Discussion
Hi AlanW, I was just talking about the motor, mine had seized so while its off road, headlight out to replace it. Making up a new type of ventilation tube from motor to top of inner wing and seal with expanding foam, found it on a thread on here some while back. Radiator also out to get repaired, got a drain tap fitted for changing antifreeze.
Bump 
Can anyone confirm where the Griff heater fan actually is on a 500? Pre-cats had it in the inner wing, mine is a later car and the fan noise comes from the passenger dash area - how is it accessed?
Does the matrix need to come out to get the fan out for replacement/lubricating?
Found these pics online - is the fan location shown in either of them? I'll probably suss it when upside down in the passenger footwell tomorrow but a heads up (before my head is upside down) would be good
Can anyone confirm where the Griff heater fan actually is on a 500? Pre-cats had it in the inner wing, mine is a later car and the fan noise comes from the passenger dash area - how is it accessed?
Does the matrix need to come out to get the fan out for replacement/lubricating?
Found these pics online - is the fan location shown in either of them? I'll probably suss it when upside down in the passenger footwell tomorrow but a heads up (before my head is upside down) would be good
andy43 said:
Bump
Can anyone confirm where the Griff heater fan actually is on a 500? Pre-cats had it in the inner wing, mine is a later car and the fan noise comes from the passenger dash area - how is it accessed?
Does the matrix need to come out to get the fan out for replacement/lubricating?
Found these pics online - is the fan location shown in either of them? I'll probably suss it when upside down in the passenger footwell tomorrow but a heads up (before my head is upside down) would be good
Holy thread resurrection...did you find it Andy? as mine starting making a noise and packed in last night noise came from under dash/passenger footwell and there is no fan at front on my car. Can anyone confirm where the Griff heater fan actually is on a 500? Pre-cats had it in the inner wing, mine is a later car and the fan noise comes from the passenger dash area - how is it accessed?
Does the matrix need to come out to get the fan out for replacement/lubricating?
Found these pics online - is the fan location shown in either of them? I'll probably suss it when upside down in the passenger footwell tomorrow but a heads up (before my head is upside down) would be good
Apologies to the OP, I appreciate this isn't my thread but it's fairly old, abandoned and on an identical topic involving a near-identical car (re-clothed Astra J - can you guess what it is yet?).
I was reluctant to start another thread and add to the number of ghost threads.
Thoughts, advice and diagnoses would be most welcome.
Car is a shed. PX to clear I paid £500 for in May last year. Cheap and cheerful enough and I've glad I saved it from the scrapper. Nice car for simple driving around town and the like.
I changed the coolant reservoir, thermostat myself and a couple of connected parts towards the end of summer last year. I then ended up with a coolant air lock that wouldn't go away. Coolant was in abundance but it kept playing hide and seek unless the reservoir cap and pressure were released. Suspected head gasket failure was what I kept getting told. K seal was therefore thrown in, despite the inside of the old one being caked with the stuff.
A few weeks ago I took the car to a head skimming and remapping specialist. A colour test showed no positive sign of gasket failure.
The tensioner needing changing as it was making a racket, however, which led to the discovery of a broken water pump (which was also changed). We put the coolant vanishing act down to that. The serpentine belt was also changed but this came off within a week. It turned out the crank pulley was also completely shot. IMO the old belt was holding a load of broken items together and maintaining something of a status quo.
Since changing the crank pulley and belt again, the coolant is fortunately no longer playing hide and seek, and the car runs well.
However, prior to all this, around spring time and in the midst of the above (which at the time had not been investigated) the heater blower began running intermittently. That is, it would blow for however long (a few seconds / several minutes) on whatever speed setting and then cut out. Then randomly come on again only to do the same. I changed the blower resistor (spiky metal part) but to no avail. The hottest setting was also abnormally (scalding) hot.
The recent fixes this month have not cured the issue with the interior fan conking out when driving and especially once the engine reaches operating temperature. The cold setting blows out warm air as well.
In addition, despite the thermostat being only a year or so old, the engine takes at least 10 minutes to reach operating temperature.
Seems like it is stuck open. Any chance of getting it closed by way of an easy fix, or is it a replacement valve that it needs? I'm suspecting the air lock could have caused it to get stuck open. I'm reluctant to repeat draining coolant drain and would rather get the valve to close somehow if it can be done. There's nothing online on this though. Worth mentioning the engine has never suffered overheating problems despite all the above.
The above being said, could the thermostat issue go hand in hand with the blower motor's temperamental operating? I'm doubtful it's the actual heater blower motor.
Or is there a potential electrical issue? I ask that as well because the AC pressure switch was changed last year and the system regassed at Kwik Fit. Even with a new relay, the AC only works if the relay is bypassed using a piece of metal wire, which makes me think there's something electrical damaged for whatever reason.
Thanks in advance and apologies for a lengthy post.
I was reluctant to start another thread and add to the number of ghost threads.
Thoughts, advice and diagnoses would be most welcome.
Car is a shed. PX to clear I paid £500 for in May last year. Cheap and cheerful enough and I've glad I saved it from the scrapper. Nice car for simple driving around town and the like.
I changed the coolant reservoir, thermostat myself and a couple of connected parts towards the end of summer last year. I then ended up with a coolant air lock that wouldn't go away. Coolant was in abundance but it kept playing hide and seek unless the reservoir cap and pressure were released. Suspected head gasket failure was what I kept getting told. K seal was therefore thrown in, despite the inside of the old one being caked with the stuff.
A few weeks ago I took the car to a head skimming and remapping specialist. A colour test showed no positive sign of gasket failure.
The tensioner needing changing as it was making a racket, however, which led to the discovery of a broken water pump (which was also changed). We put the coolant vanishing act down to that. The serpentine belt was also changed but this came off within a week. It turned out the crank pulley was also completely shot. IMO the old belt was holding a load of broken items together and maintaining something of a status quo.
Since changing the crank pulley and belt again, the coolant is fortunately no longer playing hide and seek, and the car runs well.
However, prior to all this, around spring time and in the midst of the above (which at the time had not been investigated) the heater blower began running intermittently. That is, it would blow for however long (a few seconds / several minutes) on whatever speed setting and then cut out. Then randomly come on again only to do the same. I changed the blower resistor (spiky metal part) but to no avail. The hottest setting was also abnormally (scalding) hot.
The recent fixes this month have not cured the issue with the interior fan conking out when driving and especially once the engine reaches operating temperature. The cold setting blows out warm air as well.
In addition, despite the thermostat being only a year or so old, the engine takes at least 10 minutes to reach operating temperature.
Seems like it is stuck open. Any chance of getting it closed by way of an easy fix, or is it a replacement valve that it needs? I'm suspecting the air lock could have caused it to get stuck open. I'm reluctant to repeat draining coolant drain and would rather get the valve to close somehow if it can be done. There's nothing online on this though. Worth mentioning the engine has never suffered overheating problems despite all the above.
The above being said, could the thermostat issue go hand in hand with the blower motor's temperamental operating? I'm doubtful it's the actual heater blower motor.
Or is there a potential electrical issue? I ask that as well because the AC pressure switch was changed last year and the system regassed at Kwik Fit. Even with a new relay, the AC only works if the relay is bypassed using a piece of metal wire, which makes me think there's something electrical damaged for whatever reason.
Thanks in advance and apologies for a lengthy post.
captain.scarlet said:
Apologies to the OP, I appreciate this isn't my thread but it's fairly old, abandoned and on an identical topic involving a near-identical car (re-clothed Astra J - can you guess what it is yet?).
I was reluctant to start another thread and add to the number of ghost threads.
Thoughts, advice and diagnoses would be most welcome.
Car is a shed. PX to clear I paid £500 for in May last year. Cheap and cheerful enough and I've glad I saved it from the scrapper. Nice car for simple driving around town and the like.
I don't think you are going to get much help posting in a forum about a TVR Griffith, when you are looking for advice on a Vauxhall Astra from 1992. You say your Astra is a near-identical car. That just isn't true. They are very different cars. Yes the TVR has some parts from various Vauxhalls, the Cavalier in particular - steering wheel console, window switches, door locks, heater fan and switch, but that is about it.I was reluctant to start another thread and add to the number of ghost threads.
Thoughts, advice and diagnoses would be most welcome.
Car is a shed. PX to clear I paid £500 for in May last year. Cheap and cheerful enough and I've glad I saved it from the scrapper. Nice car for simple driving around town and the like.
There is no relevance to an Astra at all. The original post back in 2016 was simply to say that the fan motor for the TVR was from a Vauxhall, and was cheaper than from TVR. The person was just replacing their fan motor.
Other than the fan control knob in the car, the motor isn't connected to any other Vauxhall parts. It isn't even installed like in a Vauxhall. It is installed by TVR in their own way. It is connected to a Rover V8 engine, the heater valve is from a VW. The expansion chamber is a custom part. The cap is VW. The hoses are custom. The radiator is from a Range Rover, as is the water pump.
LucyP said:
captain.scarlet said:
Apologies to the OP, I appreciate this isn't my thread but it's fairly old, abandoned and on an identical topic involving a near-identical car (re-clothed Astra J - can you guess what it is yet?).
I was reluctant to start another thread and add to the number of ghost threads.
Thoughts, advice and diagnoses would be most welcome.
Car is a shed. PX to clear I paid £500 for in May last year. Cheap and cheerful enough and I've glad I saved it from the scrapper. Nice car for simple driving around town and the like.
I don't think you are going to get much help posting in a forum about a TVR Griffith, when you are looking for advice on a Vauxhall Astra from 1992. You say your Astra is a near-identical car. That just isn't true. They are very different cars. Yes the TVR has some parts from various Vauxhalls, the Cavalier in particular - steering wheel console, window switches, door locks, heater fan and switch, but that is about it.I was reluctant to start another thread and add to the number of ghost threads.
Thoughts, advice and diagnoses would be most welcome.
Car is a shed. PX to clear I paid £500 for in May last year. Cheap and cheerful enough and I've glad I saved it from the scrapper. Nice car for simple driving around town and the like.
There is no relevance to an Astra at all. The original post back in 2016 was simply to say that the fan motor for the TVR was from a Vauxhall, and was cheaper than from TVR. The person was just replacing their fan motor.
Other than the fan control knob in the car, the motor isn't connected to any other Vauxhall parts. It isn't even installed like in a Vauxhall. It is installed by TVR in their own way. It is connected to a Rover V8 engine, the heater valve is from a VW. The expansion chamber is a custom part. The cap is VW. The hoses are custom. The radiator is from a Range Rover, as is the water pump.
Paid zero attention to that. It came up in Google and was searching for Vauxhall pointers.
It's a Chevrolet Cruze btw.
I can always copy and paste into another more suitable thread at some point.
Apologies again and thanks for pointing the above out.
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