Vauxhall - timing chain

Charmed0103

I have a vauxhall vectra 2.2, 51 plate and last week I broke down. When the car eventually got to a garage they said it was the timing chain, which I now no is the equivalent of the cam belt. To repair my car is gonna cost £1000, not cheap!!!!!

I have since found out that all vectra B engines like mine were fitted with this timing chain but the nozzle that provided the oil to lubricate the chain was too small and therefore the timing chain would evenutually snap. Unless your car has has the modified kit attached to the timing chain this is a problem. All vectra's from Mar 2002 were automatically fitted with the modification as Vauxhall realised there was a problem.

Vauxhall recalled a small percentage of cars back then and issued a field remedy 1532 on the vehicles. Unfortunately mine was never recalled. I have contacted vauxhall explaining that a fault at manufacture has now caused my car to cease moving and is gonna cost alot of money to repair and they are not interested at all.

I wonder if any1 on here has had the same problem and if u were successful with Vauxhall some advice please. At the very least I am warning anybody with the 2.2 ecotech engine, get it checked before it's too late, my vectra had only done 45,000 miles.

custardy

Charmed0103 wrote: »

I have a vauxhall vectra 2.2, 51 plate and last week I broke down. When the car eventually got to a garage they said it was the timing chain, which I now no is the equivalent of the cam belt. To repair my car is gonna cost £1000, not cheap!!!!!

I have since found out that all vectra B engines like mine were fitted with this timing chain but the nozzle that provided the oil to lubricate the chain was too small and therefore the timing chain would evenutually snap. Unless your car has has the modified kit attached to the timing chain this is a problem. All vectra's from Mar 2002 were automatically fitted with the modification as Vauxhall realised there was a problem.

Vauxhall recalled a small percentage of cars back then and issued a field remedy 1532 on the vehicles. Unfortunately mine was never recalled. I have contacted vauxhall explaining that a fault at manufacture has now caused my car to cease moving and is gonna cost alot of money to repair and they are not interested at all.

I wonder if any1 on here has had the same problem and if u were successful with Vauxhall some advice please. At the very least I am warning anybody with the 2.2 ecotech engine, get it checked before it's too late, my vectra had only done 45,000 miles.

only ones i had heard having any success with VX are those with full VX dealer service history.
end of the day,your car is heading 10 years old
you can try with VX but i dont know you will get much success

Hammyman

If you've not got a full documented service history to Manufacturers spec, you've little chance. At 45,000 miles it should have been on an abnormal service schedule as a low mileage car so should have been serviced MORE OFTEN than one that had done double the mileage. If you've been doing it on a mileage basis (i.e every 10k) you've no chance of a successful claim as thats not following the service schedule for low mileage motors.

Charmed0103

Thanks guys

The car has been regularly serviced and well looked after and is coming up to being 9 yrs old. It has been in the family all its life, but the point is the timing chain is supposed to last the lifetime of the car. It was fitted and designed to be an improvement for the cam belt. Is 45,000 how long a vauxhall lasts!!!!! I have seen lots of people have success with VX and just need to know how they went round it!!!!!

Paradigm

Hammyman wrote: »

At 45,000 miles it should have been on an abnormal service schedule as a low mileage car so should have been serviced MORE OFTEN than one that had done double the mileage.

Sorry?

Most, if not all, manufacturers will specify service intervals at xxx miles or xxx months/years.

If the service schedule is 12000 miles or every 12 months who will have the most services, the guy doing 4000 per annum or the rep doing 30000?

Charmed0103

Well I shall keep trying and keep u posted!!!

johnnyroper

If your car was in the recall range and somehow got missed and it was due to vaux not sending details then you have a slim chance vaux will pay/contribute.

If it was not one of the affected vehicles then I seriously doubt they will pay for repairs on such an old car especially if it does not have dealer history.Very similar to the owners of vaux cars fitted with the twin port engines from 2005ish snapping cams.

But keep on at them and see if you can get anywhere,have you tried contacting CAB to see what they say?

bigjl

The only hope you may have is if the recall wasn't done, but how you will go about proving that I don't know.

The 2.2 engine was a powerful and usable lump but had the problem, along with a reputation for chocolate camshafts.

They don't tolerate minimal servicing or cheap oil very well.

Was the camchain not noisy when started from cold? As most camchains will give a bit of warning, before snapping. Or did it jump a tooth due to being loose, possibly caused by a tensioner problem, though again you would have expected a little bit of a rattle when started from cold.

The cheapest solution for an old shape 2.2 Vectra is a secondhand engine, but then that may be in the same or similar condition camchain wise, though you have the option of changing the camchain and tensioners before putting the engine in the car.

Though in all honesty it may be more economically viable to get another car, as a 2001 Vectra isn't worth much these days, low mileage or not, it is firmly in the bangernomics catagory.

Flying-High_2

bigjl wrote: »

The 2.2 engine was a powerful and usable lump but had the problem, along with a reputation for chocolate camshafts.

Can you elaborate on the reputation for chocolate camshafts? I've just done a quick google and didn't kick up much if anything.

Wasn't aware of problems with the camshafts only the lack of lube causing the death of the timing chain.

johnnyroper

I was only aware of camshaft issue on the 1.2 & 1.4 twinport engines.
Apart from the oil jet for chain blocking they are a fairly decent engine certainly better than the 1.8 & 2.0 lumps.

vaio

I went through the process a couple of years ago on behalf of my kid sister

vaio wrote: »

My kid sister had a similar issue with her Vectra, there’s a well known design issue with the oil jet that lubs the cam chain. It ends up blocking, the chain wears and then jumps bending the valves. Even though hers had 5 years & 74k on it she had a full history and, after a bit of nagging, Vauxhall agreed to pick up the bill and the standard method is to replace the engine complete.......

hers had full history and most of it was vauxhall, it took a few calls but once I got through to vauxhall (UK) rather than vauxhall (india) it got sorted quite quickly. They started off with a 50% offer, increased it to 80%, then 100% plus investigation & recovery charges.

I think one thing that swung it was that the car had been in the hands of vauxhall a couple of times since the field remedy had been issued and they hadn't checked it had been done.