Owners of Vivaros beware!

[High Tower]

Anyone who owns a Vivaro, be careful in this weather!, DO NOT try and clear large amounts of snow off your windscreen with your wipers!!

I did and found its achillies heel, the linkage is connected to the gearbox with a simple ball and socket arrangement as is normal, unfortunatly on this particular model, a large amount of snow is enough to dislocate the joint.

And re locating is a 2hr ish job that involves stripping the entire scuttle panel out!, no fun at all this evening, on the drive, in -2c with it snowing!

 

[Tim]

Anyone out there who does get injector problems, phone your main dealer and check your warrenty, i phoned them for a quote and was told it was all covered under the warrenty, saved me a lot.

 

[telectrix]

i was informed by main dealer that the injectors were NOT covered by manufacturers warranty as they are a "serviceable item". what a load of balls!

 

[Brightspark2]

The older 1.9CDTi`s are OK. The newer ones fitted with the Renault 2 litre engines are a nightmare for seized injectors. One seized injector in 2010 cost me £800. Another a few months ago cost £1200.

Just to have an injector changed?!?!...

 

[TaffyDuck]

Its not just having an injector changed that is the point. The design of the Renault engine is such that there is every chance that water can sit in the head arrangement. This means that a steel injector chemically welds itself to the alloy head using the water as a catalyst.

Getting the dead injector out of the head is a nightmare and can often take many hours unless you pay a specialist company hundreds of pounds to come out and remove it for you. The work involved is massive, then there is the cost of about £300 just to buy one injector. Our local Vauxhall dealership has 7 vivaro`s waiting to be done. Google " seized injector Vivaro" then start praying it doesnt happen to you if your van is out of warranty.

If you get a slight judder when you are driving, like the engine has just missed, that is what it is and you are in for an expensive time.

I would never touch one again, and that is on the advice of the head mechanic at the above dealership.

If you can still find a 1.9CDTi Vauxhall engined one thats a great van, the moment they put that runt of a French engine in they were storing up huge problems for owners. As injectors tend to last 4 or 5 years, what do they care. Its out of warranty, its your problem. As the Renault engine has only been in them for I think about 5 years this is a problem that is only now becoming common.

I now have a VW Transporter and its in a completely different league, but you pay for what you get I guess.

 

[chrish_1977]

The Renault engine has been in them since they were first built, the vehicle is a Renault and they sold the vehicle to all the different manufacturers to badge up as required, vauxhall were the ones building them for Renault as all the parts you get from vauxhall, fiat etc are all labelled Renault but crossed out with the new manufacturer sticker over the top

 

[Brightspark2]

Ah I see...not good news...

I now have a VW Transporter and its in a completely different league, but you pay for what you get I guess.

Definitely a different league, good van...

 

[chrish_1977]

I am a qualified van engine technician for vauxhall for my sins

 

[Robert Turnbull]

They seam to have gearbox issues also

 

[VoltzElectrical]

Its not just having an injector changed that is the point. The design of the Renault engine is such that there is every chance that water can sit in the head arrangement. This means that a steel injector chemically welds itself to the alloy head using the water as a catalyst.

Getting the dead injector out of the head is a nightmare and can often take many hours unless you pay a specialist company hundreds of pounds to come out and remove it for you. The work involved is massive, then there is the cost of about £300 just to buy one injector. Our local Vauxhall dealership has 7 vivaro`s waiting to be done. Google " seized injector Vivaro" then start praying it doesnt happen to you if your van is out of warranty.

If you get a slight judder when you are driving, like the engine has just missed, that is what it is and you are in for an expensive time.

I would never touch one again, and that is on the advice of the head mechanic at the above dealership.

If you can still find a 1.9CDTi Vauxhall engined one thats a great van, the moment they put that runt of a French engine in they were storing up huge problems for owners. As injectors tend to last 4 or 5 years, what do they care. Its out of warranty, its your problem. As the Renault engine has only been in them for I think about 5 years this is a problem that is only now becoming common.

I now have a VW Transporter and its in a completely different league, but you pay for what you get I guess.

watch out for the flywheel problems with these. They can go at very low mileage and are quite expensive to replace.

 

[chrish_1977]

They seam to have gearbox issues also

Quite correct, gearboxes get VERY rattly

 

[robd]

Could be worse, timing chain went on my combo yesterday

 

[chrish_1977]

Was it 1.3

 

[TaffyDuck]

The Renault engine has been in them since they were first built, the vehicle is a Renault and they sold the vehicle to all the different manufacturers to badge up as required, vauxhall were the ones building them for Renault as all the parts you get from vauxhall, fiat etc are all labelled Renault but crossed out with the new manufacturer sticker over the top

I thought the 1.9 CDTi was effectively the same engine that is in the Vectra diesels, but I bow to superior knowledge but either way it was a better engine than this 2.0 rubbish. Dual mass flywheels where a major problem on the Ford TDCi engines a few years ago. What annoyed the hell out of me was that 2 years ago I pointed this out to Vauxhall and they said there was no problem, now they are saying every manufacturer has this issue which is plainly bollox.

My transporter is only a year old so if there is a flywheel issue its their problem not mine and the residual values are so good I`ll just chop it in when the warranty runs out.

But it is a class act.

And at least when buying a VW you get a VW not a re-badged French shopping trolley with doors.

 

[robd]

Was it 1.3

Yes mate, got someone stripping it to see the damage, guess you saw a few of these then?

 

[chrish_1977]

Yes the fiat engine, I would check if there is a interval for changing them or something like that, might be worth a check