Frontera 2.8 TDI Diamond

Had the same on the notoriously fragile cable supplying the tailgate on our old bongo. My repairs held together for all the time we had it...many years...but if they had let go again i was going to splice in 8 core trailer cable.

Love what you're doing with this!

After a proper soaking in contact cleaner one of my mirrors now works....of course we know why the other one doesnt. I just ordered a replacement drivers side mirror, it was only 18 quid posted and it will make a better job than any repair Id do to the wiring.





I refitted the spare wheel cover....unique to the diamond model per the sales brochure ...I think Ill get a vinyl cover later.



This jeep had a little accident on the motorway a few years back, its left a shallow dent in the passanger rear and damaged the plastic wheel arch. The previous owner pumped it with black mastic type stuff to make it look a bit better afterwards but I paid 8 quid for this replacement which makes a better job of it.

I did sadly find a little rust on my sill. I decided to save poking this hole properly for another day.

Ill see what I can do about the dent also.










Next I fitted a rear window wiper motor that I picked up for 9 quid. The rear wiper funtions fine now. I need a new wiper blade though.









My fuel guage doesnt work so after that decided I would trace back the wiring from the fuel tank to the instrument cluster to see if I could find a connector somewhere that I could plug a multimeter into. There is no access hatch to the tank sender unit on these frontera, you have to drop the tank to get to the connector on top. Plus I think there is a full tank of diesel in this thing.

The wiring runs along the chassis of the car and then in under the drivers seat. I took the drivers seat out for access, lifted the carpet and I could see the connector I was hoping to find.

There were two wires there which I assumed were for the sender unit in the tank. One is red and yellow, the other is black and blue. I assumed one was sending power to the variable resister in the tank and the other was going back to the guage, this making up the circuit.

I checked for voltage on the two pins on the cluster side, nothing, I then checked for continuity on the two pin heading in the direction of the tank, nothing. I then scratched me head and had a cup of coffee.

After reading something on the internet I decided to ground the red and yellow wire directly of the chassis to see if I could get the guage to work.....and it did, it went straight up to full. Okay, it not the guage then. I then rechecked around the tank and I noticed what looked like the earth for that circuit on the chassis behind the back drivers side wheel. I cleaned that, hoped for a simple fix, sadly the guage still doesnt work.

It was getting dark at that point so I decided to put the tools away and have another think. Im still not sure what the blue and black wire is for. It says something about cold start in the haynes but I cant make sense of that, why would it be going to the rear of the car.







Last job of the day was a repair I did to the drivers seat. Many years ago while getting into the car the previous owner caught the bolster with a belt or some keys and it ripped the leather. A full proper repair or replacement interior is completely out of the question for this car. The point of this for me it to make the best of what I have while spending the minimum amount possible, to bring it back from the brink, to make it a viable car once more.

With that in mind I bought a thing called a mastaplasta from Amazon, basically a leather patch.

Now the colour match looked much better on my phone but in real life it was miles out.

With the seat out already I decided Id clean it fully, die the patch as close to the correct colour as possible then feed the leather. Luckily the leather is a similar colour to that in my BMW so I already had the die.

The leather-like patch was 15 quid (I bought the XL one so have loads of it left over),I cleaned the seat with autoglym leather cleaner, coloured the patch and any other marks on the seat, then gave it some leather balm.

I think it looks okay now, it doesnt catch your eye like it did before......at the very least its less worse than it was to start with :-)

Well its time of an update:

As the drivers seat was out I decided to give the carpets a bit of a wet vac. It came up quite nice.







I then decided I take out the passenger seat to do the same. I also cleaned all the leather and treated it with some leather balm I had lying around. The seats actually responded quite well to this & are nice and soft now.









I got a replacement drivers mirror, changed the colour coded cover from green to my grey one and fitted it. Both mirror now work as they should.





The top of my engine has a layer of crud / oil on it. I decided to investigate this by removing the PCV breather pipe. Sure enough this is split in a couple of places. This part is discontinued / no longer available so I cant get a new one from Vauxhall. I've had to patch it up for now. If anyone can recommend a place where I could source a pipe like this Id appreciate it.











Both indicators had a layer of dirt behind the outer plastic that I just could not get to without splitting them. Once separated I cleaned them up and resealed them using clear silicon sealant per a suggestion on this very forum. They came out quite good.









Next job was the timing belt. I hadn't done a timing belt replacement up until now but I had the Haynes manual and a guide from another source and this car is a good one to cut my teeth on. The coolant needed to be flushed & the thermostat needed replacing anyhow ( engine running cool) so the intercooler and radiator ( and a few other bits) were removed to give better access to the belt. Luckily no special tools are required on this engine, just 2 x M8 bolt to lock the fuel pump and camshaft.

I used an SKF kit that I got from Autodocs for I think £45.00, this came with new bearings which was really good value. You have to tension the belt with a weight of between 10-12 KG that you attach to a leaver that presses against the tensioner bearing. I just used a jerry can filled with 10+ litres of water for this. This give me a weight of about 11 KG per my airport luggage scales.....and it all went fine.















When I was reassembling everything I replaced the thermostat before filling & bleeding the cooling system, the jeep now heats up perfectly. I am told these 2.8 TDI normally run at about 1/4 on the temp gauge. I guess they have extra capacity built in for towing, believe they can tow up to 2800 KG......anyhow all I know is the cabin actually heats up, which is a win for me. I replaced that worn out aux belt also with a new one.



Last job was the change the air filter, the old one had seen better days






Next I need to drop the engine, gearbox and transfer box oil. I also need to do the fuel filter. If I get the time & inclination tomorrow Ill do that, I need to order up the diff oil then.

I managed to get myself a free radio and disc changer on market place from someone local. Its from about the same period this jeep was manufactured so will look okay. I cant get the Vauxhall Grundig unit to work or source a working replacement so this will do.




That's about it, I am just going to keep ticking off the jobs as an when time allows. As the timing belt is done I am more inclined to use it. The old timing belt was done in 2001.....I found a sticker.

Yeah I am actually well chuffed to get it. For a tight arses like me I think a cassette deck is better than CD these day as you can get bluetooth cassettes that slot straight in but you still keep the period look.

Yeah I agree, if it had snapped it would be game over on this project.

Thats a good idea actually, thanks.

Im finding it difficult to get non-service bits for this frontera and there isnt that many being broken, down south anyhow. Id say a lot got scrapped in the last 10 years.

The exterior weather stripping is a bit worse for wear on the passanger side, between the door and window. I was hoping to pick up this and some other bits from a breaker in Kent but he isnt all the responsive so have given up on that.

I think Ill have to try and repair these and other hard to source bits somehow.

Pm me a list of any bits you need and next time i go for a rummage i'll pray to the scrappy gods and if there is anything there i'll grab whatever i can for you.

Hi, I've just joined, I've got a 2.8 frontera as well, you've done some good work there, nice to see another being kept alive, they are getting rare now. With regards to the breather hose I was looking at the reinforced silicone hose on Ebay and making my own up, also on an isuzu forum they suggested fitting a oil catch tank to help to stop oil from the breather going into the turbo, I'm still learning mine