Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[aaronjb]

no they dont

The vx ones dont ?

They come in a plastic bag .. like spaghetti

[bored bigyin54]

no they dont

The vx ones dont ?

i have had them from vx and had to straighten them myself

[omega3000]

no they dont

The vx ones dont ?

i have had them from vx and had to straighten them myself

I see 

These are the ones on ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SINTRA-OMEGA-VECTRA-2-6-3-0-3-2-V6-ROCKER-COVER-GASKETS-/310332908955?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item484148659b

Pays your money and takes your chance choice i guess

[bored bigyin54]

i am just wondering where vx get their genuine part from it never says on the vx own wrapping does it i am just thinking they get it the same place as all the outlets and put their wrapping on it

[Lazydocker]

well my mate got his camcover gasket from a carparts place never leaked been on 3 years and still not leaking and if vx droped their prices more people will go there

There's been many many people who have done the same and had them leak within a few weeks. You pay your money and you take your chances

Could it be that aftermarket ones are ok as long as the correct sealant is used , just a thought 

it depends how you fit them take your time and theyre just as good a vx ones just cheaper

Fit aftermarket ones at your own risk. You may get away with it as bigyin has, but there are many, many people who have had fitted aftermarket ones and had to change them again within a very short time (including some very competent spanner twirlers )

[omega3000]

i am just wondering where vx get their genuine part from it never says on the vx own wrapping does it i am just thinking they get it the same place as all the outlets and put their wrapping on it

Never bought any from vx so cant comment , would be an idea to compare pattern to genuine if at all possible side by side .

[Ken T]

no they dont

The vx ones dont ?

i have had them from vx and had to straighten them myself

I see 

These are the ones on ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SINTRA-OMEGA-VECTRA-2-6-3-0-3-2-V6-ROCKER-COVER-GASKETS-/310332908955?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item484148659b

Pays your money and takes your chance choice i guess

I bought a set from Andy C, for my 2.6 and they are different to those, the gaskets are joined in pairs. Maybe the earlier engines had different gaskets ?.

The trouble is we have to balance what it cost to keep the car running with what its worth. I have spent over £400 on bits recently for mine, and I could have bought a long MOT '51 V6 for about that.  However I don't have the time or facilities to keep working on the car every weekend, so I am adopting a sort of fix one and do it right approach so I hopefully minimise the amount of future work needed.

Although if I don't get that blasted oil filter housing undone it may all be in vain.....

Ken

[Ken T]

Also you got to balance out how long you plan to keep the car. If only a couple of years at say 3000 miles/year  pattern stuff should last if reasonable well made. I however am hoping to keep this mig for 3 years at least which is over 100,000 miles so its worth it to me to use good parts.

I recently changed the camshaft oil seals and cam cover gaskets, the cam seals were brittle and broke up, the cam cover gaskets were hard and broke up when trying to remove, and the bolt seals were hard and looked like part of the plastic and had to be attacked to get the remains out. But fair enough, they were 9 years/99,000 miles old, that's a pretty good life span when you consider what cars used to be like. I like Vauxhall engineering, its well done, service items are easily changeable, like the cam sensor, move the power steering pipe, one screw, unclip and its out. OK with hindsight and 10 years experience some things could have been improved, we moan about some of the front end bushes. I remember taking hours to saw through a rusted suspension bush mounting bolt on my Avenger with a hacksaw blade cause there was naff all room. 

Pretty good all in all, I'd rather drive a 2nd hand car that cost £30K new than one that cost £6K. ( not even a skoda  )

Ken

[omega3000]

Sound advice ken  I have been working through my car bit by bit sorting out things i can do by myself and trying to keep costs down to a minimum , basically to keep it on the road without breaking the bank so any option to keep costs down is crucial as im sure it is with quite a few ...there is a big difference in price from pattern to genuine so obviously pattern becomes more suitable to the pocket .
I agree that experienced owners share the view to use genuine parts ie rocker gaskets , and the conclusion i have is that the pattern ones wont last long because they will dry out and harden long before genuine ones do but then some have used them and they have been ok. Could be a can of worms discussion and im sure its been talked about before , could be that someone who uses pattern rocker gaskets does not prep the area properly then uses the wrong sealant then ultimately tightens the cover down way too tight presuming the tighter the bolts the better the seal .

Will come to the decision on the ones i need when the job needs doing after ive ticked a few more things off to do 

[Elite Pete]

The Vauxhall ones seem to be a softer rubber and it stays softer for a long time whereas the after market ones i've replaced go hard and brittle very quickly. If you do a search on the forum you'll see loads of people complaining about the quality of after market gaskets they've had fitted, i've heard people being told by their mechanic its not the cheap gaskets they've used but warped cam covers so it not their fault so avoiding a refund to mechanics taking them apart again and using gallons of sealant to try and stem the flow of oil which i've then had to clean up before fitting genuine gaskets.

Do a search and see how many people have used none genuine gaskets successfully, I bet the odds are thousands to one


If you have loads of time and money to do the job twice and conduct an experiment to tell us all something we already know then feel free      

[omega3000]

The Vauxhall ones seem to be a softer rubber and it stays softer for a long time whereas the after market ones i've replaced go hard and brittle very quickly. If you do a search on the forum you'll see loads of people complaining about the quality of after market gaskets they've had fitted, i've heard people being told by their mechanic its not the cheap gaskets they've used but warped cam covers so it not their fault so avoiding a refund to mechanics taking them apart again and using gallons of sealant to try and stem the flow of oil which i've then had to clean up before fitting genuine gaskets.

Do a search and see how many people have used none genuine gaskets successfully, I bet the odds are thousands to one


If you have loads money to do the job twice and conduct an experiment to tell us all something we already know then feel free    

Time i have , money 

after market ones i've replaced go hard and brittle very quickly. 

That was my understanding 

[bored bigyin54]

and if you are like me you run the car on a shoe string you cant afford vx parts as they are out off my price range so i got to buy after market parts

[Jimbob]

and if you are like me you run the car on a shoe string you cant afford vx parts as they are out off my price range so i got to buy after market parts

Lots of us are...
As a forum...
We KNOW 99.9% of the pattern cam cover gaskets leak in very short timescales.
Its been seen over and over again, many other pattern parts are fine, and these are recommended where appropriate
Noone has been able to identify, and get the same results from 2 pattern sets.

Yes, the very occasional person will be lucky.

For the majority, the cheapest job is to pay more for the genuine parts..
What we see time and time again, are people paying cheaply, and then again for the good parts, so it does save money.  (Unless you are very lucky and get a good set of pattern).

IF we could positively identify good aftermarket parts, and get good, repeatable results....noone would be recommending anything else.  Sadly, its not the case, and the only reliable method, is to pay VX's expensive price.

(Of course, if the breathers are blocked and not cleared, all bets are off regardless of source.)

[bored bigyin54]

well i havent got to choice for vx parts i have got to go for after market parts

[RobG]

well i havent got to choice for vx parts i have got to go for after market parts

Get yourself a TC card Ralf