2006 Vauxhall Vectra Exclusiv from UK and Ireland - Comments

HANDBRAKE ISSUE.

I am adding this comment after reading others with a similar issue to mine.

The handbrake released itself on my 3 week old Vectra and ended up in someones front garden doing serious damage to the house frontage. The response from Vauxhall so far has been very poor.

Please contact me dfrayling@hotmail.com if you have unfortunately experienced similar problems.

Why not just leave the car in gear?

There is nothing wrong with these cars I have had one for five years now and nothing has gone wrong yet.

I work in the motor industry and it has become known that the reasons for the apparant failure of the handbrake has been that it has not been correctly applied. If there is an arm rest between the front seats with a sliding compartment it's advisable to make sure it's put in the back or upright position before applying the handbrake. You will notice the level will travel further and thus 'hold' the vehicle.

Review author:

It has been suggested that we should have left the car in gear, which I feel is a very fair comment and we now do leave the car in gear every time (even on flat surfaces), which I strongly suggest all Vectra owners do. This is because I have had a few emails from other Vectra owners who claim to have had exactly the same incident, and I have heard of many others. In fact there was another Vectra in the repairing Vauxhall dealership when mine was taken in with the owner complaining of the same.

I sincerely believe there is a design or manufacturing fault with the handbrake, especially since it happened again just last week luckily while my wife was actually in the car parked temporarily with the engine running (this is the reason why the car was not in gear).

Also, it has been suggested that the position of the centre adjustable armrest getting in the way of pulling the handbrake all the way up could be a cause, which is also a comment I have heard from Vauxhall, but I am sure that this is not the case with respect to my incident. It has been established (from witnesses) that the car was parked at least 15 minutes before it started to roll away, and also 3 people got out of the car after it was parked and walked past the rear of the car for about 15 metres before entering the house.

To make it clear, when I found the car the handbrake was in the down position after the incident happened. Given my comments in the previous paragraph and the fact that we have returned to the same spot to carry out some tests, we know it is absolutely impossible that the handbrake was left off altogether. We tested by parking up and leaving the handbrake in all positions up the ratchet mechanism and it holds fine. If you leave the handbrake off in this spot, the car rolls backways even before you can begin to get out of it, hence the reason for me saying that there is no way the handbrake was left off completely.

I would like to say that even though I admit that the comment left about leaving the car in gear is true, I feel that the handbrake should hold the car (definitely on the slight gradient my car was left on) and I feel Vauxhall should be more responsive to my complaint given the number of complaints I have heard of, and the fact that it does not mention leaving the car in gear in the handbook.

Once again, please contact me if you have had similar experiences.

David Frayling (dfrayling@hotmail.com)

I am a consulting engineer investigating the failure of a handbrake on a client's Vectra C. I have actually found a fault with the automatic adjuster which sometimes seems to slip a couple of threads. Please let me know of any more experiences you have had or heard of.

Additionally, let me know if you have any repairs carried out to your handbrake. I know that, from time to time, people think their handbrake failed, but have simply not applied it suffiently hard enough; moreso on car with rear disc brakes. The situation is that as a drum brake cools, the parts contract and so the diameter of the drum reduces probably at the same or slightly faster rate than the brake shoes and linings. The situation is slightly different on disc brakes onto which the handbrake acts. As a disc brake cools and contracts, the disc, pads and linings can all contract, but the tendency is for a relaxation of the braking effect and if not pulled on hard, the car can be allowed to roll. I believe the potential for Vectra C handbrake release is enhanced by what I think may be a fault with the design of the automatic adjuster.

Have you consulted VOSA? They are the Government organisation who drive the car manufacturer's recall system - unless they hear about such things, the cars will not be recalled if the dealers or manufacturer's do not report an issue.

My e-mail address is mark@brown72.fsnet.co.uk

My brother in law found your comments on a web site and emailed me immediately. I bought a brand new Vauxhall Vectra in February this year, about 6 weeks later when I had brought my car home parked it in the drive, applied the handbrake as usual and went inside the house, put the tea on, fed my dogs and all of a sudden there was a loud bang, my new car had rolled down the drive (with the handbrake on) into my neighbours car writing it off. When I went to Vauxhall they said I should bring the car in, they adjusted the hand brake (one version of events which the service manager told me) then when I told them I wanted them to fix the car they said that there was "nothing wrong with the handbrake". They informed me that I must have left the handbrake on. I was very angry and even put in a claim with Vauxhall which they dismissed. I am willing to take further action if anyone else has been affected as I ended up having to pay for my car and my insurance covered the car that was written off. My brother in laws friend had the same thing happen to his new Vauxhall Astra just this week. if we stand together they will have to sort it for us.

We have recently been using a new Vauxhall Vectra hire car.

We went out to get some shopping on Saturday, arrived home, my husband put the handbrake on very firmly as we live on a hill. We got out and proceeded to take our shopping out of the vehicle, shut the boot, locked the car and took the shopping into our flat.

Some time later I heard a loud bang, I looked out of the window to find that the car had disappeared!!!

I looked further down the road, approximately 50 meters down, it appeared that the car had rolled down the hill, veered off the right and crashed over a small wall into a neighbours house, through their front door.

When the police arrived they checked the car and the handbrake was off, to say we were surprised at the least as quite clearly we had put the handbrake on for the car not to run us over whilst removing the shopping.

How does this happen, as it looked like we had never put it on?

I live on a steep hill, every time I park, the handbrake is applied,1st gear engaged, steering turned to the kerb.HINT.Instead of pulling the handbrake lever against the ratchet, ie click click click, try pulling the handbrake lever up with the thumb release button depressed. When the lever is assumed to be in the correct position, release the thumb button. Now lift the lever against the ratchet. One click is normally enough to engage a handbrake fully. Using the ratchet all the time WILL lead to handbrake failure as the ratchet and quadrant will be worn away. For drivers who live or park on a hill regularly, a chock is available at many motor factors at little cost.

With regards to the above comment (dated 30th Nov) I would like to add that we DO live on a very very steep hill (refer to comment I posted on 26th Nov).

If the handbrake had not been applied correctly then there is NO WAY that the car would have stood still for the length of time that it did, and for us to be able to remove our shopping from the car without it running us over!

As it was a hire car I am afraid that we have no way of finding out if the ratchet was being used all the time by other users.

But thank you for your comments anyway.

I have an 02 2.2litre Vauxhall Vectra Elite which I purchased in May 2006 and so far have been very pleased with all aspects of the car. Today out of the blue the handbrake ratchet failed to engage. One minute it worked and the next it didn't. I am now faced with coping with the problem all through the Christmas shutdown. Any quick and easy solutions would be appreciated. Is this a weakness in the car?

I own a vauxhall signum and the handbrake failed whilst the car was parked on our steep drive and caused much damage to the car and our neighbours fence. I brought the car to my dealer who suggested I complain to Head Office as there was nothing they could do for me. There is obviously a fault on these vehicles and they need to sort it out before someone gets seriously hurt.

Hi all.

Well I can tell you Vauxhall have known about this Vectra Hand Brake / Parking Brake fault issue for some time as I have been talking to VOSA. I believe the reason they are keeping quite about this is due to them being investigated by VOSA and the police over this issue possibly causing a fatality in Manchester.

If Vauxhall admit there is a problem they are in serious trouble as they didn't recall when they knew about it. Vauxhall took my handbrake and destroyed it before VOSA could examine it before, despite my requests for it to be returned or examined.

I am hopefully about to get Vauxhall to pay out on my case on the grounds they don't accept responsibility. If you contact me if the same thing has happened to you at p4business@yahoo.co.uk it will add weight to my case and I will give you all the information you need to get them to pay out to you in return.

So please contact me at p4business@yahoo.co.uk if you want to claim money back or get the car repaired free of charge.

I have found the issue of Vectra handbrakes or lack of very concerning. I work for a national company and have had my company car now for 2 years and covered some 45000 miles. Yesterday evening while cutting grass at my Partners home I was shocked to see my 54 plate vectra which had been parked for over an hour on a hill, locked and with the handbrake fully engaged suddenly start to run away of it's accored. A neighbour ran to try and stop the car, but was unable to slow it's progress. The car ran away some 50 meters missing parked cars, crossed a main road, mounted the payment and smashed down a garden wall before ending up balanced on the wall like something from the Italian job. The handbrake was in the off position when I ran to the car and the car was still locked. I think that vectras are possessed by a poltergeist as I have heard from someone else in our company today who suffered a similar problem a few weeks ago with an 06 vectra. BE VERY WARNED!!! I AM NOT SOME NUT CASE THIS DOES HAPPEN!!!THANK GOD MY CHILDREN WERE NOT IN THE CAR!!!

Hi.

Well I am desperately trying to get Vauxhall to sort this issue out. If like me you now have to pay your excess and have a hefty claim on your insurance and left with a car that you are afriad to park on hills, please contact me on the e-mail address below and I will give you some contact details of the person in Vauxhall you need to speak to.

Rhys - P4business@yahoo.co.uk.

I have a Vauxhall Vectra 06 model, which was parked on our driveway for quite a few hours, when all of a sudden it rolled off the drive hitting the house opposite. On retrieving the car, the handbrake was still fully on.

On contacting Vauxhalls head office, they denied any knowledge of faulty handbrakes, which doesn't help with the cost of repairing the car.