Flywheels of mass destruction

I am having trouble with my Vauxhall Zafira 1.9CDti Sri, which is registered 06 plate. I bought the car in January 2007. In January this year I had to have a new EGR valve and windscreen washer pump, which cost over £370. The air conditioning has now failed and needs a new condenser, which will cost about £500 and I am told that the flywheel is suspect and needs replacing at a cost of £1,500 approx. This car is only 3 years old and I have never had a flywheel need replacing on any car I have had at 68,000 miles and as I have been driving for over 40 years this is quite a number of cars. I have been back to the garage where I bought the car and complained but although I get the feeling they agree with me that there must be a fault on the flywheel Vauxhall are refusing so far to replace it. I have looked on various websites and am getting the impression that there is a problem with the parts. Do you have any information about this or any comments to help me with my case to Vauxhall?

Asked on 10 October 2009 by

Answered by Honest John

Very common, unfortunately. Dual Mass Flywheels have been an unmitigated disaster. The reason for them is to absorb some of the engine torque, putting less strain on the transmission, particularly on the upchange from 1st to 2nd. But their failure rate has been so high that companies like Ford and Mazda are now abandoning them in favour of ECU software that damps the throttle on upchanges, achieving much the same effect without the huge cost of having to replace DMFs every 60,000 miles.

Tags: dual mass flywheel technical issues owning

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