28 replies to this topic

[davidv]

Thats a tower bill the Labour charge and a 1g bill still we all get the bills and its a family car back on the road as i told you i got a 500 bill just on a mot test things are a daft price to keep a car on the road at least with the thread your folks can see not your fault on the engine problems

[WiredbyWilson]

Jees Nick that is a horrific bill!!!

Glad you got the car back but I wouldn't have been happy getting that bill!!

[bamby]

well well well ... clearly spoke too soon didn't I ?!!

Went back last week when this little light came on again! - fearing the worst i took it back to vauxhall afet 6 seperate blinks



so off we pop and they say ok sir sit wait we tell you 1hour and 3/4 later we get told its the coil pack and spark plugs nothing to worry about we've reset the ecu but it will need doing soon! but itll cost £220.17 !!

SO on monday on my way home from the dentist (coming through a local area) just went over a toll bridge coming up the other side with a slight incline the car seremoniously threw a wobble - it started to jerk and clunk like it did when the camshaft went so i instantly went oof! so pulled over and switched off.

phoned dad and said im leaving this heap of vauxhall at the side of the road and getting the bus home and will phone vauxhall

after an argument with vauxhall they recovered the car - we refused to use our recovery again - why should we there is clearly a problem with the car !

So off it went thanks to there bodyshop man!

Vaxhall phones to say we have recieved your car and it is the coil pack fault well try it and see if this rectifys the problem if not we refund the parts and go plan B.

The parts were being ordered tuesday so the car would be ready wednesday..

Phoned up tonight .. car is not ready parts not hear - we told you THursday Mr Bamber !!

so after a slight dissagreement well find out if it is ready for tomorrow ! or not

turns out there is a £20 surcharge on next day parts to them - so with us refusing to go halves on the recovery is them saying we'll make you wait then!

either way i think this little corsa's days are numbered ! currently looking at the new shape tdci corsa's

so the saga continues so poor mini is being thrown into a rather pants december weather !

[danie garry]

well thats a load of "£$%!!!! i think u need a new dealer!
to be honest i think that opel's arent really that good and brand new theyre over priced and then they loose alot of money when it comes to reselling.
think u should just get a tax free mini!- no engine warnin light then!!

*edit-opel=vauxhall(the irish are spanners and dont like english names)

Edited by danie garry, 17 December 2009 - 12:42 AM.

[bamby]

opel/vauxhall all the same to me

yeah a nice tax exempt min would be good fun but alas finances wont strech to that

sadly the next dealer is about a good 40 mins away

[Deathrow]

When it's having it's funky times, what exactly happens?

I used to have a Corsa C 1.4 SRi, roughly once a month, I'd be driving it, it'd lose power, sound like a tractor and the engine light would flash frantically when I put my foot down. To get it to stop, I pulled over, switched it off for a few mins and started it again, good as ever.

Then I performed an experiment, I tried running it on VPower, never did it again. My friend owns it now and she runs it on VPower and it's never done it to her once.

Weird. Although I'm not saying this is your issue!

It makes me wonder if it's possible that from it's age, the head gets coked up to the point where the compression ratio is altered enough to cause it to pink on regular fuel and with the VPower being higher octain it prevents it happeneing. A long shot, but who knows.

[davidv]

I think we all have a bit to say about garage big bills and the quality of work in many of them with my car they broke the nipple of my brake calliper phoned me up telling me i had to buy a new one i told them to put two new ones on not just one i had to pay for them they were not to dear on the labour parts were. Many cars do have design built in faults from new examples like Golf can blow rod three Old reno GT Turbo oil flow problem in design TR7 steering rack and lights BMW 735i battery under back seats and one big computer box no one should fit a car battery inside the car One poor old man i met at a meeting years ago about Ham Radio things had one in his car it rolled in a crash he ended up with a white stick very sad case

[Boycie]

Dear god! Well, I must say, when its a car that is NEEDED to be done quickly, sometimes there is no option.. please don't go to the main stealer dealer again though!

All these silly little chain-driven engines have problems with the chain/ tensioner/ guides etc, so the fact they've changed these too means that engine should last the life of the car now, with fresh oil when necessary of course!

[WiredbyWilson]

I emplore you not to use main dealers anymore Nick - they are clearly fleecing you and not solving your problems.

I'm sure you would be able to replace a coil pack and sparks yourself mate

Coil Pack - £80

So it seems you are paying about £120 for someone to spend 15 mins replacing parts and turning the light off!
So glad I don't have to use main dealers for anything other than parts!!

[alicetheauto]

I dont mean to scare you, but if the problem is still there are you CERTAIN that the cam failed in the first place? Did you see any broken parts? I know if I paid someone a grand then I would want to see some evidence of whats been done and why. If it IS a coil pack, then you have to wonder why it has failed on a comparitively new car? I think the coil on the Mini is 22 years old and looks original. I know the technology has changed slightly but the theory is the same.

[Deathrow]

Bamby, just now someone has mentioned turning the light off.

I have a OBD-II code reader that I can connect to my computer. If you ever need the light switching off, bring it here and I'll do it for nothing, Vaux will want £30ish for it :|. I also don't mind telling you what codes it's throwing up.

[bamby]

Sorry for the long relplys have been at work :

Deathrow- haven't tried the fuel thing I guess it might be worth a go at some point, when the guy from vauxhall came to recover me he did say that if they get really hot they make the "death rattle" like a camshaft going - usually when they have dumped the coolant - but it hadn't
IF it has another wobble i'll give you a shout for the reader and we'll have a look

davidv - ouch not a good result for that guy - as for the quality of the workman ship its garunteed for 3 months so if its not right its going back under the consumer act.

Boycie - I had no choice but to go back to the main dealer as they had done the replacement camsahft job etc. If there was a fault with this work that could ahve casued the other failure then I was not going to give themt he opportunity to say well you did not come back to us did you!?! - Typical vauxhall responce so it seems

Wilson1330 - As above I had no choice like the last time - my mechanic wouldn't do it incase they said you didn't bring it back to us. If I had the abilty to shop around on this then I would have but sadly not an option at the time.

alicetheauto- Yes the camsahft failed - i've seen the bits and also the noise the engine was making without the chain and cam was horrendous - there could be numerous reasons for a coil failure however this could not be confirmed by Moorland Motors vauxhall dealership. The plugs where a pink colour when they came out - i would thinkg that means they are too hot ?

I am considering the fact that there could be a cooling issue with the car - the levels are all correct.. but when moorland man came to get the car from where i had abandoned it (4hrs laters) it started on 4 cyls so lord knows whats up but it has *hits wood everywhere* been behaving in all weather since thursday morning when it got delivered back to my door washed and valeted - an appology perhaps ?!

so Ill keep you all posted




sort of what it sounded like but with out the idiot revving it

Edited by bamby, 20 December 2009 - 11:02 PM.

[Deathrow]

With regards to what I said, it's worth a shot but at the same time it'd still point to something being wrong. I knew there was something wrong with mine but with it being my first car and being a poor student I couldn't afford to take it anywhere to have it looked at. It's still going though!

Sorry, I wasn't around earlier when you got me on MSN, I was out driving in the snow for the hell of it haha.

[bamby]

im off to vauxhall tomorrow with kitty so they can stick her on there PC tomorrow to tell me whats up with it this time ugh

was coming home from work on wednesday and it came on at trafffic lights (evil light) and running on 3 cyl so something is not right at all!

will update you on monday when i know more !