when you kick the right pedal and get the revs up to say 4500, the engine stays hung at about 4400 for a second sometimes up to nearly 3 secs. as if the block had a super heavy flywheel.

it varies, and I just had a service (120000) which improved things but only slightly. the car’s a manual.

it’s rubbish to driver like this, since it makes it really hard to rev match on downshifts at city speeds, and it’s a completely useless setup for a motor driven car IMHO..

I’ve searched the forum for similar issues and only found one throttle related thread for a dude w an Astra problem with surging, which isn’t what this is. and his was a cable throttle and I think Corsa C’s are FBW?

supposedly the service guys gave the throttle a clean tho what that was really is anyone’s guess, I don’t know these guys, just picked them on the web cos they were Repco endorsed(!).

as a side issue – maybe related, the response at the block from the right hand pedal is pretty imprecise, it’s wildly non-linear.. ie pushing thru the first 1-2 cm of travel often does little, then the next 1cm will set the revs on a hike up way past 3K, the next 2cm do not much and then after that it’s more predictable. I don’t expect it to be racecar accurate but just about every decent hatch I’ve driven is fine even tho the mapping is generally weighted to a big punch early so they feel fast to the average punter. at least they’re predictable. whatever is happening on mine is well dodgy. Is this normal? (hope not). It all smacks of a sketchy throttle, sticking butterfly valve ?, or an accelerator pedal sensor problem or similar to me

Answer:

Astra G is fairly similar. It’s to do with emissions control on trailing throttle.
The revs will stay high normally for 2-3 secs. First thing id do is a ECU re-set unplug the battery for at least 20mins. The FBW throttles on the 1.8ltr astra motors are pretty slow reacting. Clean out the throttle body yourself and run some upper engine cleaner and a bottle of a good injecter cleaner with a tank of 98 octan fuel wouldn’t hurt. Might help with response a bit.

Have just bought this car and the dial to turn the air con/ heat works but the fan than blows it into the car and different strengths doesnt?

For example; heater works but only at no. 4 on the dial?? So I either have nothing or I’m being hit in the face with a great big gust of hot/cold air?

Answer:

The blower motor needs a new resistor pack – cheap & simple fix.
For the ‘maintenance’ light, you’ll need to take the car to a garage for a plug in diagnosis. The light comes on when a fault is picked up by the engine management system. This stores a code that can be read by any garage with diagnostic equipment to help locate the problem.

I can’t find the car manual, so I need to know what fuses are what on my XC Barina. Does someone have a fuse diagram online or what the numbers represent? You know in a time gone by it was stamped inside the fuse cover, now all you get is numbers.
In particular, I am wishing to locate the cigar lighter fuse, to determine if it’s the fuse thats blown or something else.

Answer:

Cigarette lighter is fuse #26 and is given as 10 amps.
If I remember correctly, even the owner’s manual from Holden doesn’t list all the fuses correctly, specifically for the SRi model, so that’s not much use at all either. I don’t know what they were thinking there when they were printing it, except that they weren’t thinking at all.

I think it was correct for the most part, but in the SRi’s, it just doesn’t list the additional fuses for the ABS and fog light systems, etc. I think there was supposed to be a supplemental manual with the correct fuse layout, but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

So i attempted installing a short shifter linkage to my car yesterday and all was going well. Was a straight swap and go process but when everything went together i tried selecting gears in my car.
I can get 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th & reverse but no 2nd!
the gearstick position appears to be sitting near the 5th gear area and wont go anywhere.
Does anybody know how to do a gear shifter linkage adjustment?

Would it be from the gearbox or from underneath closer to the firewall?
Gearbox is an f20 – so maybe i should ask the calibra guys too

Some photos for your reference:
This is underneath near the firewall

Answer:

With your short shift did you get the cross shaft that presses onto the two little balls. If not you may find that that’s your problem.

I was driving on my Opel Corsa B and felt a random knocking noise under the passenger footwell. Went and had a check underneath and didn’t find anything. The knocking has turned into thuds this morning and I’m starting to get worried. Can anyone suggest what it could be? Knocking only happens when the is no acceleration. It’s on the left side where the gearbox is.

Answer:

I’m going to take a rough guess here and say that your rear gearbox mount is stuffed. Can’t be a CV if you’re not in gear and travelling and the vibration at idle is likely to shake the engine back and forth, causing to rock on and off the busted mount. Holden pretty much have stopped selling new parts for the SB/Corsa B models, particularly the GSi models. I’m sure that someone would probably make some aftermarket items locally, but failing that, I’d check the wreckers for a second hand hub if you really need one ASAP.

Having just purchased an SB BArina, I was doing what all good new owners do……reading the handbook.

I came across a mention about a Fuel Coding Plug allowing you to flick over from 91 octane to 95 octane fuel.
Now, apart from handing over more cash to the fuel companies, what is the benefit of switching to 95 R.O.N?

What exactly does the fuel Coding Plug do when you turn it over?
Answer:

In short, you will get 3% worse fuel consumption/power from E10 as ethanol has less power when it goes ‘bang’. Now, as Ethanol itself has a RON of about 109 to 112, the RON or octane of Caltex E10 is between 94 and 95 but Mr Caltex has decided to keep the label of E10 as 91 so people wont use it in place of 95+ that some car makers call for. The simplify mathematics of E10 is, 94 – 3% = 91, hence the label on the pump at Caltex stating E10 as 91. If you use 95 octane premium, you will get further on the same amount of petrol but you did pay more when you filled up so it might work out to be cost neutral. In short, if you have fuel injection, your car will run on anything from E10 through to 98 so use what you want or can afford but keep in mind that premium fuels do have cleaning agents in them so your car will thank you later if you use premium. Premium 95 is a good compromise but if your car is highly tuned or modified, use 98 premium. If your Corsa has a carburetor, use 95 as this is the closest to the old leaded super.

One reason to put in a water softener even if your water is 5 gpg or less is because you wish to prevent scaling in the coils of your steam cleaner or save your pressure washing pump on your auto detailing rig. On a cold water machine, this is not as important because 5 gpg or less won’t ruin a pump. More than five can over time.

With hard water, you will use more soap and the cars still aren’t clean. I encourage you to talk to your soap vendors for helpful advice on water chemistry and treatment requirements. Your soap strategy should be custom tailored to your city and the hardness of the water you put in your tank.

Most independent auto detailing professionals agree that areas with hard water will also cause a film on cars that are washed when no softener is used. They also agreed at the annual conference that the decision to purchase a softener should be based on a real water test. You might wish to contact a water treatment dealer such as: Rain Soft, Culligan, Apollo, Calgon, Rayne water Systems or the Water Man in your area. They can help you by having the local water tested or ask city water authority for information on their supply. Once your decision is made to purchase a softener, selecting the proper equipment is easy. Softener sizes should be based upon two factors: Flow Rate (GPM) and Grains Per Gallon (GPG).

Flow rate would typically be six to eight gpm (gallons per minute) with your hose at your residence. We recommend you change your pressure regulator to 90-110 PSI (Pounds Per Square Inch). This would give you approximately ten gpm. So you need a water softener that is a little bigger than the basic model.

This is why you should monitor softening equipment. You can test the hardness with a testing kit or just pay attention when you’re washing cars. Steel softening tanks last for years. Fiberglass units last well also. Plastic units crack. You may need to change resin every couple of years.

Chances are you will choose to rent softeners for $30 per month and let the exchange company recharge them for you. Be careful when hiring water softener vendors. Ask us for help. You may even be able to trade services for water softening rental plus make money on the account because water softener rental companies have lots of delivery trucks. In any case think on these issues when considering a water softening strategy for your mobile car wash or auto detailing business.

I thought i would share this and see what people think. I was looking at harbor freight website and it looks like that they have cheap fender roller($79).I not totally sure if it is a fender roller but looks like one to me. Take a look at it and tell me if it could be used to roll the fender

Answer:

I think it’s easy on the 05-07′s. I did my 06 with the eastwood one and it went pretty smoothly. I didn’t have to cut, bang, or grind anything on the rears. The only thing I used was the fender roller.

I mean, I’m no expert but I am able to fit my 18×9.5′s +30 with 235/40′s and no rubbing or scraping. And camber is -2.5 front -1.5 rear. There’s maybe about a 1″ gap front and rear. I’m also on bilstein pss9′s (440f/380r or something like that) so I’m sure stiffer springs, more camber, and you could get a wider tire would work also.

Here’s what I did:

I set the fender roller to it’s lowest setting which lined it up perfectly to curl down and push out the little lip (2pcs.) in the rear making it like an almost flat one piece. Then I continued to slowly push it out with just the roller, inch by inch. You can add like an extra 1″ of width if you really wanted to, but it would probably make the flare not sit right because it does move and will want to come off. I just put some gorilla super glue ( – ghetto fab, baby) on the under side of the flare and clamped it down. After removing the clamps, this sucka won’t budge. Maybe eventually but not right now. I’ll do it right when and if it does. I’ll post up pics later. I can’t find my usb cord for the camera right now.

The electric window on the Opel Corsa’s drivers side doesnt work but the passenger one does and they are both using the same buttons, could something inside the buttons be broke or any other suggestions would be appreciated

Answer:

Most likely the regulator/motor is stuffed. Start doing the rounds of the wreckers and see if you can pick up a complete winder assembly. Sorry, bad news is it probably won’t be cheap.

Bought a white neon strip thingy from Autobarn today (thanks Nico btw) but don’t have a clue how to wire it all up.

It came with a cigarette lighter adapter attached, which I’ve now taken apart and that’s as far as I’ve got. I want to wire it up so that they only come on when the doors are open or the car is unlocked. So I’m guessing that I need to fit it via the courtesy light somehow.

Answer:

just a guess here mate, take off your kick cover and get to the courtesy light switch there, the one that pops out when you open door, and gets pushed in when you close door.

id wait until someone gives you further instructions though cos im not sure if its positve wire there or negative(ground)

if it is positive, then just hook the positive of your neon up to the side that is the output side of the switch, and ground the negative to the body of your car… i doubt it is negative.

ill try and explain what i mean about output side of switch your factory positive wire will go like this

you could put another fuse in the wire between your neon positive wire and the output wire, but your neon will already be protected by the courtesy lights fuse in the fuse box.

if you accidently hook your neons positive wire up to the input wire, the neon will stay on whenever you have the ignition on.

if you hook it up right, then your neon will turn off when your courtesy light turns off.
in my astra the courtesy light fades after the door closes, fading until the light is completely off. if your corsas courtesy light does this too, then your neon light will do the fade thing too.