Corsa C problems selecting 1st, 2nd and reverse gear. Linkage fix.

The older Corsa's are blessed with a plastic gear linkage that features ball and socket joints which eventually wear. Setting off and selecting second gear starts playing up at the worst times like roundabouts when you need to pull out quickly. That issue will get worse until 1st and second gear won't go in without significant effort. If you leave this long enough (like my good mate Tim) reverse will not select at all....

Corsa C water leak challenge.

Corsa C water leak challenge. Jennie commented on my original blog post and had been very unlucky with two garages trying to get this fixed. One mechanics solution was to drill some holes in the floor to let the water out! One tried to seal the bulkhead plate, but only around the accessible area, which get's them "close but no cigar" points. The problem was distance and timescale as this job would need completing over 2 days. That's interior out, dry and everything fixed and tested, which was going to be a good challenge. Perfect opportunity to write a better blog post on this issue...

Corsa C water leak fixes. Drivers carpet wet + passenger carpet wet and Boot.

*update... I ended up doing this fix on another Corsa and wrote a more detailed guide. Between the two blog posts you can get a good idea what's involved and how to tackle these water leaks:
http://carsandcode.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/corsa-c-water-leak-challenge.html


Comments on other threads encouraged me to finally write this work up. If your Corsa C has a water leak I probably have the fix listed in this long post.

These water leaks are a pain and happen gradually but if you catch them early then it's so much easier to dry the interior. Unfortunately my mates car was in a bad way and he lives on a hill which made the problem worse. Water ran into the back footwell, even growing a mushroom on the rear carpet mat. He was even de-icing the car on the inside and so I offered to sort it out even though it was winter and cold outside.

Drivers carpet was soaked so investigation started there, pulling the carpet right back and carefully cutting out the grey sound insulation sponge on the drivers side. The sponge was soaking wet and I cut it at the edges to ensure I could refit and glue it back into place. Research on the internet showed people who had tracked the problem to a perished rubber seal on a metal plate where the brake servo bolts too. I used a water hose on the windscreen and water started dripping from the plate on the inside and collecting in the footwell.....Bingo!

Corsa C instument cluster speedo cutting out and car wont start

Few years back my mrs owned a Corsa C and I did a little bit of work on it, so when a mate was having trouble with his Corsa I said "yeah I can sort that out for you". First fix on the list was the instrument cluster cutting out symptoms of this problem are:

- Car wont start with starter motor turning over but you will notice the dash is not powered on. If you physically push the instrument cluster back it will temporary fix the loose connection and you can start the car.

- Dash will cut out and the most inconvenient times like indicating round a corner. When this happens you loose the indicators until you push the cluster. This is quite dangerous at roundabouts so worth getting this fault fixed.

Exhaust heat shield loose - Fixed on Astra H Mk5

Exhaust heat shield rusted itself loose the other day, dropping down and catching on speed bumps. This seems to be a common thing on older cars, which I have done before on my old ford focus. I was intrigued to see how the Astra fittings compared to the focus, so set about fixing it. Looking under the car my initial thoughts were "****! those nuts are never going to undo".

Astra H Mk5 door sill water leak fix

Bought this Astra H 55 plate for the mrs earlier this year and so far it's been a good car, a little thirsty but she loves it which gives it the thumbs up from me. So along comes winter and I volunteer to drive home but what's this all the windows have condensation on the inside. Turns out it's been doing this for some time and I knew straight away it must have a water leak. So on the drive home after much cursing and blower on full blast trying to dry the window I remember washing the car and noticing water on the passenger door still. At the time I thought I got too close with the jet wash but opening the door showed this was the problem. Water travelling along the rubber on the door sill and down the gap between the rubber and plastic then under the carpet. Top of the carpet was still dry so that was a relief that the floor matting was not soaked but I needed to fix this asap.