With all this Astro talk I bought an Astra!

I used to service these when I was an apprentice mechanic in 08, loved how nippy they were as a 17 Yr old. Bulletproof as well, we had several well over 200k on good servicing.

o after all these years of only phone calls & RR posts, Grizz & myself managed to meet up on his marathon road trip to Scotland at Gretna Green. Was really great meeting especially seeing as we both hail from the same city in SA!


His original route before something changed it





After telling him of my plans to fit some other wheels to the Astra which were about 270 miles from me, he did the Grizz thing and insisted on collecting them on my behalf adding another hour to his trip, what a gent!

Said treasure tucked behind him





It's been a great day indeed

Did a few jobs on this today like changing the worn out gear shift & handbrake gaiters as well as fitting the replacement 17" wheels.
Obviously a harder ride with the 45 profile especially over the stone farm track but once on the open road it was pretty well behaved. Quite pleased.
Have a few other jobs on it to do including:
1) No engine light, no limp mode, no speed limitations but it will not rev over 3250rpm in any gear so that needs looking into
2) Windscreen washers getting no water through to the jets or tubes leading to them. You can hear the pump working so would imagine its a blockage closer to the bottle

I don’t think it needs any lowering. Those wheels fill the arches nicely, and you just end up losing load carrying capability, or end up with a bone jarring ride.

Keep up with the cambelt intervals and they're a pretty solid engine.

In the two weeks of ownership, its done 500 miles without missing a beat and has already earned it's keep taking tools etc down to Auto Distraction H/Q. Cleaned up the interior so is not a bad place to be & fixed the inoperative screen washer.
I will need to replace at least a pair of tyre's at some point soon due to cracking sidewalls and do at least an oil & filter change for piece of mind. Actually become quite fond of it!

How long do you think you may be hanging on to this Astra-gnome.

I may have mentioned that despite the Astra not being in an obvious limp mode apart from no going over 3200rpm, there was clearly something amiss. I pulled off the egr and associated pipework and found it to be incredibly restricted with soot/carbon and once cleaned out and refitted, I plugged the code reader in and cleared the ecu. Started it and was full of happiness as it revved through the range like a new motor.
A few moments later, the sod was back to square one so clearly, the cleared muck was not the only issue.
Read the codes again (1) and came back with PO105.
Now the rest of the day was spent trying to remove a simple bolt which held the MAP sensor in position and this bolt happened to be of the round headed 4mm allen variety which had already been mullered by a previous owner. Must have tried nearly a dozen different ways to remove the bolt from what is not as an easily accessible area as one would think.
In the end I managed to position a mini mini cutting disc on the end of a dremel and cut in a screwdriver slot, success at last! Anyhoo, waiting for a replacement MAP to see if that sorts the issue