Conference terri::cars_uk

       Good grief! Haven't Vauxhall fixed that yet? 

       My old (X reg) Cavalier used to do that. It frightened the life out of
       me the first time, because I thought I'd hit something.

       Ian.

    
    	Well, what a surprise. Its nice to know that somebody else out
    there has seen the same problem. Both my two previous Astras (1300L)
    and my previous Cavalier Estate (1600GL) all had this "Clunking"
    when reversing and braking. As the car did more miles the problem
    slowly got worse but it never seemed to affect the performance of
    the brakes. I now have a Astra CDI with ventilated front discs and
    the "clunking" is only very slight. This is probably due to the
    different design of the brakes rather than them fixing the problem.
    Personally I wouldn't worry and just turn up the stereo every time
    you reverse.
    
    		Chris.(who is now deaf!)
    

    See notes 376.18 onwards aswell.

    Martin,
    
    Well, well, well! You may remember I took a test drive in your car a
    couple of years ago before I decided to get an SRi. You may be
    interested to know I got an SRi 5-dr in the end, and its been great. I've
    done 24500 miles in 12.5 months and I think it's going better than ever
    (there must be some wood to touch around here....). I never get less
    than 32 mpg (brim-to-brim check), and often nearer 38 on high-speed
    motorway runs.
    
    HOWEVER.......
    
    Mine, too, suffers from 'brake-clunk syndrome'. It first occurred out
    of the blue one evening when I'd been parked in a dubious location with
    some louts milling about -- I reversed out of my parking space, heard
    this dreadful clunk, and I was dead worried that the louts had tampered
    with my wheels/brakes in some way. There was nothing obvious, so I
    continued my journey. But, the clunk is sometimes audible when braking
    forwards, as well. Incidentally, the evening it first happened was a
    very wet one, and there was lots of standing water around: could this
    have any bearing?
    
    I got a work colleague of mine (he used to be a rally driver!) to put
    my car through its paces, and he declared the car thoroughly roadworthy
    after some decidedly un-public-road-like activities (it took me several
    hours to stop feeling ill!). But then on the way back to the office, it
    made the dreaded noise when braking, and he was very concerned at it.
    
    I took the car to the garage (Davy's), and asked them to look at the
    brakes; the result was predictable: "they seem fine to us, sir". I've
    been very cheesed off with Davy's indifference on several occasions, so
    recently, I took my SRi to Clover Leaf Cars in Alton (joint
    Rover/Vauxhall dealer, oddly enough), and I must praise their workshops
    very highly. Their attitude was totally different. They agreed there
    was a worrying noise from the brakes, and dismantled them completely to
    clean them; they also did something to the calipers (don't know what).
    The brakes are now noise-free when moving forwards, but still sometimes
    make a slight noise when braking in reverse. The fact that cleaning
    seemed to help so much put my mind at rest. In addition, Clover Leaf
    made a modification to the engine-management system of my SRi in order
    to eradicate a flat-spot at 3000-4000 rpm (which Davy's denied
    existed), What's more, Clover Leaf cleaned my car without me asking,
    even thought they obviously knew it was a PHH car!!...service indeed.
    
    
    Stephen

    
    
    I have had my Astra SRi for 9 months and am a bit fed up with the
    attitude of the garages.
    
    The banging problem has been looked at 6 times and is as bad as ever.
    The last time I took it back I finally noticed it would only happen in 
    the wet and there response was 'Can't do anything today its not raining'. 
    The radio cassette still buzzes, the driver window clicks and the passenger
    window brushes against something. At least they've fixed the rear wash
    wipe bottle after 7 months and three trips.
    
    Spoke to Vauxhall this morning and there reply was it's up to you to fight 
    with the garage. How do you get these guys to do the work?
    
    Graeme
    
    PS. does anyone know of a garage who will fix this properly in
    Scotland. ( Anywhere from Aberdeen to Ayr).

If it's under warranty threaten to sue them for breach of contract...
(ie not fulfilling what they promise to do in the warranty)

    As the Reading Toyota Centre have always proved to be very good in the
    past, I asked them to take a look at the banging brakes.

    When I collected the car, the service manager (who had worked for Vauxhall
    for 15 years and knew all about the problem) said he had phoned up 
    Vauxhall's technical department to see if there were any new solutions.

    The good news, yes there is partial solution, modified pad springs.

    The bad news, my car already has them fitted, and nothing more can be
    done.

    Since my Astra always made the 'banging' noise on reversing, I guess I
    took it as read that it was normal... never experienced any problems
    with braking, in fact assumed it was simply the change of direction
    that caused the noise!
    
    Pete.

    I had an interesting experiance with my Belmont SRi's brakes last week.
    
    I drove the car, overnight, to my Dads house in the Black Forest, and
    it rained continually, all the way. I arrived at app 0830 Saturday
    morning, parked the car and unloaded it. On thursday, I went to move
    the car closer to the house to load all the wine and beer I was
    bringing home, but the car would not move. It was like someone was
    pressing the brakes, very hard. I had the AA 5 Star Policy, so I called
    a local gargage, who duly arrived with a Tow truck. "Ahh," they said, 
    "An Opel ! Did you pull you handbrake on after the brakes got wet ?"
    "Yes" said I (In German you understand), "It rained all the way across
    France". "Well" said the Mechanic, "This is a common fault on Opels, so
    I advise you not to use your handbrake".
    
    Well they fixed it, quite quickly (and cheaply - No rip off at all ! 40
    Pounds, including towing the car back to their garage) and I was told 
    that Germans tend not to use their Handbrakes any way, and especially 
    Opel handbrakes. 
    
    So beware out there !
    
    Wayne (who_is_scared_to_pull_on_his_hand_brake)

This has happened to me a couple of times in my Nova...

I just treat it the same as I used to treat my Mini when the brakes seized 
after being left standing for a while...

In first, reasonable revs, slip the clutch until they release with a "bang"
all ok again after that !

    Not on these ones !
    
    I tried that , and so did the mechanic. They were well and truly
    stuck ! There is half an inch of rubber left on my Dad's driveway
    to testify to this fact !  ;-)
    
    Wayne.

Must be better brakes in the Nova :-)



The GTE seems to be the better car all round I think...

1. The engine doesn't blow up
2. The brakes don't seize permanently
3. More luxurious interior
4. Nicer controls
5. More comfortable (and more expensive) seats.
6. Feels more stable around 100-110 (I certainly didn't expect this one !)


I *definitely* prefer my Nova, even with a 1.6 engine to the Astra !!!!

    RE: Astra Brakes 'bang'.  When I move away from having been parked for
    a while, someitmes my SRi puts ap resistance - it really feels as tho'
    I haven't let the handbrake off.  After a bit of rocking bakwards and
    forwards, there is a loud bang, and the resistance has gone.  Does
    anyone know if this relates to the problems elsewhere in this note, or
    if it is dangerous?
    
    Ta
    
    Mikef

Re: .13

Nah, it's just your disk pads rusting to your disks....

happens on mine whenever it's been damp...

    Sounds worrying to me?  Should I be nervous?  I only got new pads a few
    thou' miles ago.
    
    Mikef

>    Sounds worrying to me?  Should I be nervous?  I only got new pads a few
>    thou' miles ago.
    
I'd say it's fairly normal....after all there's ferrous metal in the disks and
ferrous metal in the pads...they are bound to rust.

They always unstick after a couple of feet of dragging that wheel.

	Correct me if I'm wrong but the Astra SRi uses drums on the rear, and if
this is the case they are in need of a bit of preventative maintenance.

	I borrowed an Astra SRi (H reg) for a week and had to rock/drag the rear 
wheels before anything would give.

	I had a similar problem on my old mk2 Cavalier 1600 SR, I stripped out 
the rear brakes and cleaned anything that moved. I coated all the metal joints in
COPPER-EASE, this stops things seizing up and to this day they have never gone 
wrong since (nearly 4 years).

	Andy

    
    Andy,
       it's also a very good idea to soak the shoes in Mobil 1 for a few
    hours, this stops them from rusting :-)
    
    Alan.

RE:-1

	Alan,

	Do you also advise greasing the disks to stop any squealing........
	
	Andy

Must be common with Astra SRi's

Mine plus a friends both did it.
The jamming cleared up after the last service (touch wood)

Paul.f

    
    re -2
         Andy, I usually keep the disks clean, because the grease holds
    onto any road debris and causes scoring, but if the pads are nicely
    soaked they seem to last longer..... :-)
    
    Alan

    Any Astra/SRi owners...slight topic change...
    
    Does anyone have problems with lights?  I have 130/90 bulbs fitted in
    my SRi, but the lights just don't seem very bright.  I don't know if
    its the settings/adjustment of the headlights, or the covers, or what. 
    Any ideas anyone?
    
    Mikef

    
    Mike, 
       it maybe something to do with the legality of your lighting units.
    130/90 seems a little different from the legal max of 55/??, have you
    tried putting the 130/90 bulbs in the front headlamps instaed of the
    fog/tail lights ??  :-)
    
    Alan
    

    
    Re-1...very witty Wilde...I don't normally drive everywhere in reverse
    :-)  
    
    Mikef

    Have you tried cleaning the road dirt off the headlamps?  You'd be
    surprised the difference it makes....
    
    Richard
    

    Mike,
        I notice from your original note that you think that the covers may
    be at fault, are these covers the rallye spec ones with chequered/Hapag
    printed across them ? If so then I suggest removing these covers and
    seeing if it makes a difference... :-)
    Alan

    Odd, my covers are those totally black ones.  Maybe they are special
    driving in daylight only headlights?
    
    Mikef

    re .22 using 130/90 W headlamp bulbs.
    
    	I would suggest your problem is that your wiring loom & connectors
    & relays are probably overloaded. Doubling the total current through a
    loom with no modifications is a bit on the dodgy side.(Whats that
    burning smell??)
    	I would install some cable that is capable of carrying 43 Amps and 
    new relays to drive the lamps straight from the battery ( Via a in-line 
    fuse). Remember, the fuse and wiring must be capable of carrying 43 AMPS 
    continuously, in case you flash at any mad men that still don't see you 
    with your lights on dip.
    
    	Chris.(who has done this before and had exactly the same problem.)