Vauxhall engines

betula+4

Hi,

I want to warn readers about VX engines. I've had three cars in a row that haven't stayed the course, despite being properly serviced at the proper times.

I first bought an Astra with the Suzuki 1.7 diesel engine. It sprang a severe oil leak when it reached 130K miles. I thought that I had just been unlucky and bought another, same spec. This one conked out at 125K miles.

So I switched to petrol, buying a Vectra 1.8. This one only got to 85K miles. It broke down on a long run just before last Christmas and I had to get a replacement engine fitted to carry on with our holiday. This one was a s/h engine and, now, some 8 months later, it has started to use more oil than it should.
So I don't believe that I'll be buying another Vauxhall. It's a pity because they are a make that caters well for very long legged people like me. If anyone knows of another brand that would suit, please let me know.

ciderboy2009

I'm surprised at this - I've just scrapped a 2000 Astra G Estate 1.6 16v which had done 198,000 miles on the original engine and was still running like a dream.

I had to scrap it because of other parts which had worn out which would have ended up costing me around £1.5k to get fixed for MOT.

One of the few cars I've had that I really didn't want to get rid of.

MikeWhite

My 18 y.o. 1.8 16v Vectra has just passed 156,000 miles. I expect the body to fail before the engine, as it did with the Astra that I owned before.

Strider590

My 1.8 Vectra had 130k on the clock when the gearbox went (uneconomical to repair on a 12yr old car).

The 1.8 engine itself is a really solid lump, it's old, it's tried and tested and if you service it regularly it'll go forever.
The only issue is cambelt at every 40k miles, fail to get this done along with pulleys + water pump and your just asking for trouble.

I once had my cambelt changed 25k miles after the one before it, because I was getting noise from the tensioner. Cambelts rarely ever fail, it's almost always the pulleys/tensioner that go first and take the belt with it, a lot of penny pinching people will only change the belt itself and then wonder why the engine goes kaboom.

My Vectra got a regular hoofing, i'm not a driver that dithers about, so IMO for your 1.8 to go pop, you've got to be doing something wrong. In fact to have many engine failures you've got to be doing something wrong..... Perhaps labouring the engine in low rpms at too low a gear??

facade

betula+4 wrote: »

Hi,

I first bought an Astra with the Suzuki 1.7 diesel engine. It sprang a severe oil leak when it reached 130K miles. I thought that I had just been unlucky and bought another, same spec. This one conked out at 125K miles.

Do you mean the Isuzu engine? That is the best engine Vauxhall (n)ever made.
They were good for 200,000 easy, as long as you changed the cambelt, and ground down the tappet shims at about 120,000 when they get hard starting due to reduced valve clearances.

As per usual, Vauxhall did their best to sabotage them*, sticking unreliable electronic fuel pumps on later models, but basically a very sound engine.


*Like they did the twin cam Ecotec, by not bothering to lubricate the cam chain properly, so it fails. You'd have thought a chain running in a sealed environment would last pretty much forever, but Vauxhall sorted that one out, must have had some help from the old Honda motorcycle team, their engines wrecked cam chains throughout the 80s. :D

betula+4

Yes, of course they were Isusu's.

Strider, I think you've put your finger on it. I'm always having to tell my wife that she needs to change down a gear when driving my Vauxhall. Her car is a Nissan Almera, about 12years old, and that is a car quite differently geared to mine. And she does almost all the driving in both cars because she just likes to drive.

So. I'm going to have to get her to get herself re-educated. Perhaps some driving lessons?

Many thanks to all who posted.

thescouselander

My dad had a old vectra with about 130k miles on the clock that recently had some sort of catastrophic failure which meant the engine dropped all its oil over the floor.

He also used to have a V6 omega that snapped it's cam belt even though it had been changed on time.

Before that he had a Carlton which made it to around 140k - that car kept going through head gaskets until my dad got fed up with it.

I remember as a child he also had a Viva that used to break down regularly - my mum hated it.

I'd agree with the OP in that Vauxhalls don't seem very reliable. Personally I'm not a fan any and I'd probably never buy one.

forgotmyname

Buy a Mondeo not a Vectra, A petrol Focus is about as reliable as they get.

interstellaflyer

forgotmyname wrote: »

Buy a Mondeo not a Vectra, A petrol Focus is about as reliable as they get.

Ha, Ha, try telling my father in law that, he always bought Ford until his last one, a 10 plate Focus Zetec, the most unreliable car he's ever owned, he now has an Octavia. I had an Astra H 1.3 CDTi for 3 years, never missed a beat and a Vectra C 1.9 CDTi for 2 years again never had any problems with that either.

forgotmyname

My sister probably owned it

She has this habit of turning a super reliable car where you mention the mileage and people go wow you would not know it. Into something that you wouldnt park within 200 yards of a scrapyard in case they haul it in.

foxy-stoat

betula+4 wrote: »

Hi,

I want to warn readers about VX engines. I've had three cars in a row that haven't stayed the course, despite being properly serviced at the proper times.

I first bought an Astra with the Suzuki 1.7 diesel engine. It sprang a severe oil leak when it reached 130K miles. I thought that I had just been unlucky and bought another, same spec. This one conked out at 125K miles.

So I switched to petrol, buying a Vectra 1.8. This one only got to 85K miles. It broke down on a long run just before last Christmas and I had to get a replacement engine fitted to carry on with our holiday. This one was a s/h engine and, now, some 8 months later, it has started to use more oil than it should.
So I don't believe that I'll be buying another Vauxhall. It's a pity because they are a make that caters well for very long legged people like me. If anyone knows of another brand that would suit, please let me know.

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