1999 Vauxhall Zafira Elegance from UK and Ireland - Comments

Our 2003 Zafira 2.0 DTI elegance has been faultless since we bought it new. Now on 55k. Any went into the garage for an oil and filter cus I couldn't get round to doing it myself. Car cam back and next day spanner light on, then 20 miles later loss of power and max revs 3k.

Took the car back and they diagnosed EGR. Found this site and prepered myself to take it off and clean it. Popped the bonnet and saw the connector plug, went to pull it off and it came off way to easy. Turns out they must have removed it to get to the filter? When they tried to replaced it they disloged the yellow silicin ribbed seal in the connector and it would not lock into place, however the contacts must have just been touching until the engine vibes loosened it off.

So check your connector block, the seal should sit in a little grovve, if it's discloged it gets pushed to the back of the connector and causes the problem above. I reseated the seal and refitted the connector, car runs fine.

BTW my wife usually drives the car, when I take it out I usually give it max revs in a few gears to "blow out the cobwebs",

Hth someone

\v/

I bought my 03 Zafira about 3 years ago. It has given nothing but trouble with the EGR valve becoming clogged and stuck open, causing the car to stutter and stall. Usually on a motorway slip road. Having had it replaced about 18 months ago; it has now clogged up again.

Tried talking to Vauxhall, but it was like banging your head against a brick wall, nobody could be bothered to listen. Had to pay a local Vauxhall garage just under sixty quid for a diagnostics test to tell me the fuel system needed flushing, spark plugs and throttle body replaced, and ECU updated, all costing me just under £300.

Having found out Zafiras often need this, I tried to suggest to Vauxhall there may be a manufacturing problem. Their call centre tells me it doesn't matter because the car is out of warranty.

A soon to be EX Zafira driver.

I am a buyer of a second hand 2002 model Zafira 2 litre DTi Elegance model. It was working fine for the first few days, and then I took it to the local garage for servicing. That is oil filter change, air filter and the diesel filter, as well as the air filter and the oil. When he started the car it could not start. He said that it is coz the air has gone in the diesel filter. So he tried to give it a long start, but in vain. Then they opened up some valve and bleed the system and got it started. But since that time, when I drive on the motorway above 60 mph, the car symbol with spanner light comes on. And it stays on till I stop and restart the car. It doesn't come on if I drive locally in speeds less than 60mph. But it does come on if I exceed that.

As well I can hear a buzzing noise coming out near the relay or battery, and it is louder when I start the car and go slower.

Can anyone help please, or have you had a same problem? Please give your comments here or e-mail me on sweetheartlove786@yahoo.com.

Yeah, not forgetting that the car doesn't lose power when the light is on. And since then I have noticed that car steering has gone hard, and when you really turn it makes a bit of funny noise.

Also, when I am driving on steep hills, and stop and brake, it makes a funny noise, and I can feel it on the clutch pedal or brake pedal.

Help please.

Owner of X reg Petrol 1.6 Zafira.

Bought it from car dealer in Jan 07 for £4000 with 30000 miles on clock. Smell of petrol worse when going over speed humps. Few months ago car shuddered & lost power, came to slow stand still on motorway, luckily able to steer into the service station, oil was completely drained even though had recently topped up.

More recently car now started juddering which matched descriptions mentioned above, no power etc couldn't get speed over 50 at full throttle. Have a great local garage who ran diagnostics, nothing showed, investigated and catalytic converter was shattered, cost £325.

Ran lovely for a week then yellow engine light came on and stays on constantly. Hence now searching on internet for what this light means and came across this site...

- A HUGE THANK YOU.

To everyone who has posted, I will be getting rid of the car and avoiding Vauxhall from now on. I have two young children and being a mum do not want to risk getting stuck, or more importantly being in an accident because the car has failed due to the crappy quality and level of service Vauxhall appear to be giving (judging by all the comments on this site). Shame though cos the car has been fab for all other purposes and ease of transporting kids and family etc.

I will raise a complaint with Vauxhall and Watchdog will copy all comments above to them both so they can see how many problems there have been - can you all do the same and hopefully this will raise the profile enough to get Vauxhall to take responsibility for using such poor quality parts.

Cheers all - Michelle S

Mine's a W reg (2000) 1.8 Comfort, I had the management light coming on for 3 weeks, it would miss every 10 miles with a really big miss, changed air flow sensor, paid £220, returned the car the following day as problem continued?

Air flow sensor was fitted without a separate earth lead that should have been fitted, problem continued, mechanic very good and determined to solve, eventually with new air flow sensor problem solved, he believes a lot are faulty as poor copies??

Now a year later and after a major service, the car is losing power, won't pick up at all and no light has come on? After the service the service light has stayed on.. I just can't afford to spend anymore cash as I have 2 children and 1 on the way... SOS/help.

How so familiar all the stories on here are. I have a Zafira Elegance 2L DTI 52 Plate imported brand new from Holland. To date I have had 4 EGR valves, an inlet manifold, new starter motor because the ignition barrel turned and caused it to jam ETC ETC. Scared to add up how much I have spent in repairs. Vauxhall main dealer has been less than helpful and do not acknowledge that there is a major design fault with these engines, and Gen Motors Customer service are loath to admit the fault. Wish Watchdog would get hold of this.

I have two kids; one is an eight month old and I worry every time I take him out.

Been OK for 4/5 months, but it is inevitable it will happen again.

Do Vauxhall care? NO THEY DON'T.

Have got Y reg Zafira 75000 2.2 petrol drives OK, but with mis-fire mostly at 2000rpm, and the main problem when driving and depressing the clutch; the car gains 3-400rpm before slowly dropping off for a gear change, very unpleasant uphill as nearly all speed is lost due to waiting for the engine to drop revs, otherwise it slams into gear. Have had the EGR valve replaced, but no management light displayed. Can anyone please tell me what it is? As most of you have said, the main dealers are useless.

I have just spent the last 30 minutes reading about the Zafira's misfiring problems on here and I can now add to the ever growing list. The same problem on an X reg Zafira 1.6 Club, 56,000 miles, started last week. Engine management light came on one evening, loss of power, falling revs at idle and threatening to stall. It is dangerous when power suddenly dies at a junction!!!

I have taken it to a main Vauxhall dealer for the last three days. Each time they have plugged it in to their handheld computer and diagnosed the problem as misfiring. They have checked the coil pack and but it reads with no problems, they have changed the spark plugs too. Each time resetting the engine management light, but later when I drive it the light returns! grrr... (The dealer wants me to bring it to them when it is actually misfiring which makes sense but not very practical. I might be 10 miles away when it happens).

Like others have reported, the misfiring disappears when the engine is switched off (light still stays on though) but returns some time when driving is resumed. There's no pattern to it. I can have the light reset by the garage and drive it for 20 minutes and no sign of the light, park it up then drive it a few hours later, only to have the light come on when sat in traffic at 1mph.

I will try the EGR valve as mentioned, also maybe different fuel and some fuel additive along with checking the catalytic converter. I will consider all solutions before forking out large sums of money for main dealer parts especially from reading here that Vauxhall don't really know what the problem is?

If I ever find a solution I will post it!

Hi I have a Zafira 2.0 DTI 51 plateand I have the dreaded loss of power with or without the EML coming on, took it to a garage to have it code read again this is after having the EGR valve replaced by myself. The codes read P1635... Glow Device General Error and also P0400..Critical System Malfunction 1.

The mechanic thinks it may be a blocked Catalitic converter and tried to take off to have a look but the bolts are siezed on so he stopped as didn't want to snap them off. He advised me to take it to a Diesel Specialist which is about 25 miles away (which I worry about as the car runs soooooo slow) to check everything else out first before trying to get the Cat replaced which I have done some phoning around and can get the complete exhaust sytem including VAT and Fitting for £216.

Any suggestions what to do please mail me hamerman1234@yahoo.co.uk.

I have a 2001 Zafira 2.2L engine, which we bought as a used vehicle, and I have had the engine management warning show up for the last month, a major pain in the butt. It would go away for a little while then come back, and did this for a month.

In Australia I took it to my mechanic who said the electronic diagnostics was pointing to the EGR valve, and it would cost AU$400 to replace.

I didn't have the money to replace it before Christmas, so I got a full service done, replacing oil and fuel filters and top up of usual fluids. He also cleared the computer of the EGR error.

Picked up the car from the service, and yep that night the engine management light appeared - the fact it kept popping up annoyed the hell out of me.

We were nervous about the warning still showing up, but it had been running OK for the last month with it going on or off intermittently, so we went on our trip from Brisbane to Rainbow beach, a total return distance of 350km. At points it was revved pretty hard negotiating hill climbs etc. and doing on average 115km/hr during the trip.

Funnily enough on the way there and back and ever since (one week now) the engine management light has not reappeared once!!! Amazing but true and I haven't spent a dollar to fix it yet - touch wood. I think the guys comments in the very first post is true that you need to "blow the cobwebs" out of the engine to clean out the valve, as it is mainly used for suburban driving by my wife and isn't driven hard at all in general.

I will keep an eye on it and see how long our good luck continues without seeing that damn light appear, and keep you updated.

I bought a Zafira 2.0L DTI in January 08. It's an 04 plate, and the 1st time it cut out on the motorway after a small chug and complete loss of power, it started again so I put it down to a bit of dirt in the fuel tank.

I have now been towed off the motorway 3 times, and have only had the vehicle for 11 months.

After taking it back to the dealership twice, I have now taken it to my own independent garage who are baffled. It chugs twice, then loses power and cuts out and won't restart. Sometimes the engine management light comes on, sometimes it doesn't.

The first time the dealership replaced a glow plug, and the second they tried to say I was out of diesel, which I know I wasn't.

My own garage is unable to find a fault, as there is nothing on the diagnostic reading at all. They've stripped the fuel pump and checked the injectors. The dealership just say it might not be the same fault, even though it does the same thing every time.

I'm afraid I'm going to be killed on the motorway, and have just been plain lucky the motorway hasn't been busy.

I have now decided to sue the dealership, the HP company and Vauxhall as this fault is obviously experienced by a lot more than me.

Only other problem is that I can't work without a car, and the garage have now had it for 2 weeks!! Does anyone have any idea what could be the fault?

G from Scotland.

We have a 1.6 Zafira X reg and have been experiencing the same spanner dashboard light and loss of power on motorways. The engine also sounds really rough with a ticking noise, not always when first started, but starts a few miles down the road.

So far I have taken it to an independent garage (not my usual) who diagnosed a faulty EGR - £155 and next motorway journey - light comes on, loss of power. I have figured out that if we drive less than 60mph, it doesn't happen so often, but we just won't take those trips anymore; we have 3 kids in the back and dread to think what could happen. I usually drive the car and don't go far, a few miles to town, school etc and have no problems on these little journeys.

The light goes off when you re-start the engine, but a few miles down the road will come on again. It hasn't had a service in 18 months, so it's booked in for the works. Also needs a new front exhaust and we are worried about spending so much money on a car that may well "blow up" in a few months (so much confidence I know!)

We learnt in the past not to take it to a Vauxhall dealer, charged a fortune just for diagnosing new water pump a few years back!!

Will definitely get hubby to check the oil tomorrow morning, and show him this site and see if we can do something cheaper ourselves which might help. Like everyone else, dreading the cost of numerous trips to the garage with no cure to this oh so common problem. No wonder the mechanic rubbed his hands together when he saw a Zafira pulling in.

I have had a Zafira 2.0, 03, diesel, for three years. It's a lovely car.

Then the EM light, changed sensor, great, now it's starting problems, sometimes it starts immediately, sometimes not at all. I have filled up fully with fuel, no difference. I have changed the complete fuel filter housing, glow plug relay, still the same. I have had the electrics tested, all appear fine.

After reading all comments, it is time to change to another manufacturer, Skoda look good.

Hi, have had my Zaffi for 4 years now, and the only problems I have had is rear door windows stopped working, and its wires from pillar to door were broken; a bit of solder and away they went.

Had an old Astra 1.7 diesel J reg and scrapped it before buying the 02 Zaffi; never let me down, but the body work wasn't doing it any favours!! So it had to be sent to the scrappy!!!

Back to the Zaffi, and I have never missed a service, and touch wood, that could be the answer, will let you know at 50000 miles and bought with 20000 on it! Who knows what is round the corner? Saying bye, and hope all is well for the future of Vauxhall drivers...

Have got a Zafira 51 plate, traction light and ABS light flicker on and off. Loss of power slight misfiring and juddering. Traction light stayed on yesterday with sound coming from brake servo as though it was sticking. Taken to dealer for diagnostic testing. Told it's the ABS sensor gone, am worried in case it's not. Fingers crossed they're right.