1st Mar 2002, 06:55
1997 Astra, 1.6 8 valve, LS 5 door. Had it 2 years now, good car, good runner, very economical, but a bit sluggish compared to my old Mk2 1.6 (cat?).
One front suspension bush changed by myself (also my job). Always liked the Mk3, had a Mk2 for 10 years, was a good car to me.
30th Aug 2005, 20:02
I agree with the irritating rattles. One comes from the passenger door. Even after dismantling the door the problem persists. The second is from the engine which was I suspect is the head gasket not being put back together properly by the dealers. I have a 1.4 16V Multi-point which is quite quick top end, but very sluggish acceleration. I found the the anti roll bar links do go a lot, I've been through 2 sets in the last year.
Overall nice car to look at, but very high on maintenance which I find frustrating.
7th Oct 2005, 14:44
I have an Astra 1.4 16v MKIV estate X reg. It has an annoying squeaking noise from the boot cover thing. It drinks oil like a tramp on Tennents Extra and the engine makes a horribly rattling noise after the last oil top up.
On the plus side, the aircon is nice and it's fairly nippy for it's small engine. The cd player ain't half bad either!
13th Nov 2005, 06:18
I think you will find the noise coming from the door is the hinges try packing them with grease. as this worked with my 1996 Astra LS 1.4.
3rd Dec 2005, 10:32
I have a 1992 Vauxhall Astra cd, that up to now has run quite well, then it started to run rather rough. I was told that my cylinder head gasket had gone and it had to be replaced.
This was done and all was well for twelve months when the same thing stared again. When we stripped the head down to put another gasket on, the old gasket had not blown, but was changed anyway and now we cannot get any compression on any cylineds at all, I've tried to find out what it could be, but nobody that I have asked have any idea what it can be.
If anybody can help please reply to this
THANK YOU.
18th Dec 2005, 10:03
Lack of Compression after cylinder head gasket change.
I have just experienced a very similar problem with my 1998 1.6 Astra which required a cylinder head gasket change. On rebuild there seemed to be no compression i.e. the starter motor spinning the engine at the same speed whether the plugs were in or out. Eventually traced the cause to the hydraulic tappets keeping the valves open on the backs of the cams. Solution was to force the tappet head back into the body by putting the tappet in the vice and squeezing the oil out. Takes a few minutes to get all the oil out, but the tappet head can then be pushed into the body by hand pressure alone.
Hope this helps - it has held up the rebuild of my car for 3 days!!
16th Aug 2007, 13:36
We have recently spent a year rebuilding our 1992 Astra Mk3 1.7D Estate, one of the first 3000 built. The engine was rebuilt and rebored, but is reluctant to run on all four cylinders - as you might expect, it's the hydraulic tappets which won't let the engine run properly.
Any ideas of how to get them to behave without having to dismantle too much?
6th Jan 2008, 19:57
I am sooo happy I have found this. I rebuilt an X20XEV engine and put it all together, but it wouldn't fire, then myself and a friend who has done plenty of these had we found there was no compression on cylinders 2 and 3, and so off the head came, we spent all day puzzled trying to work out what the hell was wrong, when we put the inlet cam on all 8 inlet valves were open slightly, so we presumed it must be this, but as of yet haven't tried them.
When squeezing them one popped and is now really loose, does this mean its now broke?
7th Oct 2010, 15:10
I have an 2003 Astra 2.0 TDI. I have had charging problems for the last 5 years, changed alternator and replaced two batteries. I can never get more than 13 volts max. I had to bench charge the battery so it did not go flat on me every week. I checked all the usual connections IE earth, alternator battery etc to no avail.
Enough was enough, either I cure the problem or the car has to go. So I clamped my volt meter on the battery; it read 12.4 volts. I started the engine, it went up to 12.9 volts. I purely by accident leaned on the large negative main wire that is crimped to the main battery terminal; the voltage suddenly shot up to 13.6 volts. I ran solder into this bad crimp; the voltage then read 13.8 volts. So then I did the same to the positive side; hay presto, then my voltage read 14.4 volts. My car now turns the engine over every morning just as if it's been on charge all night. I have not used my bench charger now for over 5 months. SO CHECK YOUR BATTERY CRIMPS FIRST before you spend your money on alternators batteries etc that you probably do not need.
9th Feb 2002, 09:30
Hi.
I have a 1996 Vauxhall Astra LS, I think the general running of the car is excellent - I swear by them. But, I do agree with the irritating rattling of the rear parcel shelf, and I also had the boot lock (not the key bit) rattling - the only way for me to overcome this was to wrap masking tape around it, so the fit on the lock is padded, and a more solid fit.
Wayne.