New S2 Owner

[Polly]

Morning.

I am a newbie to this forum and would like to introduce myself - I am male, 46 years young, need to get fit, drink too much Guinness and enjoy life.

I recently purchased the Red S2 that was advertised on Ebay, Piston Heads and other sites.

The car has covered 74K Miles and is in very very good condition, it has an extensive history file and prior to be buying I negotiated the price down and a complete new set of brakes, disks, pads, cables, wheel bearing, CV gaiters, and suspension top mounts. It drives very smooth and feels tight on the road.

There are a few niggly problems -
Should it have an outside temp readout, LED?
The Temp gauge gets to 90 Degrees then switches off?
The Rev counter gets to 1500 RPM then stops, the Speedo is lazy - Sorted this one, someone has put white dials on it (stickers) and they have lifted slightly under the centre off both needles, binacle will be out this morning to sort.

It has a very slight miss fire at 60 mph when in 5th gear?

The Radio (non original) turned off above approx. 40 MPH - Sorted this one as well, the switched feed that had been used was incorrect and seems to be something to do with speed. Now taken the correct feed - As the instructions say and it works fine.

Went to start it today and the battery was very lazy / flat, I will put a new one on today and see if that sorts the problem, the battery meter inside was reading about 13+ Volts when driving it back so I think its charging, the car had stood for 11 months in a showroom.

I am sure you will here from me a bit on this forum as I will make this car a real standard head turner, I have a few other toys - Vauxhall Astra GTE MK1, totally Standard 68K Miles and with service history, plus some 80's and 90's Japanese classic motorbikes, GPZ750 Turbo, XJ650 Turbo, Yam FZR1000, FZ750, GPZ750R, GSXR1100 etc., I have nearly finished building a Microlight - X Air Hawk High Wing Aircraft looks like a small 2 seat Cessna style, this has been a great project and is due to be test flown within the next 2 weeks.

All the Best
Polly

[prj]

If you are positive it's misfiring, then there are two options.
a) It's running too lean
b) The ignition system

Check all your vacuum hoses, the breather hose and maf-turbo hose to make sure that no excess air is getting in past the MAF.
If that doesn't work, check the ignition system.

Is it 3B with a dizzy or ABY?

[fish]

Welcom. The white dials are standard, do not take them off until you have something else to replace them with. Peeling seems to be common in England not so much over here. IIRC it should have an outside temp display at the bottom middle of the main gauge cluster. 13v sound abit low to be honest, but the small gauges can be faulty. Measure the power on the battery cables with engine running instead.

HTH

Kris.

[dest]

The bulb will of gone on the outside temp, its very common.
If you are handy soldering you can fit a new one

[shaun5]

[QUOTE=fish;552386]Welcom. The white dials are standard, do not take them off until you have something else to replace them with. Peeling seems to be common in England not so much over here. IIRC it should have an outside temp display at the bottom middle of the main gauge cluster. 13v sound abit low to be honest, but the small gauges can be faulty. Measure the power on the battery cables with engine running instead.

HTH

Kris.

Hi and welcome
Depending on the age of the car it might not have an outside temp gauge, my mates H reg doesnt,

[benntenn67]

Hi & welcome - 13 volts is a bit low, should be around 14.4 volts with the engine running, check it with a multimeter though as aux gauges are nothing more than an estimate
Replacement dials faces are available - everybody likes lots of photos on here

[Polly]

New S2 Owner

Thanks for all the responses, I now have the binnacle out and the dials are Grey / nearly white and I would say original, there is a lot of paint flaking mainly around the centres, the dials do move very free so I would say that the problem may not be flaking dial paint, I have gently cleaned the flaking paint and blown the loose bits away.

Has anyone else had this problem, lazy speedo, rev counter sticks at 1500 RPM but if you tap the binnacle when driving they both start to work, or if you drive hard the rev counter sticks a little then jumps up and works fine.

As for Battery I will get a new one this morning and see if its charging.

Photo's to follow soon.

Polly

[anthonys2]

Sounds like you got yourself a canny motor just a word of warning always be prepared to splash the cash!!! like the sound of your astra always been a huge fan of the legendary GTE

[s2driveruk]

sticking needles on the dials is definately a sign of peeling faces...many times you cant see the lifted areas and if you give the binnacle a tw&t then they will suddenly work. Would be worth sourcing some replacements, plenty on here if you search the threads.

Sounds like its in reasonable shape

[Polly]

Sticking needles

Binnacle out and stripped down, cleaned peeling paint from behind the needle centres, been out to try it and its all back to normal.

Thanks again for your help.

Polly

[TimE-J]

Im pritty sure rusty would be able to sort out some new faces for you, might be worth giving him a message. Welcome btw.

[willg54]

Someone else in the area! Welcome and enjoy!!