I own a Corsa B Merit 1.0 12v
I bought the car for £200 as scrap as the woman who had bought the car off my dad 3 years earlier had not taken care of it, I didn't want to see the car get scrapped so with my heart ruling my head I bought the car and just managed to get it home with no clutch and the engine only running on 2 of the 3 cylinders -_-
The car was immediately put into a garage and we took all the bad rusted body work off to replace with better bodywork, we couldn't find any in our budget for perfect so there are still a couple of stone chips and a couple of rust bubbles on the car but compared to when we first bought the car, the car looks like brand new.
I decided that the car needed a little lift, so when my friend had offered me his old Corsa SXI 5 spoke wheels off of his Corsa B i had his hand off when he said there only £30. Thats the steel wheels taken off and kept as winter wheels. The car still looked a little old so a couple of stickers were put onto the back window, this gave the car a personality.
We got the engine running beautifully, new spark plugs, 3 new fuel injectors, air filter, fuel filter and new coolant. Ready for my trip down to Brands Hatch with the Staffordshire University Motorsport Society!!
I had noticed however that when working on the engine that the dipstick tube was slightly loose and unlike my friends cars mine didn't have a cover of the exhaust. I thought that this was just because I had a Merit and not a SXI or a Breeze.
It turns out that I needed that Exhaust Heat Shield because it was causing the Dipstick tube to move and rattle. 2 Months after coming back from Brands Hatch and after covering 3000 miles in my first 2 and a half months of owning the vehicle, I was on my way to Stoke one Monday morning and noticed my Oil Pressure Light was showing, it kept flickering and then disappearing every time I put my throttle down, I first thought it was the car playing up, the next thing I notice the oil light stays illuminated and the Engine temperature rose very quickly, I was in traffic at this point and had no option to fling it over the pavement into a disused road. I opened the bonnet and the front of the engine was on fire, all my friend could do was stand there and laugh, all I could do was panic. We flung a bottle of water over the fire and it thankfully went out, I inspected the engine and the whole front of the engine was black, the radiator had been burnt through and all because the dipstick tube had snapped from the cylinder head.
I didn't want to see my car be towed for scrap, I had saved her from scrap 6 months earlier. With my wage now coming through from work I took time to rebuild the engine, the bottom half was inspected and to my horror, the sump was filled with an inch of sludge, not oil! i immediately cleaned the engine through and gave the car a full service including new spark plugs, new filters including the fuel filter... again. It took me 6 days to rebuild it again and with the turn of the key on that Sunday morning, the car fired into life as if there hadn't been a problem at all, to say the car had been running with an inch of sludge in the sump for so long and it still started first time every time, I admire the car more than ever, also to say I had taken it down to Brands Hatch and back with the sludge i am surprised.
The car now is back with me and has worked like a dream since that morning, i often take the car even though the exterior is not the best to meets, I still stand there with pride by my car and tell them the story of the car, they soon stop laughing and it changes there views on my little Corsa all together.
If you ever see me out on the road (R143 YWA) give me a wave or a smile, im sure from hearing this you will be surprised to see the car is still on the road as well.
