5th Sep 2010, 13:35

My family and I bought a used Zafira 2003, 2.0 ltr DTi, manual gearbox, around about 2 years ago, with just 54000.00 miles on the clock. Up until then we had a Citroen Picasso, which we part exchanged. I only wish now, we had bought another Picasso.

About 4 months after purchase of this wonderful piece of mechanical engineering, our car cut out, power loss. Took it to our local garage, and found that the starter motor had blown, re-fitted another one, no problem except engine management light came on after start up, then goes out after a short time. We were told that they could not find any fault codes, so we have left it like this.

Now August 2010, we have found that when car is at idle speed, it feels as though it is going to stall (but it does not)!

This above problem does not happen all the time, which leads me onto the next (could this be connected to the below)?

Driving above 40mph, the car makes a droning noise, which appears to be transmitted around underneath about where the gear selector is located. In turn, when you change gear from say 4th to 3rd, the car shudders when it slows down (gears also seem to be rather stiff throughout), yet again this does not appear to happen all of the time.

To my amazement, when we took the car to our local garage yet again, they in turn test drove this beauty, and eventually come to the conclusion, that it is the gearbox, and would quite probably need re-conditioning (HOW MUCH!), yes, the dreaded words, which obviously have affected quite a number of Zafira owners on this forum, probably around about the £1000.00 mark to do this job.

At this point I thought, what? 76000 miles on the clock, can this be so real, what shall I do, I think it's time for a second opinion.

12th Oct 2011, 16:23

Did you manage to get the Zafira fixed??? Was it the gearbox? Your story mirrored mine to the letter, but it's my clutch that has gone. Worried how much it will cost.

6th May 2012, 09:09

Hi, reading the current reviews, I'm unsure if I should get this car?

I'm part exchanging my Nissan Primera against a Vauxhall Zafira 2.0 DTi Design model with only 58k on the clock.

I test drove this car today, and I had trouble getting it into gear, though once in, 3rd and 4th and 5th were fine. It may be nothing, but I had trouble getting it into first and second gear.

I took out gold cover insurance, so if anything major goes wrong, it won't cost me anything, so he says anyway

I'm exchanging my car and picking up the Zafira on Wednesday. I still have doubts, but surely if I've taken out the gold cover by Quentin Willson, anything major that goes wrong like engine failure or gearbox trouble, he should fix in the cover?

I can't wait to own one of these, because of the room and space, as well as motorway driving; I cover 300 miles a week. I'm just worried something will go wrong, and I'll not be able to get it fixed under warranty, or I will have to pay towards it.

Craig Lincoln.

8th Nov 2013, 15:19

I've got a 51 plate Zafira, and it has just popped into limp mode, but then pops out again. Gonna get it checked, it's had no new parts on the engine. Nearly 13 years can't be bad with 125,579 miles on the clock.

14th Nov 2013, 01:20

I have owned a used 2001 Zafira 1.8 petrol with the automatic transmission for the last 3 years. It was at 120,000 Km, and now after 3 years it has 160,000 km on the clock.

It's one problem has been with the air conditioning; never had a problem with the engine. Even the automatic transmission is still transferring full power.

The engine check indicator is free to reset at the local garage, mainly because of bad petrol quality. Use with good quality petrol, and after half tank, the indicator goes off automatically.

The bad news is no more continuity for the Zafira in my country. It is a good vehicle actually.