Thread: 2 weeks old car engine management light on

purchased a brand new Vauxhall Zafira 1.9 CDTi (120bhp) from local vauxhall dealership, was a bit shocked that the car had 49 miles on it. but couldnt do alot about that. (when log book arrived it showed the car was registered the day before i collected it from showroom)
less than 2 weeks after purchase
Driving down slip road of very busy motorway in rush hour traffic entered motor way and started trying to get into 3rd lane, the car decided to slow down to 50MPH on its own and the engine managment light came on.
rang my dad who works at the place i got my car and he said not to worry just take it slowly and take the car into the comapny first thing in the morning which i did.

They said it was a clogged up particular filter ( the car had only 1500 miles on the clock) they sorted the problem out but told me I should always keep the car in a gear to keep the revs above 2000 !!

I thought the idea was to keep revs below 2000 for maximum fuel econemy or am I going mad?

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Most diesels only rev up to 4-4500rpm so by saying keep it above 2000rpm is limiting the usable rev range of the vehicle. The main thing here is if the engine is not labouring at these revs it shouldn't be causing a problem. But the particulate filter clogging up so soon is a worry. It shouldn't have happened. It may be a one off but its best to monitor it. I would check the intervals which Vauxhall say it should be changed too, just for future reference.

Thanks for the reply Rob
After doing a quick google search for Vauxhall Zafira faults last night it seems to be a common fault on the car which vauxhall of course deny.
Im gonna keep on at them about having it checked all the time.

you should of taken car back if you bought it new .because it wasn't plus 49 miles is to much milage for dilivery 14 max

A don't know where you get the figure of 14 from??

Mercedes can have up to 300 miles reset to zero by use of the dealer's computer - so a new car will be delivered to the customer with zero miles. Once it goes beyond 300, it locks and cannot be reset in this way.

well so far so good we have now got past the 4000 miles and the light has not yet come back on.

I think its too late now to complian about the delivery mileage, I cant prove it had 49 miles on when i collected it.

but thanks for the help anyway

I have been around cars and dealerships a long time having worked in vehicle finance 13 years. I would say where did 49 miles come from? It should have arrived at the dealer on a transporter, so maybe 1 max 2 miles on clock, then PDi test drive maybe another 3-4 miles. I would never accept a vehicle with 300 delivery miles on it as this means its been driven to the dealership, or possibly a dealer transfer has taken place to get the exact car you wanted but again I would have informed the customer that it would have to be driven between dealers due to transport costs. Just my opnion, for what it's worth.

I work for a German Van Dealer and we have a problem with Diesel particulate filters. One of our customers, with a vehicle only 6 months old, had to pay for a new filter at a cost of £800, because he hadn't read the handbook and continued to drive with 3 warning lights on the van. We have a couple of vans a week in with this problem and I think it will get worse.....

Just to confirm it was dealer transfer i think but it wasnt driven to the dealer, the dealer i got it from is in Bury near Manchester and the car came from a dealer in Bradford, but my dad was sent to Bradford with the transporter to collect it, so it wasnt driven from one dealer to the other, have got another slight problem though sometimes when I start the car it seems to make a lot of banging noises from under the bonnet, could this be connected to the particulate filter? it doesnt make the noise everytime i start the car, I have told the dealers about this but it never does it when i take the car to them

The £503 will be the delivery charge from the manufacturer to the dealer. This is a normal cost that all dealers are charged but it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Normally you would not be charged anything at all for a dealer transfer.

Originally Posted by calvi36

I would never accept a vehicle with 300 delivery miles on it as this means its been driven to the dealership, or possibly a dealer transfer has taken place to get the exact car you wanted but again I would have informed the customer that it would have to be driven between dealers due to transport costs. Just my opnion, for what it's worth.

That's the whole point - the dealer would zero it and it would read 0 miles on handover to the customer.

hi all,

the engine management light has come back on tonight when hubby was on his way to blackburn, ive told him just to take it slowly (although he wont really have a choice cos it goes into safe mode and only does 50mph)
Looks like im gonna have to take it back in first thing in the morning.

update yet again after lst post took it back and they siad it would be okay now they had sorted it.

Then 3 weeks ago i got a funny smell (seemed to be coming from heater) like pepper or curry powder, and engine management light came on took it back, they siad they sorted it. 2 days later car started drinking coolant and water took it back again they siad it needed a new radiator on a car that is only 14 months old.

They had it 3 days to do radiator and i was left with no courtesy car again.

Got it back again and day after exhaust emisions light came on they said it needed a egr valve and could not get one as out of stock so they hired me a car for a week.
I rang them and told them to srevice the car while they were replacing the egr valve.
Got it back 2 days ago serviced and with new egr valve and last night it lost power on motorway yet again and engine mangement light came on. it stayed on for approx 5 mins in safe mode and then light went off and car regained power, took it back this morning and guess what it needs a new DPF (desiel particulate filter) now, im sure they ahve already put one of these on last year when car was about 2 weeks old.

Sounds like a fun car to drive. ;-)

Have you considered taking it to another reputable garage for a second opinion? It sounds as though either you have a seriously lemon-flavoured car, or your garage is leading you on a merry dance.

I have also got a zafira cdti on a 56 plate,But mine is 150BHP model,It has now been in the vx garage for 2 weeks waiting for a particulate filter and has another 2 weeks before it will get 1 as it is on back order,They supplied me with a hire car until the part comes in,I rang them and told them the engine managment light was on so they took a look at it and yes it was the PF so then i thought they had replaced it,But apparently they had'nt they tryed to clean it out,Then no more than a week later it was on again,I rang them they said bring it in next week but it is okay to still use it,IT WASN'T went on just a short journey the car became really sluggish then a cloud of smoke and it stopped,So now when they eventually get the filter in stock they have to see if it has damaged anything else,I can tell you at this point(still waiting)i am getting very cheesed off,The best of it is they wanted to charge me to tow the car in lol.

Originally Posted by ICRED

I have also got a zafira cdti on a 56 plate,But mine is 150BHP model,It has now been in the vx garage for 2 weeks waiting for a particulate filter and has another 2 weeks before it will get 1 as it is on back order,They supplied me with a hire car until the part comes in,I rang them and told them the engine managment light was on so they took a look at it and yes it was the PF so then i thought they had replaced it,But apparently they had'nt they tryed to clean it out,Then no more than a week later it was on again,I rang them they said bring it in next week but it is okay to still use it,IT WASN'T went on just a short journey the car became really sluggish then a cloud of smoke and it stopped,So now when they eventually get the filter in stock they have to see if it has damaged anything else,I can tell you at this point(still waiting)i am getting very cheesed off,The best of it is they wanted to charge me to tow the car in lol.

Just to update my car is still in the garage! Waiting.............

Mine is going back in yet again tomorrow morning, I now have my battery light permanantly lit up.

They will probably try fobbing me off again, will update tomorrow after i have taken it in.

Originally Posted by wobbles

Well this morning i was about to take car back to dealer after i had dropped kids off at school. The steering completely went and i had to leave car abandoned in road after turning engine off it would not restart, the dealer sent someone out with a spare battery to start car and take it into the garage, Im now playing a waiting game again to see how long they will have it this time. if the steering had gone while i was near school i could have killed someone (I think the brakes went as well but cant be sure because my front wheel was wedged against a kerb so the car didnt move luckily)

If the 'battery charge' (ie ignition) light was on, then the alternator is not charging the battery.

It is therefore obvious that continuing to use the vehicle in that condition will eventually result in the battery going flat. Starting a cold engine places one hell of a discharge load on the battery. In fact, by continuing to use the car with the fault present could lead to you having to pay for a battery if it has been ruined by this.

The steering didn't 'go' completely. What happened is that you simply lost power assistance - the vehicle could still be steered - albeit, the steering would be extremely heavy. Likewise the brakes - you would have lost power assistance (and ABS), but the brakes would still work - you would just need to push the pedal much harder.

If you are unable to control the vehicle simply because you lost engine power/power assitance, then it would be you that could have killed someone - not the vehicle fault.