Of Seats and MOT's
I've always been a fan of Vauxhalls since my MkII Cavalier some, err, a lot, years ago. And, indeed we have an Astra as the sensible car.
Since the demise of the daughter's Peugeot a year ago when we got her a Corsa everything was fine; until last week.
"Hello Vauxhall Dealer. Please can you do a service and MOT on the Corsa?"
"Yes, of course and we'll do a reasonable price too!"
*ring* *ring*
"Hello, the Corsa has failed on so many things that we ran out of red failure sheets, we've put the car in a cardboard box for you to collect. BTW, the airbag light is on but it's not a failure.". (I knew that, it's been on since we bought the car).
Actually, it wasn't that bad TBH. Although it *was* a long list, it was mainly front suspension stuff & broken coil springs1 that are easy to do - but really irritating thing was it failed on "Drivers' seat not secure".
Part 1: Find a seat
Corsa seats are all in one piece, not bolted to a £20 sub-frame like the good old days, ooh no, you have to buy the entire seat. "more than £200" from Vauxhall. So a quick trip to eBay reveals the nearest one is Hemel Hempstead (about 100 miles), and it's not the right colour. Another Google reveals that pretty much each colour of Corsa had a million different seat designs and colours. Chance of finding "blue fleck"? Zero.
Go to local spares place to buy the other bits and pieces. "Have you tried Mark at the breakers over the road?", "Err, breakers? Didn't know he existed." Oh look, an-exact-match blue fleck seat, including seat belt pre-tensioner - £30. Result!
Spot the difference?2
Part 2: Replace handbrake cable
Another innocuous entry on the red sheet was "handbrake cable frayed". I eventually found the offending strand hidden in the guide - a two minute job.
I returned the car to Vauxhalls for a re-test.
*ring* *ring*
"Hello, your Corsa has failed the MOT on a frayed handbrake cable"
"WTF? I replaced that"
"Oh, it's the other side that you never spotted and we couldn't be *rsed to put it in twice on the sheet, we really don't give stuff if we've wasted your time"
Part 3: Replace other handbrake cable and rear wheel bearing.
I removed the offending cable and decided to replace the really short one3 that goes into the brake drum just in case they decided to have a laugh and fail that too. I removed the brake drum and the wheel bearing fell to bits.
Replace handbrake cable: 3 minutes
Replace wheel bearing: 3 hours.
Annoying the neighbours because you're pounding the crap out of the drum with a sledge hammer: Timeless.
On the plus side, the airbag light went out.
1Note to self: Slap daughter for hitting speed humps too fast.
2Yes, they're the same.
3Corsa handbrake has five, count them, five bits...
Since the demise of the daughter's Peugeot a year ago when we got her a Corsa everything was fine; until last week.
"Hello Vauxhall Dealer. Please can you do a service and MOT on the Corsa?"
"Yes, of course and we'll do a reasonable price too!"
*ring* *ring*
"Hello, the Corsa has failed on so many things that we ran out of red failure sheets, we've put the car in a cardboard box for you to collect. BTW, the airbag light is on but it's not a failure.". (I knew that, it's been on since we bought the car).
Actually, it wasn't that bad TBH. Although it *was* a long list, it was mainly front suspension stuff & broken coil springs1 that are easy to do - but really irritating thing was it failed on "Drivers' seat not secure".
Part 1: Find a seat
Corsa seats are all in one piece, not bolted to a £20 sub-frame like the good old days, ooh no, you have to buy the entire seat. "more than £200" from Vauxhall. So a quick trip to eBay reveals the nearest one is Hemel Hempstead (about 100 miles), and it's not the right colour. Another Google reveals that pretty much each colour of Corsa had a million different seat designs and colours. Chance of finding "blue fleck"? Zero.
Go to local spares place to buy the other bits and pieces. "Have you tried Mark at the breakers over the road?", "Err, breakers? Didn't know he existed." Oh look, an-exact-match blue fleck seat, including seat belt pre-tensioner - £30. Result!
Spot the difference?2
Part 2: Replace handbrake cable
Another innocuous entry on the red sheet was "handbrake cable frayed". I eventually found the offending strand hidden in the guide - a two minute job.
I returned the car to Vauxhalls for a re-test.
*ring* *ring*
"Hello, your Corsa has failed the MOT on a frayed handbrake cable"
"WTF? I replaced that"
"Oh, it's the other side that you never spotted and we couldn't be *rsed to put it in twice on the sheet, we really don't give stuff if we've wasted your time"
Part 3: Replace other handbrake cable and rear wheel bearing.
I removed the offending cable and decided to replace the really short one3 that goes into the brake drum just in case they decided to have a laugh and fail that too. I removed the brake drum and the wheel bearing fell to bits.
Replace handbrake cable: 3 minutes
Replace wheel bearing: 3 hours.
Annoying the neighbours because you're pounding the crap out of the drum with a sledge hammer: Timeless.
On the plus side, the airbag light went out.
1Note to self: Slap daughter for hitting speed humps too fast.
2Yes, they're the same.
3Corsa handbrake has five, count them, five bits...
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