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Do you know of a fault with the 2005 Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 Twinport engine which can cause catastrophic failure?
My daughter has a 55-plate Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 Twinport, petrol engine. It recently suffered catastrophic engine failure at relatively low speed, having done just 38,000 miles. The engineer on behalf of AutoProtect put it down to "engine overspeed" - in other words, wrong gear for wrong speed, which was patently untrue. The engineer at the garage who did the repair put it down to either "timing chain tensioner failure, or more probably due to bolts breaking on rear of camshaft caps, causing camshaft to break, which is a known fault on this engine".
The more I look into this, the more I find out. I have also read that '05 and 55-plate petrol 1.2 Corsas with an engine number beginning 19F (my daughter's engine begins with this) have had problems with the timing chain. Can you please confirm if this is true? The warranty company have wriggled out of the claim (£2344) because of the last service being two days outside of the allowed time frame (due to a snowbound cancelled appointment) and the Vauxhall dealer (Caffyns) are saying that they can find nothing concerning a recall for this particular engine, or any other issues. From what I have read online, I just do not believe this to be the case.
Vauxhall are also saying that because they were not able to inspect the engine, (at the time, we expected to get a full repair via AutoProtect so had no reason to believe that Vauxhall would need to examine the engine) that they would not entertain any compensation. Are you able to throw any further light on this and offer some advice please?
The more I look into this, the more I find out. I have also read that '05 and 55-plate petrol 1.2 Corsas with an engine number beginning 19F (my daughter's engine begins with this) have had problems with the timing chain. Can you please confirm if this is true? The warranty company have wriggled out of the claim (£2344) because of the last service being two days outside of the allowed time frame (due to a snowbound cancelled appointment) and the Vauxhall dealer (Caffyns) are saying that they can find nothing concerning a recall for this particular engine, or any other issues. From what I have read online, I just do not believe this to be the case.
Vauxhall are also saying that because they were not able to inspect the engine, (at the time, we expected to get a full repair via AutoProtect so had no reason to believe that Vauxhall would need to examine the engine) that they would not entertain any compensation. Are you able to throw any further light on this and offer some advice please?
Asked on 16 June 2010 by bedders
Answered by
Honest John
Yes, the camshaft retaining bolts for this engine frequently work loose with catastrophic consequences. Vauxhall denies any problem and does not instruct its dealers to check and tighten the bolts when the cars are in for service. A responsible garage should ask the owner's permission to do this, incurring an extra cost, of course (because nothing is for nothing).
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