Engine problems Vauxhall Astra CDTi

stedee81

My husband bought a 57 plate Astra CDTi in august from Available car. In February it cut out on his way to work without warning. No warning lights had come on or anything prior to it cutting out. After joining the AA at the roadside, it was towed to a garage to be looked at. The garage told him that it needed to go to Vauxhall to go on their Tech2 computer to diagnose the problem. Then came the dreaded phone call. It needed a new engine. At almost 4 years old and with only 35,000 miles on the clock this seemed a bit outrageous. Apparently there had been a coolant leak that had knackered the pistons. Vauxhall quoted £4500 for a new engine. they were thanked for the diagnosis but some ringing round was done to find a mechanic to do the work cheaper. 8 weeks later it is finally fixed for half the cost.
I have since found out that this is a common fault with the Astra police vehicles but not privately owned, not sure what difference it makes if its privately owned or not though.
Has anyone had any problems like this themselves and taken on a car manufacturer and got any kind of compensation and would you recommend us contacting them??

forgotmyname

Sorry but compensation for what? Neglecting to check oil and water levels. Temperature gauge working?


You could try writing to the manufacturer but i would use a 2nd class stamp to save wasting too much money.

cyclonebri1

So probably knackered head gasket. I don't think you stand much chance as no one can prove the coolant levels were maintained during the preceeding 4 years and service history is of no use in this case, sorry:(

crittertog

stedee81 wrote: »

Has anyone had any problems like this themselves and taken on a car manufacturer and got any kind of compensation and would you recommend us contacting them??

Although the manufacturer may wish to give you a goodwill discount (or not), any claim would be against the supplier ("Available car" from your post). You would be required to demonstrate that the car had an inherent fault when it was purchased (it would appear to be outside of the 6 month reversed burden of proof time-frame), or that it was not sufficiently durable (engine should last for longer than that!) in which case you may be able to reclaim costs via Small Claims Court (however, it would appear you didn't contact the supplier to allow them to rectify the situation, which will probably count against you). I believe the AA offer a legal advice line as part of their membership (RAC do) - this would be a good opportunity to use it.

bigjl

I know there is no temp guage on the Zafiras we have at work, they are based on Astras so I would suspect that they may use very similar clocks.

As far as the Astra CDTi engine having problems when used by the Police I think you need to be more specific, the Met has has Astras for years, from what I have seen they are the 1.7 CDTi ones, which is an Isuzu engine apparently, all I know for a fact is that the 1.9 CDTi engine is crap, the 1.7 CDTi seems to have a good reputation.

I think you may find that over heating causing engine damage is caused by not having a temp guage, mix this with a lack of routine checks by the owner and you can easily have an engine related failure due to overheating.

As far as compensation goes I can't see you have a claim against Vauxhall, you could see it had no temp guage when you bought it may be the defense they use.

And the London Ambulance Service has replaced hundreds of engines in our Zafira CDTi's, funnily we told them to buy petrol but the bosses didn't listen, currently driving a 51 plate Astra which has 140k plus on the clock and is a retired Rapid Response Car, isn't in the first flush of youth but drives well, though they are now getting driven into the ground, I used one earlier in the month that was overheating, we just drive it till it mixed the oil in the water, it is now being scrapped.

As suggested there is more likely to be a claim against the dealer that sold you the car, but as you should have taken it to them to check you have probably ruined any chances of any money from them.

Not sure where you get your information about Police vehicles though, the Fiat 1.9 is the lemon of the range, the petrols ones 1.7 and even the Fiat 1.3 don't seem to have a bad reputation, we have 1.3 Corsa's as staff cars and they have been faultless.

Kilty_2

1.7 can suffer from coolant leaks due to dodgy hoses.