Vauxhall - the worst pile of crap ever

Phil_aka_Pip

Some of you may know that the Vauxhall combo van I bought last February with money borrowed from my mum blew its engine up in April, and I borrowed yet more money to get another engine and pay the garage to fit it.

About 2 months ago I noticed the red engine oil light come on as I swept round a right hander, so at the first opportunity I checked the oil level and found it on the bottom of the stick, so topped it up. This evening, the same on a right hander. Just took the filler cap off, and found mayonnaise on the inside of it.

'kin Vauxhall, I'll NEVER buy another and I'd advise everyone else to steer clear of 'em too!

octatonic

Mayoniasse as in it has foamed up?

Too much oil in there then.

If you've overfilled it with oil you could blow your head gasket.

guitarcookie1

Mayonnaise could just be too many short journeys, try giving it a good run to burn off the moisture.

chillidoggy

Pffft! You should have stuck to proper Salad Cream, not that foreign mayonnaise muck.

Phil_aka_Pip

I filled it to the top of the stick. If the red light comes on, the oil is at the bottom of the stick. So in 2 months it has lost that amount of oil, and presumably had lost the same amount of oil in the period between the engine refit and the first red light occasion. Last time I checked the stick was 1 month ago and there wasn't any mayonnaise on it then (and the oil level was close to the top). Conclusion: those engines are crap

Phil_aka_Pip

guitarcookie1 said:

Mayonnaise could just be too many short journeys, try giving it a good run to burn off the moisture.

It had a good run last weekend. And on a few other weekends before that.

ICBM

It sounds like it may have a head gasket leak already. I would think you have a claim against the garage who fitted the 'new' engine - which I assume was a salvaged one - since it was clearly either like that when fitted or not fitted correctly, if they disassembled it.

mike_l

@ICBM ; I've never seen a replacement engine dismantled, other than external parts, IE Alternator, Turbo etc. If the garage was paid to fit the engine, then they would have done exactly that. At work we won't fit any parts the customer supplies, unless they can be verified as to their quality and whether they're correct to the vehicle.

it does look like the head gasket is knackered.

@Phil_aka_Pip ; usually the difference from the top to bottom mark on the dipstick is 1 ltr. it's worth checking oil levels weekly.

Doug

What's the coolant level like?, any cross contamination ~ oil to coolant/coolant to oil?, what colour is the engine oil on the dipstick? engine misfire/rough idle?, as guitarcookie1 says ~ it 'could' just be condensation under the oil filler cap from short journeys.

ICBM

mike_l said:

@ICBM ; I've never seen a replacement engine dismantled, other than external parts, IE Alternator, Turbo etc. If the garage was paid to fit the engine, then they would have done exactly that. At work we won't fit any parts the customer supplies, unless they can be verified as to their quality and whether they're correct to the vehicle.

That's what I assumed too, so if the garage sourced the engine then they should be liable for the repair, even if it's not strictly 'their' fault.

Ah... I re-read the original post and it looks like the garage didn't supply the engine. In which case you'll have to take it up with whoever you got it from.

Emp_Fab

It shouldn't be using that amount of oil, so I would also suspect a head gasket.  Are you getting any coolant loss as well ?

Either way, the engine is ok at the moment (so you're not looking at another new engine anyway).

bertie

hmm ,mrs berts Zafira is one of the best car's she's owned...............

octatonic

When we moved back to the UK in 2007 we had a Vauxhall Vectra as a hire car for 6 months.

TOTAL pile of shit.

Cannot tell you how happy I was to see the back of it.

Handsome_Chris

And people mocked me for trying to sell my aggravatingly reliable Nissan, on here.

stickyfiddle

I ran a 1.4 Corsa for years with no trouble (except a too-small battery for its size). Unfortunately shit like head gaskets happen to everything eventually

RobDavies

In the interest of balance, I currently own a Zafira and a Corsa. Both have been brilliant, having given me no problems whatsoever. Compare that to the Audi's and Merc's that I've owned which gave me constant, and very expensive problems.

viz

We got an 05 Zafira from ebay in 2009 for 2800 pounds and it's needed tyres and a new windscreenwiper blade; it's passed 5 MOTs and done 40k miles.

Sporky

Just to add to the anecdata, I was once on a train from Woking to Waterloo that broke down at Vauxhall. They wouldn't let anyone get off and walk. We were right at the platform!

viz

Well I have an amp modeller which I sometimes set to Vox hall reverb and it sounds good enough to me so there.

VimFuego

I once worked for a chap who lived in Vauxhall. He was alright, but he swore a lot. Caveat and all that.

Deadman

I had my last car (Vectra 2.2 SRi) for 7 years. It never broke down and was the most reliable car I've ever owned.