My VXII Berlina Wagon

[Husky]

Hi, cool wagon. Don't suppose you have a vid of the engine warmed up and can do a couple revs ? Just interested in what sounds like what for when replacing my wagons comes along. Cheers

Unfortunately at this stage I don't. However, I do plan on buying a Gopro in the next few weeks, and with it a suction cup mount, which will allow me to stick the camera to the rear bumper while I do a bit of a drive with a few stamps on the loud pedal.

In the mean time, I am getting pretty sick of the brake-dust build up ruining my lovely wheels. One of my jobs on my last lot of holidays was to pull the wheels off and scrub them down, but that never happened. Here's how they looks this morning.

So yesterday I went researching for a good Spray on/Hose off solution to get me through, and came across this, from a company called Final Inspection. I ordered it yesterday and 1306, and the courier left it at my door at 1146 today, not a bad turn around time.

Final Inspection Car Care Products

I Cleaned each wheel twice (once dry, then once wet). And this was the result,

Not too bad for 15 minutes work. It does suggest to use a wheel scrubber for heavily soiled wheels, which I don't have, but I will get one for next time. Overall pretty happy with the result, considering that the wheels have not had a proper clean in the 14 months they have been on the car, except for being sprayed with detergent at the local manual car wash. I will definitely be buying more stuff from that website.

 

[Sphector89]

uber shiny mate, love those wheels too

 

[Husky]

Hi, cool wagon. Don't suppose you have a vid of the engine warmed up and can do a couple revs ? Just interested in what sounds like what for when replacing my wagons comes along. Cheers

Here you go. please read the description for details.

VX Ecotec Exhaust warm start and drive - YouTube

 

[Husky]

Well, I finally got all my pillars recovered in black fabric, and what an effort it was to get them all out and back in again. Really happy with the result though, the photos don't do it justice. Having the black all through the car really makes it feel like you are sitting in a much fancier car, and It's certainly not a mod everyone has done. Now all I need is matching leather rear seats, and and satin silver dash, and I'll be happy with the interior. For now.

On another note, the car has decided to make a horrible clunking noise from the front end when I go over speed bumps. Sounds similar to the noise I had before I replaced my control arms, but worse. not sure if it's the struts or something else. I crawled under and had a quick look and couldn't see any obviously worn bushes.

 

[Husky]

Got the car up on stands yesterday to have a look for the cause of the noise, and the first problem was I couldn't get the damn wheels off. after many swear words were uttered, and multiple kettles of boiling water were poured over each whel I got them off, and as usual, the cause was obviously corrosion.

So out came the wire wheel brush and the hubs and the back of the wheels got a quick clean

Much better, and now if I get a flat I'll actually be able to change it on the side of the road.

I had a look at all the bushes and such, but as most of it (Control arm bushes and ball joint, castors bushes, sway bar links) are less than 18 months old, nothing was obviously worn. as there is only noise over bumps and not during steering, I think I might pick up a cheap set of struts and see if that fixes it. I was planning on buying full KYB gear and lowering the wagon, but unfortunately don't have that much money to spend on the car at this time (Don't get engaged, it's a trap). so if the cheap struts fix the noise, I'll be back with better gear hopefully early next year.

I also tried to change the oil pressure sensor over the weekend when I dropped the oil, and what an issue that was. Firstly you need a deep socket. So I check using normal sockets on the new sensor, and 27mm worked perfectly. ran down to bunning to find a deep one, and they don't socket anything larger than 24mm. As it was 530pm on a Saturday nothing else was open. the guy there suggested vice grips, but no way known you can get them on the sensor. So I wait until morning and get a socket from supercheap, but it's double hex and doesn't fit. seems because of the odd shape of the sensor, when you use double hex you need 26mm, which supercheap don't stock, neither the repco, bursons, or autobarn. And I didn't have enough time to check Total tools. So I filled it back up, the leak is only very small, it can wait until next oil change.

Damn cars.

 

[Husky]

Well the clunking noise was getting worse, and after each speed bump I was getting a horrible scraping noise. Turns out (I assume) the struts are the cause, and the scraping noise was the mud flaps scraping, because the car was dripping too low over bump. So they came off.

I can't decide if I like the look or not, but they are staying off at least until I replace the struts. I've ordered some, so hopefully they will arrive soon. For now i have ordered some cheap stock height struts. hopefully next year I'll be able to replace it again with properly lowered (3cm drop) KYB stuff.

 

[kangavxss]

Nice work so far. Im not usually a wagon fan but yours looks great due to the attention you have given it. With your stuck wheels just put a slight smear of grease on the hub and you wont ever have that problem again.
Keep up the good mods
Cheers

 

[Husky]

Nice work so far. Im not usually a wagon fan but yours looks great due to the attention you have given it. With your stuck wheels just put a slight smear of grease on the hub and you wont ever have that problem again.
Keep up the good mods
Cheers

Thanks. There's still so much more I want to do. And I have bought some Loctite anti seize grease, when I replace the Struts I'll be putting some behind all four wheels.

 

[Husky]

Well my Tech2 arrived in the mail today. Unfortunately I can't use it until my birthday in early December (The missus got it for me as a gift). Still, it should come in handy for diagnostics and other things. The first job I have for it will be fitting the new 3 window cluster I bought for my Ute.

 

[Husky]

Well the car is now sitting on new Struts. The old ones were the originals and were stuffed, I could move them freely by hand. The car is now driving a lot better as well.

I bought really cheap Struts (Blupac) but they seem alright, just a bit firm. But they won't be there for too long anyway.