Vauxhall Mokka Turbo Failure just out of warranty

SeanNkala

My wife’s car just experienced the exact same thing. We have taken it to Vauxhall, who have said they won’t be able to look at for 2 weeks, I am interested to know how your case ended. Our Mokka had 35k as well, this needs to be pursued further they can not be allowed to get away with this. Clearly their turbos are not good enough, turbo failing at 35k is a joke. 

Jack_Cork

Well the OP hasnt been on this site since February 2019 so I guess we'll probably never know the outcome. 

SeanNkala

In case anyone is interested, Vauxhall garage has just come back to us. Parts of the turbo have disintegrated and ingested in the engine. The car needs a new engine and obviously a new turbo, a grand total of £5250!!! Where is one supposed to get that kind of money, you buy a new car to get away from these issues. Throughly !!!!!! off, excuse the french.  

AdrianC

SeanNkala said:

In case anyone is interested, Vauxhall garage has just come back to us. Parts of the turbo have disintegrated and ingested in the engine. The car needs a new engine and obviously a new turbo, a grand total of £5250!!! Where is one supposed to get that kind of money, you buy a new car to get away from these issues. Throughly !!!!!! off, excuse the french.  

One thing's for sure - GM Korea didn't manufacture the turbo themselves. It would have been provided by one of the "tier-1" manufacturers, the same people who build turbos for every single car manufacturer. Which one, I don't know - they seem to use several, and you haven't said if it's a petrol or diesel. But the turbo itself will be branded. The question is what's caused it to fail so early. Lubrication failure? Foreign object damage? It's unlikely to have lasted several years and 35k miles with an inherent manufacturing defect.

And, of course, you do not need to spend £5k for a new engine and turbo from a dealer. You could get the car back on the road far cheaper, getting a used engine fitted by a non-franchise garage.

noclaf

Not related to the OP's post but is there is wider issue with the durability of Vauxhall turbo engines? Not referring to the older cars as Vauxhall have used turbos for years but the more recent 1.0/1.4T petrol variants? I only ask as am considering a 1.4T Astra for my next car but slightly put off after seeing a few horror stories. If the issue isn't the turbo quality itself then is it with Vauxhall/GM?

AdrianC

Well, the Mokka is an old, and out-of-production car now, and engine designs have gone through a lot of changes in recent years with rapidly-tightening emissions regs. And we don't even know if they're the same fuel, let alone spec of engine. The post that started the thread was 1.6D, the latest poster hasn't said if theirs is petrol or diesel.

The Mokka was built by GM Korea, Astra production is split between the UK and Poland, so parts will certainly have been manufactured in different facilities, probably by different companies.

And, ultimately, we have two people 18 months apart who have had failures in this thread, with different failure symptoms - a whine and complete break-up - out of how many hundreds of thousands of cars on global (let alone European) roads with these engines?

daveyjp

"turbo failing at 35k is a joke."

The last car we had with a turbo managed 15,000 before it needed replacing.

Thankfully no other damage, but despite having had 7/8 cars with turbos I will avoid them in future.  If some manufacturers can get 100+ bhp and 50+ mpg without a turbo all the others can.