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[vnslkd]

Hi all, my first Omega and so on. I was thinking to share my maintenance experiences and whatnot on this topic and I hope it's ok. Might help me to stay on the track with the car also 

No tuning and stuff like that yet. I might lower it a bit on the coming summer but we'll see. Anyways, here's some story of the car:

So, my Omegas story starts about ½ years ago, when I was driving to work with my old 190 Merc and noticed this car on the parking lot of a local car dealer.





It was actually the parking lot where they park the cars before they come to public trade, so I asked for an offer from the dealer and got a really really good one.

Anyways, as always, there is no free meal. ABS/TC lights where on, speedo not working etc. luckily there's this: http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=90627.0

Other than that, the car felt pretty solid. Tires were completely shot, apparently the earlier owner changed shitty tires underneath her before swapping her. on the + side, car had a full service book (synthetic oils changed every 10 tkm and so on) and 220 tkm on the clock. Car had only had 3 owners before me. Last owner had keeped it for 8 years, so it can't be that bad, can't it

After the weekend I put the 190 to sale and bought Omega. On a closer inspection, there was some rust in the rear wheel arches and so on, but nothing alarming.

So, first things first. Had to get some wheels and tires for it in order to get it to running order. The old tires where horrific, when I took a closer look on them, I was horrified that I even took a test ride on the car 

After some searching on the local forum, I came up with a good set of wheels and tires and bought them, pictures related:





After getting the tires, it was time to repair the ABS control unit. Easy job with the maintenance guide presented here and refurbing it cost 145€ here in Finland. Took a couple of pictures taking the ECU out:





After taking care of that, I made some inspections on the brakes generally, and noticed that the rear brake discs where pretty shot. So where the front ones, they had gotten way too narrow. So, I ordered new brake discs + pads etc for every corner. While I was at that, I also ordered new spark plugs, plug wires and camshaft covers (aluminum from Vectra). Also painted them red just for the lols 









After getting her up to somewhat good running order, it was time to do some magic to that tired paintjob. Big thanks for my workmate on my summer work place for taking time to do this.

scratches part one:


part two:


side polished:


Front end polished:


getting there:


Done enough 


So, after those maintenances, winter got here too. It was time to downgrade to wintertires and so on  Some rather shitty off focus pics here, be warned. On the + side, winter + RWD, can't go wrong there 





Thanks for reading so far. Coming up next is the timing belt change and installing an electric pre-heater (had to start her up couple of time in -25 degrees celsius, don't want to do that anymore when there are solutions easier for the engine. Also consumption is skyrocketing on those starts as expected )

[dbug]

Nice job mate - keep it coming

[jonny2112]

Good work 

[danzigfan]

Nice one mate, I like the wheels 

[PhilRich]

Excellent work, looks like you have a new car!

[Ever Ready]

Looking really good, Keep up the good work.

Welcome to the forum

[The Red Baron]

looking very nice, i do like the wheels you put on. 

[Toledodude1973]

Looks really good well worth the effort

[elvin315]

Monaro front calipers and hoses are a direct swap with no modifications necessary. They are dual piston units and the monaro hoses are longer than the stock Omega's. They fasten to the Monaro calipers such that the extra length prevents damage at the extreme lock. I did it about 7 years ago using '04 Pontiac GTO parts (Monaro's American cousin). Painted or not the calipers would look sweet behind those wheels. Follow the link for details.

http://cateraowners.forumotion.com/t5-gto-brake-swap

[Toledodude1973]

Very nice, you certainly know what your doing

[2boxerdogs]

Great looking car, the wheels look excellent..

[cd 2.2]

Great info on the brakes there ... I never realised that the monaro brakes would drop on ... Guess you would need the bigger wheels though>?

[minifreek]

Also the discs would be bigger too....?

[cd 2.2]

Iirc the disc is the same size .... Please feel free to shoot me if I'm wrong though

[vnslkd]

Great info from elwin there indeed

Anyhow, finally got some time to do the timing belt change on this car. First time for me doing this, so it took some time (last timing belt change I did was on a Lada Samara, this was a tad bit more complicated)
As always, topics are worthless without pics, so here's a few.

So, first some stuff out of the way



And we get a view something like this



Next up, took the old water pump out



And fitted a new one and locked crank to TDC



After that, locked those cams and took the old belt off.



Next up, fitted a new timing belt kit. The lines on that belt that came with SKF kit were completely off (or for a different belt tensioner), luckily found timing mark pitch spacing from Dayco http://www.dayco.com.au/pageBANK/documents/t00014.pdf (marked those with a little paint, which you can see there)



After that, pretightened the belt, rotated the crank 720 degrees and tuned the timing. Easy with that tool.



Finally, assembled the car back to one piece and started it with no problems. I also fitted a new auxiliary drive belt. After a testdrive, gave a quick wash to the engine compartment, was damn filthy in there



Next up, oil change + a new thermostat. Haven't had time to install that pre-heater either but luckily it's been warm here.

- Miro