Corsa B

Grouchy

I've got a Corsa B X Reg 1.2 with about 98k miles on it. Regularly serviced. Going to be doing only about 2-3k miles a year.
Have a main car for the workhorse and going to keep the Corsa for a local economical runabout.
It's been virtually trouble free but I'm wondering now it is really getting on what I should be looking out for in terms of things going wrong on this particular model? And apart from a regular service what I might do to keep it on the road for as long as possible before it gets too costly to do so. How often should an engine of this age have an oil change?

Thanks

facade

The main thing to watch out for is rust underneath.First the brakepipes rust and have to be replaced, then a couple of years later the body shell has enough rust underneath to make it uneconomical to repair.

Change the oil & filter every year, the engine hardly holds any so if you pick the oil up from Halfords when they sell their surplus oil off very cheap it won't cost much. This will help preserve the timing chain, vauxhall did an excellent job of un-engineering this to make what used to be one of the most reliable components: a chain running in perfect lubrication conditions failure prone.

The only other vauxhall fault is an appetite for crank sensors.

vikingaero

The steel fuel tank rusts and leaks leaving all your expensive fuel on the road/drive.

facade

Forgot that

What happens is mud sits on top of the spout where the filler enters the tank and perforates the spout, so it leaks if you put more than 1/2 a tank of fuel in. It smells of fuel round the back on a warm day, and an observant mot tester will spot it on a dry summer day and fail it, but not on a wet winter one .

Keeping it washed so no mud is present will help on that one.

s_b

the tanks used to rot on where the two halves were seam welded together and often started where the spring holding the handbrake cable was hooked through the hole
rear spring upper mounts rot and so does the rear chassis members if not protected
terrible driving cars but were certainly better prospects than the rot box fords of the same error
get an independent garage to maintain it for you and they will hold back the years aka simply red or in this case simply waxoyl

Retrogamer

Tanks and sill rot, under the plastic wheel arches can rot a bit a swell
Rear wipers can be bad for rust as they get on a bit.

If the engine hasn't had a recent coolant change then i'd do that at some point as the X12XE likes to blow cylinder head gaskets as they get older.

I'd change the oil on it every year or 6k, whatever comes first.

Strider590

Grouchy wrote: »

How often should an engine of this age have an oil change?

What's age got to do with anything?

And if it's doing only a few K miles per year, then it'll need an oil/filter change every 6-9 months.

Finally, I don't see how a Corsa 1.2 can be economical as a 2nd "runaround car". The real world mpg figures show it barely does 5 mpg more than my 1.8 Vectra.
By the time you've accounted for VED, insurance and general running costs, your cheap little runaround is actually costing you quite a lot.

Grouchy

Thanks for the responses about what to watch out for, I'll keep a check on those things mentioned. I've got a good local mechanic and the oil/filter change is already done regularly as mentioned, unsure about coolant so will have a word with him.
facade - yes the sensors are a weak spot I've heard o2 and crank as you say, thankfully only had to replace the MAF on mine.

Thanks