1999 Vauxhall Zafira Elegance from UK and Ireland - Comments

Hi everyone, I'm so glad that I found this thread as we have had the loss of power/light coming on issue for months.

We bought a 1 year old 2.0 DTI in 2005. Within a couple of months the warning light was coming on so we booked it in at our local PNG and left it with them (we had taken out the £27.50 per month 'Retailer Guarantee' that covers all faults/servicing etc). They said that it just needed resetting and it 'wasn't a problem'.

Fast forward to this week and I took it to my local mechanic. He suspected the EGR valve as a possible cause. Upon removing the valve he discovered that the inlet manifold was blocked with, as he called it, 'loads of crap'.

After clearing out the debris the Zafira is now running better than when we bought it and no more loss of power/light problem.

Hope this helps some of you.

Now all we have to sort out is why the alarm keeps going off...

Hi, we got a Vauxhall Zafira 1.8 Comfort, 52 reg.. ours went yesterday, well last night when my husband was at his work.. our light has been coming on at regular periods.. anyway my husband got towed from work to home, Green Flag (with live in the UK).. says it could be the fuel pump or the management thingy..

My question is should we check the EGR?.. to see if it's that..

We really cannot afford a new fuel pump or anything worse..

Please help..

Hi, I wrote some months ago about my 52 plate Zafira which was juddering. It got progressively worse but Vauxhall insisted there was nothing wrong with it. I had the RAC out 3 times and took it to a garage in Farnborough. We have since played the part swap game. Initially EGR Valve after which She ran like a dream for 2 weeks. The problem then returned but much worse. Next stop Lambda Sensor, follwed by 02 Sensor, plugs and engine flush. The car is still driving like a complete donkey and is now heading to the auctions to be someone Else's problem. I feel quite bad about that actually but then I guess someone else saw me coming when I bought it. Will Stear clear in future and find the extra dosh for a VW I think. Shawn.

Bought our 2005 Dti Breeze a month ago, and it has been lovely to drive... until yesterday our 1st long motorway run.. came off the motorway down to a roundabout and was chugging like an old tractor and wouldn't go over 50mph.. a few revs and it was OK and fingers crossed as we have a lot of miles to cover before we head home. Wish I had seen this site before I handed the cash over for it..

I bought a 54 plate Zafira Life in January 2007 with 7,000 miles (ex Motability). It now has 19,000 miles on the clock, and like everyone else I seem to be having the same problems with the car juddering and the light coming on. It's been a great car until now, as this is the first thing that's gone wrong with it apart from the usual wear and tear.

It's in the garage at the moment (4 weeks on Wednesday) and they've eventually come to the conclusion it's the ECU. I've been told that the car's not being revved enough, though I always go at the speed limit even on a motorway. How can you rev up in a 30 mph limit to what they are saying. Hope when I get the new ECU fitted this will solve the problem. Will get back and let you all know if this is the cure.

Hi.

Boought a 01 Y reg Dti Comfort last month, nice car blah blah blah. But spanner light comes on intermittently and loss of power. Taking it back to the garage and they said they will put it on the reader (so I keep you posted).

If anyone else has a similar problem and had it fixed, would you be kind enough to write to me and let me know what was wrong and what needed replacing?

Cheers

jasonharris1001@yahoo.co.uk

We have a 2004 Zafira energy DTI, which is a lovely car. BUT it has developed the engine management light intermittently coming on along with a loss of power. This only happens on long motorway hills and lasts for about 5 seconds. It happened about 6 times on a recent 200 mile journey, one time I had to pull over and re start the engine to put the light out. On the return journey it happened 3 times and always rectified itself. The problem is slowly getting worse I think. Otherwise the car seems to go really well.

Tomorrow it is going to a local garage I have always been happy with, to hopefully have the error code extracted. I learnt a long while ago to avoid the Vauxhall dealer in our town as they are completely useless.

I have read all the comments here, and this is too common a problem not to be a design flaw. Seems that the petrol versions want to keep stalling after a period of fast driving along with the car/spanner light, and the diesel ones do as mine does mid run. Will update on how mine gets on tomorrow.

Well, I just got back from the garage with the 2004 Zafira energy DTI from above. It seems quite conclusive - EGR valve. it had several occurrences of the same error P0400. Bloke at the garage reset the errors and told me it would be about £230 to have it replaced, but it is not urgent at the moment as the error is intermittent. Not much point going to the bother of cleaning it out as that rarely cures it, if I try anything myself, just put some fuel cleaning additive in and avoid supermarket diesel if possible.

Cost me £34 to have the diagnosis, and that includes him connecting it up 2 or 3 more times over the next few months to try and pin point the problem should it be necessary (in my case unlikely), which I thought very fair. If I had gone to the Vauxhall dealer in my town, I would probably be putting one of my kidneys on ebay now to pay for it. Will update as things unfold.

Zafira 2.2 petrol Elegance 2002, 80k miles. Poor idle and tick over; it stalls, and it is then hard to start.

The wife complained it was stalling at junctions now and then, so we were off on holidays, so thought we would get it checked out. No fault found, £54 please said garage - great!!!

Went on holiday, drove down no problems, stopped the car and then went to move it a few minutes later and it did not want to start unless you gave it loads of gas. Once started it would not tick over. Also there was a very weird smell, it was not of excess petrol but more of a burning, no excess smoke though. On driving it was rough at <2000rpm until after about 10 minutes it seemed to heal itself. But if you stopped it would do the same thing again, no idle bad starting. Had the AA called out - no fault found. Came to drive home at the end of the holiday and it was running like a pig, did not want to idle, had to use handbrake and left foot braking - nightmare. After about 30 minutes it seemed to heal itself. Also the engine management light came on for the first time, so I am hoping the ECU has some fault codes in it.

Having read other posts it could be anything; EGR valve, breather pipes, fuel pump, throttle body, coil pack, ECU, plugs, loose wires, MAF sensor, bad earth, battery, alternator the list goes on and on.

Our Zaf in the past has also had the problem of the starter not releasing and getting jammed on, and being burned out due to dicky ignition barrel - twice!

It also uses excess oil.

Being desperate, I cleaned up all the wires to the EGR, the MAF also checked resistance across MAF and made sure it changed when blown on, changed the air filter, loosened the petrol cap.

Took it for a run and the EGM light went off, great I thought, then I stopped and tried to start it again; same thing crappy or no idle.

Well it is in the garage this week and I am hoping it can be fixed.

On the EGR valve I did read a post saying this can be removed and the ECU remapped. A blanking plate just sits where the valve goes.

Anyway I will post success or failure here once I get the car back!!!

The Zaf is a great family car and ticks all the boxes, but I wish it was more reliable!

Oh deary me, looks like I'm in for an expensive time.

My 02 1.6 Zafira has just started cutting out at junctions, traffic lights, anywhere really. Had it put on a fault reader and it has no faults? Well it does, it keeps cutting out. I don't have a problem restarting it, occasionally it takes two goes but it's the inconvenience and embarrassment, not to mention dangerous. I am frightened now to go out with it and tend to go ways that I know I don't have to stop at too many junctions. I am now waiting for it to conk out all together and leave me stranded with 6 children in the car as I'm a childminder.

The mechanic took it for a fast high rev journey, but that didn't help, so now he is looking into changing a valve as he believes that this is sticking. When this problem occurs, the car then drives like a donkey and stalls at the next two or three junctions as well, then it drives well again even if you take it out only five minutes later.

I don't have any lights that remain on, but it does need topping up with magnatec oil at least once a month.

Re:Zaf X plate 2.0L diesel

Had all the problems listed above, took to local diagnostics centre and he told me to scrap it or spend 1500 on a new pump.

After diagnostics it wouldn't start cause the garage had left it on the flat, not on a hill facing forward as I have had to for the past two years! Got AA out and he showed me how badly the leak off pipes were leaking, every one of them (all changed). He got me going, but could not do anything about spanner light so have had to drive on half power for past two weeks.

Yesterday I tried messing with the trip meter and hey presto spanner light went off went for a drive and was OK (full power). Started it this morning, spanner light came on and again half power. Been messing with trip again and spanner went off and just been 8 miles with no problems.

This is what I did:

With key in ignition, press and hold in trip, read out changes showing numbers which don't mean anything to me.

Turn ignition key but don't start.

I carried on doing this until it changed from numbers to read INSP.

Did this once more and started it (spanner still on).

Pushed in trip and started it, and the spanner went off!

Did same tonight and spanner went off.

I was told by the diagnostics guy the spanner light would only go out if pump was replaced, how come mine has gone out and why it chose to now three weeks after spill tubes were replaced?

Hope someone has an answer or I will be having a BBQ with my Zaf as the fuel.

Re above X reg no power all day tried messing with trip works fine.

Unable to idle and stalling when at junctions - this has happened a couple of time now on our 2004 Zafira 2.2 petrol.

The last time it happened was after a long journey with no problems. After we got home - I went out for a 2 minute journey to the shop and the problem happened when the engine was still warm from the previous trip.

I noticed that when starting the engine was hunting dropping revs between 300 and 500, and only stalled when putting the engine under load, or decelerating. I noticed that if you waited for about 30 seconds the engine would stabilize at about 750 rpm and then after that you could drive away with no problems. I reckon that the engine management system takes these few seconds to sort out whatever the issue is and then runs fine. Since discovering this - we have had no problems with the engine stalling.

I figure the underlying problem is still there - so I'll be checking fuel breathers, the EGR valve, oil levels and the inlet manifold.

Will let you all know if I find the problem.

I have a Zafira 1.6 Comfort V reg, great family car and I thought Ideal for taking the grandchildren out with me.

Day 11 after purchase, decided to go to Blackpool, after 60 miles the car completely cut out as if no fuel at all. Very scary at 70 m.p.h. Managed to start the car again and it happened about every 5 miles after that. Guess what, the garage had it on the computer and couldn't find anything wrong.

Wish I had seen this site before I bought it.

Been on 127 mile journey this weekend and the same happened, very scary on A55 with no hard shoulder to pull up on.

Took the scenic route home so I didn't have to do constant speed. Kept taking my foot off the accelerator and pumping fuel back in. Seemed to work and got us home. I have read all the comments on here, but there doesn't seem to be any permanent answer. Will keep looking to see if anyone comes up with anything. By the way no management light comes on.

The car is in the garage this week, and it isn't coming back until they fix it.

A bit more news of the the 2004 Zafira energy DTI from above.

Last week I had to do a couple of long trips - a 350 mile round trip and one of over 200 miles. No occurrences of the car/spanner light at all. I actually tried to make it come on from time to time as an experiment. Since its visit to have the error codes extracted, I have followed the mechanic's advice and avoided supermarket diesel completely. I have not put the fuel cleaning additive in yet. So, was that it, or was it that I had all the previous errors deleted that has made the difference? Or will my next long journey be a nightmare? We will see...