Mac's Insignia SE - Gerhard - The Judas Carrier. Nov'16 to Mar '19. Now deceased.. as far as im concerned.

[mac11irl]

So this post is somewhat of a place holder for now until i get some photos cropped etc and login on the main site to upload them.

The Insignia isnt going to be so much a project thread as a day to how life with a heavy lazy land yacht is. And it makes more sense to just throw the post in here than gen car chat.. less chance of being lost in the sea of time.

But a little history shall follow first in the next couple of posts about the Octavia that has gone before and how life the old girl was

Edited 31 March, 2019 by mac11irl
End of ownership title update

[AshVrs]

I like the look of the insignia and looked at one at the time I bought my Octavia. The one thing I was surprised by was how seemingly little room there is inside for such a big car. Will look forward to the pictures!

[mac11irl]

Yeah it is more snug than it looks from the outside, but as im not particularily big ( 5'7'' & 10stone....) its just a nice fit.

Reckon they did it by making the doors very thick

Spec will follow properly too, but its got a LOT more poke than the Octy...

[mac11irl]

Picked his name this morning.

Gerhard - meaning Spear, Strong.

suits the insignia, its definitely a male car. Its got the power and goes very well in a straight line and while the handling is decent, the steering is a bit numb and its heavy so its not a back road ralliest, more a big lazy cruiser.

Its odd because the Octavia in my head was always a lady, but i cant see the insignia as a "girl"

Edited 20 September, 2018 by mac11irl
Just spotted a typo

[mac11irl]

Posted elsewhere, but Gerhardt before his train bath

 

And this morning after the bath

 

 

He aint gleaming, but a lot cleaner than he was!

[mac11irl]

Few pics from the weekend before the Octy went away.

After its last wash and general Tidy out.

 

 

Pressed Plates came off as a souvenir   Brisky Sticker stayed on for the leaving      

    

Thems were some grand if pock marked alloys. Shmall rim comfort on bad roads!

 

To be fair, the rear seats looked pretty good. So did the Passenger footwell considering the dirt usually in there      Genuine Italian Leather Stitched around that Wheel

 

A Vital Piece of Lumber in the Octy's last days...

[mac11irl]

So, the first actual photos i got to take in daylight of the Insignia were about 3 weeks into ownership..

Took them at work in one of our compounds.

 

Jaysus, 23 days of ownership and its the same colour as the ballast...

 

A big heavy Lump parked in front of a big heavy lump of old Steam Crane

 

Dont worry, thats just an old seat squad cover, to save the upholstery some of the mess

 

nearly filled with work bits already. didnt take long

 

 

[mac11irl]

and the first mod i bought - Boot protector

 

Yup, its big enough for 1No. 20month old. Purr fekt

 

 

[mac11irl]

Right....

Figure im due an update on the experience. Still feel the same overall, its a great mile muncher, comfy and all that. But no character.

 

Ive put 21000km on it since i got it.

 

Averaging about 45mpg of mixed motorway and back road driving.

 

Ive changed all the discs and pads for pagids as the olds were quite lipped.

 

Full set of tyres after a motorway high speed puncture, was nearly due a set,so the dateline came forward..

 

Replaced the radiator due to a leak.

 

Caused some damage to the boot lid while doing a good deed..  learned a lesson about electric handbrakes at the same time... replacement hatch sourcing nearly complete, delivery of a correct colour one is proving difficult..

 

And on Tuesday i found out that the aux belt tensioner is failing, when the belt came off.. secondary lesson there - no power steering would make that car nearly undrivable. My god its heavy without it. Got it limped to a mechanic beside a work depot - no alternator, no pas, and heavy brakes - who checked and put it back. New belt and tensioner picked up yesterday evening and get them on today/tomorrow as im working nights again.

 

[mac11irl]

Got my new arse put on about a month ago. Came with a free engine upgrade... i now have a newer ecoflex instead of the cdti (cba swapping the badging, just gonna dental floss it off instead)

 

Perfect colour match, small dent that the uncle pulled 85% of out right on the centreline crease. Also swapped the chrome strip as the replacement was off a nordie vauxhall. Also swapped over the boot latch from mine as the replacement one had been abused over its shorter life. Inc beer tokens for my uncle and cousin for the time it cost me 350quid.

Lesson learned - f'k everyone else, mind yer own business cause it just brings you grief thinking youre doing doing the right thing.

[mac11irl]

So additional updates, i have 25000km racked up since November. So its first full service is happening in the next 72hrs. My regular guy is on holidays so using a sub - the kindly gent who put my aux belt back together...

I have also ordered 2 new front bearing kits but theyve not arrived yet. One of thems definitely gone, but i cant gauge which side, so sod it, doing both... regular mech can do that job when hes back and they have arrived.

 

I had also got 2 new key cases as the existing ones were fairly knackered. 12quid off ebay, they even came with new blades and little opel inserts for the back.

 

Spot the difference...

Problem - got quoted 35quid per key to copy the blades?!?! 

And couldnt swap them directly as the new keys have a slightly different spacing on the spring mechanism.

 

Bit the bullet last night and found a neat panel pin that fit..

Disassebled the keys and squeezed out the little split pin retainers in the shafts, swapped the blades over and put them back together.

 

I now have 2 perfect keys, and saved meself 70quid in 15mins..

 

[mac11irl]

Gerhards getting a new clutch in the next 2weeks... 

DMF dying. Release bearing sounds like a stuck pig when cold.

215000km... just shy of 8yrs... 

Im not sure thats as ling as id expect u less some a$$, i mean previous owner, abused it towing constantly..or was just a ****e driver :(

[mac11irl]

Update -

 

Clutch and flywheel kit replaced, havnt driven it yet due to where its parked and where im working this week.

 

Talking to Mechanic doing it after he had striped it down. somebody had already changed the clutch, but not the flywheel... doing it on the cheap? 

Either way, i told him replace both, no point half doing the job and end up with the clutch dying after just doing the flywheel. Plus it worked cheaper like that.

 

Side note, the anti theft had been acting up, triggering the siren but not flashing lights for a few weeks. Bit of googling it seems it part of the "backup battery low power" warning system. Battery on the siren box dying so it sets itself off to tell you, but cant put a fault message on the display? (While knowing if a number plate bulb is gone?)To avoid it my work around was lock it from the internal button via open passenger door.

Mechanic told me that after doing the clutch and reconnecting the battery, he forgot the system and locked normally.. no alarm went off. ..

I now think it was a fault code stuck after swapping the boot hatch - disconnected the wiring loom so lost signal to the sensors back there.. 

Either way, solved!!

[mac11irl]

Picked the lump up yesterday, do e with my turn on the pool vans.

Clutch feels waaaaay better.

Wheel bearing on the back is next.

Nearly couldve got in trouble driving home, forgot how much more power it has compared to the van... having cruise control again is nice too...

[mac11irl]

Update....

 

 

Alarm started setting itself off again today...

 

****.

[mac11irl]

Got my rear wheel bearings changed wed and thurs night. 

Im now running quieter than i ever have.. i have a feeling i bought this car just as everything started to wear out..

Anyhoo, im just sitting waitung my turn at a (newish) tyre fitters to get my tracking checked, pretty sure its a tad off.

NCT monday morning! Heres hoping for a pass!

 

Another update - alarm still not sorted

 

 

[mac11irl]

Oh and info point re the bearings.

I got SKF ones from ECP.

And it took my indy mech serious sweat to change them.

Couldnt get the old ones off with his own hub puller.

Had to bring the whole hub carrier assembly into his day job workshop and use the heavy duty press.. the "normal" one maxed out at 30Tonnes load and never budged them. It took 42Tonnes to seperate them!!!

[mac11irl]

Well, Gerhardt is going to be serviced in the next couple of weeks, parking him up and taking work van until ive organised the plan..

Its going to be a hefty service -

Standard fluids and filters

 

Timing belt kit

 

Boost actuator solenoid replacement (GM version of N75 i believe) and add in a vacuum reservoir

 

Remove egr, map, maf and clean the unholy amount of carp on them all - its known problem on the 2.0litre A20DTH - and i got my first boost loss into limp mode yesterday. Cycling the ignition resets it, but itll keep coming back. It throws fault code P02345 for anyone else with this engine.

 

And get my steering and suspension checked over for wear or issues. Something doeant feel quite right since i hit a pothole about 2months ago..

 

Going to be an expensive and time consuming session..

[mac11irl]

Still not serviced.. been running the van nearly full ti.e since swapping over, other than a couple of weekends to run the siggy and stop anything else seizing/dying.

New solenoid arrived yesterday, so going to change it today if it stops raining, and pull and clean the maf.

 

Brother in law's 2012 insignia started to do the "actuator solenoid hum" recently, he mentioned it in passing... i told him what it is, and i got him a new one at the same time as mine, so ill do his some day hes at home.

 

Alarm still unsolved, havnt changed anything, as it may also be another fault - resistance issue in rear window apparently. Lotta owners only solved it by replacing the tailgate glass...

 

[mac11irl]

Well the rain never stopped all day, so try again for the actuator swap and maf check..

[mac11irl]

Got the boost actuator solenoid replaced yesterday. Took about 5mins. Only had one short drive since, but there was no Buddhist humming at 2k rpm..

New version of the solenoid also seems to have an extra bit on it compared to old one. Im going to assume its now the vacuum reservoir built in rather than being a seperate bit involving bending metal pipework..

[mac11irl]

Update - new wastegate solenoid has ended the 2000rpm humming.

 

Timing belt, water pump and general service on Tuesday...

Its jussst about to pass 240000km so 150000 miles. Cant find mention of last belt change in service book, so its either just due anyway (assuming 50k interval after 1st 100k) or.. its 50000 miles over due...

[mac11irl]

I also just realised its almost exactly 2yrs since i bought this fat german slob...

And nearly a year to the day since it got a new clutch... 

Good god times passing fast!

[mac11irl]

Timing belt, water pump, general service done last night..

 

Next job - aircon bomb.. being parked up alot over the last months has it a bit sniffy..

 

Then maybe look into the alarm fault.. maybe. Need to find someone with GM version of VCDS and see if it finds anything..

[mac11irl]

And so we arrive to the final update...

 

Born (first regged) on 23/1/09, purchased by me Nov 16.

 

The cdti (A20dth) death knell sounded on Tuesday Mar 18th, with a 2500rpm grumble.  

Turned out to be the big end bearings (output crank) eating themselves, as is common. 155k on the clock... did well, most deaths seem to be seizure at 130-140..

Faced with a 2grand bill to either source and fit a refurbed engine or strip and refurb the existing one, i decided after a few days it just wasnt worth the cash. My Cork mechanic is considering if he wants to buy it as a non runner from me, might be a few quid to be made for him that i cant.

It may get a heart transplant or quadruple bypass to fix its cholesterol problems (bits of ground up bearings floating in the oil everywhere, filter is full of it..). 

 

Ive told my BIL get rid of his 2012 as soon as he can afford to. 

My mother got a 2015, facelift on the back of early experience 18months ago (everything worked..) and space. She is now aiming towards chopping it around Summer time under my advice.

 

List of faults/ problems..

 

Coolant loss - Radiator failure.

 

Alarm issue - never resolved.

 

Rear bearings (fair enough it happens) - the amount of force needed on a press to get them out... ridiculous (42Tonnes!)

 

Aux belt tensioner failed.. its not fun driving an almost 2tonne car with big fat tyres and no power steering assist... 3pt turn nearly had me out in a sweat, though that may have been stress from driving it on the battery, and also no brake assist, through city traffic..

 

Boost actuator solenoid failed.

 

Recent Limp modes - probably blocked egr/throttle body/map sensor, was to be checked and cleaned out at next service (was going to be in May..)

Electric hand brake - not a fault, just a pain in the arse, didnt always engage on first pull if you were still Rolling at 2mph..

 

Boot switch - didnt work, but the button on keys did, until i replaced the switch.

 

Headlight bulbs - another awkward pain in the rear due to access and needing a torx key to remove them.

 

DMF failed - poor previous owner maintenance, and poor design combined? It was on its second clutch before i bought it, but the flywheel wasnt changed. Quite annoying and expensive. BIL's 2012 flywheel died in December, i told him do the clutch at the same time due to cost and peace of mind... he was thrilled with that bill at Christmas time!

 

Front Wheel arch liners - somehow, rain/standing water/snow can get up the back of them. In the case of snow, it can build up and (happened once) push the arch liner out so far it obstructs the steering! I spent 20mins one day after a snow drive digging a mountain of compacted ice from behind the liners when i made it into a work compound with very restricted steering for the last few miles.. on a more recent occasion i hit some standing water and following it i could hear the front passenger tyre rubbing on something when turning left.. turned out it was the arch liner pushed in from the big puddle... thats a fantastic bit of design work...

 

I had to replace the battery too, but thats acceptable.

 

I cant think of anything else at the moment so im going to stop now.

 

Overall - my ownership verdict -

Never again, and dont buy one..

 

Edited 31 March, 2019 by mac11irl