1999 Vauxhall Omega Elite from UK and Ireland - Comments

Oil leaks. Car was taken to a friend who is a specialist in these cars. When he slowly looked at me, I knew I was doomed. 'Why?' was his first word.

The standard fault was explained as a rocker cover gaskets leak, and is a design fault, so replaced these.. this lead to second fault.

Mis-fire... This was a fault on the leads, that are one offs for these cars ie:- only Vauxhall parts work best, at a huge cost for a lead set for both banks what a rip off!!! Got both fixed £400.00 thank you GM.

It's annoying that a manufacturer will make these, and yet is still unable to design them to repair at a cheap price or make them overcomplicated to repair.

2k miles later, the oil leak returns. Not a happy bunny. It turns out that it might be the oil cooler, but sadly not, it is a suspect head gasket out on to the side of the block. Has not affected the engine YET, but in the end has written off the car..

Total mileage 108k, FULL service history with GM.

All other parts working well, apart from the cruise control, where the connector to the accelerator is plastic. This has hardened and has broken, again poor design and poor choice of materials.

When asked how much to repair the head gasket, my friend just laughed and said go banger racing instead with the car.

It is a shame as the car is very rewarding to drive. It's just a shame that GM still make economic cuts just for the bottom line, and have no respect for the buying public.

PS noticed that a person said that Police were happy with these cars. They have no choice in the end. They drive what they are given and these cars are regularly checked, regardless of cost. Any car is going to be good with a blank cheque book to pay for repairs!!

It does sound as if you should have taken the specialist with you when you bought the car initially.

I would still question head gasket my friend, we have a website for omega owners and I have heard that the 2.5v6 very very rarely blows head gaskets, they blow rocker gaskets and oil coolers-oil goes into expansion tank NOT antifreeze mixing with the oil.

Double check my friend -garages don't know what they diagnose, i had the same symptoms.

I've been a HGV mechanic for 14 years, and seen a lot of head gaskets go and oil coolers, and agree with what you say. Oil in the expansion tank is most definitely the oil cooler. If the head had gone, it would pressurise the head tank throwing water out or drop water into the sump.

Ditto to all of the above..

I have just serviced a "head gasket 3.0" to find that the oil cooler copper washers on the cooler union weren't even there!!! no wonder the poor thing was leaking oil into the cooling system.

Head gasket failures on omega lumps are usually only due to the bypass valve on heater matrix from failing causing serious heating issues.

Using a chemical sniffer test (blue solution in a pipette goes black with hydrocarbons in expansion tank) and the old favourite of cooling system pressure testing in expansion tank will identify h/gasket issues for you cheaply.

I just left comments on my omega v6 2.5 cd manual, but forgot to ask about a cambelt change. apparently a special tool is needed. I don't want to be stung by a main dealer. help please?