A good friend of mine has suffered gearbox failure on his 57 plate 50k mile 6 speed equipped Zafira Dti. He took out warranty with Quentin Wilson's co a 5 months or so before said failure, back when he bought the car.

As to be expected with Warranty type weasals, they're trying to get out of paying. Having had the box removed, and stripped the warranty assessor says the box failed "due to wear".

It's a 50k mile 5 year old family car, they shouldn't "wear" and therefore fail I'm not sure how they can determine "wear" (which I guess isn't covered...typical) caused the failure, as apparently inside was fairly mangled (teeth chipped off, 6th gear mangled etc).


Anyway, he's going to try and escalate the issue to someone higher up the food chain at the Warranty company (it suggests if you're not satisfied, email Quentin Wilson himself!), as if he's going to personally answer it!

I've offered my friend use of one my cars for a few weeks, as the hire car costs are crazy, and he has 2 kids that need to get to school / hobbies etc.

As an alternative option we're looking for a cheap repair. Does anyone know where to find a low mileage 6 speed Diesel box for a Zafira? I guess they are the same in all 6 speed Vauxhalls of similar age (Astra / Signum etc?) Anyone confirm what else uses the same box so we can widen our search?

Also what replacement clutch and flywheel do people recommend - apparently the DMF is buggered as well.

We need cheap but reliable solutions, or any suggestions anyone has?

Can anyone working at a factors help get the parts?

Any idea how to politely fight the warranty co?

Si

 

theres 2 box's fitted to the 1.9 diesels,
the f40 and the m32
it will be the m32 fitted to this(later 1's are all these i think)
but its only ever the m32 that goes tits up,
and when they do they usualy blow a hole out the side of the box(but not always)
the m32 is also fitted to vectra c's, astra h's, insignia's and of course the zafira's
i look after a fleet of taxi's that use that box and its not unusual for this to happen
we usually convert them over to the f40 gearbox now as they're pretty much bullet proof(seen plenty with 300k+ and no probs)
this is usualy a cheaper alternative with vectra's as the box is cheaper but you also need to swap the driveshafts mounts and clutch so this might not be poss with the zafira
as for clutch and flywheel try get a luk clutch and dual mass,
this is all we fit and the last well in taxi's so must be decent

 

disgusting how many are going at 5 years old, i coudl point the finger at atleast 10 vauxhals under 60k with fly wheels or gearboxes going tits up. seems the higher miles ones skip the problem? seen one on 360k and original box and fly!! supposedly!!

 

never known a m32 to last more than 150k but thats on taxi getting a hard life
i wouldn't believe the flywheel lasting that long, we replace them around 80k on average
but yes its far to common even on the low mileage cars,
i've done a few zafira petrol 5 sp box's aswell with low miles
think vxl are making them out of chocolate lately

 

M32 boxes are rubbish weve done 3 just today at our place,2 "58" plate astra h and one 09 zafira.vauxhall wont cover a box on the 09 plate bur hVe made a contribution

Si-are you wanting a brand new gearbox?

 

a box is about 550 reconditioned

 

£527.88 for LUK clutch kit and flywheel, cheapest option altogether will probably get the box repaired if its possible, or do the F40 conversion

 

Wow wow and more wow. Thanks for all the great replies folks, I knew PassionFORD would be full of Vauxhall knowledgable people

Great detailed reply, backed up by everyone that followed you

F40 box option sounds ok, but the garage that has the car are not very modern, nor clued up I'd say, especially about doing things out of the ordinary. Swapping that lot would probably confuse them!

Perhaps we should bring the car to you, with a crate full of beers and a wodge of dosh?

Does seem mad. The owner is a family man, the last owner the same. Neither fast and furious traffic light grand prix drivers! Poxy vauxhall crap!

Seems that way

3 in a day, damn you must be handy with the spanners! How long to do the job for the average garage would you say?

This car is I'm pretty certain a 57 plate, so deffo out of warranty with Vauxhall - was considering looking at a good will gesture from them, but that looks unlikely

From the sounds of how crap they are when 50k old, a new box would be ideal. Recon one from Vauxhall is apparently £1600. The box he has in the car currently the local gearbox shop says will cost £1100 to be repaired.

Can you get a price for a new one? Be interesting to see if we can save him some money.

Is that with a warranty and where from? That's half the price of getting his repaired

Ouch, that's not as cheap as I hoped... no wonder the warranty co were trying to get out of it. Imagine the price of a new box, new clutch and flywheel from the main dealers

Thanks for the price indication, now we need to find somewhere to beat the above!


Thank you everyone

 

Si i think book time is 5.7hours roughly but can check for you tomorow.there not bad to do in all honesty can get them done in alot less time than that.and i didnt do 3 personly today mate there was just 3 we did as a garage (13 techs where i work).i think the place we get recons from are £1070+vat but i you send me the reg over mate il get you a price for a genuine brand new box with my discount.

 

Thank you Danny, that's good of you.

Reg is GR57 DFF



This was the car when we bought it, took him up in my Cossie to collect it. Was 6th April, so not that long ago at all. Felt like ages back.

On the return journey he got 44 mpg while I got 24... I had a bit more fun than him though


The car currently has no box in it, and is now in the way in the garage where it is now. They reckon it's a 10 hour job. While he tries to haggle with the warranty people, we could do with collecting the car and getting it out of the way. How hard would it be to make it road towable with no box in it? Can that be done easily do you think?

 

Very hard to tow it as the engine would need supporting somehow and then all the subframe fitting back on as well as fitting outer cv joints to stop the hubs separating!

 

Il get you a price for bits soon si but this is vauxhall book time to do a clutch on said vehicle



There trying to pull your mates pants down

 

Arse, that scuppers the plan of getting it out of there - I have a local guy I use who's great and well priced, but guess we're going to have to leave it in there, as it will cost more to cobble together again than it will to finish the job started

Bugger, wish I'd known he'd taken it there before he got them to pull it apart - hindsight, a wonderful thing

Thanks for confirming it, will use that info when the price for the job comes in. Take it swapping the clutch and flywheel is on top of that time, but can hardly be more than another hours work at most?

 

That times actually for clutch change mate,extra 0.2 for flyheel so 5.8 hour job book time,

The hub assembly is bolted on these so you could tow it,would be better on A frame or a trailer tho,as said tho you would need to support the engine somehow due to there only been the offside engine mount holding
It in.if you can sort that the just a case of remove driveshafts completly subframe back on (if they have taken it down fully) steering uj to conect up at bottom of the colunm and thats about all youd need to put back together to tow it mate.possibly few other small thing like exhaust to reconect depending what the garage have taken off.definatly nowhere near a 10hour job tho bunch of pikeys .

 

Clutch pressure plate-£133.97
Clutch plate-£114.95
Clutch bolts* 6-£0.23 each
Slave cylinder-£91.16
Flywheel-£386.54
Flywheels bolts*6-£3.14 each
Gearbox exchange-£1347.58
There you go si hope that helps mate, all prices are for genuine vauxhall parts and are as cheap as i can get them through work.all prices include vat

 

Not related to your issue but my mate has an 08 plate, same gearbox had had 2 failures due to oil starvation to a rear bearing.

 

as said m32 are abit of a chocolate box tbh i think the 1.9 dmf have 50 percent off at t.he moment through trade club

 

Can't thank everyone enough for the replies.

My friend has been pressurised by the garage, and his own need for the car and has agreed to fund the cost of repairs himself. The garage have got a clutch for under £400 which seems good.

Box is already at a gearbox place, so will be rebuilt at a cost of £1100 Then all the labour on top, which I have told him should be not much more than 6 hours max.

He'll continue the fight with the warranty company, but seems like it's not worth the paper it's written on

 

so which models off cdtis vauxhals should we avoid with these gearbox issues approx year dates will do as im lookin for a diesal

 

Don't buy one,endless problems with sensors,pumps,injectors,ecu's,CIM modules etc and now even gearboxes and DMF too.
Buy a vw or Volvo derv and be done with it.
Or get a Toyota/Honda/Mazda people carrier type thing,much better vehicles.

 

dont bother with duel mass flywheel mate you can get a solid kit complete I fit these a company in wolverhamton are cheap on there kits. I got mondeo clutch kit with hydrolic slave cylinder for £65 posted