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[MrRon]

May the check List Begin......

Since November 2013 my Omega has been sitting waiting patiently to be recommissioned, but as my previous job included a van, so there was no need to keep her on the road. 
 
At lease once a month I'd connect the battery and fire her up and she'd always sound perfect, which made it more difficult for me to consider selling.
Early in the new year on another start up two things was noticeable, the exhaust was louder and the engine was running on 5. 

THEN a few months ago I was made redundant, which meant my Omega was now in line to be sold. 

Just after being made redundant I made the sacrifice and asked a mechanic to prep her for the M.O.T and £60 later........ I'll need to buy a coil pack, 4 new tyres, a complete rear exhaust and an estimate of £560. This was 8 weeks ago.

I've managed to survive and not to sell my Omega just yet & now today I've just started a new Job 

I'm now in negotiations with the wife if we could put the Omega back on the road, the question I cannot answer is that after nearly two years off the road what else could go wrong?

My list so Far (which I can achieve myself) :-

Replace the Coil Pack.
Replace the Rocker cover Gaskets (they are leaking).
Fit new or 2nd hand exhaust. 
New Tyres (recommendations?)
Both the remotes don't work.
The air bag light is on (The fault is the front passenger seat heater was left on)

I've got a 'W' Plate Star Silver Saloon, 3.0 MV6 Elite.

Anything else I should consider, whilst achieving these jobs?

 

 

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Ahh, I can give you the experiences of getting my old Lady back after 7 years!

Without going into the teeny details, and there was lots of expenditure which was 'unecessary' (ie: painting suspension, grinding off rust as and when I found it and repainting, replacing ok front shocks which would have scraped through another MoT or two, and so on)

Wishbones
rely on rubber, rubber decomposes, you may find after a few miles these 'crumble' a bit and your tracking's consequentially off. Unless you knwo these to be all in excellent order, worth changing the lot. (as droplinks etc can't be far behind)

Brakes
Could be fine. Underneath, thorough check over. As I did, smear grease all over and massage into the lines. This isn't intended to hide rust from the MoT man, but preserves them and also shows the tester you care about your car. Hoses may be 'iffy' - check. Mine were all ok, changed the fronts, the rears are original GM from the 90s.

Coil pack / ignition
As you state, you're doing this, good one

Rocker gaskets
As above, yes, worth it. I'd add get the breathers fully cleaned out. The car's not been driven for 2 years, so they've not clogged, but in doing them you'd be starting with a 'clean sheet of paper' so to speak.

Tyres
A hundred threads on here. Personally found Vredsteins and Enduros good. I'm running on old (matching, new, never used) spare wheels. All Michelin HX, there was a torrential downpour last night, and I 'tested' them on a quiet, empty road, well-lit road with not even a blink from the TC light.

Battery
I'm surprised this is still ok, but worth factoring in a new one (About £70)

Engine Vac tubes/elbows
Again, rubber, you may find some bizarre hunting or bad idle issues, which is down to a vac leak, most likely here.

Remotes
Can be re-synced by switching on ignotion, then pressing the lock button. No reason for them to have ceased functioning entirely, they should just need 'reminding' which car they are programmed to, worst case it's a trip to a Tech2 OOFer, but until then you always have the key. While you're at it, the Tech 2 can solve the airbag light, too

Factor in an oil and all fluid change, and fingers crossed you're about there.

Also, I can see you're on a budget, and the lower the £ helps you persuade the boss that the car is viable to be resurrected. So, as with all things, there's two ways to do things. For four tyres, exhaust, coil pack, exhaust (minus cats) cost me total of £163. The bargains are out there 

[omegod]

As you are on a budget:

Used coil pack £20 ( which side? I may have one that may work for postage cost)
Bag a set of used wheels with tyres from someone on here or 4 x partworns £ 80?
Cheap ebay gaskets.....they do actually work in the main £15
Exhaust..hunt the scrappies £20
Remote resync £0
Airbag light ..sympathetic OOfer with the device that can reset  it £0

Either this or start a crowdfunding thingy 

[zirk]

Oil change wouldn't go a miss if its been parked up for a while.

What's the Cambelt history like.

[ted_one]

Bloody hell!! I've just realised.....that's what I've been doing for the last eleven years when does it end?

[BazaJT]

Do my eyes deceive me?Someone not only proposing pattern but e-bay pattern cam cover gaskets at that Surely on here that's a hanging offence minimum

[omegod]

Do my eyes deceive me?Someone not only proposing pattern but e-bay pattern cam cover gaskets at that Surely on here that's a hanging offence minimum

Haha , come and try it you phiillistines   

[GastronomicKleptomaniac]

Anything involving any nuts and bolts, give them a good soaking in Plusgas or similar, over a few days before you start trying to undo them. A wire brush in a drill also works wonders.

I have been experimenting with Bilt Hamber Deox C gel, on all the potentially rusted fasteners on my MV6. Given the above treatment, the only thing thats broken has been a brake pipe... And that needed replacing anyway...

[MrRon]

Some very good points to consider,  and I shall be doing the mandatory checks on the brakes and lines.
The Coil I need is the main distributer cap type?
The Cam belt is within the guidelines.
All I'm aiming to achieve is to pass the MOT, so I don't need to borrow my wife's 2cv 

The list is getting longer.....

Replace the Coil Pack.
Replace the Rocker cover Gaskets (they are leaking).
Oil change (I bought the oil and filter at the same time as the Rocker Gaskets)
Cleaning the breathers.
Checking the Engine vac tubes and elbows.
New Tyres (recommendations?) I'm in Bury St Edmunds if anyone has a good set of 4
Both the remotes don't work.
The air bag light is on (The fault is the front passenger seat heater was left on)

My birthday soon, so I'm hoping for a few items 

[deviator]

After 2 years, I'd be making sure all the brakes slide on the pins and regreasing/cleaning where needed. I'd also consider a brake fluid change and possibly a coolant change. Maybe not necessary for the MOT, but piece of mind. I'd also clean up and reset the handbrake. Maybe consider gearbox and diff oil at a later date.

Personally I'd get it MOT'ed and then the rest is pretty much 'routine' maintenance. My Omega was off the road at least 6 months before I bought it and it flew through the MOT. Not that I haven't/won't be checking most of the car anyway. It all depends on how much you can do yourself and how much you need to pay a garage to do.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Though I spent about 6 months getting my V6 back to MoTable standards, there were a few niggles which I'd have rather had sorted on a car that wasn't a daily driver. If you have the luxury of a second vehicle this may not be such as issue, as you've got means to 'just nip up the road to ---'

The handbrake / brakes is a good point. My rears were checked and greased, the fronts were stripped down to bare metal, repainted, and good low mileage slider pins etc were fitted, plus replacement discs and pads. That full 'as-new' caliper refurb cost £40, and that includes new hoses, stainless steel banjo bolts  Of course a grease up and check over costs nothing 

Standard practice as with anything, wire brush and soak in penetrating, then leave, then attempt removal with a bang-on fitting socket etc. Can't stress this enough, and I've 'scrimped' on this in the past - don't. It really is a case of 'more haste, less speed' here

Option 1 is of course get it through as cheap as possible, on the bare minumum of jobs, then look at everything else as and when

Option 2 is spend as little money, bu on as high-quaoity as you can, and take you time, with lots of preventative maintenance, and use the time you have, as the car's SORN'd you have time to do a very good job. MoT when, and only when the car's in very good order.

Neither right or wrong, but whichever's best for you. Whatever you do it's about how clever you spend, not how much - in my humble - walking into the main dealer, buying £500 of stuff which you could get from ebay (and often from a main dealer elsewhere in the country having a clearout, lots of them about now the Omega stuff is becoming NLS) for less than half that. Also getting good second hand vs brand new pattern. And we're here to advise as best we can

Link to one progress diary of mine...
http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=126439.0

another...
http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=126671.0

Oooh, found the list of things I did to my Lady for MoT from an old thread...
exhaust
new flanges welding onto old cats
heat shields
dampers
springs
drop links
track rods
O/S hub
wheels
tyres
sill cover
coilpack
vac tubes
plenum
breathers
ICV
N/S caliper
seals & boots on both front calipers
Brake caliper banjo bolts
discs
pads
brake hoses
cam belt and tensioners
drive belt
battery
HT leads
wishbones
ball joints
poly front bushes
Vx rear bushes
N/S arch liner
fuel line
Hand brake pins/mechanism

Don't let it daunt you, though! That was sitting for 7 years up the drive of a seaside town, and you'll notice lots of those on the list aren't MoT failure items, but clearly things I'd want doing soon, so was worth doing them there and then. 

[05omegav6]

Bung some fuel in, check the bulbs and rag the living shit out of it on the way to the prebooked MoT. Job jobbed

If it passes, wash it and then consider a service/the advisory list

[MrRon]

Bung some fuel in, check the bulbs and rag the living shit out of it on the way to the prebooked MoT. Job jobbed

If it passes, wash it and then consider a service/the advisory list

This was the same philosophy I used with our T2 camper, to my surprise it passed with no advisories! 

[MrRon]

Thank you Diamond Black Geezer for your lists, I'm sure they'll come in handy as a reference point or just inspiration. 

I'll take some photos of my Omega (as is) 

[Diamond Black Geezer]

She's surely not as bad as this... 




That was at the start of the year.

Rotten suspension, falling off exhaust and heat shields, cracked windscreen, non-runner.

A fair whack of graft later, and one MoT with three advisories, only. 

here's an example of before and after...



No pretty shots of shiny Autoglym'd bodywork I'm afraid, as that was low priority, I made sure all the mechanicals were as sound as possible first. Driving down the street she looks like a ropey old dog of a car, but underneath I'd pitch her against a 3 year old car anyday!