1995 Vauxhall Omega GLS 2.0 16v from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Comfortable cruiser - but heavy for a lady

Faults:

In the main the car has been very reliable apart from 2 catastrophic failures both tied into the cambelt area.

In 1997 the cambelt snapped at 29,000 miles and required a complete rebuild costing £2,300, new cylinder head, valves, guides, etc. After much discussion managed to get Vauxhall to pay 90% of the bill.

In August 2000, car died on me again and seemed to indicate same fault at 52,000 miles. On strip down the main agents in North Cardiff said the failure was due to the cambelt tensioner (roller) collapsing. I asked them to speak to Vauxhall - as the car had all the full service history mostly with the dealer doing the repairs. They said it would not be covered under warranty. I had taken out a mechanical warranty on the car after the 1997 failure and the company sent a loss adjuster to investigate the damage. As soon as he saw the damage he said that the cambelt tensioner (roller), was a known faulty item and that the S.M.M.T. had been advised of the problem in 1998. They had asked Vauxhall to do a recall, but they preferred not to and to "Treat each individual case as they occurred" {All very good - but the main dealer kept mum and did not tell me about this), if it had not been for the intervention of the loss adjuster I would have had to pay for the new engine £3,400. In the event Vauxhall paid 50% and my insurance company paid 50% (My own view was Vauxhall should have paid all of it - for a known faulty part).

General Comments:

In between these catastrophic failures the car has been very reliable - only one bulb blowing - but it has been quite hard on tyres.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 18th October, 2000

1995 Vauxhall Omega Select Estate 2.0 8v from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Good, cheap, comfortable family load lugger

Faults:

Joint on manifold/exhaust.

Handbrake shoes. Both fair wear and tear, handbrakes never are that great anyway.

General Comments:

Bought mine cheap with high miles.

Well built, lots of room, even my basic spec has what I need except air con.

Good ride and handling, wouldn't buy a 2.0 litre again though, only sufficient power. Better off with V6 or even better a 2.5 TDS.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 17th September, 2000

1995 Vauxhall Omega Select Estate 2.0 16v from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Good car, not sure if I would buy another, only owned it for 11 months

Faults:

Camshaft sensor failed at 80,000 miles.

Timing belt pulley disintegrated at 83,000 miles, was this a recall, does anyone know?

Loads of space, very comfortable to drive.

Fuel consumption good on long journeys, quite thirsty on the shorter ones.

Paint peeling from the front spoiler, still to contact the dealer about this. Not sure if covered by the warranty.

Tonneau cover quite fiddly if not located in holders properly when removing from the vehicle.

General Comments:

Overall quite satisfied with the vehicle, but prefer the Ford Granada which was a 1990 2.0 GL model.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 4th September, 2000

3rd Feb 2001, 16:44

I can confirm timing belt pulleys was a recall problem. I had mine done free of charge so well worth looking into. Do you have problems with the engine noise particularly on start up? I believe it is down to worn hydraulic lifters.

1995 Vauxhall Omega CDX 2.5 petrol from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Good cruiser but terrible reliability

Faults:

Engine - major water leak from the head. Involved a complete strip down and skimming of the heads. This was done under a third party warrenty which was useless as it ended up costing me over £1000. Had to take car back soon afterwards due to a complete loss of water coolant as garage had not fitted one of the pipes correctly. Fixed but still loosing water. Now have misfire when accelerating - possibly problem with cam shaft sensor. I have had 4 Vauxhalls company cars previously and done over 100000 miles in each with no major problems.

General - Air conditioning steams up windows and the blower motor failed which meant it was blowing at full speed even when the engine was off. Replaced several lamps behind the a/c display. Door handles seem prone to working loose and not working. Cruise control wire from control switch broke. The paintwork seems prone to stone chips and scratches. Brake pedal sensor failed. The trip computer display has missing columns of dots. For several months the ABS light would come on intermittently on startup, but now OK.

General Comments:

On the plus side this is a very comfortable cruising car with lots of toys. The heated seats and electric rear blind are great.

I have replaced the big bulky steering wheel with a Momo wood/leather one which makes it look and feel a lot better. The stereo has also been upgraded.

I bought this car thinking it was good value for money and would last along time - how wrong I was. I will be buying Japanese next time.

For more info email mjeremiah@hotmail.com

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 13th June, 2000

16th Aug 2001, 02:00

I have a 2.5 V6 GLS manual, which has had an intermittent fault which seems to be worse in the winter. When braking the ABS and traction control lights come on which seems to disable the ABS. When I switch the ignition off and then back on again, the fault goes away and may not happen again for a week, month, or the next time I brake.

Garage could not find anything on computer though, and did not offer an explanation. I now have a fault where when taking my foot off the accelerator sometimes the engine will return to idle, other times it sits at 3000RPM, very awkward when braking in traffic.

Apart from these problems, an excellent car to drive, loves the motorway and surprisingly good on country roads.

1st Feb 2003, 14:01

Blower Motor permanently running problems on Omega CDX models with Electronic Climate control can be fixed by changing the blower motor regulator.

This is tucked behind the glove box and costs about £100's.

Hope this helps as we have just fixed mine.

Vauxhall appear to have modified the fins from the original so I guess it requires more cooling than the original design.

Regards.

Greg Jones (omega.comments@systemsol.co.uk)