Have I bought a dud? How concerned should I be?

uncle_rufus · 9 Dec 2021 at 11:29

Hey all,

Disclaimer - not much of a car person, hence the posting in the first place

Bought a new car through Cazoo, the process actually was really good and I'm not specifically mad at them (yet) but although everything about the car seemed great (it's a Vauxhall Astra 1.6 Elite Nav '68 plate w/ only 12k miles on it) a week or so into driving it we encountered a problem with the clutch (whilst parking in a bay the clutch pedal dropped right to the floor and wouldn't return - eventually got it back and drivable by pulling the pedal back up, but obviously there's something wrong)

Cazoo very good about it and took the car right back under their warranty, and since it's actually still under warranty with Vauxhall themselves it's been sent off to the dealer for repairs (they said replacing slave cylinder). So obviously none of this is costing me anything (apart from the associated hassle) but it makes me a bit nervous about the car overall. Is that unwarranted? Could just be unlucky for a car that's so relatively new to have this problem? I know there was a recall on similarly aged Astra's for problems in this area but from what I can tell that was only for the diesel versions

The biggest irony/disappointment is that the whole reason we replaced our previous car (also an Astra which we've had for ~8 years) was because it was starting to get a bit old and we were worried about it becoming increasingly unreliable!

teenwolf · 9 Dec 2021 at 11:30

they are sorting it whats the problem ?

the biggest issue here is why an astra ?

OldKitMan · 9 Dec 2021 at 11:31

repairs under warranty aren't unusual, I wouldn't be bothered about that, Elite Nav is a good spec and it's getting fixed by VX so all seems good to me.

Semple · 9 Dec 2021 at 11:36

Not seeing the issue either. You still bought a 3 year old car so expecting zero problems is a bit wishful thinking. You don't always get zero problems on buying brand new cars with single digit mileage.

The main thing is they've taken responsibility and are repairing it under warranty - just as would have happened if it was new.

kindai · 9 Dec 2021 at 11:41

Get them to restart the returns period from when you receive the car back following the repair.

uncle_rufus · 9 Dec 2021 at 11:42

Okay cheers guys sounds like I am probably fretting over nothing - fingers crossed it's just bad luck

teenwolf said:
the biggest issue here is why an astra ?

lol - I can't really answer that other than to repeat that I'm not much of a car person

3rd one in a row now though, the previous 2 had been pretty reliable. Want to go electric tbh but just not quite able to afford/justify it this time.

OldKitMan said:
repairs under warranty aren't unusual, I wouldn't be bothered about that, Elite Nav is a good spec and it's getting fixed by VX so all seems good to me.

I'm really impressed with it - both our previous Astras were at or near the lowest spec they do so it's feeling pretty luxury going to the opposite end of it, and it feels a lot more powerful than our previous one which was also a 1.6 (but this one has a turbo and is 200bhp so that must be it)

uncle_rufus · 9 Dec 2021 at 11:43

kindai said:
Get them to restart the returns period from when you receive the car back following the repair.

Yes I already asked them about this and they said they would do - a fresh 90 day warranty when we get it back

chroniclard · 9 Dec 2021 at 11:46

Funnily enough we had an Astra Elite nav previously AND this issue happened(cant remember mileage but it was a 2 year old 19 plate, maybe 13k miles). The master cylinder(I think) was replaced under warranty.

Quite a nice little car for the price.

uncle_rufus · 9 Dec 2021 at 11:52

chroniclard said:
Funnily enough we had an Astra Elite nav previously AND this issue happened(cant remember mileage but it was a 2 year old 19 plate, maybe 13k miles). The master cylinder(I think) was replaced under warranty.

Quite a nice little car for the price.

Fingers crossed then - guess you didn't have the problem come back after being fixed? I think they said slave cylinder in our case (triggered haha!) but I guess either can go wrong (they're either end of the hydraulics connecting the pedal to the clutch or something like that aren't they?)

jpaul · 9 Dec 2021 at 11:54

google suggest that there is/was a recall for clutch/brake issue -
if someone has details of that, it would be interesting to see if it was already on the cars service record, and if not why not

eg. https://www.astrakforums.co.uk/threads/brake-and-clutch-recall.5409/

edit: https://www.astrakforums.co.uk/threads/1-6-diesel-astra-k-clutch-fault.4272/

- In case of customer complaint, replace the clutch elbow and pipe of the clutch actuator cylinder according to the following working procedure. Get the car recovered to a dealership. They will need to perform Vauxhall Technical Bulletin BST4825 - TSB3286 Astra K Clutch Pedal.

It is a warranty concern and nothing to do with driving style and not the customers fault.

uncle_rufus · 9 Dec 2021 at 11:59

I did see the above when I Googled around but it looks to me like my car wasn't part of that recall because it was the diesel ones only (no idea if/why the fault wouldn't affect the petrol version maybe something about the manufacturing or the mechanics of it are different?) but I found a `gov.uk` page where you can enter your REG and find out if your car is involved in any recalls and it says that mine wasn't affected (unless I'm misunderstanding)

jpaul · 9 Dec 2021 at 12:23

sorry - yes you had already mentioned/discarded that astra recall -
might be interesting (for you) to see the service record for you car, to see if there had been prior issues ?

chroniclard · 9 Dec 2021 at 12:32

uncle_rufus said:
Fingers crossed then - guess you didn't have the problem come back after being fixed? I think they said slave cylinder in our case (triggered haha!) but I guess either can go wrong (they're either end of the hydraulics connecting the pedal to the clutch or something like that aren't they?)

Might have been slave cylinder, cant remember. Anyway it was totally fine when replaced.

Hard to know if its going to happen again eventually, with any luck the replacement doesnt suffer the same fault.

Cant fault the car otherwise.

uncle_rufus · 9 Dec 2021 at 14:00

jpaul said:
sorry - yes you had already mentioned/discarded that astra recall -
might be interesting (for you) to see the service record for you car, to see if there had been prior issues ?

No worries - OP was pretty waffle-y

Yeah there's nothing out of place on the history I was given by Cazoo, good thinking though!

chroniclard said:
Might have been slave cylinder, cant remember. Anyway it was totally fine when replaced. Hard to know if its going to happen again eventually, with any luck the replacement doesnt suffer the same fault.

Cant fault the car otherwise.

Fingers crossed then, cheers!

Gilbert89 · 9 Dec 2021 at 14:43

If it makes you feel any better... (This was a few years ago) But my brother has a 2017 Astra 1.4 Turbo and the same thing happened with his clutch pedal, after having it fixed under warranty he has had no further issues.

So reading above, must be quite common.

Nasher · 9 Dec 2021 at 15:10

Are Vauxhall still the only people who put the spec of the radio in the car's name?

uncle_rufus · 9 Dec 2021 at 15:52

Gilbert89 said:
If it makes you feel any better... (This was a few years ago) But my brother has a 2017 Astra 1.4 Turbo and the same thing happened with his clutch pedal, after having it fixed under warranty he has had no further issues.

So reading above, must be quite common.

Good to know

thanks

Nasher said:
Are Vauxhall still the only people who put the spec of the radio in the car's name?

**whispers to everyone else** I don't get it...

gc123 · 9 Dec 2021 at 16:05

Nasher said:
Are Vauxhall still the only people who put the spec of the radio in the car's name?

no some fords (focus) have nav in the name. quite good when looking for one easier to narrow the choice

IAmATeaf · 9 Dec 2021 at 21:09

When this happened to my old Honda Accord replacing the slave didn’t fix the issue and later the master also had to be replaced. Could be that my garage did a crap diagnosis but with a new slave cylinder I didn’t encounter the problem for a good week or so might be worth bearing in mind

andy_mk3 · 9 Dec 2021 at 21:11

IAmATeaf said:
When this happened to my old Honda Accord replacing the slave didn’t fix the issue and later the master also had to be replaced. Could be that my garage did a crap diagnosis but with a new slave cylinder I didn’t encounter the problem for a good week or so might be worth bearing in mind

As a mechanic I have to say this is one job I hate, it's often extremely difficult to diagnose whether it's the master or slave cylinder when there's no external leaks and often an intermittent problem like the pedal sticking down, it could be either and there's no way to test which very well. So I wouldn't ever blame anyone for getting it wrong too much. Although personally I would often start with a master cylinder to begin with as it's a much easier and cheaper job than the slave.

Have I bought a dud? How concerned should I be?

Sgarrista