2001 Vauxhall Vectra from UK and Ireland - Comments

I purchased my Vectra 2001 1.8 in 2007 quite cheaply, and I must admit I do love the car for its look, comfort, ride and usefulness.

There is downside though. The sort of things you don't check when buying a used car (not any more) like sticking front windows. Both sides, both slide up and down out of resentment more than willingness, making a dreadful noise to boot. I'm not sure if this is a common fault with Vectras of this age generally.

At 90000 miles, the engine started cutting out after starting up. This was eventually diagnosed as Electronic Management System fault, which cost £300 to fix. Again, I don't know if this is common or symptomatic of cars of this age.

I hate the windows sticking and the air con not working, or is it just the button?

But I want the car to work as I like it so much. It is a joy to drive, and while I know it is a mass volume production car, it does exactly what it says on the tin. It's roomy, comfortable, audio loom for hands free mobile, huge boot.

I have a 2001 Vauxhall Vectra which had slow noisy windows that would sometimes give up completely. I took the inside door panel off and greased the rails (which the window sits on) and sprayed them with some WD40 for good measure, now the windows go up and down with no complaints at all.

Just got mine back from the garage for this exact problem. 2001 1.8 LS with 910000 on the clock. The drivers window was slow, noisy and sometimes just couldn't be bothered to open at all. The garage could find no faults, just gave it all a good clean and spray. Now it is as good as new all for £35. The passenger window is going the same way so will do that one myself.

My air con also died a few years ago, I have had the car since 2002. The air con needed new pipes in several places which was around £500. Switches on e-bay / breakers are very cheap so try this first, when you press it you should hear the air con motor kick in, if you don't then it's pointing to that. If you do but you have no cold air, then you will probably need a re-gas indicating potential leak on a pipe.

Hope this helps.

Action.