sorry to sound stupid but how do you like somebodies post

VX.O.C would like to wish all our members a very Merry Xmas.


VX.O.C would like to thank all members for the support the have given the forum and we hope that in our 2nd year we will grow much bigger.

Well yesterday we got a new addition to the family.

She is an 8 week old Husky x Akita and we have called her Winter.
















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I think its time I made a thread here about mine since its racking up the mods rather quickly!!
Unfortunately i've not got as many pictures as I'd like during the mods - I'm always too exited after its done and too busy doing them to take pictures! haha

Not long after I picked her up - Boggo standardo





Trip to the lakes



After a thorough wash



First to install were new alloys and tyres, and then later the same evening I fitted 40mm Eibach lowering springs. Tyres were Bridgestone Potenza S001's. Factory fitted on Ferrari 458 Italia and they were an absolutely cracking tyre for on the road and track days!

It really sets the car off and sits much prettier - Handling characteristics have also increased although the ride quality has suffered (more so with the low profile tyres than suspension I think!)


K&N panel filter was a swift install but made a noticeable difference! I also drilled a few holes in the cool side of the air box BELOW the filter so the air still has to pass through the filter to the intake - This let the turbo sing and flutter more audibly and sounds great when manoeuvring around. I love turbo sounds!

Next came the leather interior. Bought from a local scrapyard they were out of a vehicle that had been in a flood. Managed to pick up the entire interior for £200 including all seats, door cards and even the full floor console.

Before the interior was put anywhere near the car is was thoroughly washed down multiple times with leather cleaner and other products to get any smells and stains off. The advantage of leather is how everything can just wipe off!

The interior was then fitted - Both front seats, rear seats and front door cards. I haven't got round to drilling through the hole for the rear window winders yet so they are still standard, and I simply swapped the leather armrest lid over as the console itself was quite mucky and its more than likely that the handbrake button wouldn't work anyway. That's the only different part anyway.

It's always fun taking the interior out - Didn't take long at all and we found a whole host of things beneath the seats, including a rather sharp knife. No blood though thank goodness!

I then left it for a short while whilst I went on holiday and tried to do some saving, but then my 21st birthday came around and I couldn't resist any longer!

I got a personal registration from my parents so I swiftly fitted that!


I still need to reposition the front plate up slightly!


I was getting bored with how the car made no sounds other than the air box noise i mentioned above. Time for exhaust!

I got the car booked in at a local custom exhaust shop and had a chat to them about what they could do. The plan was to remove the entire rear section from where it joins beneath the front seats.
Original system layout:
Turbo downpipe -> 1st Catalytic coverter -> 2nd catalytic converter *join* -> middle silencer ->1st rear silencer -> 2nd rear silencer -> Tip
In the words of the engineer, an 'extremely restrictive system'. They also mentioned that the 2nd cat just restricted the system further and wouldn't affect the emissions too much anyway, so we agreed that they will cut the 2nd cat out, and create the rest of the system from the new join.

Here is a video of the sound. I think it's awesome! When you want to just drive nice and slow or cruise down the motorway, you can't hear it, but put your foot down and it really sings!
[video=youtube;_ijnm9-JejI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ijnm9-JejI&list=UU2zSY7JhXimZYaBEy3F2u8g[/video]

New system layout:
Turbo downpipe ->1st cat *join* -> middle resonater box -> rear resonator box -> tip
The whole layout looks tidier and you can see that the piping is much more free flowing, especially as the original system rear silencers had the exhaust pipe coming in and out the same side rather than simply passing through!
Unfortunately they were in a rush to close when I picked it up so I didn't get any pics on the ramp - I will next time its in for some sort of tracking at my local garage or something.
I didn't wan't it to look any more noticale than the standard, so I chose the closest matching oval.


I did a track day the day after the exhaust was fitted which was an awesome day until my brakes began squeaking more than expected and seemed to be fading fast in the afternoon - It was fine in the morning sessions!
After consulting with one of the officials the pads looked a little low and he didn't recommend doing many more sessions if any. I went out for one last blast for a few laps until they began to fade again, let the car cool then headed home.



I had only ever replaced the pads not long after getting the car so this time I decided to do the full front disks and pads. After a while searching for someone who actually sold grooved/drilled vented disks they also recommended some EBC yellowstuff pads which are a good balance between road and track and pretty much made for the EBC disks I ordered. Whilst waiting for the parts to arrive the front left began to grind under braking - luckily I only work less than 10 minutes away from home so I just drove gently as I could tell one of the pads had worn through completely. Oops!

new disks arrive and that evening I planned to fit them with a good friend of mine who works on heavy machinery as a mechanic. This would be a doddle for him!!
Upon inspection we found the inside pad had indeed worn to the metal, and the outside although looked like it had a few MM left, half of the pad disintegrated upon removal from the caliper!
Old vs new!


Finally fitted it was another 500 miles of gentle driving to bed these in.


Next it was a simple headlight bulb revamp. New main beam, full beam and DRL and number plate lights as recommended by Rusty.

Comparison - its hard to distinguish really on a camera!








I managed to drop the driver side DRL bulb into the headlamp but after 45+ mins of fishing with an old wire coat hangar bent into a hook, it miraculously came out and was fitted back without issue.

But I swiftly got bored of those so moved to my biggest project yet. Xenon look full headlight units.

Starting with removing the bumper


After getting a wet head, jacket and phone all from water dripping under the bumper we got it off and set about removing the headlights themselves and get ready to fit these beauties!


I fit the HID kits fully inside the headlamp unit whilst my mate took the old lights out and then set about rebuilding
(we wondered if the torch would be better than the standard candles, i mean headlights, the astra comes with!!)


new vs old


Car went all back together nicely and the results speak for themselves!!






Im sure there will be more to come!!

I even convinced my mum to 'join the crew' and she has bought a 1.7CDTi with only 19k on the clock! Here they are together (before headlights were done!)


Cheers for looking!

Jordan

On so my 1.3 eco tech seems to be drinking diesel lately.

I remember when i could do 70-85 miles with the needle moving after filling up

Yet this pic moved from full to that line and only done 66miles.



Im on the next line down and done 110miles

As you see the car has done a lot of miles and in a year i have done 20,000.
Car had a service back in October but is there something more i need to do or change.


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Hi all. New to the club. Live in West Wales just south of Aberystwyth. Got a 13 plate Astra GTC 2.0 SRI CDTI in red. Also got a 02 plate Saab 2.3 Aero Hot Estate with 300 bhp and a 60 plate Isuzu Rodeo pickup for work.

Came home from work last night to an empty house and the back door wide open. Luckily they didn't take the Mrs jewellery or the spare key to the car. But they took everything else including the spare keys to the house. Just waiting on the house insurance to get back to us about the claim.

I was thinking in work today would you be able to put indicators into the DRL? The main reason I thought this was my mirrors don't have indicators only low down (where fogs are)


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Hi everyone, I crashed my car a few weeks ago and wrecked the passenger suspension ( hit a kerb). When parked at a garage a man tried squeezing thru and scraped my wing and I've went thru his insurance. I've been called to the garage (vauxhall) and they've told me my car has been in an accident prior due to crash bar being bent and a couple of other things.. They don't know I hit a kerb and the chassis is bent.. An assessor is coming out to see the car next week, is there any possibility they'd write the car off due to the previous accidents the car has been in if it's not actually road worthy....?


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Hi, my name is Peter and I live in Cardiff. I drive a 60 plate astra j 1.6 SE 5 door.