Hi All,
My name is Grant and I live in Brisbane and I’ve just purchased my first ever Opel, a Silver MY04.5 Corsa Sri with 67,000km on it. The main reason for the Corsa is because I just got back from the UK and I needed a small car that was good on fuel and the Corsa was pretty much all I could fit into comfortably at this size and price range. Im 6’3”. I could get any Corsa C SRi or any face lift Corsa C because they have the extra lever to drop the seat right down on the floor, allowing me to sit comfortably. I went for the SRi in the end because I found the 1.4 under powered, but nice gearbox, I wish the SRi gearbox was as nice and the SRi has cruise control too. But I must admit I absolutely love driving this car, it is so fun. Shame they didn’t bring the Corsa D into Australia, that is a hot looking car.
I brought the car pretty much as you see it; it was a repairable write off and had been repaired (Mostly and some a bit half-arsed). The damage was to the left hand front wheel area. The Steering Rack and Lower Control Arm were pretty much all that was needed to be replaced. Some panel work on the left rear quarter panel and front lower spoiler was also done. I must admit the panel work looks like a first year apprentice in his first week has done it.
Mechanically when I got it, it just needed a good service as it hadn’t had one for over 2 years at 60k due to the “write off” and must have sat around for a while. I also needed to get rid of a “clunk” I got when I accelerated. So far I have:
I was surprised by how much better the car ran after this, besides getting rid of the “clunk”.
- Changed out the timing belt (Gates) which hadn’t been done at 60k.
- Not pulleys though, Not a good idea I realised once I saw the cheap bearings they use. This also fixed the clunk as the right hand engine mount was loose which you need to remove and replace to install the timing belt. Got a fair bit of money off the car because of the clunk. I said it could cost a hell of a lot of money to fix, though I suspected the front engine mount because I thought it was stuffed, but I then found out after I bought the car that’s hows it’s meant to look! But luckily in the end it was an engine mount, just not the one I thought.
- Changed the “fan” belt (Dayco)
- Changed rear brake pads (Bendix)
- The discs were still OK. The right hand calliper was a pain, we couldn’t get the thread to catch in the piston so we could screw it down.
- Changed the spark plugs (Bosch Super Plus)
- Changed the oil, fuel and air filters (Ryco)
- Changed the oil, (Castrol GTX3)
- I will use a Semi Syn when I do the 75k service as it will have to last 15k rather than 8k this time.
I have made a few modifications too, but I’m going for reliability and originality rather than performance.
I’ve got a few things I still want to do on it though.
- Replaced the aftermarket pod air filter (No shield, box or anything) with an original air box and filter.
- This helped so much, smoothed out the engine at idle, gave me more power all the way through the rev range, and increased fuel economy slightly. I didn’t expect any of this; I just wanted originality and reliability. The pod filter was also wearing through the air conditioner refrigerant line.
- Replaced the cheap Sony head unit with an original head unit.
- Pretty sure this was put in for the Sub output. It was one of the crap units Sony made a few years back when for some reason the Sony units went to crap. Will admit they are a much better unit again now. The original head unit sounds much better and I can use the steering wheel controls again too. Changing the antenna plug back again was a pain though.
- Removed all the cheap Sub Woofer wiring from the entire car.
- I’m not planning to install another sub woofer but even if I was, I would have to replace the wiring. The RCA’s looked like they came with $50 DVD player. I also totally removed the parcel shelf because they had a set of Boss 6x9’s in it. Nothing but the best!!!!.
I loved driving this car when I brought it and it’s a lot better now. Looking forward to getting it to a standard where I’m happy. My only regret is that I wasn’t the person who brought the car from auction as a repairable write off, because I would have done the repairs to a much higher level and probably would have cost me less all up too.
- Replace the factory speakers.
- Looking at using the Jaycar Response speaker with adapters from Ebay UK. Really liked the old Response speakers, but I’m a bit worried now they have changed.
- Refit the side skirts.
- There are clips and screws etc missing. The skirts are in good condition just they tried to refit the skirts as cheap as possible, meaning they just Silastic them on.
- Replace the left hand engine mount.
- The rubber is cracked; I’m going to try and get a new one through Autovaux.
- Replace the anti roll bar LH drop link.
- The car must have sat there for a while without a wheel and the sun has got to the rubber boots and perished them. $90 from Holden and 9 pounds from Autovaux!!!
- Replace the LH CV boot.
- They repaired a hole by smearing a bit of black Silastic over the hole. Good work! I have fixed it a bit better and it’s holding up but I just need the time to change it out, I have the kit ready to go.
- Maybe replace the head unit again.
- I want to use my IPod and those FM things suck. Will need to be able use the steering wheel controls too.
- Change to DBA slotted discs when the originals wear out.
- Get rid of the Nankangs when they wear out.
- The bloke I brought the car off tried to tell me they are a good tyre!
- Replace the Hand Brake and Gear Lever boots.
- They are worn out like everyone else’s, would like to go irmscher but they are pretty expensive (106 pounds) Does anyone know a cheaper but good alternative.
- Replace the Pollen filter
- Why not!
- Replace the handbrake handle and facia panels on the front console (Around the ventilation controls and between the display and CD player)
- They have been painted metallic silver and don’t look to good anymore, if they ever did. Besides this the interior is immaculate
- Replace the parcel shelf
- It doesn’t look that good with 2 big holes in it.
- Maybe replace the wheels with 15" wheels for a better ride.
- Probably wont happen because I really like the look of these wheels.
Looking forward to having a few discussions on OpelAus too.
Cheers
Grant
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