, obviously in need of a flush. I do have an 'eezi bleed' kit but it's quite old and when I connected
it up for a dry run it became apparent that some of the pipework had perished so I had to resort to just a quick bleed, rather than a full flush, even so I
managed to get 1/2 a litre of fresh dot 4 in and that seems to have fixed the brake fade issue. Pedal travel and feel have also improved greatly but I still intend
to fully flush out the system once I've found some tubing to refurb my eezi bleed.
The only other problems I've noticed with the car is there seems to be a.t.f. resting on the upper lip of the sump tray, obviously slight seepage in the power steering
system somewhere, and the air-con isn't as cold as it could be. Other than that EVERYTHING works, and this car has a lot of everythings, I won't bore you with a list
but this car has everything an Elite has except for memory seats in the front and heated seats in the rear, oh and no sunroof either. Nice touches are the climate control
system that can supply heat to the cabin without the keys in the ignition, and the chilled glove box that seems to work even when the heaters are on full.
In the month that I've had the vehicle I've added an extra 1850 miles to the 167,000 that were already showing, in fact I've done 943 miles just this last week,
including a trip to Ireland to collect a friends new Subaru and a trip to Wales to see family. The car has used 169 litres of fuel
to do the 943 miles which works out at £250 (£1.48 per litre) or 25 m.p.g. Not too bad considering the way in which it gets (ab)used!
Apparently the car was owned by a Vx. dealership in Cambridgeshire for the first six months of it's life and I am only the fourth owner (3 former keepers) on the
log book, you can tell the vehicle has been well cared for and this is backed up by the extensive service history, it even has every tax disc ever put on the vehicle
from new! The car is an absolute joy to drive and you could easily believe it had done only 70,000 miles, not nearer to 170,000! Interior wear is also minimal but I am considering changing over the drivers seat from the other Mv6 that I have.
