Vauxhall/Opel Insignia 2015 SRI CDTI Service

Vauxhall/Opel Insignia 2015 SRI CDTI Ecoflex

 Service

11/6/2025

Hello Vauxhall/Opel enthusiasts from around the World, I hope you are all well.

It has been a couple of years since my last post on here. The reason for not posting on here for such an extended period of time is a long and complicated story. One of the reasons for not posting here is that shortly after my first post, I sold the black Insignia and couldn't give any more content on that car. 

I've been a huge fan of these cars since they were released, and not long after selling the black Insignia, I regretted my decision. In the time after the sale, I promised I would buy another. Yes, two years have gone by, but I eventually saved enough money to buy another.

The car I bought is a 2015 Insignia SRi and it has only done 56,862 miles. 

The picture above is the actual car at the dealership when it was for sale. 

You can see the mileage the car has done at the bottom of the picture above.

A picture of the dashboard and the layout. 

To be honest, silver wasn't the colour I wanted, but it was the right car to buy with right mileage which was more important. It also has a full service history which was also very important to me.

 I did look to buy another Insignia back in 2023 and it was gorgeous. See the picture below...

And another picture...

Although the car looks black in the pictures, it was actually metallic green. It looked beautiful. However, for reason's out of my control, I didn't buy it. It was a shame because I had fallen in love with this car. 

There were a number of reason's why I sold the black Insignia, and I suppose looking back they were quite trivial. 

The black Insignia SRi above, was a good looking car without doubt and I still like the look of it. I occasionally see the car on my travels and it still looks great. I'm sure the car has changed owners again from the chap I sold it to, but it's still going.

 One of the reason's I sold the black car was because it had 102,000 miles on it and it was rattling from a lot of places inside and the noises were driving me mad. Other reason's for selling the car included,

1) Water ingress into both headlights.

2) Dampness inside the car that misted up the windscreen.

3) An odour inside the car that I just couldn't get rid of.

4) The roof had been painted (badly)in places and I didn't know why or what the new paint was covering. I can only assume there had been damage to the roof of the car, but this damage could have been the reason why the car was damp inside. The dampness could also have been the reason for the odour inside of the car.

5) It didn't have rear parking sensors. 

6) The car was also insanely fast, which led me to believe the car had been remapped. I wasn't happy that the engine had been tampered with in this way and could have led to engine damage.  

So, with the accumulation of the faults on the car, it made me nervous to hold onto it and I sold it. I think I only owned the car for about 6 weeks before I let it go. Looking back, I really wished I had kept the car until I fixed everything but I had nowhere to keep the car whilst I did the work. I also couldn't afford to insure and tax two cars at the same time. 

The black Insignia was a good looking car to be sure, but alas, it had to go. 

With more than 2 years passed, I eventually got the Insignia SRi I had promised myself. The car I bought is not without it's own small problems. It has a squeaking sound from the front right wheel, a crack in the plastic on the drivers seat and a small amount of rust on the right rear wheel arch. However, these problems are small and can be fixed in due time. The most important thing for me is that the car has low mileage, a service history and is clean and dry inside without any odours.

Although the car has a service history, I want to have it serviced myself for my own peace of mind. The first thing I am going to do is to change the cabin pollen filter. These filters are seldom changed so I thought that this was the best place to start. 

To replace the filter, the glove box first needs to be removed to access the filter cartridge holder.

To replace the pollen (cabin) filter, remove the plastic trim cover from the side of the dash by pulling in the direction of the yellow arrow.

 Removing this trim cover will give access to the retaining bolt at the bottom, indicated with the yellow arrow. There are four 7mm retaining bolts holding the glove box in place however, under inspection there only appears to be three fitted to this car. I can only imagine that at some point in the past, someone has lost one of the bolts when they have removed the glove box for some reason. Once this bolt is undone, I can move onto the other two which are located at the outer top of the glove box.

The yellow arrows in the picture above are indicating the position of the other two glove box retaining bolts. As you can see, I have already removed them.

With the bolts removed, give the glove box a gentle pull to free it from it's retaining clip and the glove box will come away from it's position. Once the glove box is free, unplug the courtesy light wiring by gently pulling it away. 

With the courtesy light disconnected, I now have access to the cabin filter enclosure. The 3 yellow arrows indicate the clips that need to be undone to open the filter enclosure.

With the enclosure open, I can now remove the old cabin filter. 

When I first removed the old cabin filter, I thought it was still in good condition until I placed it side by side with the new filter on the left. As you can see, the new filter is bright white, while the old filter on the right is a dirty grey colour. I do believe the cabin filter has been changed in the past, as I have seen old filters looking a lot worse.

The new filter simply slides into the enclosure and once inserted, I can close the lid ensuring the retaining clips are secured.

Refitting the glove box is simply the reverse procedure of removing it, ensuring that the courtesy light is reconnected. Once the glove box is secured with the bolts, the side trim cover can be clipped back into place, indicated with the orange star. With the glove box and end cap trim replaced, the cabin filter renewal is complete. 

I can now move on to replace the engine air filter...

To replace the engine air filter, I obviously needed a new air filter, a T24 male torx bit, a ratchet spanner and a 7mm socket. 

First of all, I unplugged the mass air flow sensor cable. Then I loosened the jubilee clip (green arrow) securing the air hose to the air box using the 7mm socket. Removing this pipe will make it easier to remove the air box lid to grant easier access to the air filter element. With the jubilee clip loose, I removed the pipe from the air box. I then unfastened the six air box bolts indicated with the yellow arrows. Once the bolts were loose, I lifted the side of the air box lid from the side indicated with the red star. The lid is hinged at the other side (indicated with the pink arrows), and then the air box lid can be lifted away from the air box.

With the air box lid removed, I took out the old air filter element. It simply lifts out one the lid is removed. When the element was removed, there was a lot of debris at the bottom of the box, so I got the hoover (vacuum cleaner) and cleared everything in there. The last thing I need is any dirt getting sucked into the engine as it would destroy the engine. 

As you can clearly see, the old air filter element is quite dirty and needed replacing. Although I only drive about 5000 miles a year, I like to change the air filter every 12 months to ensure the engine is protected and is as economical as possible. I also like to change the oil at the same interval but that will have to wait temporarily. 

With the oil element removed, I made ready the nice new clean filter,

and then inserted it into the air filter housing. It simply pushes into place and is easy to fit.

With the new air filter element installed, I fastened down the six retaining bolts, reattached the air intake hose and fastened up the jubilee clip. I then plugged in the mass air flow meter (MAF) cable and the job was complete. An essential piece of maintenance that is simple to undertake. 

 Whilst I was under the bonnet, I checked the engine oil level and found it to be perfect. As I have previously stated, I want to give the car a change of engine oil as soon as possible. but it can wait for a short time until I have available funds.

With everything in order (for the moment), I can close the bonnet and be happy with the work I have done. I really want to get the engine oil changed really soon as that will be the servicing done for the next 12 months.

I'm sure your wondering how much the little service has cost me so far. Well, it has cost me £12. Yes that's right £12. The air filter element was £6 and the cabin filter was also £6, so very inexpensive indeed. I wish every service that the car will need in the future would cost me £12 but I can only wish...

I really would like to have the cam belt, water pump and tensioners changed very soon however, that is an expensive job and the car will need to go into a garage to have the work carried out. I would imagine it will cost in the region of £450 to £500 to have that work done. That will obviously include the parts and labour. However, once that work is complete, I will have no worries for at least 5 years. I will have to save up and get this job done asap.

I called a local garage and was quoted £390 for a cambelt, tensioners, pulleys, water pump and antifreeze, which I think is a decent price. While he was doing the job, I also asked him to change the oil and oil filter. He said this would be another £80 which will bring the total price to £470. Yes it's a lot of money but, it will give me peace of mind for at least the next 10,000 miles or 2 years, which ever comes first. I would imagine it will be the 2 year mark when I need to change it again as I am only driving around 4000 to 5000 miles a year. The car is now booked in for the 4th July 2025 to have the work completed. 

In the meantime...

I have done a small upgrade on the car. It is only cosmetic but it makes the car look a lot cleaner.

Two new number plates 

And two new chrome number plate surrounds...

I personally think the go perfectly with the existing chrome work of the car.

I think it looks brilliant.

he new number plates were £15, and the chrome surrounds were £18, so the total was £33. My total spending to date is £45 but, I do have a hefty amount to add to that in 10 days time.

And that is all for now my friends. There are many more jobs I have planned for this car, so please keep coming back to read further updates.

Until then take care.

20/6/2025

Update 13/7/25

Hello again everyone and welcome back to a large update.

As I previously stated in this post, the car was going in to a garage to have the cambelt, pulleys and water pump replaced on the 31/6/25. Well, that job has been complete as well as an oil and oil filter change and the total cost was £415. I have also changed the front wiper blades which cost me £18. That brings my total spending on the car to £478. That is a lot of money to me but the work that was done was planned preventative maintenance which will save me some expensive repair costs in the future.

Whilst the planned maintenance was complete, there are still a couple of jobs that I want to do before the winter months approach. The last thing I want to do is to be working on the car in the freezing cold, therefore I will get them done now whilst the summer period is upon us. There are three jobs I want to complete on the engine within the next couple of weeks and these jobs are:-

1) clean the EGR valve,

2) clean the exhaust gas return pipe,

3) clean the throttle body.

It is recommended that the above components be cleaned every 50,000 miles. The car has now done just over 57,000 miles so the above components will be due to be cleaned.

Let me begin...

First of all I pulled back the yellow retaining clip on the plug (indicated by the green arrow) for the EGR valve. With the clip moved back, I unplugged the EGR cable. I then unscrewed the two T30 torx bolts fastening the EGR valve in place (red arrow). With the EGR valve removed, I then undid the five bolts holding the exhaust gas return pipe in place.

The exhaust gas return pipe is held in place with three 10mm bolts at the top (indicated with the yellow arrows), and

two 5mm hex bolts at the bottom (indicated with the yellow arrow).

Once the bolts were removed from the exhaust gas return, I could remove the pipe.

As you can see, the EGR valve is completely soiled with black soot deposits and is ready for a clean. 

Using some carb cleaner and some brake cleaner, I gave the EGR a good clean as can be seen above. I used an old tooth brush to aid removing the soot deposits but to be honest the jet from the carb cleaner removed the most of it. I also used some wet wipes to remove the residue and the splash backs from the mating surfaces. I also should mention that I put the EGR valve on some old cardboard. The cardboard was brilliant in catching and soaking up the fluids from the brake cleaner and carb cleaner.

Above is another picture from the cleaned up EGR valve.

Once the EGR valve was as clean as I could manage with the carb cleaner, brake cleaner, wet wipes and a couple of old tooth brushes, I turned my attention to the exhaust gas return pipe.

 As you can see from the picture above, the return pipe is in a very dirty condition and was in desperate need of a clean. There is 57,000 miles worth of soot and oil that needs to be removed.

Once again I used a couple of old tooth brushes, a lot of carb cleaner, a lot of brake cleaner, some wet wipes and a good 45 minutes of time to achieve the results that can be seen in the above picture. If you are attempting this job yourself, please be aware that all the deposit need to be removed from within the pipe, as there will be some large pieces of deposits breaking off and lurking within the main part of the pipe.

The pipe was really heavily deposited with soot and oil, so removing them was difficult and some deposits were completely unmoveable as can be seen in the above picture. Although some of the outside deposits were still visible, the dirt was removed from the inside. 

Once both components were as clean as I could possibly get them, I waited for the excess  carb cleaner and brake cleaner to evaporate before refitting them.

Refitting the EGR valve and exhaust gas return pipe can be tricky, so remember to refit the pipe first and the EGR valve second as the EGR valve will be in the way of the bottom bolts of the pipe. I say this from experience as I first fitted the EGR valve and then I had to remove it again to replace the bottom bolts of the pipe. 

When I was refitting the pipe, disaster struck and I dropped one of the top pipe bolts into the engine bay. Luckily, I found the bolt on top of the engine undertray and quickly recovered it.

If you are going to attempt to do this job yourself, I would advise you to watch the video made by Serenity Coast UK aka Scotty Nomad. Please follow the link below to watch the video.

EGR, Exhaust gas return pipe and throttle body cleaning

I watched the above video a couple of times before I attempted doing the work myself. It is a great video and the chap does a great job of explaining what to do. I will be watching the video again when I attempt cleaning the throttle body of my car.

As I have just said, the next job on my list will be to clean the throttle body. However, I'm still recovering from shock after dropping a bolt into the engine bay (LOL), but I will be doing that job very soon. 

Until my next update, please take care and thank you for reading my humble post.

14/7/25

vauxhallinsignia2@gmail.com