Anyone got a Vauxhall Corsa? - Read this!
Discussion
The wifes car (2005 '55 plate Corsa 1.4 twinport design) sounded really rough the other day and stalled, we towed the car into my garage and did some diagnostics. I came up with a misfire in cylinders three and four.
Swapped the coil pack and spark plugs over - no change.
Did some research on the Corsa forums and a couple of threads indicated problems with the Camshaft. Lo and behold, upon lifting the rocker cover, her exhaust camshaft had snapped completely between cylinders two and three, You could turn the cam by hand (between valve limits) at the cylinders three and four end.
We found a couple of bolts loose and one snapped on the exhaust cam bearing holders and one loose bolt on the intake cam holders. I believe and the threads on the net believe that these loose bolts caused the camshaft to snap by allowing the camshaft to flex.
If you have a Corsa of any age, I urge you to to go out ASAP and lift the rocker cover, you need a reverse torx size 10 (E10), have a look and check the tightness on all the bearing holder bolts so this doesn't happen to you.
If you find any loose bolts, could you PM me as this is also going to watchdog (I'm adding my name).
Ours is on a 55 plate (7 months out of warranty) and only 33,000 miles, but this seems to be happening to a varied amount of cars. I've seen that it's been reported on 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4 petrols, diesel DTI and CDTI models too.
I am currently fighting the warranty issue as it's only done half the warranty mileage. Some people report having won completely, some have had 70/30 and 60/40 payouts and some have been refused completely. Fingers crossed that I'm one of the lucky ones.
Go and check the bolts now.
John.
Swapped the coil pack and spark plugs over - no change.
Did some research on the Corsa forums and a couple of threads indicated problems with the Camshaft. Lo and behold, upon lifting the rocker cover, her exhaust camshaft had snapped completely between cylinders two and three, You could turn the cam by hand (between valve limits) at the cylinders three and four end.
We found a couple of bolts loose and one snapped on the exhaust cam bearing holders and one loose bolt on the intake cam holders. I believe and the threads on the net believe that these loose bolts caused the camshaft to snap by allowing the camshaft to flex.
If you have a Corsa of any age, I urge you to to go out ASAP and lift the rocker cover, you need a reverse torx size 10 (E10), have a look and check the tightness on all the bearing holder bolts so this doesn't happen to you.
If you find any loose bolts, could you PM me as this is also going to watchdog (I'm adding my name).
Ours is on a 55 plate (7 months out of warranty) and only 33,000 miles, but this seems to be happening to a varied amount of cars. I've seen that it's been reported on 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4 petrols, diesel DTI and CDTI models too.
I am currently fighting the warranty issue as it's only done half the warranty mileage. Some people report having won completely, some have had 70/30 and 60/40 payouts and some have been refused completely. Fingers crossed that I'm one of the lucky ones.
Go and check the bolts now.
John.
Edited by jhfozzy on Saturday 25th April 09:49
Its Vauxhall what do you expect 
always be wary of manufacturers that use other manufacturers engines for example Vauxhall/Isuzu Rover/Honda 
all the best with your warranty claim,way to many manufacturers getting away with build quality issues like this nowadays 
always be wary of manufacturers that use other manufacturers engines for example Vauxhall/Isuzu Rover/Honda all the best with your warranty claim,way to many manufacturers getting away with build quality issues like this nowadays Edited by Pushrod-Power on Saturday 25th April 14:03
BB-Q said:
The Mazda/Ford/Yamaha engines are great. No problems there.
I've got a mazda6 with 50k on it, engine has never missed a beat, gearbox has given up twice though. 
NiceCupOfTea said:
Is that the Corsa C or D?
Corsa C with the Z14XEP engine.UPDATE:
Vauxhall refused the warranty on the grounds that I did the service that occured just after the warranty ran out.
Wife mentioned to them that we sent it into the dealer just before the warranty ran out for a rattle in the engine bay but they couldn't find anything wrong. Do you reckon they checked the cam bolts???
The saga continues.
I'd ask them if they'd have checked the cam bolts at ANY point in the cars history, in warranty or not.
I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have and that it's an excuse to get out of paying.
Loose cam cap bolts are a common cause for snapping camshafts.
Also perform a crack off and back to mark on the other bolts (You'll need a dial gauge torque wrench that works in reverse for this) to find out what torque the rest are at.
I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have and that it's an excuse to get out of paying.
Loose cam cap bolts are a common cause for snapping camshafts.
Also perform a crack off and back to mark on the other bolts (You'll need a dial gauge torque wrench that works in reverse for this) to find out what torque the rest are at.
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