As expected Vx never did make a statement... they did however pay the repair bill in full for my daughters car and they "seem" to be paying for other similar repairs without problem. We got a new top end complete with cylinder head, the only catch (if you can call it that) was that Vx insisted that it have a 60K service at the same time, this was due anyway and cost £153, to be honest we wouldn't have normally had this done by a Vx dealer but as this resolved the issue it was worth it. I am getting a lot of enquiries by email following my campaign and am answering as accurately as I can but it would have been better if Vx had come clean about the extent of the problem.

This from Max last week "Firstly David, again thank you for all your comments. I have escalated your case and all of your concerns to Vauxhall Senior Management. If you could allow us some time to further investigate, we will be able to issue a formal statement within a week. Thank You. Max 22 September at 11:10" That w...eek is up tomorrow, will Vx be true to their word and fess up to the failing camshafts or will they duck they issue?? just a timely warning, your camshaft could fail at any time stranding you possibly miles from home and leading to an expensive repair bill that Vx will not pay. Who wants to volunteer to hold their breath?

Looking forward to the Vauxhall statement of the faulity engine issue on Corsas which has been promised by next Wednesday, The points it should address are:- Which engines are affected?, I know of the 1.2 and 1.4 twinports, any others?? What cars are affected Corsa, Tigra etc What engine numbers are from the faulty batc...h (I understand they begin with 19F.... and come out of the Spanish engine factory) What you should do if you have one of these cars (check camshaft cap bolts are tightened to 8Nm)

Sorry Max, "you" and I both know what the facts are and Vauxhall have done nothing so far except fire fight in an effort to keep the costs down, not good enough I'm afraid when you caonsider how much out of pocket loyal Vx owners are, I will give you a short break though, PM me a draft statement this afternoon and I won't post anymore till after I have seen it, I thinks that's fair. Nothing personal though, I still like you

Hi Max, I wil repeat this Facebook posting on here as some folk on might not see it, I'm a bit suspicious of you needing a week TBH, you have known about the problem from soon after the faulty batch of engines were produced in 2005, a strategic decision was made by someone at VX (who needs sacking or should resign depending on their seniority) do you and they realise how much this has cost owners??? IF you were lucky the failure might have happened within the warranty period, next would be those who only needed to change the camshaft, bottom of the pile would be people like my daughter who broke the camshaft and knackered the head and landed herself with a £2,000 bill, meanwhile Vx would be trying to wriggle out of paying and possibly might contribute as a gesture of "goodwill" (this is rich considering its a Vx fault). I see from the Emails I am getting an answer to that Vx has settled thses cases before they get to court, now I wonder why that might be?? I feel sorry for those that accepted a contribution thinking that was good of Vx, I say again, as a company you should be hanging your heads in shame

I drive an 8yr old Omega that has done 182,000 miles and still going strong! it is a 2.2dti and I change the oil religiously, apart from wheel bearings, track rod ends and glow plugs everything else has worked fine, i have been a loyal Vauxhall customer up until this present fiasco

Hi Max, can you at least confirm whether the info about the spanish engine factory is correct and that engine numbers beginning with 19F*** are the problem ones? I can start using that instead of the blanket warnings

Here's another snippet from the honest john website under Corsa C review, ours is a 1.2 twinport but this would indicate 1.4's are affected too 1.2 16v seems to suffer a lot of camshaft failures. Cause of camshaft fracture, loose Camshaft Bearing Bolts. These bolts need checking by an independent Mechanic, all bolts (There are 20) should be tightened to a minimum of 8Nm, if not they will slowly vibrate loose over the passage of time and miles and put undue stress on the rotating camshaft causing it to fracture. These bolts can be checked in about 30 mins - cost approx £40. 1.4 16v Twinport engines suffering same problem of camshaft bolts coming adrift as 1.2 16v Twinport engines in Corsas. Seem to have been traced to a batch from the engine plant in Spain and the engine numbers all begin with 19F*****

Hi Max, thanks for posting, as you are in the mood to talk then,can you tell us which engines are suffering from the premature camshaft failure and as to how this has been affected by servicing? I am sure the figures must be available via Customer Care, are you saying that the cam cap failure is directly attributable to the lack of servicing and that there are no recorderd example of a properly maintained vehicle having had a failure? what comment do you have on the Pete Kershaw court case? firstly is it real? secondly do Vx agree with the statement about loose cam cap bolts? As you have brought up my daughters service history, the car has been serviced at 20,000 intervals but admittedly not annually or not recorded anyway, oil changes were carried out at 10,000 mile intervals, can you comment on how this diifference in service period would have affected the cam cap bolts coming loose? looking forward to your reply, also have you had a chance to chase up the report on the Daily Record story yet? regards

Now that is a bizarre statement

Heliosuk, what do you think I am really trying to do here??? engage in a technical discussion on the whys and wherefores of a failed camshaft? think about it!!, what do you really think hurts companies. I have campaigned for many years on lots of different issues using various tactics, some more succesful than others and continue to use and improve different methods, do you really think I am here to discuss with Vx why their camshafts are failing prematurely? you are the one that has taking it further and further down the technical route for reasons only known to yourself. I am starting to wonder what your motives are here, they certainly don't seem to be with the consumer in mind, can I suggest taking your arguments over to a technical forum where they might be more appreciated

You seem to be hung up on the flailing camshaft issue, I used that term in an open post on here to get my point across, this term has not and will not be used in any claim or otherwise with Vx, I am not sure why you would think that as it only confuses the issue, can i suggest that you get over it and move on. The wording used in the Pete Kershaw claim seems to fit the case perfectly.

Thought this was worth cutting and pasting- from the honst john website which has 4 volumes on this problem Snapped Camshaft - pete and ed. We have just received final settlement of the claim, and have notified the court that no further proceedings are required. To re-cap:- The 2005 Corsa 1.2 SXi 33k miles suffered a snapped Camshaft on 10th of March 2009. car had fully up to date Vauxhall service history. Car was repaired by a Vauxhall garage and we got it back on the 25th of March, at a 70% cost to us of £862.45p. Whist it was stripped down I found out, that 3 Camshaft Bearing Blocks were found to be loose, this fact was noted by the Vauxhall mechanic and stated on the Vauxhall visual health check report. As we could not get 100% compensation thru, the garage, I sent a letter of intent to the Vauxhall Head Office for the attention of Mr W Parfitt MD. this stated we would issue a County Court Claim against Vauxhall Motors UK. to recover all costs in full including court fees, out of pocket expenses and any interest incurred up to a maximum of £5000 if I had not received a favourable reply within 14 days. Vauxhall replyed on the 3rd of April with an increased offer of 50% from the 30% this offer we turned down, and issued court proceeding on 7th April 2009.(Cost £85) The claim was against Vauxhall Motors UK - and reads. Vauxhall UK sold a new Corsa which was NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE ie The Camshaft Bearing Caps in the engine, which locate the Camshaft were not secured correctly on initial engine build, which resulted in the caps working loose and allowing undue pressure and stress to be exerted on the rotating camshaft, causing it to fracture. Value of claim:- £862.42 Cost of repair £225.00 Cost of private inspection report. £1260.00 Expenses due to loss of transport £85.00 Court Fee. Total - £2432.42 On the 20th of May received the Defendant's (Vauxhall) defence from their acting Solicitors, Duane Morris. They deigned everything but then made a gesture of good will by paying the repair costs, expert report and court issue fee. a total of £1177.42 which we received by cheque on the 30th of May. We decided to carry on with the case and try to get the loss of transport expenses. We attended a pre-liminary hearing on 11th August to resolve this outstanding issue, It was ordered by the Judge that we could only against petrol/mileage costs. Our new claim was issued on the 22nd of August for £324.05p. On the 7th September we were offered £200 in full and final settlement, which we accepted. During the whole episode (6 Months) Vauxhall have never admitted any fault with the car, and we have not had the opportunity in court to bring the Snapped Camshaft problems to the attention of the court or general public, perhaps now that Vauxhall is under new ownership there may be a better chance in getting a recall, but dont hold your breath. Regards Pete Kershaw

Max, Just re-reading the Daily Record story about the broken camshaft problem dated 28th March, it says that Vx were going to issue a formal statement about the problem a week from then, do you know if this was ever done? if so can you tell me where to find it please