Vauxhall cars that lose power while you're driving
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It may not be the most exciting car on the road but the Vauxhall Vectra is one of the most common. Over the past six years more than a quarter of a million of them have been sold in the UK, with the promise of high levels of performance and refinement and the snappy slogan 'Take control'. However, you could have to 'take control' in a way that you wouldn't expect because a number of these cars have a fault. In fact, there could be two, both of which can have the same result. You could be driving along and suddenly your engine could lose power.
It may not be the most exciting car on the road but the Vauxhall Vectra is one of the most common. Over the past six years more than a quarter of a million of them have been sold in the UK, with the promise of high levels of performance and refinement and the snappy slogan 'Take control'. However, you could have to 'take control' in a way that you wouldn't expect because a number of these cars have a fault. In fact, there could be two, both of which can have the same result. You could be driving along and suddenly your engine could lose power.
It's a problem that affects Vectras with the 2.2 litre petrol engine. This was the model that Mark Longworth bought. He was driving up the M40, overtaking a lorry on the outside lane, when suddenly the car warning light came on. He had an immediate loss of power, and only just managed to get to the hard shoulder, narrowly avoiding a couple of other lorries.
Faulty fuel pumps and regulators
Whatever happened had caused Mark's car to go into what's called 'limp home mode', a setting that allows the car to continue only at low speed, to get to a garage. Mark's car was out of warranty, so Vauxhall would only pay 20 per cent of the bill, leaving Mark to cough up £458. Watchdog also heard from other people with Vectra 2.2s who've had the same problem. In every case, it was either the fuel pump or the fuel regulator that was to blame.
Serious problem
Vauxhall told us such faults aren't safety related but independent mechanic and MOT inspector Martin Woodhouse disagrees. He claims: "It's a serious enough problem that if either of these components failed at a vital moment, the driver could find themselves in a serious accident."
It's clear that Vauxhall hasn't quite got to the bottom of all this because an awful lot of its cars could have the same problem - and they're not just Vectras. Vauxhall has admitted the pumps and pressure regulators can fail on its 2.2 petrol engines that it has been using in Vectras manufactured from 2003, Signums since 2003, and Zafiras since 2005. This means that there are over 30,000 cars that could suddenly lose power.
Car has broken down twice
That statistic includes the brand new Vectra belonging to retired band members Pat and Len Scott. It cost £14,000, arrived on April Fool's day in 2008, and has been playing tricks on them ever since. Their car has broken down twice and gone into 'limp home mode'. Vauxhall has been working on this but it's only halfway there. It has now identified the fuel pump problem - a leaky seal, which causes fuel pressure to drop - and has developed a modified pump. However, Vauxhall hasn't yet fixed the fuel regulator. It suffers from a sticky plunger, but the company isn't sure why.
On Pat and Len's second break down, it was the regulator that had failed.
It could fail again
It was replaced, with an identical regulator, which means it could fail in the same way again. Pat and Len are so nervous of using their Vectra 2.2, that they've drawn up their own rules for using it. They can't drive more than five miles from home in case the car breaks down and they never travel together in the Vectra because if they break down there's no one to come and rescue them. Pat and Len's repairs were carried out under warranty, but with two major breakdowns in a car that has only done 3,500 miles, they haven't enjoyed the ride.
With dangerous breakdowns and customers paying varied contributions towards repair costs, our expert Martin thinks that Vauxhall should be contacting all the owners of the affected vehicles and getting them into the workshops, fixing the problems with modifications, at Vauxhall's expense. There are a lot of unanswered questions in this story. Exactly why do these parts fail, and how many cars could be affected? Unfortunately, we don't know the answer, and we're not sure that Vauxhall knows either.
Concerned
When Watchdog contacted Vauxhall, Vauxhall said that they were concerned that some owners are experiencing problems. They were keen to point out that the two faults are totally separate. Vauxhall used to replace both the fuel pump and fuel regulator at the same time because they did not know which was at fault; the symptoms are the same and the warning light that indicates this on the instrument panel is the same. Vauxhall have now found a solution to the fuel pump problem. They have developed a re-engineered fuel pump which is fitted in all new cars, and the cars that have demonstrated this fault. Vauxhall explained that the fault is most likely to happen while your car is under warranty which means that you will not have to pay, and if it happens after that, they will make a reasonable contribution.
Vauxhall are still investigating the problem with the fuel pressure regulator, and think that it is caused by some type of contamination. They have suggested that this fault is confined to the area around Bedfordshire.
Vauxhall say that the incident rate for both the pump and the regulator is low in comparison to the numbers of vehicles built. Therefore, they do not think it necessary to contact customers to tell them that there is a potential fault with their vehicle.
If you are concerned about either fault you can email Vauxhall or telephone: 0845 0902044.
The lines will be open from 7:30pm - 9:30pm on Monday 12 January and subsequently during normal working hours.
Note from Watchdog: This report is now closed for comments. But do get in touch with Vauxhall at the email address or telephone number above if you have problems with the models featured in the report. Alternatively, if you're experiencing problems with other cars, you can tell us in Got a story?
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~30~RS~)
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I have a 1999 Vauxhall astra which has been losing power and displaying engine warning light for three months and is still being investigated. Only difference to new models is that the power suddenley comes back, but you don't know when so could be on motorway doing 40mph for 6 miles!!!
Jo
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I have a Vauxhall 1.6 GLS which frequently suffers from the power loss problem normally after the first 3 miles but more often when I slow down for a traffic light,queue or turning right.It is very dangerous and embarrassing and I have to turn the engine on whilst driving and,or jump start as driving. My mechanic has spent hours on it and the electrical analysis keeps saying it's something to do with the airflow but he has changed the parts yet it is still reoccuring. Help!
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Hey, your feature on Vectra's was interesting. I had a Corsa up until September. I am at University in Scotland and I travel from Bristol to Stirling to Go to uni roughly every 2 months. My car went into what was described as the "safe mode" as well on the motorway. I ended up selling the car because no garages could tell me what the problem was because the warning light doesnt stay on all the time. I asked about my friends who have Corsa's and it appears to be a common problem here aswell. Not just in the old models either. Because I was so scared when I drove up in September and had to stop about 8 times an hour because of the fault I sold the car in my forst week back at uni.
Please tell people it is a vauxhall problem and not just in the models you noted in your articles.
Cheers Fay :)
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my 2004 2.2 vectra, started cutting out 2 days before Christmas. My vauxhall dealer in Bucks told me it was the battery and replaced this, the problem happened again, the day after I got it back. They have now replaced the fuel regulator only. So they have charged me for an unnecessary battery and the problem may not be fixed.
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We have the same problem and this has happened SIX times with five new parts fitted. My husband is a wheelchair user and this causes a great deal of distress every time we break down. What happens when we want to travel abroad this year??
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I am so relieved to see the story about the Vauxhall breakdowns tonight. Our new Zafira (June 08) broke down in the middle of the countryside in September. I had no phone signal. It was scary. In the end the fuel pump was replaced. Today driving in the middle of the countryside the warning light has come on again - I am terrified. I said to my huisband I have lost all confidence and do not want to drive the car anymore. I am trying to phone the Vauxhall number given on TV tonight but it is permanently engaged!!!!
When our car bbroke down in September the warning light had come on a few days before and I insisted that the garage we got it from collect it and sort it out. It was a joke - they made me look as if I was a fool. They treated the car with no respect and sent it back in a dangerous condition. When we broke down in the middle of North Norfolk the RAC man knew about this fault on previous Zafiras so how come the Vauxhall garage did not. When our car lost power it just stopped. I am so worried about this now.
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Don't get me wrong, I have sympathy with the people who have been affected by the problems with their car.
What gets me is how it's said over and over how much of a safety risk the problem is. If people can't cope with unexpected events happening in the course of their journey, should they really be driving? This problem doesn't bring the car from 70mph to 0mph in a split second. It's a gradual slow down caused by loss of power, which according to the report allows the car to travel at 25mph. If people can't get themselves off the road safely then they need to evaluate how safe they are on the road.
Anyway... I don't know the figures but I would bet that the 2.2 Vectra is probably one of the least popular models. I'll bet the diesels and lower capacity petrol engines are more popular. With that said, once they've got a solution to both issues, why don't Vauxhall just cut their losses, avoid a PR nightmare and agree to replace all parts found to be faulty.
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My two year old Vectra 2.2i loss power on the motorway in April 08, the fuel problems were fixed but again it kept on occuring. I finally had enough of the car in August and exchanged it for a Citroen. Fauls and breakdowns are one thing, but this is more a safety issue.
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Regarding the 2.2 Vauxhall Vectras, Does this apply to all 2.2 models or is it just the 2.2 Direct models as mine is a multi point fuel pump and the Direct model is a Direct fuel pump. Cheers
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I have owned a Signum 2.2 Direct for 2 years second hand (53 plate). The pressure regulator is a MUCH BIGGER PROBLEM than the pump. Mine was replaced after one year ownership by the local Vauxhall agent after my wife broke down. The car was not in 'get you home mode' - it wouldn't start at all. Ten months later it broke down on me while travelling through major roadworks on the M27 at night. My mate's garage then had it after being towed home to Brighton, the bill was unduly high because of extra labour incurred with swapping parts about - the diagnostics showed the same problem as previous, either the pump or regulator. Since I'd had the regulator ten months earlier (7000 miles) they tried to get a pump. His local agent had to send a cheque to a dealer in Doncaster as it was the only pump they could locate in the country. Unfortunately it only worked for half an hour so they suggested trying another regulator, which cured it. They then swapped the pump back and thankfully the agent that supplied it took it back. I took the faulty regulator back to Shoreham who replaced it first time around six months ago and am still waiting for reimbursement for the part (they won't pay any of the labour). Meanwhile, three months ago it broke down while it was being delivered back to my mate's garage after its MOT _ the exact same problem. i have a vectra r reg 2L,LS and ever since i brought the car 2 years ago i have replaced the fule regulater 4 times its been of road more than on, and when im driving it and it loses power i have had cars just miss me on roads, im fixing it again for the 4th time, but now dont know if i will as i have 2 little kids and its not safe to drive. can the problem be fixed for good?
[Personal details removed by Moderator] Worthing who supplied the previous regulator offered to diagnose the fault, and since it was a part supplied by them they carried out the work free of charge. It had only lasted 3000 miles. The new one has done 1700 miles and I am expecting to break down on the M23 in rush hour on the way to work any time soon. ps all petrol bought from the SOUTH COAST.
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Can you post the number to contact Vauxhall. I had this problem several months ago but Vauxhall refussed to pay anything for my repair as it was out of warranty.
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I would like to add to my previous comments that in each of the three times the pressure regulator has failed there has been no 'get you home' mode. The engine cuts and you dice with death - it randomly starts afterwards but may only get you a few yards if it does, there is NO HOPE OF GETTING YOU HOME except on a trailer!!
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My Vectra (04) has failed twice recently. The first time I was told the fuel pump was faulty because the oil level needed topping up by 1 ltr and had caused the pump to fail. Cost £450. After less than 3 months the management light came on again and this time I was told the fuel regulator was at fault although, for some raeson, I would not be charged for it's replacement? I was assured the machanic would phone me to explain - he/she never did.
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i have a vauxhall vectra 2.2 direct petrol 2005 bought it last year in july got the years waranty should i call vauxhall to get the fuelpump changed if so what was the number you displayed for people to call vauxhall BH
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On Saturday, whilst driving along a busy A road, my Vauxhall Vectra 2.2 sxi (2004 - WM53 CEJ) broke down leaving me stranded in a dangerous location. The maintenance symbol came up on the dash just as it all ground to a halt. The AA attended but were unable to get the car started or identify the problem. The AA guy did question the fuel situation but could see that it had 1/3 tank left. As he could not get me going he towed me to a local garage.
They have had the car for today and have identified that fuel is not getting through to the engine. They could not explain the problem and have left a message on my phone saying I need to get the car to Vauxhall as they don’t know what the problem is and are unable to fix (I guess if they watched Watchdog tonight they may have a clearer idea!). This is clearly a bit of a problem seeing as it won’t drive.
I have just seen the Watchdog programme and it seems that my car is afflicted with the same fault as many others. For the record, my car had literally just rolled over 93,000 miles when the fault appeared and had never had any previous problems of any kind.
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got a 55 plate zafira. Fuel pump went just inside warranty ( lucky for me) otherwise it would have been nearly a £1000 bill as they had to take the fuel tank out. Because of this I took out extended warranty at the cost of £350 just in case of future problems and from your report it sounds like I will .when the car was being fixed I asked the dealer if this was a common problem and they said no!!
What was the vauxhall number you announced on the show.?
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I have just tried the contact number given by Watchdog for the Vauxhall Vectra problem and the number has been constantly engaged. I actually had my fuel pump and regulator changed when I broke down on the A406 in London. The Vauxhall dealer I visited did not mention that there was any kind of fault, but charged me £632.15 for a brand new regulator and fuel pump.
I feel that Vauxhall have ripped off all their customers by getting away with not telling them of known problems and still charging full price.
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I Bought My Vectra in August. Have returned to Now Vauxhaul 3 time already. 1 Fuel pressure sensor 1 Fuel Pump (Same symptoms as explained on your show. 1 02 sensor to be replaced when it is in stock. Due in on 20th Jan. It is a lovely car but just so unreliable.
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Can I just add myself to what seems to be a growing list of 2.2 Vectra owners with the fuel pump problem. Having got my car back on 9th Jan and a bill of 623.00 pounds for replacement of high pressure fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator,control unit, fuel rail regulator and gasket kit. although Vauxhall have paid 50% to some of the replacement items, it seems a disgrace when it is a known fault on this engine. The car is six months out of the warranty period. This is our 3rd Vectra model.
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I own a 2005 Zafira 2.2 petrol automatic MPV which hitherto had given very good service. However, the exact problem described by Mr Longworth occurred whilst my wife was driving on the M1 in lane 2, overtaking a line of HGV's. The engine lost power, the warning light came on and it was only the courtesy of a lorry driver who recognised she appeared to be in trouble and allowed her to exit the carriageway and get on to the hard shoulder that prevented a potentially serious, if not fatal, incident. The 'limp home' mode allowed her to get off the motorway, and a short stop in a layby and a restart seemed to have cleared the problem.
Two days later,however, whilst driving up a hill in a nearby village, the same thing occurred, again almost causing a collision with following vehicles not expecting a sudden stopping for no apparent reason.
I then immediately arranged for the local Vauxhall dealer to do a diagnostic check (for which I paid £77+) to be told it was a fuel pump problem. I agreed to have the pump replaced at a cost of a further £455.
At no time was I informed, having explained all the above details, that it was a known problem or given any indication that it could be a manufacturers fault. Now I cease to trust a hitherto perfectly satisfactory company that I have dealt with for over 25 years.
Even more, I am angry that my wife and the passengers in the car on both occasions were potentially put in a life-threatening situation. I have already e-mailed the dealer to seek his comments and eagerly await developments!!
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Vauxhall are going through hardship like the rest of the world but why should we pay for a fault that is no fault of ours when we pay an over inflated price for the car in the first place.I have a Zafira 2.2 and my wife has to ferry the 3 kids about(aged 4,2,and 6 mts) in it daily if it breaks down with them it would be so difficult and upsetting for wife and kids
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i have got a zafira and mine is made in 2005 , i got it on x-mas day and no problerms have happand with it can i have the number so that i can double cheak that m car wont cut down. will you be able 2 send me a email with the number that i can make sure that my car is safe
thank you
ishaaq
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i have a 57 plate zafira 2.2 direct life and only after 4 month of owen it i had the same problem. it took 3 week of going back and forth to the dealers if was fixed. vauxhall tech help line had NO reports of this problem i still like the car and am in no hurry to change it
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we bought a vauxhall vectra 2.2, 04 reg back in march 2008 and it has continuously broken down. i have been stranded on the M25, in the middle of cross roads an many more dangerous places with my 1yr old in the car every time with complete power lose! we have had the fuel pump and regulater replaced 3 times already and keep bein told different stories about why this happens. i am glad to see that some attention is finally being paid to this problem.
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I have a vectra 2.2 and i have experienced my speed dropping for no apparent reason. This is repeated problem that i have had.So for this reason i do not drive on the motorway as power can drop at any time without any notice. I have had my car in the garage on numerous occasssions but the problem still remains and causes no end of anxiety as the problem comes at any time and I fear to go on long journeys.
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The loss of power at speed is a safety issue , no matter what Vauxhall says. I'd like Watchdog to put VOSPA in the firing line a bit more. My experience is that these are the only people able to bring car mnaufacturers to heel [Personal details removed by Moderator]
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18 months ago we brought a vauxhall signum 2.2i (2004)within that time we have had quiet alot of problems with it. Some of these problems have been with the fuel pump and the fuel regulator. when these parts were first replaced we had to pay as the car was just outside of it warrenty. Since having these new parts fitted the car has broken down several times. One in which was the morning after recieving it back from the garage. Both times the car needed another fuel regulator. So in totall we have had 3 in under 12 months. We have lost trust in the car as we go out as a family and are unsure about wether it is safe to be driving.
We would like this matter cleared up and to be given some kind of reasurance that it will not keep happening, putting us in danger on the roads. The last time this happened which was only 2 weeks ago the garage did mention it may be due to the supermarket fuel that we put into the car. Surely this can not be to blame for a part to keep failing!!!
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I have been watching your procramme on Vauxhall Vectra's 2.2 I had exactly the same problem as highlighted on the programme I bought the carin Nov 2006 it was 1yr old in dec 2007 (21,000 miles) It lost power and I was without a car over Christmass and New Year Vauxhall repaired the fault a faulty fuel pump in april 2008 similar problem Vauxhall again repaired the fault this time a faulty regulator in sept 2008 no loss of power but management light showing the car was still under warranty however this time they said the fault was a fuel filter and I had to pay for repair £150 which included a key battery and gearbox oil I live in Surrey so the fault can't just be in the Bedford area
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I was surprised that nobody mentioned that it is the retailer, ie the seller of the car who is resposible for ensuring the car is repaired, as it sounds to me as if the vehicle was not 'fit for purpose'. Has this problem been discussed with Trading Standards with reference to Sale of goods act 1979 9as amended)
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I purchased my Vectra 2.2.Sxi 16v. in August 2006 only 1 year old with 11500 miles on clock. After 7 months and 4000 miles later under warranty the High pressure fuel pump was replaced. In July 2008 Fuel Regulator was replaced. In August the Crankshaft pressure censor, and in September Fuel pressure censor and fuel pump. Later in September the Fuel regulator was replaced again. The car is now out of warranty being 40 months old with only 30,000 miles on the clock. It is now sitting in the Vauxhall service garage having broken down again, so far it has cost me £1,044 of which I was re imbursed £425. They refused to pay labour cost & VAT. I have now been without a car this time for 10 days and have been told 'we dont know what to do' by Vauxhall service Garage. I WANT MY MONEY BACK, This car is not fit for purpose. It is terrifying to loose your engine in the middle of a roudabout with 3 elderly Alzheimer's sufferers as passengers.
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We are currently in negotiations with Vauxhall re our Vauxhall Zafira Design 2.2 2005. We have now had the fuel pressure regulator changed 5 timeds in the last 18 months, the first 4 times being whilst under warranty (the AA were called on each occasion and now advised that after 4 call outs will charge £95) the 5th time was only 2 weeks ago and although now 3 months outside of warranty, Vauxhall did finally agree to pay 90% of cost to service dealer including work to check contamination of fuel, whichproved clear. Vauxhall tried to blame service dealer accusing them of applying faulty part each time. Now fixed for 5th time but still no guarantee that it wont breakdown again and as young children now petrified and total loss of confidence feel need to sell car. Easier said than done, as value of car now depreciated so much, we cannot afford to buy another car of similar age and mileage. Will not touch Vauxhall again and have now requested them to offer us a deal for our car. Can't begin to tell you how much stress has been caused and affect it has had on holidays and travel plans.
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Watchdog did fail to mention it does not involve all type of 2.2 engines, I can imagine people getting worried unnecessary.
This complaint only involves the Z22YH engine which is the only direct injected petrol engine.
Furthermore the complaint mostly is caused by the fuel pressure regulator and not the pump itself.
Sometimes the regulator has to be replaced several times before the complaint gets sorted.
What the cause is of this fault I can only guess, but my best guess is either the fuel quality or the regulator quality.
Why replace the pump, too low pressure means regulator fault or pump fault as the pump cannot produce the pressure to let the engine function properly, too high pressure means the pump can produce the pressure needed but the regulator does not regulate it correctly, only regulator replace.
GM customer service, I have worked for different brands and witnessed customer service as I was the one giving it according to rules applied by the brand.
By far GM has the best customer service of all.
If a fault shows, product development will invest time and money to rectify it, unfortunately sometimes faults only come forward when customers use their vehicles and I know for a fact that GM will invest as they have in this case.
I feel for the customers that have a broken regulator or pump but not all Z22YH engines go wrong, GM accommodates customers inside and even outside warranty (within reason) more than other brands I worked for.
Costs of repairs, newer vehicles are more expensive to repair than older ones simply because the parts are more expensive fi. an injector of a common rail diesel engine (the newer vehicles) can cost up to 800 pounds a piece and they are very sensitive to fuel quality, get dirty fuel and you might be looking at a 6000 pound plus repair including the pump on a V6 (not the vehicles manufactures fault regardless the brand)
Warranty wise, people think that their vehicle will last forever now a days and expect any car brand to cough up even outside warranty or even when it is not a warranty case, drive a new vehicle you can expect new vehicle bills, a fact customers often do not want to look into as it interferes with the decision to buy the vehicle they want.
The Vectra, when it was introduced it was a technological milestone and still is a impressive piece of engineering and technology with it’s canbus system.
[Company details removed by Moderator]
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I have a vauxhall signum 05 which broke down in December.Going into limp home mode . We were told it was the regulator or the fuel pump costing £2,500. Our car is out of warranty so vauxhall refused to contribute to the repairs.But it sems to be a common fault on all models of vaxhall cars. I have been in touch with vauxhall tonight on telephone no provided by you on watchdog tonight regarding this contacting me tomorrow with a reply
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I have a 56 Vectra 2.2 Direct. Last Friday night, it failed in exactly the way the program described but the fault seemed to clear itself after sitting for half an hour. At the time I put it down to a combination of the extremly cold weather and the car having sat for a short while.Today, the same problem happened when I was bringing my sons home from school.
I've been in contact with Vauxhall, been given a case number and been told to take the car to a garage of my choice.
I fail to see how Vauxhall can fail to foot the bill for fully fixing this problem with their cars.
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I purchased a new 2.2 Signum in 2007. At 8 months old and having covered just over 10k miles, whilst accelerating to join the M1 Southbound at junction 24, the engine went into limp mode and the engine management light came on. It was extremely dangerous as I was just at the end of the slip road in lane 2 and there is a wide solid white line separation between lanes 1 & 2 at the junction and lane 1 had three large lorries in it thereby blocking access to the hard shoulder. I had to limp along a short section of the motorway in lane 1 of the main carriageway until the lorries cleared and I could get across the slip road lane 1 and onto the hard shoulder. This caused traffic to brake hard both on lane 1 of the motorway and on the slip road. Luckily drivers around me were paying attention and as the car went into limp mode I immediately put on the hazard lights whilst trying to pull across the slip road and on to the hard shoulder.
The car was recovered to the supplying Vauxhall dealer who had it for over a week trying to find out what the problem was. After much head scratching and changing of many parts, the chief technician decided it was the fuel pump and following replacement the car has been fine and has now covered 27k miles.
Two points, if the problem has been present in vehicles since 2003, why did the dealer take so long to get to the bottom of the problem at the end of 2007 and after watching the program, should I still be worried as presumably the fuel pump was replaced with an identical new one in 2007 and these have been reported as failing after up to 93k miles? One final thought, if a failed part is replaced within the warranty period, should the replacement not be subject to 3 years warranty from the date of fitting?
I can assure Vauxhall this is a very dangerous problem and could easily lead to a crash.
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I had the same problem with my 05 plt vectra and was off the road for over 6 weeks (without a courtesy car) waiting for the part, they then wanted to bill me over £600.00!! We discussed it in the middle of the showroom and I made it quite clear I was not paying that kind of money - I paid £200.00 in the end which was still £200.00 too much. My car was 3months out of warranty - BUT wait a while becuase your problems will get a lot worse soon!! my Vectra's cam belt has just jumped some teeth and destroyed my engine after just 55,000 miles with a full service history - Bill £2200 - I am trying to pursue through small claims court - Has anyone got any advice or similar experience!!
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Our car broke down this morning, could not be restarted, had to be recovered and dumped back at the Vauxhall garage!!
This is the fourth time since July 2008, on a 3 1/2 year old car! They have replace the two fuel system components in question and their last resort will be to flush the fuel system tomorrow!
When the problem originally occured the Vauxhall dealership tried to blame "supermarket" fuel as the cause, even though we get our fuel from various different petrol stations! Vauxhall don't really know what the problem is or what really causes it.
We have a 9 month old son, and my partner has been stranded twice now in this unreliable car, luckily not in a dangerous place like the outside lane of a motorway, but that doesn't seem to bother Vauxhall whatsoever!
Surely this is a manufacturing or a design fault with the fuel system in the 2.2 Vectra Design engine and as such do Vauxhall not have an obligation to remedy this fault at no cost to the customer, especially in the current economic climate?
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[Personal details removed by Moderator]i brought my 2.2 Zafira in Feb 07 when it was 6 months old and only had 12,000 miles on it. I had it around a year when the engine management light came on. I took it in to A.A Clarks in bracknell where they told me the fuel pump and fuel pressure sensor had to be replaced. Then 9 months later the same again.(one of the mechanics said it was a common fault!) WHY DIDN'T VAUXHALLS INFORM THEIR CUSTOMERS. And its only done 40,000 miles and the warranty runs out in two weeks. Good car but unreliable and bad customer.
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we have vectra 2.2 petrol 2years old and both parts mentioned in the report have been replaced by 2 different garages. it went wrong 5 times in total between july and november 2008. we were told that vauxhall thought it was contaminated fuel from supermarkets and advised not buy from them. we were lucky it was still under warranty.since seeing watchdog its made us nervouse about going too far in the car
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I'm another sufferer.
New Fuel regulator - now being told need a new Fuel pump.
Why can't Vauxhall accept there is a fault - rather than go through the handbrake incident again?
Insignia anyone?
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I watched your article on the fuel pump issue on Vauxhall Vectra's with great interest. I have a 2005 Vauxhall Signum Elite 2.2i petrol car. 3 months after it was out of warranty the fuel pump went. I was 150 miles from home so it caused me a lot of inconvenience and cost as I had to take a train home and back to collect the car as well as pay £ 500 repair bill. As this is my 6th Vauxhall I called them to complain about this and eventually got a 30%discount ( excluding VAT) from them. They also said that it was a manufacturer fault with the fuel pump so I could not understand why I was only getting 30% back. Now I know that I am not alone - small consolation. I am seriously considering changing the make of car when I buy next time
Regards [Personal details removed by Moderator] Aberdeen
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I'm another victim of the 2.2 Vectra pump failure - during December 2008 with the same symptoms as everyone else and, of course, out of warranty. The Vauxhall agent stated that it was probably a problem of contaminated petrol. So I was pursuing Sainsbury's for compensation for the £600 or so cost when I saw the Watchdog programme.
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I bought a Vectra 2.2 in Jan 2005 and have had the same problem with the fuel regulator. I was out of warranty and has to pay £500 for the 1st replacement. A few days ago the sign has now come up again on my dash board.
I am so fed up ,i bought this car ,as i thought Vauxhall was reliable, but this is a nightmare not knowing when the car is going to stop.
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Well, I can also be added to this ridiculously long list as my Vectra 2.2 SRI (BV04 FBD) suffered intolerable breakdowns.
Twice I had to pay for this faulty fuel pump (Nov 07, and Nov 08). The first breakdown cost me £650.00, and the dealer offered me a cheaper price second time as they were aware I had only been in for the same fault just over a year before and the bill the second time was £370.00.
but this comes on top of replacement of all shock absorbers, design fault in the wipers which caused vauxhall to re-design them - but apparently they are not liable for the cost of replacement!!) fault heater controls, replacement track arms, replacement link rods, faulty coil pack, noisy anti-roll bar bushes (incureable according to the dealer) - all this in 18 months!!!
I shall be contacting Vauxhall following the report from watchdog and will post my reply from them.
Worst and most expensive car I have ever owned
P. Bingham
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I have a 2.2 Direct Vectra 05 registration and had exactly the same problem as those outlined in the programme. My fuel pump cut out whilst I was on holiday last August, five months after the warranty expired, and it cost me £500 to get it fixed, of which Vauxhall paid precisely £0. I bought the car having previously had the 'old' model Vectra because I had four years motoring with that car without one single problem. I am incensed that this fault was well known to Vauxhall but they have done nothing to contact owners to get it fixed while the vehicle is still under warranty. I was considering sticking with Vauxhall for the next car I buy. I will definitely not now - a reaction which any car manufacturer can ill afford in the current economic climate.
Howard
Newcastle
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Why is taking so long for comments to get moderated in this thread? The first one was posted 16 hours ago and still has not been reviewed.
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I have a 2004 2.2 Direct Vectra that has had this issue twice.
Vauxhall repaired it in warranty then 10,500 miles later and out of warranty the same issue arose, on Christmas Eve.
I was left without a car for the entire Christmas period and when I did manage to get through to Vauxhall customer care, they refused to recognise the issue as a fault leaving me to fork out the cost of the repair.
My local Vauxhall dealer were fully aware of this issue and advised they had just released a car that had work done for the same fault.
It's left me with no faith in my car, and especially in Vauxhall.
They know the fault exists but I have not been able to get anywhere with them paying for any of the repairs.
The car is unreliable and Vauxhalls approach to the issue is entirely unrealistic.
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This happened just yesterday to my 2006 Vauxhall Zafira. The car just stopped for no reason when the warning light came on. I had to lock and unlock the car just to get it to start again but as soon as I tried to drive it, it cut out again.
The AA man didn't know what it was but thought it might be the immobiliser.
So I was towed to a garage. They told me about the Vauxhall problem and have booked it into Vauxhall to be repaired. I have to pay out of my own pocket for the car to be recovered and taken to Vauxhall. The car is still under warrenty but I still have to pay the recovery charge. What ever happened to customer service it is clearly a Vauxhall problem so why do we have to pay? And now I read all of this I wish I had never brought it.
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My Vectra 2.2 direct had power loss problems last year when it was 3.5 years old. The garage told me that they would have to replace the fuel pump and fuel regulator and that the AC system needed a service. Total cost £750. Two days later they told me they couldn't get hold of a new fuel pump and didn't know when they could. It was 6 weeks before I got my car back during which time I made numerous calls to Vauxhall Customer Services who also couldn't give me any idea of how long it would take. They verbally agreed to make a courtesy gesture once the bill was paid provided I could prove I was the owner from new (I was) and had a full service history (I did). Very soon after I collected my car they refunded me £250. If I hadn't been persistent there would have been no compensation granted. I suspected then that this was a widespread problem else why would they run out of fuel pumps? Surely they should have replaced these parts free of charge if there was an inherent fault in the parts? Every car I have owned since 1978 has been a Vauxhall but I will never buy Vauxhalls again after this.
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53reg vauxhall estate with 42,000 miles which we've had 3 months. Started displaying the same symtoms last week; Starts ok, drives ok, then engine cuts out, wait 5 mins then restart. AA man couldn't diagonose the fault, local garage couldn't find the fault. Looks like watchdog has come up with the answer!!
Vauxhall need to sort this fault out.
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I have a Vauxhall Signum 2.2 petrol 2003 model which I bought nearly new.At 40,000 miles I had to have the fuel pump replaced at a cost of £495.That was at the end of February 2007. 24,000 miles later I hadto have it replaced again. That was at the end of August 2008- 18 months later and another £495. In spite of the Vauxhall dealer's representations to Vauxhall Motors followed by 2 letters from myself they have not contributed a penny.In your programme it was intimated that they would look to make a reasonable contribution to people like myself. I rang them last night and guess what, they will not do anything because replacement parts only carry a 12 month warrenty. So, even though they know that there is a fault, they are hiding behind their warranty even though the last fuel pump only lasted 18 months. Would I buy another Vauxhall ? When Hell freezes over!
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I have had this problem 4 times with my 07 plate zafira 2.2 direct. At 6mths the fuel regulator sensor valve was replaced. 7 months later the fuel pump and regulator were replaced. 3 months later the regulator and fuel pressure sensor valve were replaced as the fault actually occured whilst vauxhall were test driving it. In November (4 months later) they replaced the Fuel pump and fuel regulator valve. Confidence in this car has totally gone although still under warranty, am now changing to a different car.
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Davelee212 has got it wrong.
He says:
If people can't cope with unexpected events happening in the course of their journey, should they really be driving? "
The fact is that when it happened to our Zafira it stopped completely. It just stopped dead in the road in the middle of Norfolk with no phone signal. The Vectra's might coast but this did not. What if it had been on the motorway with a lorry behind?
We live in the middle of the Suffolk countryside with dark lonely country lanes with no phone signals. Do you think that is good? I am petrified of being stranded in the middle of no-where with no contact and unable to walk along the lanes as there are bends and no walkways.
I have lost my confidence completely.
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I have now heard from Vauxhall that the modified pumps were installed in new cars and available as replacements from February 2008.
That's the good news, as mine was replaced in December 2008. The bad news is that they disclaim any liability for a contribution to the £600+ cost as my car was 12 months out of warranty.
The local agents claim to be unaware of the problems, so it looks as though Vauxhall have kept things under their hats.
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I bought my 54 reg Signum 2.2 Direct on 10th December 2008 with 38000 miles on the clock. On 7th January with nearly 39000 miles shown, I was overtaking when the engine lost power for about a second and the service light came on. I could drive as normal and took it very easy for the remaining 180 miles of my journey. I took it back to Vauxhall the following day and they replaced the regulator. I got about a mile from the garage and it happened again, I went back and they replaced the fuel pump. Luckily it was under waranty as it would have cost me nearly £600. I bought it because I wanted a reliable car that my wife could drive with our 6 month old son, not to sure now. I think Vauxhall should at least offer break down cover for free for the affected cars untuil they can sort out the problem and have a recall.
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I ALSO HAVE A VECTRA 2002 2.2 SRI TDI THAT SUFFERS THE SAME PROBLEM( SPANNER APPEARS ) AND I HAVE HAD THIS INTO 2 DIFFERENT GARAGES THAT CHARGE ME £69 TO SAY THEY CANT FIND A FAULT BUT CAN TELL ME ITS A COMMON FAULT WITH THIS ENGINE.IS ANYONE ELSE WITH THIS MODEL SUFFERING THE SAME AS ME AND HOW DID THEY SOLVE IT ?
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i have a vectra 2.2estate 2005.fuel pump & regulator replaced in october 08 following 6 week wait for parts. vauxhall have declined to pay towards repairs stating car out of warranty by 10months with 32000 miles showing on the clock. .at the time of the fault, i was told by m garage some 2300 vectra,s were laid up around the country with same fault. i am shortly to purchase a new estate car of a simular spec,which most certainly will not be vauxhall manufactured, these people will expect to have employment in the next 12 months on this type of performance.
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Further to my comment last night, I've just had a call from Vauxhall who have offered me either 100% of the last costs for pump replacement or 90% and a further year's guarantee on parts/labour for the replaced part - sounds like an admission to me!!
Well done, Watchdog.
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I would like to add to my previous comment. I contacted Citizens Advice, they put me onto Consumer Direct 0845 4040506, a government agency offering consumers advice, and very helpful they were!
Also, our fuel, be it supermarket or normal stuff, was purchased in Norfolk, which gets it's supplies from Thurrock which also supplies a vast area of the UK, so it doesn't seem to be just Bedfordshire as indicated in the program.
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In sept 2008 my vectra estate just died on me in the middle of a busy junction, and would not re-start for 2 mins then it started and went 10 metres and stopped again.
This got worse and my local Vauxhall dealer [Personal details removed by Moderator], said I need to bring the car in to chech the fault codes stored in the ECU which I did, and i was told I needed a new fuel pressure sensor and ECU costing about 900 pounds fitted.
I rang Vauxhall to ask for them to assist on payment and the refused stating it was out of warrentee. I argued saying it was not fit for purpose and i had found out that my dealership had 13 cars with the same fault, and there was a back order of 700 ECU's waiting to be delivered, in Oct 08.
In Nov I booked the car in and had the work done to a cost of 750 pounds.
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In July 08 my Vauxhall Zafira 2.2 Design had it's ECU software upgraded after cutting out many times at idle.
In Sept 08 the fuel regulator valve was replaced due to fault light coming on intermittently. Luckily in last month of warranty having covered only 20 miles.
In Dec 08 the car had to be recovered after completely breaking down with the fault light on. Again the fuel regulator was replaced. The vehicle was now out of warranty and despite the part only being replaced three months ago I had to pay. Vauxhall eventually agreed to pay 60% of the cost.
This is my 3rd Vauxhall and the car was purchased on the assumption it would be a reliable family car. Like many have commented, I have totally lost confidence in it and await the next break down.
Surely Vauxhall should accept responsibility, recall all affected vehicles and fit revised fuel regulator and fuel pump at their own expense.
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I have got the exact same problem. My car is out of warrenty and vauxhall dealer repaired the car twice with some other parts change last year 2008. The problem was never resolved and I am about to send the car for another repair. Thanks for posting this.
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Yes I have a Vectra 2.2 sri. 54 reg. I have had the car for 6 months 2 of these I have not been able to drive it, firstly the high pressure pump failed I had to pay £540.00 following this the car was miss firing the catalytic converter failed costing me a further £300.00 I had to wait so long for the parts due to the backlog waiting for parts. I have no confidence in what should have been my dream car now I'm waiting for all the other faults every one has commented about.
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We bought a 2.2 Vectra in 2006. In 2007 it broke down with exactly the symptons on the programme, but it broke down in France! We managed to get home with much help from the French. Once in England we called the AA who were unable to find the fault, and the famous "spanner" had disappeared! We arrived home OK and then had trouble free motoring until March 2008 when exactly the same problem occurred. This time the garage we were towed too identified that we needed a new inlet manifold system, (which we now do not believe)!!! Luckily the car was 13 days INSIDE its warrantey. Once repaired, we went straight to the Dealership, traded it in for a NEW 2.2 Vectra in the hope this would solve our problems! No chance! The new one with less than 3000 mls on the clock has had 2 new regulaters and 1 new fuel pump fitted as it has broken down TWICE in its life of 9 months.
WHEN ARE VAUXHALL (knowing that this fault is so common) GOING TO STOP LETTING PEOPLE LIKE US WASTE OUR HARD-EARNED MONEY ON THEIR FAULTY CARS?
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I have owned my vectra elite 2.2 direct since march 08 when it first started playing up and when i took it back to the dealer they said it was just one of those things!!!!. Then the engine management light came on and it went into the garage (thank god it is still under warranty) and they fitted a new ECU unit then a new transmission box then the first of four fuel pumps and regulators.The car is starting to splutter again so we seem to be on our way to fuel pump and regulator no 5. I feel the same as many others that the car is unsafe and that as the garage or vauxhall do not seem to be able to rectify the problems that they should allow customers to exchange the vehicle.
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Have had the same problem as describd so many times above with my 05 2.2 direct signum, five months out of warranty. Having contacted Vauxhall yesterday on the number given out, was told that as fuel pump replaced by an independent company and not a main dealer they are not prepared to make any contribution to my £395 bill, as they say they cannot be sure that the parts have been replaced, even though I offered to send of copy of the bill and the diagnostic report. Nice customer service that I am out of pocket due to a well known issue that should be subject to a safety recall in my opinion, and am also potentially a liar! the matter is not over yet!!
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Interesting, I have a 2.2 Vectra estate bought new in March 04. I broke down on the north circular last august in rush hour with the fuel pump problem, I was towed by the RAC to my local vauxhall dealer in Knebworth. I had to wait 6 weeks for a replacement pump and was told that the supplier if the pumps had been changed and new supplies were not meeting spec. Anyway eventually got the pump replaced (not sure about the regulator)at a cost of over £500 and has been fine until monday, the date of the watchdog programme (fate or what!). The light came on again on monday and yesterday I had a cutout, fortunately in the tesco car park. I got the car home and its nowdue to go to the same vauxhall garage tomorrow. Just spoken to the vauxhall customer service and I'm told the parts replaced in september have a 12m guarantee so I'm hoping not to pay anything tomorrow, we shall see.
Interestingly after I'd waited 6 weeks to get the part replaced originally I tried to argue with vauxhall customer service that I was entitled to some compensation as the car was off the road for 6w. I got nowhere so I wrote to the chief exec and received a free service woucher which will be worth over £200.
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I would just like to correct a statement that has been made about the consequences of these faults.
I have a Vauxhall Signum 2.2 Direct, with the Z22YH engine, that has been suffering with a range of fuel system faults since September 2005, and has had several fuel pumps, fuel rails, a fuel tank and 4 or 5 fuel pressure regulators replaced, the latest in November 2008.
When a fault occurs, sometimes the car will continue to run, roughly, in "limp home" mode, this is usually when the fuel pump has failed and the car can still be driven.
However, and this is very important to recognise, if the fuel pressure regulator sticks so that fuel flows back out of the fuel rail to the fuel pump inlet the fuel pressure collapses. After a few seconds the engine's management unit will detect the fall in pressure and then after 10-20 seconds cut the ignition. I've been in this position on many occasions and when it happens you have seconds to act to get off the road or the car will become effectively immobile wherever it is at the time.
To say that this is not a safety issue is very inaccurate!
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Has anyone considered the legal position in the event that an accident took place following a sudden loss of power, or some other fault, which the driver was aware of. To drive a motor vehicle on a road with a defect which was likely to cause an accident, can be held to be dangerous driving in itself. If someone was killed as a result of such an accident, the driver, if he knew of the defect, and most of your correspondants 'know' of the defect. Then it is possible that they could be charged with causing death by dangerous driving.
[Personal details removed by Moderator]The same thing applies. If you drive a vehicle, knowing that a defect exists which may cause an accident, and one occurs,
then you might be in serious and very expensive trouble
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Note from Watchdog: We're getting a lot of comments from people with other models of Vauxhall cars. We're investigating these claims but will only be publishing comments at this time about the Vauxhall models featured in the Watchdog programme.
This is why many of the comments on this page have been removed.
Best wishes, Zoe Behagg - Web Producer
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CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHY WERE LITERALLY DOZENS (81! TO 13.00 HRS 14/1/09) OF COMMENTS ON THIS SUBJECT CENSORED. I DEMAND AN ANSWER UNLESS THIS IS ALSO CENSORED.
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I agree with Anoneymouse why are most of the comments being taken off unless Vauxhall have had a word
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I have owned 2 new Vauxhall Vectra 2.2 Direct cars. The first one was replaced by Vauxhall after 12 months as they were unable to resolve a problem with the alarm. Both of these cars have experienced the problem highlighted in your programme but this was covered under warranty
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Purchased 2.2 Direct Vectra in 2005. This same fault occurred within 6 months of purchase. it is dangerous, becuase it happened to me as i was overtaking a lorry. The sudden drop in speed nearly caused an accident as I could not pass the lorry,and a vehvle we smng towards me, nor could I tuck in behind the lorry, as the gap behind ws gone. Fortunately O put hazrds on and car behind let me back in. Limped to layby, swithced engine off, warning light went out and vehicle OK again iuntil next time when same thing happened again in the same place. Vauxhall dealership said at that tme it was a known fault, and that it was the water pump. They said that the original was "not up to the job", and that new type pf pump was to be fitted. Repaired under warranty. In last 3 months it has started again, only this time does not go into limp-home mpde. Engine just momentarliy cuts out, engine warning light comes on, bu peformance therafter Unlatered. Seems to happen at about 3000 revs or when under hard acceleration or going uphill. dealership say can't tell if it's pump or regulator as peer the programme.
As fault is intermeittent, I#m going to live with it until vauxhall admit liability, or it fails completely
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Further to post76, I left my car into my local dealer this morning. The receptionist noted the symptoms, asked me to agree to paying for the diagnostic checks and then told me that my symptoms were different from those noted on Watchdog and there could be 'multiple causes'. The symptoms are exactly those noted in post 141, a warning light followed swiftly by a total loss of power. From her attitude when I mentioned the report, I suspect there is now a party line to be taken by dealerships and the diagnistics will prove 'inconclusive'.
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24 hours after our message last evening, guess what? The dreaded spanner has appeared again on our 9 months old with less than 4000 mls Vectra 2.2 and again it has to be taken back to the garage! Watch this space!
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Please add me to your growing list . I have a 55 reg Signum Elite 2.2i .It broke down last September..engine suddenly cut out.It restarted after a few minutes but only for a very brief time before cutting out again.No 'get you home mode', so the RAC did it! The main dealer replaced the fuel pressure regulator. It was 2 weeks before the warranty ran out. An identical situation occurred 2 days ago, ironically the day after the Watchgdog item was aired.The new regulator had lasted 4 months and 3200 miles! Same problem but this time I had to pay £140 for the new regulator.Vauxhall were not prepared to discount any part of the cost as the original had been under warranty. I need a reliable car for my job, and until Vauxhall have sorted this out I will feel the car cannot be trusted. I have had many Vauxhalls before, my family used to work for them but my trust in the company has gone.The staff in the dealership were helpful and understanding but that's not enough with this kind of problem.
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I have a 2005 Signum 2.2 which is 3 months out of warranty.Have exact same symptoms as described and are now facing a bill for £779 to replace fuel pump and regulator.This is hardly what I was expecting as car has only covered 22000 miles.My local vauxhall dealer says they no nothing of any common fault with this engine and strangely enough nobody there had seen or heard of the Watchdog report.Iam trying to contact Vauxhall but lines engaged.
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I don't own a 2.2 , but I am a trained technician and have been in the motor trade for 25 years. Reading all the posts and looking at all the facts , I can honestly say , I am not convinced it is Vauxhall that have the problem !?.
You have a range of vehicles here from 03 reg to 08 reg , practically all the breakdowns have stemmed from last year onwards.
So that means that some cars have been fine for 3-4 years ? and now sudenly all these 2.2 have a problem , wheather they are 6 mths old or 5 years old ?
Why would a 6 mth regulator fail at the same time as a 5 year old regulator ?
The only common denominator we have with all these vehicles is petrol ?
Also the majority of the posts are coming from the south of the country , the area which is supplied by Thurrock fuel depot ? There are no reports from Wales or Scotland (the only post from Scotland happened when he was 150 miles from home).
I think Vauxhall have to investigate further, but I honestly think the problem lies with the fuel and not the engine components in my opinion?
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I have a Vauxhall Vectra 2.2 Design registered October 2007 approximately 19000 miles. Car has been garaged twice for potentially this problem. Engine cut out (includes loss of power steering)has occurred on M25, traffic lights, roundabouts and other roads leaving me absolutlely stranded. i have to wait somewhere between 3 and 45 minutes before I could restart the engine. Engine cut out does not appear to happen with a cold engine. At least I can now put the hazards lights with my eyes shut.
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Sorry this isn't not so brief, but nor is the experience I’d like to share with you!!
I am the not so proud owner of an 05 2.2 Vectra Design Direct.
My engine management light first started to flicker in November 2007 and I reported immediately to the local dealer (warranty on the vehicle ran to 31st March 2008)
The fault was diagnosed via ECU fault code P1191 - low fuel rail pressure and root caused as the High pressure fuel pump. (BTW - the Vauxhall technician told me that it would be the pump as soon as I entered the dealership and explained the symtoms and that was way back in Nov 07!!)
The pump was changed under the warranty, but did NOT cure the problem and a week later the whole injector rail was then changed, complete with fuel pressure sensor AND fuel pressure regulator valve, also the fuel tank and pipes were emptied and washed out and a new fuel filter was put in. Apparently when the fuel pump fails it sends shards or swarf through the fuel system which can cause problems elsewhere.
This appeared to fix the problem for a while…..
If we wind time forward then we get to June 2008, but in reality only 3000 miles later, the same problem happened again, this time post warranty. The HP fuel pump was replaced again (because Vauxhalls admitted that they'd had a "faulty batch")
A week or so later, same fault. This time injector rail and sensor/switch replaced again. I paid a contribution towards the cost of the work done in July 2008.
During the 1st week of October 2008 (1200'ish miles later) guess what....Engine management light and cut out again!!!
This time the fault was diagnosed as a faulty Engine management computer, which was replaced with new. I paid another contribution towards the cost of this work.
Four days later, guess what......Engine management light and cut out again!!!
This time they replaced the fuel regulator switch (again!!)
Friday 19th Dec 2008, guess what......Engine management light and cut out again!!!
The Christmas Holidays stopped further progress, but the car was delivered back to the dealership Last Tuesday Jan 6th 2009 for testing.
After the car's 7th re-visit to the dealership in just over 12 months (car unavailable for over 10 weeks from last 52) I felt the need to escalate to a higher authority. I contacted Vauxhall HQ directly
This tuesday morning(6 days after the car was taken in) the dealer’s service manager called me, after I had insisted that I got an update that day. He told me that they’d tested the car and couldn’t make it fault. I asked them when that test had taken place and was told 6 days ago!!
I insisted as far as I could that some progress should be made today, the service manager agreed and assured me that he would call me back today. He left a message at 18:05 on my mobile. The message said that he was been instructed to take a fuel sample. (Remember that I live/fuel up in Cheshire and not Essex/Beds.)
I continue to "work with" the Exec support team on this, although I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I note that a Stafford VH dealer is currently doing a buy one get one free where you get a new 1.0 Corsa when you buy a Vectra lol!!
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My 2003 Vauxhall 2.2 direct had the same problem in November. The vauxhall garage where I bought it replaced the regulator but found it made no difference. They then replaced the fuel pump (but did not put my old regualtor back even though it did not appear to be the faulty part). They said that of the many 2.2 cars they had fixed that month with the same problem, all had bought petrol from Tesco in Hutingdon. They drained all my 3/4 tank of fuel and replaced it with £20 worth. Total bill around £700 ! Now, two months later I am beginning to have the same symptoms as before, (missing, loss of power). I have kept my old pump and regulator as evidence just in case.
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Pre Xmas I had loss of power and judder on some automatic transmission changes on my 2.2i Petrol Vectra - this resulted in 2 warning lights and limp mode on several occasions -after diagnosis at local Vauxhall garage I was informed that the fuel pump was contaminated. Despite being informed that this was a 'design fault' that had been seen a number of times specifically on the 2.2 engine (but not enough to warrant a recall in Vauxhall's eyes), I had to pay £500 to fit a new fuel pump and regulator and apparently still run the risk that other parts could have been effected or indeed one could guess that the fault may occur again if the new parts carry the same problem as the old ones
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Our Vauxhall Vectra suffered the same loss of power, as described on this week's Watchdog. We were let down on the way to our daughter's Graduation ceremony. We have registered the details with Vauxhall but they say they will not entertain a claim as the garage which owned the car for 6 months before we bought it, serviced it themselves and they were not a Vauxhall Dealership - even though we have used Vauxhall for our MOTs and servicing. Typical - any excuse not to pay! We are contesting this.
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I feel lucky to have got away with not having a serious accident because of this problem. I have an old R reg Vectra which I have had about 14 months. Not long after buying the car, it developed the problem of cutting out . I had it fixed at the garage, now just two weeks ago,it went again. I was exiting the A12 at Brentwood to go onto the M25, going down the sliproad to a big roundabout, when it just cut out, no so called get you home, everything just cut out. I had to steer amongst the traffic, through about three sets of lights with no power, hoping I'd make it round safely finding somewhere to pull into. I managed to pull in at the top of the ramp where it goes back onto the A12, But was in a very dangerous position as it was teatime rush hour with lots of traffic rushing past trying to avoid my car, Luckily someone stopped further down and helped to push my car to a safer place until the breakdown service could get to me. I cannot afford to get the carfixed again yet,as I don't have the money, being a single parent trying to get my daughter through university. I'm still waiting to see if I get a ticket for going through a red light, as I coul,nt watch the lights and avoid the traffic with no power.
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My Vectra 2.2i is on 2nd fuel pump and 4th regulator. I had the car from new in March 2005 and it first went wrong in Oct 2007, both parts were replaced under warranty. It went again in April 2008,just out of car warranty, I was charged £535 pounds, I argued that the parts were only 5 months old and should be covered by a 12month parts warranty, however Vauxhall Customer Service countered that with the reasononmg that as I did not buy the parts I was not entitled to any warranty on them. (so how does this work with regards to the quality of any part a manufacturer fits under the car warranty? they may as well fit a carrot if it could pump fuel)I argued some more and managed to get a 70% refund as a gesture of good faith. The issue then arose again in June 2008, regulator was replaced after a couple of days investigation by the top mechanic of the local Vauxhall garage, they were flumaxed, not seen it before, were in contact with Vauxhall and no similar issues were known about. This time I did not have to pay anything. I think the local dealer lent on Vauxhall. It went wrong again in November 2008. This time we were travelling to Wembley Stadium for my daugthers graduation (first one ever in our family so really looking forward to a proud moment) It went again as we negotiated the North Circular, and as our Vectra does the cut out completely and start again after 40/60 seconds rather than limp home option, I had to push the car to the side of the NC to wait to get it started again.We only just made it to the ceremony! We were rather hot and bothered when we made it to the stadium! We had to abort plans to go and have a nice meal somewhere in the area, as we decided that driving in the evening rush hour traffic was going to be bad with the difficulty of driving the car when the parts have started playing up so we made our way back home to the middle of Berks (not Bedford!). It cut out 3 times on the Hanger Lane gyratory system, in the rush hour, what joy....we certainly will remember that day.
The next but one day it went into the garage for repairs, again given the story its not a known issue blah blah, they replaced the reg again, again I did not have to pay. One piece of amusement was that they took it out for a test drive to experience the failure and they did, and could not get it going again, so had to have their breakdown truck come and get them, after having to wait a while because another car they were testing had also broken down hahahaha. This really is a poor project of car production. The parts being used are not fit for purpose and IS causing much grief and inconvenience for many drivers and family's. The defects should be identified, rectified and all replaced under a recall program I feel asap and everybody who has been charged have the total amounts repaid at least and consideration given to associated costs incurred, ie the guy who had to pay for recovery as he had been recovers so many times. Shame on you Vauxhall.
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I own a 2.2 zafira (57) that broke down after just 2000 miles on the clock. the problem has just happened again and has currently been at the dealer for a week now. (after three previous visits.)
The dealer has not admitted there was a known problem even after i blamed them for the inability to correct it.
Worst thing is they have given me a corsa
as courtesy car! have you tried to get four kids with school bags in one????????
Impossible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am infuriated what was a great deal of money has been spent on something "not fit for
purpose" and I suspect it will be hard work and will take a long time to get our money back. Where do we stand on this legally??
If it was not on the ramp in bits I would be very tempted to park it in the middle of the showroom!!!!
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Interesting comments made by no 142excellentwyvern. Where do we stand with our insurances if this is the case? Doesn't bare thinking about! Incidentally after speaking to Vauxhall Customer Services last night, on the number shown on Watchdog, they inform me that the fuel pump problem has now been resolved, but there is ongoing investigations with the fuel regulator. They suggested that it could be a fuel contamination problem and to go to an althernative garage for fuel. Are other car makes and models affected then?
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Further to my two previous comments I did deal with Vauxhall and found them pretty useless. Luckily this is a Motability car and today it went off to the Vauxhall garage for one more chance (Vauxhall told Motability that they have a fix!) ....as I have lost confidence in this car Motability said that if it cannot be repaired they will cancel the contract and return the car. Perhaps its best never to buy a car and just lease it. I, of course, will still feel apprehensive even if the items are changed again.
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PLEASE HELP ME SOMEDODY.
Please help me understand what at first seems like such a simple problem but clearly isn't.
With well over 100 blogs on this forum alone and a BBC watchdog programme on the subject this is both a major and potentially dangerous and costly problem with these cars.
It is very clear to see that this problem is a build one and comes from the construction of these cars. These parts are sub-standard and not up to the job that they are supposed to do. So fixing this fault should be the sole responsibility of Vauxhall and owners should not have to pay a penny for this to be put right. Whether or not they are still under warrenty.
I am a postman and if I was to mis-deliver your mail to someone else, could I then charge you the postage again to re-deliver your mail to the correct address?
I think not, so why are owners expected to pay this cost?
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last friday my husband was driving home our vectra 2.2 when it lost all power on the M25! Very dnagerous indeed! He was rescued and took car to vauxhall next day for diagnostic only for them to say nothing wrong apart from 2 non present fault codes. Saw programme on monday at told them, they then advised us to contact their head office- needeless to say we are still waiting for a response and i'm now to nervous to drive the car!!
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Vauxhall as always have dug themselves a deep with these issues because of either indifference towards their customers or a shambolic customer service. This must be the worst time to have such a fiasco, given that the economy is weak and Vauxhall are hoping to sell the Vectra replacement - Insignia. As their head of design said 'we need to remember that we are a German car manufactorer'. Presumably, this means that within Vauxhall/Opel there is a culture of poor quality.
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Is it going to take a serious accident as other blog members have indicated
for Vauxhall to get off their behinds and sort this problem once and for all. Surely in this modern age of design and build they must emply someone who has the experience to say this is what is wrog lets find a manufacturer who can produce the correct part not like the current lego parts which they are fitting. I have only had the petrol pump replaced recently after 18,000 miles on a 2.2 direct design 56 plate.
As my business takes me to over 11 locations North, South East, West of the country throughout the year mainly by motorway routes I must admit I am just a little nervous to think I could experienec this problem at high speed not to mention thrashing down to the south of France n June. Now going to investigate with my local dealer just how much cost will Vauxhall pickup and how much longer my warrenty will cover this type of problem before it starts to cost me a lot of money. Does anyone know if the new Insignia is likly to experience this problem or are the dealers keeping quite about this too.
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Just got my Vectra back from my local dealer ina Aldershot. Both the fuel pump and the fuel regulator have been replaced 'under warranty' even though the car is some five months outside it. Well done to them.
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Further to my contacting Vauxhall they have refused to make a contribution to the £779 repair bill on the basis that the cars last service was done by an independant dealer.Any excuse to avoid helping with a known problem.
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In further reference to Vauxhall attitudes surrounding customer service, this was the reaction to an AA inspection I had done on the car:
'It is denied that AA inspectors have the same level of expertise as the defendant's own engineers, those of Vauxhall Motors Limited or any recognised independent automotive engineer.'
It just stinks
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I know of two people, one is my son who has experienced the problem. My son broke down on the M25 and was fortunate to be on a slip road, is an experienced driver and was able to manoeuvre to the hard shoulder. He was recovered to his local garage, a Vauxhall dealer, who eventually agreed to share the cost of the replacement parts. He was just out side the warranty mileage of 60000. He was the first to have contacted the helpline and on the return call the following day the caller completely refuted the problem. He was politely but firmly trying to get full recovery of his costs incurred for the failure he experienced
The other is a friend who also suffered complete engine failure whilst approaching some road works on the motorway. He was not so fortunate and was hit from the rear by a lorry and pushed into the safety area on the road works.
I too have the same car a Vectra 2.2 SRI with 40000 miles and was conscious of a flat spot when accelerating which I had intended to mention when taking the car in for its MOT . My car was due for an MOT by 16 January. I was returning from work one evening last week and had the warning light illuminate. Thinking it was a service reminder, I called the garage (the same Vauxhall dealer as my son, where both cars have been regularly serviced) and asked for advise where the information was recorded for the day of the MOT. The remedy was discussed as being a reset as the car was serviced in October last. When arriving home I checked the handbook to find the fault light was related to the Engine management. I called them again and was advised them correctly and agreed that if everything was functioning correctly, all should be OK until the MOT. Last Saturday I had just picked up my young grandson, when the light illuminated and the engine immediately cut out. Fortunately I could steer to the side of the road whilst trying to restart at the same time. I got quite concerned as I was being followed by another car who almost collided with my rear, he was not a happy person. I switched on the hazard lights and proceeded to restart the car several times without success. My grandson was also distressed. I was considering calling the breakdown service but decided to give it another go. The car started and I was able to drive home with the light illuminated.
The following morning, Sunday, the car started without any sign of the warning light and was usable.
Tuesday 13th arrived and I drove the car 13 miles to the garage for its MOT, having seen the Watchdog report the previous evening. I was within 500 metres of the garage when the light re-illuminated. After turning into the road where the garage is located I was within 100 metres of the garage when the engine failed again and I was able to manoeuvre despite loss of power steering to block the garage entrance.
The car passed its MOT and the Fuel Pump and regulator were replaced under warranty.
I did not make mention at any time of the Watchdog report to personnel at the Garage. I sensed that the garage personnel were aware of the report and this was somewhat founded when collecting the car after the MOT as the receptionist only referred to the car having passed the MOT. I had separately had to ask the results discovered following the failure of the engine when I was told the parts had been replaced under warranty.
Subsequently the car does perform significantly better with the consumption increasing from an average of 33.6 mpg to approaching 37mpg.
I have no criticism of the garage in fact I find the service second to none.
The purpose of this report is to highlight my belief that there is a problem that is related to the components in question and which has caused a safety issue to occur
I have spent over 30 year in the car industry working for a variety of component suppliers direct to the OEM’s and I am convinced they are aware of this problem. It needs resolving immediately before someone looses there life and of course it will be impossible to trace that the engine failure was the cause
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if these problems are being caused by faulty petrol the why arn't other makes of car being affected?
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I have owned a Vauxhall Vectra 2.2 built in 2004 for 3.5 years. It demonstrated the problem descibed in the program when it was very nearly three years old. I was on a roundabout and only moving slowly and although it created a difficult situation it was not dangerous, however I can image other circumstances where it would be very dangerous. The dealer firstly changed the fuel pump but then found they needed to replace the regulator. Fortunately there was one week of the car's warrantee remaining and the work was done at no charge.
I am now concerned that the problem is likely to re-occur and may occur in a much more dangerous situation and I am worried at the financial uncertainty as to responsibility for cost of repair.
Many thanks
John
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My 2004 Vectra 2.2 had this problem on 16.10.08 and I was charged £582.20 for the repair. I have emailed Vauxhall about this in view of your revelations and await a reply. I think this is quite scandalous and my wife refuses to go on motorways, now in this car. Keep pushing Vauxhall.
John Davies
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With regards to post 187 what happened re insurance claims?
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Well done Watchdog!
Thankyou for bringing this appalling problem to the attention of all Vauxhall 2.2 owners. It would take too long to explain the problems my wife and I have had over the last 18 months - July 07 to present. We have a Vectra 2.2 SRi Direct and have had the same numerous problems as many of your consumers have stated. The car is in the garage being repaired as writing this e-mail. This is the 4th visit to the garage, this time for fuel pump and fuel regulator problems. They have also in the past changed floats on exhaust pipe, which they thought was the problem huh! They also put Redex in fuel system and run engine at 7,000 rpm - that cannot be good! Also my wife broke down on the motorway (M4)on the way to work with heavy traffic on all lanes, the cars warning light (spanner light) came on and it just stopped, She could not get out of the car onto the hardshoulder as traffic was passing both sides of the car - that frightened the life out of her (thats the polite way of explaining her prediciment) she was very worried of being tail-gated by other vehicles. Thanks to the great service of the (RAC) she was towed safely off at the next junction. Have lost days off work, pay and wasted time. Have been told by the garage that it was something else wrong, knowing that they cannot fix the problem, but I must admit that they have tried their best to discover whats wrong with the car in past times. I rang Vauxhall Head Office on 15/01/09 who admitted to me that there is a serious problem with these cars. Like many others we looked forward to many hours of uninterupted driving HaHaHa! Vauxhall need to sort out this problem quickly before someone dies and stop "passing the buck" to the Dealerships, who in our case have acted to good standards in this matter. BTW.. car just 1 month out of warranty so looks like I have to cough up !! We both do not enjoy the car any longer because we know it will happen again and again until Vauxhall have the decency to own up and replace these faulty parts!
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Spoke to Vauxhall dealer in East Kent.They say they have only had 3 cases and that the first symptoms are that the car "hesitates at junctions" and that if we experience this we should get the car checked out. They also claim the problem is only in the South East? Anyone in other parts of the country able to challenge this? Our car is 3 years old with no problem so far with 17,000 miles covered.
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Just a thought. The Sale of Goods Act says that goods must be as described,of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose. After 200 blogs it must be assumed that Vauxhall are aware that something is wrong with the regulator on their 2.2 litre engine. They also say they have not been able to find out what it is and release a regulator that does not have the fault. If therefore a failed regulator is replaced by a garage with an identical regulator (and the owner is not specifically told that 2.2 l vectras should not be used in the bedford / cambrige area using Tesco petrol), is the garage not in breach of the act for knowingly supplying goods not fit for purpose?
Of course, by now the owner should also be aware that the newly fitted regulator is likely to also be faulty. How does the law stand if the purchaser agrees to the purchase an item knowing it is not fit for purpose, even though the seller still sold it without explicitly saying so?
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I would like to thank Watchdog for featuring my case on BBC 1, and for the good day I spent with the camera crew on the Top Gear Drag Race Track in Surrey on the 7th January. I have been truly shocked but some of the stories of some other people on here, and how close they have come to disaster.
The Daily Mail and their website have now also begun reporting this story and have profiled about other people not mentioned by Watchdog.
Having had a phone call from Vauxhall Head office in Luton today, I am under the impression Vauxhall are reading the comments and would urge other people to post their stories too.
Vauxhall have asked to take my car away for inspection, which they will be doing next Tuesday for a few days and I will be letting the Watchdog team have the results, but so far no refunds, but maybe worse no apology or even expression of concern. Vauxhall's actions so far, to me feel like damage limitation, rather than genuine concern or a genuine wish to investigate my case. Considering the dire state of the car market at the moment I do feel for the Vauxhall workers and worry about endangering their jobs any more than is already the case, and this weighed very much on my mind as I helped the BBC to film this problem, so a swift and fair resolution would be best for all.
I also understand that Vauxhall do not manufacture the faulty parts, a different supplier does, so why does Vauxhall not come clear on this, as it would be fairer to the Vauxhall workers and Vauxhall car owners to put the blame where it lies.
While spending hundreds of pounds on sorting out this problem is not very fair, my concern has always been the danger this fault can put other people in, and trying to stop someone from being seriously hurt. I want to feel safe while driving a my car, and unless Vauxhall can provide that reassurance my car may soon not be, and is never likely to ever be again a Vauxhall.
In my case I never lost control of the car, it never completely stopped, but I was driving in the outside lane of the M40, up hill, over taking a lorry. The person behind me, was doing at least 90mph, and when I started to slow, reacted by flashing his lights and driving up my backside, rather than slowing. The lorries I were overtaking, were left hand drive, so they did not immediately see the problems I was in. So while Vauxhall may imply limp home mode is safe, in real life you have to deal with the actions of other drivers who may not be so visually aware or respectful of other road users, and that is the cause of real danger to Vauxhall drivers.
So why did I think to contact Watchdog? I would have never known this was a common problem if Vauxhall had not run out of parts in October 2008; my garage had cars that had been waiting for 4 weeks for the parts when mine broke down. You only have to put "vectra fuel failure fuel pump" into an internet search engine, to find pages of comments on the Vectra-c.com website about fuel pump failures that go as far back as 2007, so its not a new problem. Thus any suggestion that its a recent fuel problem is questionable. In the age of the internet, when it is so easy to do research, it is my personal belief that Vauxhall must have been aware of this problem since 2007 or before. Vauxhall also manage the parts for dealers, so regardless of what they suggest must have exact figures of the number of vehicles affected. Running out of parts must only highlight the scale of the problem.
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My 54 plate Vectra has cost me thousands of pounds in lost earnings AND I have had to buy another car.
It now sits on my drive because no-one will buy it.
My local dealer tells me that the computer say's there is nothing wrong with it, and when I ask him why it wont go he shrugs his shoulders.
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To the writer of post 180, I have had my car regularly serviced by a non-Vauxhall dealer and have had multiple paid-by-Vauxhall repairs for both the fuel pump and regulator both during my warranty period and outside it, the last repair of this nature was more than 2 years after my warranty period ended. I have had continued trouble since September 2005 until now, with a further dealer book-in in a week or so. Same fault, P1191 low fuel pressure.
The EU passed the Block Exemption Regulations in 2002. They state that a manufacturer may not discriminate against a vehicle that has been serviced according to the manufacturer's recommendations using parts and materials of the correct standard and construction. There is more detail at the Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform web site, that's the new name for what used to be the government's Department of Trade and Industry.
I have shown evidence of the servicing carried out on my Signum and there has been no comment about it.
I did find that on a number of occasions I have had to argue quite forcefully, while remaining corteous and polite, to get my point across to Vauxhall.
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I BOUGHT A 2003 MODEL VAUXHALL VECTRA ELEGANCE 2.2 DTI IN JULY 2008 IT HAD ONLY 64000 MILES ON IT. THE FIRST WEEKS WERE FINE UNTIL I WAS OUT FOR A DRIVE ONE DAY OVER A HUNDRED MILES FROM HOME WHEN I OVERTOOK A CAR ON A STRAIGHT ROAD AS SOON AS I REACHED LEVEL WITH THIS CAR MY POWER WENT AND THAT DREADED LIGHT CAME ON (THE FIRST TIME ON ME)I HAD TO PULL BACK IN BEHIND THIS CAR AS I WAS SHAKING WITH SHOCK, I DIDNT KNOW THEN WHAT WAS HAPPENING. LUCKILY WHEN I RESTARTED THE CAR IT WORKED FINE BUT, AS U CAN GUESS IT HAS BEEN AN ONGOING PROBLEM. I TOOK IT TO A GARAGE WHO TOLD ME THE PROBLEM WAS PRESSURE REGULATOR I BOUGHT NEW ONE, BUT THE MAN IN THE VAUXHALL GARAGE TOLD ME THAT THERE UP TO 5 PARTS WHICH THE PROBLEM COULD BE COMING FROM AS THEY ALL WORKED TOGETHER. THIS WAS A SHOCK AS HE ALSO TOLD ME THEY CANNOT TELL WHICH ONE IT WAS AT ALL, ONLY BY REPLACING THEM ALL COULD THE PROBLEM BE FULLY SORTED. THIS IS A DISGRACE, ALL VAUXHALL SHOULD BE RECALLED AND SORTED OUT AS THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS PROBLEM, I,M STILL HAVING THIS PROBLEM IT HAS HAPPENED TO ME NOW 5 TIMES AND TWICE IN ONE DAY, THE LAST TIME WAS THE 15 JAN WHEN I WAS JUST OF THE SLIPWAY ON THE MOTORWAY A CAR IN FRONT WAS PROGRESSING VERY SLOWLY IN FRONT I OVERTOOK AND AS I WAS PULLING UP ALONG SIDE THE CAR IT HAPPENED AGAIN ONLY THIS TIME THERE WAS LORRY COMING UP BEHIND ME AND I HAD TO BREAK HARD PULL BACK INTO THE OTHER LANE BEHIND THE OTHER CAR (DRIVER NOT AMUSED)AND UNTO THE HARD SHOULDER,THIS I CAN TELL U IS SCARY, NOW I,M AFRAID TO GO FAR AND HAVE STOPPED OVERTAKING, NO MORE NOT UNTIL THIS PROBLEM HAS BEEN SORTED BY VAUXHALL, THE WORST ABOUT THIS IS I LOVE MY CAR, BUT IT,S GOING TO KILL SOMEONE BEFORE THEY TAKE THIS PROBLEM SERIOUSLY.
I ONLY HAVE MY CAR 6 MONTHS,
THANKS FOR LETTING ME GET MY CHANCE TO SPEAK UP ABOUT THIS PROBLEM.
COME ON VAUXHALL.
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I have vauxhall vectra 2.2 2005 direct design.
on sunday 11th Jan 09 my car started to feel very sluggish and when slowing down at turnings the car would lose power and stop but I dont recall seeing any warning light. That evening I was picking up my wife from work and it was becoming worse I could just about get home it just had no power, the following morning the car would not start, so I got the local garage to have a look, they replaced the fuel regulator, fuel sensors and spark plugs they also checked all known possibilitys of exhaust blockege ect,but that did not cure the problem the next step was the pump but the mechanic suggested we put the car into a vauxhall garage before we have the expence of a new pump, value £350, vauxhall did a diagnostic and found no error codes but did find a loss of pressure stating it is compression which points to a manufacture problem so the car is booked in to vauxhall again on friday, in the meantime I have been in discussions with vauxhall headoffice and have been given a case number, but i need a full report, once I have that then I will need to re-contact Vauxhall head office, where they will decide whether to take responsibility or only pay part or no money. I will be fighting for full compensation as I believe this is vauxhall's problem as the car is 5 months out of warrenty and only has 36000 miles. I will post again once I know the outcome. It is terrible trying to get in touch with the correct personel as usual I got past from pillar to post. I cannot understand why Vauxhall do not do the right thing and recall, so as to avoid the loss of reputation, and possible closure of some of their companies where the public will refuse to purchase vehicles in the future, leading to them having cars left on their fore-courts un-sellable.
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With reference to thread 142 where this person implies that everyone driving a 2.2 knowing of this fault could be prosecuted for dangerous driving, I believe they are incorrect. The highway code (and insurance companies) will find the person BEHIND liable for any accident ie. undue care and attention. It is your responsibility to keep a safe distance from the car in front, allowing you time to stop in an emergency. People cannot afford to dump 6 to 12000 pounds worth of motor just because a company decides to ignore a severely dangerous problem with their products, and no-one can afford to sit at home and lose their job because of it. If it were defective brakes then I would agree with this person.
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I have been having problems with my signum since I bought it in 2004.
In November 2005 the warning light kept coming on and I took it to the vauxhall dealer who could not find a fault. It went back in again a month later because the fault continued still they could find no fault. In november 2007 the car stopped for no reason with no acceleration and I limped it to the same garage. They fitted a new fuel pump. I collected the car and a few yards down the road the car packed up again it went back to the garage where they kept it for 3 weeks. Further work was done. This bill of £1,284 was met by Network Q as I had paid for extra warranty. In November 2008 the car broke down again. this time a fuel regulator and ANOTHER FUEL PUMP was put in. This bill of £780 had to met by me as the guarantee had run out. I have been in touch with Vauxhall who have been no help whatsoever. This problem needs to be sorted with some sort of compensation. Who is now going to buy my car?
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This happened to me in 2006 (Vectra 2.2) however the fault went away by itself. On Friday (16th Jan) as I was driving around a mini roundabout the warning light came on and the power was reduced. Fortunately the car behind wasn't too close but it left me feeling pretty nervous. As I was near the garage I limped over there but they were too busy to look at the fault. It is booked in for service tomorrow and I will be interested to see what they say. It was only when I read the Daily Mail on Saturday that I realised I was not alone!!
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My Signum 2.2 is currently in a Vauxhall dealership in Buckinghamshire, to remedy this fuel pump and regulator problem FOR THE SECOND TIME in 3 months, the first time I was without my car for 7 weeks, this time it looks as if it will take 2 weeks to repair.
The comment that 'fuel contamination' in the Bedfordshire area is questionable as I live and 95% of my fuel in Oxfordshire?
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I own a 2004 Vauxall Vectra 2.2 Direct. I bought it in August 2005, 1 previous owner, with 13,000 miles on the clock.
On 7 July 2006, with 21,016 miles on the clock, the spanner symbol came on. I managed to get it to my local Vauxall Garage in 'limp mode', who replaced the high pressure fuel pump free of charge, as it was still under warranty.
On 22 February 2008, having only done 37,000 miles, the spanner symbol came on again, and I had to have the high pressure fuel pump replaced again. The car was 3 months out of warranty, and the part was also out of its 12 month warranty period. However, after complaining, because the car had only done 16,000 miles since the part had been replaced, Vauxall agreed to pay 90% of the repair cost. Hopefully they have fitted the modified part, but I will be ringing the garage to check.
With a relatively new Vectra, I thought that I would not have any systemic part problems, such as I had experienced with the infamous Air Idle Contro Unit on the old Vectra. How wrong i was.
By the way, I have recently had to have the stearing gear and rack replaced at 43,000 miles. Has anyone else had this problem?
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I have just changed my old Vectra 2.2 because this fault happened to me three times, twice the car cut out completely, once at a very busy junction.
My new car, another 2.2 which I have had since the 20th December, did exactly the same yesterday.
I have emailed Vauxhall so watch this space
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I didn't see your program but had booked my 2.2i Vectra into my local dealership for last Wednesday. I bought my 2004 Vectra 2.2 Design in Aug 07 and all was fine until April 08, when the EML persistently came on and the car started going into limp home mode, then progressed to failing completely. My dealer changed the inlet manifold and fuel pump, charging GBP 1,100. In August 08 the same fault developed and the dealer changed the fuel pump , without charge, and the fuel regulator for circa GBP 60. Within a month the same fault was back , and my partner refused to drive the car any more on safety and convenience grounds - she wasn't prepared to get stranded taking our small son to school again. My dealer tells me to contact Vauxhall customer care, who leave me on hold for 25 minutes then cut me off. When I call back , I speak to a different person, who says the person I first spoke to will call me back. That was three days ago and I have heard nothing. At the weekend I went to retrieve some belongings from my Vectra at the dealer, in NE Surrey: I counted five 2.2 petrols in their car park, and the service department told me 4 others had been taken back by their owners without being fixed, frustrated at the lack of any progress. My car is undriveable, as soon as it warms up at all the EML comes on and it cuts out. The most it can manage is a couple of miles on a cold day. It seems this problem has been around for more than a year, and Vauxhall have simply been changing randon bits on people's cars, charging random amounts. They should recall all 2.2i Vectras, redesign the fuel pump and fuel regulator so they work, and replace these parts for free. A courtesy car in the meantime would be nice - I'm sure they have plenty of unsold Vectras sitting around that they could use now that it has been replaced by the Insignia.
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Watchdog producers please,please, please get in touch with a guy on the net who calls himself 'the greasemonkey' as I believe he has the answer. It's actually a EOG valve fault that's a more likely culprit .....as Vauxhall should be admitting but won't as they are going to get hit with a big mamma of a class action. This bit of kit recycles gases as the car heats up. I wonder how many of the people on this blog have had the limp home experience after the car reaches a certain temperature? As the part clogs up it gets less predictable - sometimes happening even when you start up. Te only way to deal with the issue is to hit the revs before changing up - i.e. change your usually considerate driving habits and get the revs up above 3000 - 30mph in 3rd. Oh and change to using proper diesel from a certain service station I won't mention as it's the BBC but they have green and gold colours. And a big hi fellow vauxhall sufferers! You know we all should have listened to Clarkson who has declared holy way against the Vectra describing it, if memory serves me correct as 'a rash that keeps getting worse' or words to that effect. Guess we were all taken in my the trim which is lovely - something to admire as we limp home I guess. Anyway I'm trading in my car for something else but I thought I would share some intel that I'm surprised has not made it onto this blog.
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We have indeed been contacted by Vauxhall as indicated in tonights programme. After 20 days in the garage they will be replacing the regulator for the 3rd time. We did ask the Dealership to make us an offer on our 2005 Vectra (with only 30,000) miles on the clock but they declined even to look at it when we said we were not interested in another Vauxhall. Any offers? All considered.
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im not beeing nasty but how hard is it to put ure foot on the clutch and roll to the side ov the road
and its not only vauxhalls it happens to me in my vauxhall asta van and in a ford fiesta so its not only vauxhalls CARS BREAK its life
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Went to pick up my newly purchased 2.2 Zafira (55 plate) on friday after driving nearly 200 miles to get it. (Norwich to Manchester)
Less than 1 mile along the motorway it the EML came on and lost all power.
Managed to limp back to the dealer who ended up having to take it into Vauxhall as their service dept couldn't sort it, and I ended up having to drive 200 miles back in my old car!
I'm meant to be going back at the weekend to pick it up again - but I'm not so sure now, might tell them I don't want it at all and go for a 2.0T instead..
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I also have a vectra 2.2 (SRi XP)registered in Nov 06. About 9 months ago, it lost power whenever I put my foot down and sometimes completely stopped - once on a busy dual carriageway. I took it to the dealer in Wellingborough and after a couple of failures to find the fault they sorted it with replacement parts. If its now a know fault i hope Vauxhall will recall the car and install the latest rectified parts to avoid potentially dangerous situations again.
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After breaking down just before Christmas, 5 minutes before we were to join the motorway, we had to have the fuel pump and regulator replaced at a cost of over £540. We were towed home by the AA.
The car, a 2005 Zafira, was within the 3 year warranty but was 2000 miles over the 60,000 mileage warranty.
We were given 20% off the cost of repair, which we were led to believe was a goodwill gesture as the car was just outside its warranty, but the local garage failed to mention the real reason that this was a common problem with this type of vehicle.
We then went to France for the New Year and a similar fault appeared soon after we arrived at our destination.
The local Opal garage could not or would not attempt to rectify the problem and the car was finally returned to the UK last week. We returned earlier under our 5*AA European cover insurance - they were extremely efficient, thank goodness.
However, we are now waiting to see what the garage /Vauxhall have to say about this and what they intend to charge this time!
How many times will the AA be willing to cover our breakdowns? Are we really safe using this car?
Now they know the extent of the problem, how do the decision-makers at Vauxhall sleep at night when so many people are risking their lives?
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I own one of these vectra`s and fortunatly i have had no problems. I have been in touch with vauxhall to get more information, but they have not yet replied. I am so concerned that i felt it neccassary to join a recovery service.
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We have a Vauxhall Zafira (55 reg) 2.2 Petrol engine and its currently in the Vauxhall garage as it has done, at least 6 times, exactly as stated on previous posts : i.e. warning lights have come on, then the engine just dies. The last time was on a busy roundabout - very scary situation to be in.
I hope Vauxhall get this fault sorted and really dont think it should be up to the customers to be paying anything for it to be fixed, as it is a manufacturing fault.
We had to take finance out to cover the cost of purchasing the car 18 months ago, and now we haven't got a car to drive but still have to pay the monthly repayments!
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My parents 2006 Zafira 2.2 litre has had this problem too. The car started stalling on them with the dashboard light switching on. They then lost power close to home (thankfully) and managed to crawl back. The car then wouldn't start.
The RAC man, who said he'd seen a lot of this, towed the car to the dealership (Maidstone, Kent) who kept the car for about a week while they replaced a part.
As my father is disabled they obtained the car through the excellent Motability scheme and they were brilliant in sorting out a suitable hire car for my father to attend hospital appointments etc.
The car has done less than 6,000 miles so maybe my parents have been lucky with it only occuring once. They had planned on keeping it for another three years but now want to exchange it as they no longer feel safe while out and about in it.
If losing power on a motorway isn't a safety issue then I don't know what is?!
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I will never ever buy a vauxhall again.The dealership were quite happy to take my money, but were not happy to fix my car when it lost power on the motorway. Despite an incredible SIX different occasions, the problem was never fixed and when the warranty ran out, well that was the end of the matter for them!! In the end, they blamed me for not putting oil in the engine!!!Being an ex Royal Engineer, this is always the first things I check, if there is anything wrong with an engine.The watchdog programme was on last week, but my problem happened * years ago, so it is not a new thing to them. I am surprised that it is still happening with this manufacturer
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Sadly this is nothing new for Vauxhall. I had a 2001 "Y" reg Vectra 2.2 petrol and the engine failed. After it cost me £1.5k to fix a friend surfing the web found out there was a known fault with the drive chain. Vauxhall had known about this for years but although they could write to me with special offers and test drives they apparently couldn't be bothered to let me know the engine was likely to fail completely. When contacted they weren't interested as the last service was at an independant garage, they didn't care that their dealers had serviced the car after the fault was known about. No prizes for guessing where my next car DIDN'T come from !
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We have a 2004 2l Vauxhall Vectra TDI and we have also experienced the exact same problem a number of times.
This problem has occured when we have been travelling at speed on a motorway and suddenly lost power; we managed to get the car to the hard shoulder, turn the engine off, wait for a few minutes and when the car restarted we luckily had full power back. Previous to this problem we had the ECU checked and they found six faults on it which were cleared. However the problem still persists though not as bad.
My hubby was thinking of having the ECU replaced though having seen these various comments it looks like this would not solve the problem.
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Our Zafira 2.2 Design is only 2 1/2 years old, is still under warranty and has now had 7 replacement fuel pumps and regulators, along with 4 replacement ECUs and other smaller items. After much complaining, Vauxhall have now had it at their Luton test centre for over a month and are apparently stripping out the whole fuel system prior to thorough testing. We await the verdict. Notly surprisingly, we will be changing our car before the warranty expires in June 09 - but not having budgetted for this expense so soon, our family will be missing out on things like holidays. Meanwhile, our dealership could not have been more helpful - courtesy car replaced with Zafira 1.8 hire car until our car is returned. Shame it will be returned to us at all - we too have lost all confidence in its safety (having had complete cut out in middle lane of M25 on a busy Saturday in August, with all 3 children in car - very scary!!!) - but Vauxhall have flatly refused our request to replace it.
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My (05) Vectra 2.2Direct broke down at the weekend with a fuel pump problem.
I only have a dealership warranty with the car but they are not going to pay for the parts as Vauxhall have in effect admitted liability due to the design fault.
Am now emailing Vauxhall customer services to get a clear idea of who is paying for what and more importantly when I can have the car back, repaired and at no cost to me.
I was none too impressed this morning waiting for my bus in the pouring rain on a dark, cold and windy January Monday morning. By the way I would normally be driving to work.
Ofcourse the more mornings I have to do this (until my car is repaired, returned and at no cost to me) the more lasting this memory will be.
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I have a 54 plate Vectra and have just suffered the same problem unfortunately before i saw the watchdog item. I do a lot of european driving and was glad this only happened whilst travelling locally and on a minor road but i have a young family and am greatly concerned that this could happen with them in the car travelling on the motorway. Vauxhall should step up to the mark and act as a responsible car manufacturer and recall these vehicles and fix the problem!
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My 2.2 Zafira has had the fuel regulator replaced twice in the last 4 months after experiencing the problems described on the program 12/01. The first time the car ran in limp mode but the second time it just cut out and wouldn't run for more than a few seconds.
I thought I'd just been unlucky but to hear so many people having similar problems leaves me very worried and I await the next breakdown.
The update on yesterdays program left me somewhat dismayed.
I had hoped with watchdogs involvement that Vauxhall would be forced to take this seriously, instigate a recall and fit modified parts at their expense to fix these issues once and for all.
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Why are you giving time to this. It is not a car safety issue. Driver competance is the issue. The person in charge of the car should be able to control it under power loss conditions. Power loss can happen for numerous reasons to any car.
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To stevedavis147, you are not alone with all the other problems affecting your vauxhall. As well as the fuel problems, the signum/vectra range have plenty of other common faults on other forums which unfortunately I only found out about after purchasing my signum 2.2 direct. I have had to replace steering rack track rods and rear shock absorbers at 30,000 miles, and both front suspension springs broke at 40,000 miles. None of these items would be a problem on any other make of car until at least 60 - 80,000 miles. Please do a search on the internet and you will see just how sub-standard the whole build is, and not fit for purpose when considering the cost.
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the vauxhall problem does not only apply to vectras.
i have had a similar problem with my past 2 zafira's.the egr valve has
seazed open, once on a v reg, and twice in 18mths
on my 02 plate club.the mechanic who has fixed it on each occasion also had another in to be fixed with the same fault and advised that this fault is so common, an attatchent has been produced to completely seal off where the valve should be,but with emitions then being altered,he doesnt know how ths will affect mot tests.With this fault,it is like driving a time bomb-not able to relax while driving as the car will stall,mainly after driving on the motorway or at speed, once you try to slow down,the valve is stuck in the open position and floods the engine with exhaust fumes wihich stalls it.th last time this happend.i was stuck at the side of the motoway at the end of October in freezing temperatures with 3 children and parents who are pensioners.the fist time this happened,vauxhall told me to contact out local dealers but the refused to help as they said it was not a fault and that we must have damaged the valve!!!- i have absolutley no confidence in my car and hate driving it but with 3 children, we thought this would be a reliable and safe way to travel. IT IS NOT and to make matters worse, the garage adv that it will probably go again within the nwxt 18months.please please investigate this for me. i know i am not the only one that this has happened to. please help
thankyou in advance
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We are yet another Vectra 2.2 owner ripped off by vauxhall replacing fuel pumps and regulators also an ecu unit costingg 900 pounds and more can anybody tell us how to get some of this money back and sort out our car which cost 10,000 pounds and are now told is only worth 1200 pounds before we new it had a problem is ther any legal avenue we can take to resolve this problem
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davelee212 must not ever had this problem!i myself am a "proffesional driver for a living"and i found it daunting losing power on outside lane of the motorway with my vectra 2.0dti 04 in rush hour traffic. vauxhall should program the car to give a 2 minute warning when it is going into limp home mode for everyones safety!!
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My Apr 04 vectra 2.2 with 55000 on the clock had the fuel pump replaced last june at the cost of £609, at a dealer. having watch the program and read the mails report, I made contact with vauxhall via E mail and was told as out of warranty they were unable to assist. I replied to them the comments quoted on watchdog and written in the Daily Mail where vauxhall have stated "'We have a threey-ear 60,000-mile warranty on all new vehicles and beyond that we will look at each individual case and will make a contribution to any costs based on that." come on Vauxhall practice what you preach!I think that all customers want help the the costs of repair to vehicles over 3 years old.
there should be a body like the CAA for aircraft who can demand that these parts are exchanged. If the 2.2 vectra was an aircraft it would have been grounded years ago
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Like so many others I have a 2.2 direct Vectra on an 05 plate. I bought the car at 18 months old with 18,000 miles within 2 weeks guess what? It broke down on the way back from Scotland fix was regulator and fuel pump. The next instance was at approx. 30,000 miles regular was replaced curtesy of the AA. About a month later broke down again, this time the car was in Vauxhall main dealer for 6 weeks, no curtesy car. I was originally told the car required fuel pump and regulator. The delay was because of lack of supply of fuel pumps. However, the car was returned having had the ECU, spark plugs and regular changed (were they clutching at straws?) They charged me for parts on this, £436.65. Guess what? 3,000 miles later it broke down needing a new regulator. At this point I told the dealer I could no longer afford to keep this car as it is a working vehicle and it was losing me too much money when it broke down so often. At first the dealership seemed sympathetic and said they would part exchange against another car at cost. However they claim they have to buy from vauxhall Network Q at a price greater than the book retail value. Does this just add insult to injury when the original car was supplied with manufacturing faults in the first place
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I am a working mother of two young children and I am a disabled wheelchair user. I have a Motability car (Zafira automatic 2.2)which is around 18 months old. I beleive it is now on it's 5th fuel pump and 2nd regulator. Every time it fails I am really stuck as I use hand controls and it takes quite a while to actually get an adapted hire car. I am scared that it may happen one day when I've forgotten my mobile phone!
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I have a vectra 2.2 sri 54 plate 25k. I had these problems and have just had my car towed away to be fixed. luckily I had been told about this problem so I could let the RAC know what to look for and sure enough thats what it is. I got onto Vauxhall to see what they were doing / would do to help. Guess what because it is 4yrs old they are not interested and point blank refuse to contribute anything towards the repair of what are defective parts. They even admitted on the phone that the fuel regulator being fitted now still had problems! My advice to anyone thinking of buying a new car do not choose Vauxhall and I seriously hope the USA government do not bail this company out of its financial crisis and they go to the wall. It is the my 5th and last Vauxhall I ever buy.
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Me again, I have spoken to a Trading standards officer now in my county and he is getting in touch with the one which covers Luton where Vauxhall are located. I await feedback.
In the meantime, had a letter recently from the dealership where I get my Vectra Serviced and repaired wnating to sell me something new. So we went along last night, I said I was interested inthe Insignia, so had a teat ride, Salesguy looked over the Vectra SRi 2.2i and offered me £3250 as part of any deal we did. This is for a car I have had from new in 2005 it had an original list price of £18000 so has cost me £14750 for 46 months of troubled motoring. I asked him why it was so low and he replied that it was related to the trade price and the call for these cars and as there was not much call for them because the engines were known to be unreliable !!! So Vauxhall sell you a product not fit for purpose nor value for money and then use the fact it is known to be unreliable to not offer a decent part exchange value. To add insult to injury, the Vectra did the business on us onthe way home, cut out completely on a roundabout, warning light on, engine and steering gone in 2 seconds, so with no inertia to get me to a safe position out of the way on the roundabout, I was at the perils of the other motorists and their ability to react to my position and hazard warning lights. I thought I coped with the hazard as well as anyone could Mr lordlairdie, however some of the other idiots nearly didnt, and seemed to think I had stopped for a picnic, going by with near misses and blasts on their horns. What else could I have done Mr lordlairdie, picked the car up and moved it out of the way? Have you tried pushing one of these, even the steering is heavy with no power. If you should ever get caught behind one of these Vectra's when it pulls the fault, I hope you can cope.
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My local trading standards office has only had my complaint registered with them.Although sympathetic I get the feeling that this is not enough for them to get seriously involved. Could I suggest everyone affected discusses with their local trading standards office?
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After writing to Vauxhall requesting a refund of the charge of nearly £600 for replacement of their faulty parts, I have a flat refusal as I am out of warranty. They also denied any safety issue and will not replace, gratis, the faulty regulator if and when it is modified.
An earlier post was disappointed not to see more about this matter on the last programme, and I would like to add my concurrence with this. I hope it will not be quietly forgotten about as this is a very serious problem and a general recall must be forthcoming as soon as the problem parts are modified. Warranties are for non-vital components NOT where there are safety considerations. I consider my car not roadworthy, but because I cannot afford to buy another car as well as my existing one, there is no option but to continue using it with considerable trepidation.
Please, please, do not let Vauxhall get away with this scandal.
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mY SON IS IN THE raf AND HAS ASKED ME TO HELP HIM WITH EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM AS ALL YOU OTHER CORRESPONDENTS. HE'S HAD 3 BREAKDOWNS IN 4 WEEKS, THE RAC LAST TIME TOOK HIM TO A BOSCH DEALER WHO REPLACED SOME PARTS. ITS NOW IN A VAUXHALL DEALERSHIP WHO WANT £1440 TO REPAIR THE PROBLEM. I'VE CONTACTED THE VAUXHALL "help" LINE WHO CAN'T, BECAUSE OF THE DATA PROTECTION ACT. IS THERE ANYONE WHO COULD ADVISE ON A POSSIBLE AVENUE TO PURSUE. I CAN'T AFFORD TO PAY FOR THIS AND DON'T SEE WHY MY SON SHOULD EITHER !!
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i own a vauxhall zafira registered on 16/01/03. on april 2006 my engine warning light came on and i took it to vauxhall which they said was sticking pissens then 6 months later the light came on again they then said it was head gasket they light came on again they said i wasnt driving it enough as there are only 38,000 miles on her. the light came on againin dec 08 so took it back to garage which they said it was coil pack and spark plugs so they put spark plugs in and i drove out of garage and engine light came back on so took it back and they temporary put coil pack on and took it a drive which light stayed on they are now saying it is sticking pissens again so i took it to another garage and explained to them what i have donesince 2006 he had car and did various tests that showed to do with fuel but im only getting 7-800 miles and light coming on vauxhall turns light off and gives car back. ive paid about £1500 to fix car over 2 year period and still got the same problems. if anyone has any suggestions i would appreciate hearing them.
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My vauxhall vectra also has this fault and spanners(limp home mode) at least once a week. I have spent hundreds replacing different parts on the car to no avail. every time i contacted vauxhall about it they came up with a different excuse i:e it must be the way you are driving or you put dodgy fuel in it. One decent salesman said "oh its a common fault and we have just got the upgrade for the ecu, I'll get them to do it for you" guess what it didn't fix it. I would love to change my car but as it is on finance i can't. With the handbrake fault which mine also suffered from and this, as soon as i can get rid of the car, i will. And i will never buy a vauxhall again.
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well what can i say!
150109 car came to a sudden stop in heavy traffic off the M1 slip road into Luton. Sat for a few minutes after being pushed off the road onto the hard shoulder.The car started but then conked out a few hundred yards up the road.3 times it done it all in a space of 5 minutes. Called out the AA who escorted me to the main dealer here in Milton Keynes. The AA had diagnosed it was the O2 sensor. The car had been displaying the engine warning light,but the car had appeared to run ok. A few weeks before that the spanner sign had appeared (we thought it was the service light) and had the car serviced. which solved that problem.(so we thought).
It must have been 4 weeks later that the engine light reappeared, the car still seemed to run ok, we had it checked out anyway, to be told it was the O2 sensor, and that it needed replacing, at a cost of £260.
Since the breakdown last Thursday and the car being at Vauxhall, we were told the car had, had the 02 sensor replaced and the car had been extensively road tested, we picked the car up 210109, drove it for less than 5 miles only for the spanner light to reappear and the car coming to a complete stop.AA recalled and now the car sits out side Vauxhall after only just leaving the workshop less than an hour of them giving the car the OK.
I am far from happy after spending out £260 for a fault that isnt the fault. Im looking forward to hearing tomorrow to what Vauxhall have to say.
Yours Mr frustrated
(putting it bluntly.....)
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Vauxhall Customer Service have replied to my second mail with unctuous regrets but no offer of compensation. They claim they are assessing all cases against the age, mileage and service record of each vehicle. My 54 registered Vectra has done 75,000 miles and has been serviced by a Vauxhall dealer according to the book.
I post this as information so other victims can gauge the consistency of Vauxhall's response. However I believe that this is not a matter of contract - sellers often use warranties to reduce the buyer's common law rights - but one of the tort of negligence. Vauxhall owed a duty of care to all of us at least to inform us of the potential problem and probably to recall cars for rectification. This would have come into existence as soon as they were aware of the situation with fuel pumps and regulators - probably before February 2008 when they changed the design of the pump. This would of course have brought many more people within the warranty period.
I brought this up with Vauxhall, but they chose to ignore it. It may be time to bring a test case.
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We had a Zafira 2.2 06 that continually lost power. We suffered for 7 months of constant breakdowns. The engine light would come and and the power would cut out instantly. I did not have the luxury of a gradual slow down that the report talks about. I have two children and was contantly losing power on motorways, in town traffic. It was very dangerous. It went to the dealership multiple times had 5 fuel pumps and many other things done none of which worked. Eventually the Service Manager took it home for a weekend and we guess he experienced the problem first hand as he rang me on the monday and said he would not be giving the car back. Vauxhall would do an exchange for a like for like price replacement. He said the car wasnt safe to drive. They gave me a rental car while the deal was hashed out. We refused another Zafira and got an Astra to the same value. From what I have read and heard we were one of the lucky ones. We had the support of a great garage. All I can say is persevere with Vauxhall. We complained through the garage and through head office and we just keep going until they sorted it out. I am guessing they could not sort my old car out as according to DVLA it is unlicensed?!
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Vauxhall Customer Service have just called me to say regrets but no offer of compensation. They claim they are assessing all cases against the age, mileage and service record of each vehicle. My 54 registered Vectra has done 65,000 miles and has been serviced by a Vauxhall dealer according to the service Manual.
I first experience the loss of power on the overtaking lane on the M1, it was to say the least very unnerving.
The Vauxhall garage at Heathrow (now calling itself “NOW” Vauxhall) took it in and spent 2 weeks changing the auto transmission under warranty (so they say).
When the issue raised its head again I took it back to the same garage (because they fixed the issue before) and asked them to service the car and fix the issue.
They charged me £600.00 for the so called service and fix.
The next day I was driving on the M3 and again the car slowed to a stop I called the RAC and they towed me back to the NOW Vauxhall garage at Heathrow.
The next day they asked me to come and collect it saying they defiantly fixed the issue this time and changed me a further £600.00 for the privilege. Obviously I protested but they seem uninterested and took my money with what I felt was a smile on their faces. I reported the issue to Vauxhall customer services last June 08 they took my details and nothing else was said/done.
This issue is defiantly a safety issue and all cars with the issue should have been recalled and fix as a matter of safety!!
I like other’s are posting this as information so other victims can gauge the consistency of Vauxhall's response.
I would be very wary of using NOW Vauxhall Heathrow (I will never go there again) and my next choice of car will not be a Vauxhall, which is a shame because it was my 4th.
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165.suebrinton
I.m not sure, but one possible cause of the car cutting out (and there could be several)could be due to the AIC, or Air Idle Control Unit. You may want to investigate this. I am not a mechanic, but had a problem with a previous car I owned - an N Reg Vectra. It cut out a couple of times, and then the rev counter would start to flicker, gradually getting worse over time. Eventually, I had to get the air idle control unit replaced - at that time £250. They fitted a filter (a firebox onto the front of the engine - a black box the size of a lunchbox)to try and ameloirate the problem, but it does come back. This is because the gases from the engine are reburnt back through the engine, and this clogs up the AIC unit. It's sealed, of course, so you have to replace it. To help put off the problem, I put Vauxall fuel line cleaner in, which did help. Cost at that time was £18 a can, and I was told to put some in through the fuel tank about every 3 months, depending on mileage. However, the part is going to fail again if that is the problem, and as they no longer make that type of car, they will not of course spend time and money trying to get a fix for it.
I hope it is not the AIC, but if it is, the inevitable will happen after a period of time. Hope this helps. I would certainly ask your garage if your car is fitted with an AIC.
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I have an 06 plate Zafira that has suffered this loss off power twice now, on both occations the main dealer in my area has fixed the problem insisting it was a fault wit the EDF valve. On the first occation they had the car for nearly two weeks, and i was told at that point that they would have to write some new software to cure the problem fully, that was two years ago.
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I had to reject my car because of the problem and many more. I now drive a nine year old Skoda Octavia, which despite its age has never let me down. When I get my money back, I will buy a brand new Skoda.My family have bought Vauxhall's since the 1950's without major problems.
Unfortunately, the dealer who previously dealt with concerns fairly,has let customer service slip.The staff had become unhelpful and the comments were , 'they are all like this' and 'Vauxhall won't pay for that'. I feel sorry for the dealers who must feel up against the ropes and in this economic climate-very uneasy
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I posted the other day concerning my parents Zafira 2.2 Automatic having this problem last October.
Unbelievably it happened again on Saturday and has just come back from the dealership who replaced the fuel regulator. The usual - orange light on dashboard came on, thankfully they made it home, the car then wouldn't start - or would start for about 2 seconds then cut out.
Their Motability contract runs out in a couple of months on the current Zafira and having lost all faith, we're all in agreement that they won't be going back to Vauxhall for their next car.
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Well, seven days after this watchdog piece was shown my vectra (2.2 Direct '04) has entered into 'Limp Mode'. Got caught in the fast lane at a set of dual carriageway lights - without anywhere to pull over on an uphill stretch for about 1.5 miles. Anybody claiming this isn't a safety issue isn't been entirely fair - I'm certainly not a fearful driver, but during early morning rush hour traffic on a motorway this problem would be a disaster.
It's certainly persuaded me to not go Vauxhall again - as this really is the last straw.
Will be speaking to the local Vauxhall garage in the morning... Hopefully the car will get there!
Glad my internet search actually paid off (well perhaps not in monetary terms, but I'll be doing my best to ensure vauxhall shoulder some of the cost!).
Other things I have picked up on my search on Vectra 'C' model include a particular weakness with rear shock absorbers which apparently are more faulty than the average vehicle.
Clarkson was right about Vectra's afterall!
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I've just been to get the Mondeo brochure. We've been a totally Vauxhall family for over 20 years, and the Omega needs relacing soon, with a Vectra C being the natural replacement. But the claim by Vauxhall that sudden loss of power is not a safety issue comes as a shock and gives us major concerns over their safety criteria. Also, if I was still a company car driver, I'd be looking to the fleet manager to exercise a clear duty of care with this issue.
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I am about to buy a 2007 57 Vectra, and the dealer has agreed to fit the updated fuel pump first - has anybody had this item fitted, and has it cured the issue? Perhaps I should opt for the 1.9 diesel instead..
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I have just purchased today a 2.2 Signum 03 plate for my wife as she has just become pregnant.Thought this was going to be a great family car for us but now i'm a bit worried to say the least.Are there any figures to see stating exactly how many cars have suffered this problem.This is my first ever Vauxhall and my fingers are well and truly crossed on how it behaves in the future.
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BLUECHUCKLEBROTHER WROTE:
'I am about to buy a 2007 57 Vectra, and the dealer has agreed to fit the updated fuel pump first - has anybody had this item fitted, and has it cured the issue? Perhaps I should opt for the 1.9 diesel instead..'
My advice would be; look at the forums regarding the 1.9 CDTI 120 and 150bhp engines.
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I owned 2.2 Vectra, registered 19/04/04. The high pressure pump and fuel pressure regulator were dignosed as faulty and replaced 25/05/07. I wrote to Vauxhall 04-06-07 to explain circumstances and my dis-satisfaction. After several attempts for a response their reply was that they were not aware of this concern and that they were not prepared to consider any contribution towards repair as the work was not done by a Vauxhall dealership.
Having recently seen the matter reported on Watchdog I again contacted Vauxhall as I understood that some assistance with cost to be forthcoming.
The reply from Vauxhall on 30 Jan 2009 was essentially the same as previous, not prepared to do anything as the diagnosis and repair was not done by a Vauxhall dealership. My choice not to use a dealership was based on cost, diagnosis dealership £80, independant diagnosis £30. The repair was done by an ex Vauxhall mechanic (30 years)having started his own business.
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I own a 2.2 vectra registered in May 2005. I to have the same problem, my husband was recently driving on the motorway and lost all power. After taking it to our local vauxall dealer, was told that my worst fears had come true, it was the Fuel pump and pressure regulator and they would need to obviously be replaced. Not only this but was also informed my onboard computer was not working and therefore this would also need replacing. My total bill £1331.00. I have contacted the warrenty department at vauxhall and as my car is 10 months out of warrany, they have offered to make agood will gesture of 20% contrtibution towards the final bill. If they are offering a good will gesture in my eyes is that not saying the parts are faulty and also as these parts have now been modified, does that not say also, the original part was faulty. I currently am taking legal advice and am very dissapointed in the service i have received from Vauxhall.
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To post 304, bluechucklebrother - if you really must get a vectra, you should go for the 2.0T, doesnt seem to be many problems for that engine (i think thats the only one!)
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No suprise, my 2.2 Vectra has just broken down again. That's 3 pressure regulators in less than a year and less than a total of 9000miles between them. As usual it happened at the most inconvenient time in heavy traffic on a dual carriageway leading onto the M23 at rush hour (and Vauxhall still say there's no safety issue?!!). I was pinned to the central barrier by a constant stream of traffic for 20 minutes until it eventually started and I managed to get to the hard shoulder where I could wait for yet another breakdown truck. Vauxhall should not be allowed to carry on trading in this country with their track record at fobbing off customers, and taking so long to find a fix - which I am still waiting for!!!
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