Zafira Locking

[waue1978]

I've been offered a pretty good deal on a Zafira. However, as with all used cars in my budget, it doesn't come A1 & ready to go. The only fault that's making me wonder is with the central locking - one of the rear doors doesn't lock or unlock with the central locking. Apparently this is quite a common fault with these (never had it on my old one though) & there seems to be quite a range of causes from wiring to knackered actuators.

There is a Vauxhall specialist nearby & if I had a voice (had laryngitis for past 3 weeks) I'd go see him & ask for a worst case scenario cost to fix, but whilst I'm "speechless" I figured it'd be worth picking the collective brain on here to get a rough idea if I'm going to end up with a gem or a PITA.

Everything else on the car seems good. Price is sensible, he's offered me a decent px deal on the Partner, there's very little body damage (he sent me large pics of each panel) & about the worst things I can find with it are 6 owners (2002 car), a hole in the side of the drivers seat that's been very poorly covered (which is actually where the armrest mounts & long term plan was to fit SRi sports interior) & this locking fault.

Anybody have any wisdom to impart?

[jasper5]

Listen at the door for the noise of the actuator working as you work the central locking....no noise then it's actuator or wiring, wiring in the connector block out of the door might be the problem.

If you hear the actuator then it might be a simple case of seized mechanism.

[lozz]

If its a mk1 there prone for the actuators failing
Make sure the kiddie catch ain't on, or you can end up with a door you carnt open

[STALLED]

MK1 Zafira?

Good for a family. They do drive nicer than an equivalent Scenic, but I find that the seats are way too hard, the ride is pretty average and being a Vauxhall, are prone to snapping timing belts and having a multitude of electrical problems!

[lozz]

There's amk1 and mk 2 zaf.

There's nothing wrong with them IMHO.
There as reliable as any other motor,

The only faults I've had with them is,
Egrs,
Actuators failing,
Bonnet catch fault common,

Best thing about them is parts are fairly cheap and most bits off the astras fit on
So no shortage of parts.

[waue1978]

Listen at the door for the noise of the actuator working as you work the central locking....no noise then it's actuator or wiring, wiring in the connector block out of the door might be the problem.

If you hear the actuator then it might be a simple case of seized mechanism.

Can't hear the actuator at the moment as the car's in Bromsgrove (the seller is delivering for £80).

If its a mk1 there prone for the actuators failing
Make sure the kiddie catch ain't on, or you can end up with a door you carnt open

He said it works fine if you manually lock or unlock the door.

MK1 Zafira?

Good for a family. They do drive nicer than an equivalent Scenic, but I find that the seats are way too hard, the ride is pretty average and being a Vauxhall, are prone to snapping timing belts and having a multitude of electrical problems!

Diesels are chain driven, but I do remember when I had the old 1.6 petrol one that the recommended cambelt interval was 40k or 4 years.

[grasmere59]

I don't know much about them but i do remember mate who had a 2.0 dti and the high pressure pump went at 70k and it was was going to cost so much to replace he scrapped it,apparently it was a weak point on the 2.0 dti's,i do work in BT transport workshops and they seem to have a lot of turbo and egr issues with the combo vans even at relitively low mileages but not sure what engines they use.

[jasper5]

I don't know much about them but i do remember mate who had a 2.0 dti and the high pressure pump went at 70k and it was was going to cost so much to replace he scrapped it,apparently it was a weak point on the 2.0 dti's,i do work in BT transport workshops and they seem to have a lot of turbo and egr issues with the combo vans even at relitively low mileages but not sure what engines they use.

The 2.0 DTi engine is completely useless.

The pump issue is very common as you say, my brother had one, he had to scrap it because of the cost.

The 1.3 and 1.7 CDTi engines have serious issues with fuel pump ECUs, bad starting, not starting, the ECU is down the back of the engine held on with 4 bolts....sometimes it's just a hard solder issue, but mostly they have to be replaced....had a few now.

Later Vauxhall 1.9 diesels have very poor gearboxes, lots of failures, EGR valves are crap on Vauxhall diesel engines....just as bad on the petrols.

[Welly]

Anybody have any wisdom to impart?

My missus has had an Astra 'G' for the last 5 years, it's a 1.8 petrol SRi and has been impressively reliable.

Problems we've had:

Eggsauce fanimold gasket
fuel filter casing slight leak
Thermostat
indicator stalk
A/C compressor (the fuse inside it has blown) still needs fixing.

Other than that it's been easy to own. It does about 32mpg and has a nice ride and tidy handling. The biggest 'problem' for me is that the interior is woefully depressing it almost makes you hate the car with a passion and does not encourage you to look after it or drive it nicely

The biggest issue with this one you've mentioned is the number of keepers - 6 is too many in my book (even if there's a gold-plated reason behind it all) you will have trouble shifting it on by the time you've become number 7

[waue1978]

The 2.0 DTi engine is completely useless.

The pump issue is very common as you say, my brother had one, he had to scrap it because of the cost.

The 1.3 and 1.7 CDTi engines have serious issues with fuel pump ECUs, bad starting, not starting, the ECU is down the back of the engine held on with 4 bolts....sometimes it's just a hard solder issue, but mostly they have to be replaced....had a few now.

Later Vauxhall 1.9 diesels have very poor gearboxes, lots of failures, EGR valves are crap on Vauxhall diesel engines....just as bad on the petrols.

Have heard about this DTi fuel pump issue, but figured with the amount of DTis still on the road, it can't be all that bad. What actually causes it? Is it a clogging up from too many short runs issue or is it a weak part? Last I heard on the fuel pumps was that it costs £1000 to replace, but most cars cost that for a clutch & flywheel these days.

My other option that I have is a 307 SW HDi, but then I have a FAP filter to dispose of & most that I've seen are due a COMM replacement. There's also the £250 cost of buying the extra seats on Ebay (as most are only 5 seats with them). It's also more expensive to buy to start with. I've seen a couple at £2500 & been offered £1000 + my car, but this Zafira is only going to cost me £670 for something the same age as the 307s I've been looking at. Insurance comes up cheaper though. According to Confused.com, it's even cheaper than the Partner!

307SW - my car + £1000 + £300 (FAP removal) + £250 (rear seats)

Zafira - my car + £670 + £100 (worst cost to fix the door lock?)

The Zafira has me £730 up to start with.

I remember having this headache when I was looking for a 7 seater before. Pretty much every 7 seater on the market has some kind of inherent fault & I managed to whittle it down to a shortlist of Zafira, 307SW or 406 & do the conversion myself before I got lucky & spotted my red one in Asda car park.

[grasmere59]

When my mate was qouted a replacement pump it was over £1500 by the time you've factored in the labour costs,thats why it went for scrap.

[waue1978]

When my mate was qouted a replacement pump it was over £1500 by the time you've factored in the labour costs,thats why it went for scrap.

I've seen a couple of places doing reconditioning services for under £700, but the labour looks to be a large portion of the cost. From what I've read it's almost half a day (dismantling timing chain etc). Would be really interested to know if anything's been attributed as a cause as that doesn't seem to be as well documented. Is it something that preventative maintenance (or Sam's 2 stroke in the tank) could help with or is it just a ticking time-bomb?

I've sent a message back to the seller with a proposal. He's happy to take my Partner as a px, but was going to let me buy his car & come back for the Partner (repaying me the px value) once the reg transfer (putting it on retention) was completed. I've offered to make the px value a Paypal deposit (as it'll be on the credit card & not out of my savings) & pay the difference in cash so that all he then does is refund the Paypal payment. With that much as a deposit, he's said he'll be happy to hang on until the Partner is back on the original reg & bring the Zafira down & take the partner back in one trip. I've requested that he get the lock fixed, but offered to pay a fixed price of £80 to get it done. It would cost me more to get it done & I'd also have the added hassle of losing the car for a couple of days, whereas he can get it done cheaply through his trade contacts.

Have also spent the day browsing a few long-shot alternatives to see if my options really are that limited. Only others that have stood out (apart from the 307SW & limited choice of 406s that'll need the conversion doing) are a couple of Fiat Doblo 1.9JTD Family versions. I contemplated a Doblo a while ago & it was a bit more basic than the Berlingo/Partner, but still a good fun little thing with plenty of space. Unfortunately you can't convert a standard Doblo to a 7 seat as the seats are mounted to holes in the floor that aren't in the regular versions, but there are a couple of reasonable examples floating about with 7 seats. I'd be looking at shelling out at least another £2500 on top of my car though & removing that rearmost row is a heffer of a job as it's one big bench. Does have the benefit of keeping to the sliding doors for the little man though.

[waue1978]

I've taken the plunge & gone for it. The seller is quite happy to get the lock fixed for my fixed fee of £80. Have to admit, I was very tempted to go for the 7 seater 406 that was posted on here today as although I like to try to keep below the 100k mark, the £1000 Buy It Now price is very reasonable, but I'd then have all the heartache of trying to get rid of the Partner privately.

Will still have the Partner for a couple of weeks while I wait for the plate transfer to come through, but as long as the Zafira is as clean & mechanically up-together as I've seen from pics & information so far it should be a useful addition to the family. Still a little worried about these fuel pump horror stories, but everything else on Zafiras is fairly sturdy & I also have to remember that I paid well over £1000 in maintenance on my 406 in the first 12 months of ownership. If a small portion of 2 stroke with every fill up or a weekly thrash is required to keep the pump in good working order, then I'll make sure that I do it, but otherwise I've bought it from a bona fide trader so have 3 months of comeback if anything major happens in that time.

Once I've got a 7 seater again, Sods Law dictates that nobody will ever come across from Ireland again & those rear seats will be forevermore planted face down in the boot. Now I've got it sorted, there will no doubt be a spate of immaculate 2.2HDi 406 Exec estates hitting the market within a 40 mile radius of me too.

[waue1978]

I'm guessing I've upset somebody somewhere with this as the last 3 posts on this are all mine.

Don't know if I've been lucky or unlucky now. Finally got the paperwork through for W4UEJ to come off the Partner this week, so gave the guy with the Zafira a shout to check that everything was still ok at his end.

As it turns out, he'd been on holiday this week, but had left the Zafira with his mechanic to get the locking fixed since the Monday after I sent the deposit (2 weeks ago). Got sent an update last night telling me that his mechanic gave up trying to fix it. He replaced the lock, but this didn't work so he checked out the wiring. Apparently the previous owner had said that he disconnected the rear windows, so that the kids couldn't mess with them - one of the reasons I like cars with electric rear windows is that there is a switch that stops the rear controls from working, so not sure why there was the need to disconnect them. The mechanic had a mess about with the wiring & managed to get the locks & the windows working, but within a few seconds they stopped again. He's found an auto-electrician who he's confident can fix it, but he's busy until next week.

The seller has given me the option of taking the car as it is at £200 less than we originally agreed or cancel the deal. Seeing as my main reason for paying the extra is that it would be a ballache for me to get the lock fixed as it means I lose the car whilst it's getting done, I've opted for the latter option. It may well be a simple fix, but there's also the equal chance that it could be a right nightmare to get sorted at my end.

After all the careful weighing up I did over the potential fuel pump issue & whether I could live with it going (which was just about feasible at the price I was getting the car for) I'm now back to square one. On top of that, I missed out on an absolutely stunning low mileage 406 estate that appeared within hours of me doing the deal on the Zafira. Bugger all of anything that I liked the look of about now!

[Welly]

You haven't upset anyone, I just don't think there was anything for us to say? it was all kinda "if this happens", "if it works out", etc..?

I personally think you've done the right thing in leaving it alone, I don't like it when someone "has a go" at fixing it but fails - makes you wonder what horrors he actually found there......

Something will come up for sure, especially with Spring being here (not that it feels like Spring)