Nice New Vauxhalls

A cult following has grown up for the Vauxhall Astra car – which started off as an innocent enough family hatch back, has become one of the most sorted, tweaked, tuned and enjoyed of the modern breed of vehicles. Both the petrol and diesel derivatives have their followers, with typical sports improvements including tuning systems, special cams, bodywork, spoilers, wheels, tires, breaks – in fact all the usual sports improvements you would expect to make to a car.

But what of the car itself, and how does it cope with the extra tuning that its owners like to throw at it. In this article we’ll take a brief look at some of the most common problems with the car (not that it is unreliable at all as a rule), and give you a chance to pick them up before you actually experience problems with your Vauxhall Astra.

So typical problems flagged up by owners include:

Rear suspension springs tend to break. Well the solution here is to either fit after market shocks – much better road holding anyway. If you have lowered your Astra then you will have done this anyway, but it won’t happen until you have some significant mileage on the car. Further to the suspension issues, one owner mentions that if you start hearing creaks from the suspension it means that the bushes are drying out, and could be replaced or re-greased as required to get everything flowing smoothly again.

Rear disc brakes on Astra Sri models have been known to seize up – for brakes with Bosch calipers. The solution here is pretty simple, either keep your brakes well maintained, or replace them with Lucas calipers. This problem can also occur on some of the 1.8 and 2.0 Astra TDis – you have been warned.

Petrol Astras:

Engines with a cam-belt should have the water pump replaced at the same service intervals as the cam belt.

Diesel Astras:

The Astra 1.7 DTi has been known to have issues with the turbo and also the head gasket at around 80,000 – 100,000 miles. There are also occasional problems with the ECU burning out on this model, and glow plugs can fail leading to inevitable starting problems. This is easy enough to replace of course. Occasional problems with the alternator and the oil cooler have been experienced – but of course these can be experienced with any car.

On the 2.0 Dti Astra models, the turbos have also been known to cause problems at over 80,000 miles. Fuel injection pumps can also fail at a similar mileage particularly if poorer quality diesel has been used in the engine. Some Vauxhall Astra owners point to supermarket diesel being the main culprit here.

Problems will eventually be experienced with fuel injector seals and spill pipes, which will both lead to starting problems until rectified, also there can be EGR problems caused by clogging with soot.

However owners should not be put off by this page – it has to be said that overall the Vauxhall build quality is very good, and reliability from the astra models is fantastic. Systems for Vauxhall Diesel Tuning are readily available making it really easy to get the best out of the car.

There is an enthusiastic network of owners ready and willing to offer help and advice, plus Vauxhall enthusiasts such as ourselves like nothing more that to take half an hour off to discuss our Astras.

So enjoy your Vauxhall Astra car, be it petrol or diesel, and we’ll see you on the track!

Anna Barrington

One of the most notable and best features of a Vauxhall Astra is the fact that the vehicle is quite spacious. Many Astras may to you look a little dated these days, but the most interesting thing about it is the fact that its less expensive then models of the same brand. This is in the sense that a used Vauxhall Astra will be less consuming when it comes to fuel intake, given the fact that the engine is already used. Of importance here is also the fact that you could as well come across a top of the range vehicle, with all the features of a high quality car at an unbelievably low price.

It is usually always a requirement that a vehicle owner makes sure that his vehicle is well covered by a reputable insurance company. It may come as a surprise but for an Astra the value of insurance that you will be required to pay will be relatively low. This is due to the fact that the vehicle’s price is generally low. When it comes to maintenance, there are some Vauxhall Astra schemes which will see to it that as soon as you purchase a used Vauxhall Astra, all you will need to do is remit some little amount of money with them so that whenever there are any maintenance problems, the scheme will always take care of them.

Most of you might be tempted to think that a used Astra may not have some electronic elements that you might find in a new car these days, but the truth of the matter is that it is no different from a new one, and it will come complete with even an air conditioning system. Interestingly enough, you might even be surprised to come across one fitted with anti lock braking. Buying a used one can be a great way to save money in the long run as the depreciation of the car will be far less than that of a new one.

Of course one must be careful when buying a used car especially if the car is particularly old. The really old cars can have multiple problems simply due to their age as the components in the car start to fail one buy one. In these situations you might find yourself paying more to repair the car than how much you paid for the car. To avoid this, try buying cars that are less than 10 years old as this should provide you with a few more years of life before your car starts falling to bits.

To find a used Vauxhall Astra visit carsource.co.uk and search through thousands of used Vauxhall Astra cars all over the UK.