Zafira ..........need I say more!!

[Lisa_5106889]

Hello.

We are brand new to caravanning & purchased our first van, Avondale Dart 556/6 in Sept last year. Unfortunately we did not have access to all your knowledge and experience at that time! We were told by the dealer that our car would tow the van no problem. But alas, our lovely car is a Vauxhall Zafira 2.0 Dti apparently with all the pulling power of a three legged donkey!! We are obviously going have to get rid of the car( but I love it so much!!) but what do we replace it with? It has to be capable of towing the van, seating for at least 6 people and all the luggage, awning, etc that a family of 6 require. We were looking at whattowcar.com and thought a Galaxy/alhambra/sharan may be upto the job but which model? Hope you can help, we can't go away this year now but hopefully the car will be sorted for next year

Regards

Lisa

 

[Tina3]

Kia Sedona...... no question , loads a pulling power,loadsa room , dvd player for the kids, loadsa car for little dosh !!!

Tina xx

 

[Tony A.]

dont forget KIA`s after sales service they are exellent

 

[Tony A.]

dont forget KIA`s after sales service they are exellent

 

[MONKEY1]

Lisa,

I can recommend the Galaxy/Alhambra/Sharan . We have a Sharan and it probably the closest to the clever features on the Zafria. Cast you net a little wider than here and you'll get a lot of different views on Kia's

I think you'll struggle to find anything to compare with the Zafira

Monkeys Husband

 

[sparkes]

Lisa

I would avoid the galaxy and its derivatives. The springs seem a little too easy to break!

 

[MONKEY1]

Steve,

Can I ask the following?

How the hell did you break one??

I 've never heard of this and it's certainly not a common fault - ever seen in fleets of vehicles or on the galaxy forum in fact the suspension is one the more rugged bits; if they could make the speaker covers out of steel it would help (just the right height for a toddlers foot!!

Monkeys Husband

 

[sparkes]

I did not break one, but I did replace one with multiple breaks this weekend. And yes, several others also got to see the spring and between us we managed to replace it in the middle of a field

Also, at

 

[CliveV]

Hi Steve

How is the leg?

Agree with all above - also would point out that to replace the spring the shock absorber had to be disconected at the bottom.

Why was the OE bolt such an obscure size?

Didn't make it easy did it?

I could tell from my vantage point a couple of feet away!!!

 

[NorfolkMike]

If you like the Zafira and can cope with a less plasticy version. Look at the V.W. Touran 2ltr tdi. WELL IMPRESSED.

TTFN

Norfolk Mike

 

[lolly_5087162]

Hi Lisa

The comments above are regarding my Galaxy, my advice, don't touch one with a barge-pole - but it's your choice!

Lolly x

 

[Lisa_5106889]

Hi all

Thanks for all your help. The Kia Sedona has the right towing weight but we have been put off slightly by knowing 2 sedona owners whose cars have been in the garage being repaired more than they've been on the road. I know theres good & bad in all car types so we may still look into this. The VW Touran has a tow limit of 1500kg so still may limit us a bit, plus they are a bit pricey! Whatever we buy we certainly can't afford anything brand new; whatever the zafira goes for will go to the new car and unfortunately theres not much else in the kitty!

Suppose I could get rid of the hubby and get a normal five seater but then who would empty the chemical loo when we finally get on the road!! Please keep your suggestions coming

Thanks

Lisaxx

 

[MONKEY1]

Steve,

I find this case absolutely amazing, I discussed this at work today and we have 4 other more experienced fleet managers than I and none of heard of this case, we even scanned LEX's Autofleet's codified database and it showed nothing.

What even more surprising is that you say it broke in multiple places not just one so it's clearly a potential manufactured fault (albeit by a subcontract) or as the maker will try to claim aggressive wear by the owner.

As for

 

[CliveV]

Hi MH

I too was amazed. I also had the advantage of looking at the break. The latest one showed a clear crystalline structure to the metal. The previous breaks were so rusty on the faces of the break that you could not tell what the state of the metal was. It looked more like break in something that had been cast.

The fact that a coil spring had snapped at all would seem to indicate that the metal was of poor quality for some reason.

I have never seen a spring snap like that before - go soggy? yes - sag on one side? yes - but never snap.

One other point to remember is that despite the ineffective spring on one side the "good one" on the other performed brilliantly coping with probably up to twice the load it was designed for. Emphasising that ordinarily there is nothing at all wrong with the design spec.

Manufacturers do sometimes get a batch of "bad-uns" - Being of a certain age(!) - I can remember Vauxhall having to replace engines on 1600 Cavaliers due to cam shaft failure. The hardening was non-existent. We all reckoned they tried to save money by having them made by Cadbury's.

 

[CliveV]

Steve,

I find this case absolutely amazing, I discussed this at work today and we have 4 other more experienced fleet managers than I and none of heard of this case, we even scanned LEX's Autofleet's codified database and it showed nothing.

What even more surprising is that you say it broke in multiple places not just one so it's clearly a potential manufactured fault (albeit by a subcontract) or as the maker will try to claim aggressive wear by the owner.

As for

 

[sparkes]

Steve,

I find this case absolutely amazing, I discussed this at work today and we have 4 other more experienced fleet managers than I and none of heard of this case, we even scanned LEX's Autofleet's codified database and it showed nothing.

What even more surprising is that you say it broke in multiple places not just one so it's clearly a potential manufactured fault (albeit by a subcontract) or as the maker will try to claim aggressive wear by the owner.

As for

 

[MONKEY1]

Steve,

Really had a good talk about this at work today about your problem; first thing to say is check the others for obvious signs.

Secondly check your alloy for being flat spotted my colleague has worked both for Alcoa and AWI who make a staggering 100,000 alloys wheels a week world wide and he is adamant that your wheel could have either been flat spotted before and help cause the failure or would now be flat spotted

I personally favour EuroCar parts over GSF where the quality I think has gone down over the years and their prices have gone up. They use to parallel import all their stuff from Germany now a lot is just cheap A/0 made in china.

Like I said I think it's not a bad price for something it's a different bit of kit to an A 6 because of the torsional stiffness employed. More over you want to look at some like a MK II Espace which are priced at

 

[MONKEY1]

Clive,

Good answer and your point about the prices are very valid indeed. But a word of caution a bit like "free range eggs" OEM means different things to different manufacturers of the car and part alike and I see a lot more of this A/O alternative option business being used in part catalogues nowadays where it was always described as OEM.

Even LR - like most others have reduced their prices to come into line with others factors for most of the consumables. I always fit OEM filters as a matter of course (sad but true) but I seen the allegedly OEM equivalent from a major factor and poor doesn't describe it.

For the jobs that these parts do on heavy vehicles that our families use sometimes the odd

 

[lolly_5087162]

Hi MH

It was my Galaxy that had the damage, I can send you a picture of the broken coil if you are that interested!

Lolly

 

[MONKEY1]

Lolly,

Firstly - Sorry to hear that your weekend wasn't filled completely with enjoyment but as I said above I find this case absolutely amazing, I'm lucky because I have access to LEX (who are one of the largest and most successful car leasing co's data. And when we searched for this failure by the 3 makes of vehicle nothing came up.

It's up to you if the take the advice or not but my colleagues are nothing if not professional, diligent and a nice bunch who are genuinely interested in stuff like this.

Best thing you can do I think is to get the car up on a ramp and see the condition of the other spring and look at for "flat spotting" on the wheel that was affected.

We have a theory that it was cause by a large pothole or raised manhole cover at speed.

Kindest regards Monkeys husband

 

[ProfJohnL]

My brother in law runs his own independant garage, and following a spring failure on an Espace,(Phase two) I was supprised to learn that srpring failures were an increasingly common problem on a wide range of makes and models - This seems to have coincided with the vast increase in the number of traffic calming schemes that use humps.

Whilst I didnt see the offending spring at Lickhill, the descriptions of 'crystaline, and shattered' point towards a faulty component, rather than an abused product. To cause proprerly tempered spring steel to shatter would require an fantastically high acceleration and force, and I suspect that other pieces of the vehicle would have shown signs of distress.

 

[CliveV]

My brother in law runs his own independant garage, and following a spring failure on an Espace,(Phase two) I was supprised to learn that srpring failures were an increasingly common problem on a wide range of makes and models - This seems to have coincided with the vast increase in the number of traffic calming schemes that use humps.

Whilst I didnt see the offending spring at Lickhill, the descriptions of 'crystaline, and shattered' point towards a faulty component, rather than an abused product. To cause proprerly tempered spring steel to shatter would require an fantastically high acceleration and force, and I suspect that other pieces of the vehicle would have shown signs of distress.

Agree 100% John - The fact that the car was drivable at all on just the one good spring says a lot!

Almost certainly a bad/rogue spring. As they were fitted as a batch presumably, it should be possible to trace the batch and see if there are other examples.

 

[Lutz]

Only the old Zafira 2.0 diesel suffers from a very low maximum permissible towload. All the others, especially the new model, have higher limits, some even as high as 1500kg.

 

[lolly_5087162]

MH

I take great offence that you implied I drive into holes or manhole covers, I think more of my vehicles than to abuse them like that.

Lolly

 

[CliveV]

Hi Lolly

I do not think anyone was seriously saying that road damage caused your spring to fail. As John says - to get the sort of damage inflicted on a normal spring I think your cars rear end would have to have been interfered with by an Intercity 125 travelling at full speed.

To cause a normal spring to do that any road impact would burst the tyre, damage the alloy wheel and probably write the car off.

I think you were just unlucky in that you had a dodgy spring.