Umognog's Astra Sports Tourer 2.0 CDTi SE

[umognog]

Update Sunday!

We all know the saga of the wonky tachometer. After adjusting whilst in the dash, it went back to bad, Rusty suggested going back to the beginning.

This is how it looked on auto start/stop:



And this is how it looked switched off:



Dismantled again, repositioned needle, full sweep and i noticed the lowest stop point was that few degrees past the off.

So bugger it, all the way clockwise till it stopped, then I pushed a little harder. It gave way, span anti-clockwise and needed a tiny nudge that wya past the halt to get it back on "off"

Result! Tachometer is now pointing the needle correctly.

Last weekend, the car got a little bit of a clean, not a full effort, to much going on for the time, but here is the car after a debadge.



I have decided I am removing the Griffen as well, awaiting a replacement badge arriving.

Onwards with the more recent upgrades then!

My car is in tatters. If there is a trim panel that can be removed, it is currently removed & in the house or in the boot.

Don't tell the Mrs, but this was my living room today:



Bonus, cat in a crisp box. Put a blanket it in a few months back, they love it.

So here I was measuring & marking up holes for the reverse camera & lights. I decided to go with the bumper after some dry testing found it made zero difference, except for how close you would think things were. As I need space to get a golden retriever in and out the back, this wasn't a bad this for me, so onwards I went.

I drilled the hole, fitted, and went to replace the parking sensors with the LED's to find the led flange was too small and fell through the hole. So I made new holes. I'm not very satisfied with the look, they function but don't look that great so I'm looking for suitable alternatives.

I used some connectors from the "how to add a connector" how-to for disconnection/reconnection and fed the wires in through the body grommet already used by the parking sensors.

Power for both camera & lights is coming from the reverse light

Top tip for anyone thinking of placing items in the bumper here: clearance with the impact frame is about 1.5", be careful or you will have trouble refitting the bumper. I got lucky.

Anyway, here it was refitted, in reverse & a view of the light from the back.

At least now I can see little dogs (or children) behind me in dark park car parks!









Also done but not refitted, I hauled the door cards out and fitted green spot lights to light up the door pockets connected to ambient & I have changed the ambient from red to green too.

I haven't refitted these as I ran out of time today to run power from the courtesy down to the footwells & all 4 doors.

As a result, the car remains in loving tatters. I hope to get the power wiring done in a single go, have run a length of 5A twincore from the glovebox to the boot as well to install all the LED's in the boot trim later. Isolation switches ordered and I have decided that I will install an aux battery system for powering my telescope, batteries etc. when out on long nights, so ordered a switch that can disconnect the car battery and will connect the aux if present.

Anyone recommend some hefty guage wire for a car battery supply, I intend to run the aux directly to the main car battery/switch system so essentially everything is connected to the car, and I'm literally switching battery source.

Hope that made sense.

||Sent based on the twin scientific principles of star maths and wishy thinking.||