The belt failed on my Zafira 1.8 Ecotec engine a few days ago at 57000 miles. After being towed into the local garage I was surprised to find the change interval had been cut earlier this year from 80k to 40k miles. Car had a full service history but not since 20k at a franchised dealer. And no-one else mentioned it, so I never had the opportunity to have it changed. Speaking to Vauxhall they accept that "the current service schedule can be confusing" Although the Vauxhall dealer is keen to mail me special sales offers, MOT reminders etc. they say "it would be impossible" to tell customers that their cambelt is prone to snapping before time.
They're offering a 50% contribution towards the £1000 repair cost to the cylinder head. It's a start but I don't think good enough. Despite the part not being warranted, it is clearly made to last a particular length of time. Failure at less than 3/4 of that design life would seem to me to be rather more than bad luck.
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£1000 for a head repair sounds a bit steep. A new head can't cost more than that. Dealer price, presumably?
Just had my Coscast Vaux head repaired, including all 16 valves and guides, 8 valves s**ium filled (expensive), for £515 collected and delivered.
Done by Cylinder Head Developments, Bromsgrove, 01527 870472,
Andrew Weston.........knows his stuff.
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Why did the filter do that? What's wrong with sowdium (without the "w")?
Come to that, what's wrong with sowd (without the "w")? I turn 'em in the garden, all the time.
I'm easily confused.................
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Was that £515 a fitted price or just for the work on the head?
Happy Motoring Phil I
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Just the work on the head, collected and delivered back, 90 miles each way.
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Gareth,
If you do a search on GF50 pulley you should find enough links on the site to previous examples of people getting better help than this out of GM.
Eg between us HJ and I saved several thousands to an Australian guy who had a similar problem on his Holden (actually a Belgian built Vectra) I know of similar cases overseas which have been initially refused and then a U turn hs been done.
The weak link in your position is the lack of dealer service history.
Guess the official weasel words will be, "of course if you had serviced it at a dealer then we would have done all that was necessary sir."
Nevertheless there is evidence that some dealers have not, for whatever reason, changed the belt at the right time or changed the belt but not the pulley and so on and so on.
Don't give up, if you can't find the appropriate threads come back and I'll have a look.
Good luck.
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From the mail I am still receiving on this subject, Gareth has done strangely well. Could be that GM in the UK has been forced into a change of heart.
HJ
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So are you saying HJ that despite all the publicity, incl BBC Watchdog's campaign, that a policy of "We're big, you're small, we're right, you're wrong." is still essentially being pursued by the manufacturer?
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People forget very quickly and Brits are very slow to move anyway. So despite its huge viewing figures, the Watchdog campaign will have washed over the vast majority of Vauxhall owners because they did not think themselves directly affected at the time. Look how often someone starts a new 'my cambelt's snapped' thread, thinking that because their cambelt just came off it's a new and unique occurrance. Manufacturers rely on this. They never give anything they don't absolutely have to. This isn't something to be shocked about. A car is a hugely complex machine on which enormous demands are made and which therefore has massive potential for failures. Profit margins are not so great that all these failures can be put right. That's why I remarked on what seemed to me to be a change of attitude.
HJ
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I've just had a plastic pulley disintegrate on my C20LET. The cambelt was changed by a Vaux dealer 2 years ago. At the time, I had heard a vague whisper about plastic pulley problems and asked the dealer if mine had had them and, if so, should we replace them now?
Reply was yes, you do have them, no, it's not a problem on your engine, just the Ecotec and V6.
So, 17,000 miles later, the pulley broke.
I wrote to the dealer, alleged negligence, and claimed full compensation. They say they contacted the factory and wouldn't accept liability because my engine wasn't at risk.
Another dealer has confirmed the pulley is the same part number on all these engines.
I'm now going to the Small Claims Court!
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Waaaa, lost all the previous answer I\'ll have another go.
HJ
It\'s not a case of being shocked; also totally agree with your point that they can\'t afford to fix everything. To be honest, in GM\'s shoes I would probably be resisting all claims with dodgy service history too.
Its the inconsistency all along the line that I object to. The variations in servicing standards plus how the problem is dealt with. That agrees with John S\' point I guess.
What it means is that if the customer is weak due to lack of knowledge or not being skilled in negotiating or complaining they get walked all over. Similarly a customer who might have a weak case in fact but is sufficiently argumentative might walk all over a weak dealer.
Let us not forget this is a company with a number of quality approvals. Most of these will require a regular review of problems and non conformities, and require a formal action plan to assess the impact and inform customers where these occur.
Surely a fault which requires halving the service interval and replacement of a critical set of components else the engine blows up is such a major non conformity. To have a piecemeal situation where customers are/are not informed including new customers such as John S is totally unprofessional. Not only that it is a major non compliance with their QA approvals.
Surely it\'s not beyond the ability of someone to come up with a policy whereby vehicles with a full dealer service history are repaired; the level of contribution being decided by the vehicle mileage on some sort of sliding scale. Where there is a full history (but not 100% dealer) then that sliding scale wouldn\'t apply and another factor is applied. Dodgy history ie missed/significantly late services = 0% In most of these cases the % contribution would be fairly low I suggest.
Then again they may indeed have a policy in place. Do nowt until someone shouts loud enough. In which case surely the uninformed need to be brought up to speed so they can shout loud enough. Or would that rock the boat of a potential advertiser too much?
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This should read:
Where there is a full history (but not 100% dealer) then that sliding scale wouldn\'t apply and another factor is applied.
Sorry
Re: \"this should read:\" - it does now. M.
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Lack of service history is used by Vaux as a get-out, but why should they be allowed to enjoy this?
No work is done to the cambelt during service, so why should its condition depend on services being carried out ?
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Fif
Gareth has done well, given the lack of service history. In the cases I've heard of it's either been a decent offer from Vx (in one case a completely free repair at an Opel dealer in France) where the cars has a Vx service history, or a complete refusal to contribute on a Vx serviced car where the annual service interval had been exceeded.
What's annoying is the lack of consistency. Some dealers change pulleys, some don't. Some failures get a good response, some don't. As for the cambelt change interval - this was given as 60k in the service book on a 1.8 Astra delivered in Jan 2002, and I haven't been told by anyone its been altered to 40k. Ok I'm aware of the problem, but many are not - and to be fair they read the service book and believe what it tells them.
Regards
John S
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Reinforces yet again my tedious adage of 3 years/36000 miles for any belt!
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I spoke to Vauxhall Customer Care (?!) last week about their proposed payout. They said...it doesn't matter whether the car has been serviced at a main dealer or elsewhere, so long as a service history can be shown. And, also in a letter, they say that they are honouring whatever change interval was originally recommended. But that its not a warranted part and therefore can be expected to fail. OK.
BUT - if a part - any part - has a design life such that a change is recommended at 80k miles then statistically most parts of that type cannot be expected to fail until after that time. So if it fails at <75% of that design life, then that suggests to me that the quality of the part is not all that it should be. Given what they say on service record, why should I then be liable for their part failure?
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Gareth, what's the number of Vaux Customer Care, please?
Suppose I ought to have a word before hauling dealer to small claims court.
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Don't have it here now, but main switchboard at Luton 01582 721122 will no doubt give it to you.
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...and the man you may like to vent your wrath upon is Sam Brown, Customer Service Manager. Who wrote..."Should you choose not to have the cambelt replaced at 40,000 miles...". If they don't tell you, how can you choose?
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Telepathy......vaux boffins swear by it.
Thanks, Gareth, I'll have a chat with him/her.
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Gareth
Had same failure on my Astra. After lengthy negotion I managed to get a 30% contribution for my vehicle with the following profile:
Astra 1.6 16V Registered May 1997
Failure at 71,000 Miles
Belt and tensioners changed by Vx dealer at 26,500 miles.
Belt failed after covering 44500 miles/2.5 years.
Non Vx service history after 40,000 miles but supplied photocopy of service history booklet.
Repair carried out at non Vx Garage.
Argument strategy - Non communication of the change interval from 80K/8 years to 40K/4 years.
Hope this helps
Charles
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