our vauxhall meriva '55' plate has been at the garage for just over a week due to a snapped camhshaft. We are awaiting a part from vauxhall, once the camshaft has been replaced we will then know if there is more damage to the valves and pistons. i cannot believe that the camshaft has snapped at 43,000 miles, we have had the car since new with FSH. The first 3 years servicing was with Vauxhall since then the car has has been to a independent garage. I have contacted vauxhall and am awaiting a reply. i will post once I have a response!

Edited by Emma+Colin on 12/04/2010 at 21:00

Thanks for the update Mike ........and first and foremost thanks to Honest John's webpage we are all a little wiser and certainly more confident in our conviction that there IS a fault with these engines and it is a fault that sits firmly at Vauxhall's door .

We have had a modicum of success .... our bill from the garage was to be £1,200 for inspection , repair etc .

We were so incensed - especially after reading this webpage that we contacted Vauxhall's customer services directly . We cited the number of incidents we knew about , also the fact that my wife has had 3 x brand new Tigras and 1 x brand new Corsa SXi over the last 15 years - all serviced at our local dealership , all MOTs carried out there and only 1 car kept longer than 4 years before part exing for brand new . This Tigra having the highest mileage of them all at 14k !

Eventually Vauxhall offered us "Dealer Assistance " - this resulted in Bristol Street Motors absorbing 70% of the bill , us the balance .

The balance , however still stung us for £434 ! And why was this not a true 30 % I hear you ask ? Because we paid 30% of all faulty parts , 100% of the labour (£161) and 100% for consumables - so the 4 litres of oli set us back £51 , 2 x emery cloths £1.50 etc .

Again , I expressed my disquiet at Vauxhall about the fact that THEIR fault has still cost us over £400 .

Sadly , they would not budge on this - an attitude that has now cost them a loyal customer of 15 years standing who , including servicing and new cars etc has probably spent nearly £50,000 with them .

From where we are now standing the new Nisaan Juke looks very appealing .

Good luck Mike

Alan & Dorothy Armstrong

Hi, I have a Meriva new May 05. On Monday I was on the M6 when I suddenly lost power - I pulled over on to the hard shoulder and was eventually towed home by the AA. At first it was thought we needed a new coil pack but as this didn't work the car was taken to a VX dealer where it was found the cam shaft had snapped. The car has FSH and only 22k on the clock. The mechanic advised that the bolts holding one side of the cam shaft in place were loose, so loose in fact that they only had to spin them off with their fingers. The other side was fitted tightly in place. They advised they have seen this before and felt it may be a possible manufacturing fault but it is difficult to prove. To my knowledge, no mechanic needs to go near these bolts when the car is being serviced, so how could they be so loose. I am currently waiting for the cam shaft to be replace at a cost of aprox £500, however this may not be the fix, they won't know if further damage has been caused until after fitting the new cam shaft. Fingers crossed for Friday. I will however be contacting vauxhall. It seems to me that this quite common in these vehicles of this year of manufacture.