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Vauxhall Zafira - Recent fire issues #

Posted by John Hall on October 24, 2015, 8:24 am

Year of Manufacture *: 2007

I am curious about the recent press issues on Zafira B catching fire, no official,word on the cause but reading various press reports it would seem to be related to the heater blower resistor getting too hot or the blower motor drawing too much current as suggestions to only use full speed.

Has anyone seen any more advice on these models ?

Re: Vauxhall Zafira. Recent fire issues !

Posted by andyhyoung <iframe src='https://members4.boardhost.com/ukautotalk/info/user=UKAT5148' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on October 24, 2015, 11:35 am, in reply to "Vauxhall Zafira. Recent fire issues !"
Andrew Young

Never seen a fire issue on one of these.I am surprised it has not affected the Astra H models,as I think they share the same heater unit.

Re: Vauxhall Zafira. Recent fire issues !

Posted by John Ritchie <iframe src='https://members4.boardhost.com/ukautotalk/info/user=UKAT2638' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on October 24, 2015, 12:47 pm, in reply to "Re: Vauxhall Zafira. Recent fire issues !"
John Ritchie

BBC had a bit on it this morning, Vauxhall claim it is non vauxhall parts that is suspect. I would go down the line of heater resistor or wiring melting & shorting out but time will reveal out i suspect
John

Re: Vauxhall Zafira. Recent fire issues !

Posted by andyhyoung <iframe src='https://members4.boardhost.com/ukautotalk/info/user=UKAT5148' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on October 24, 2015, 1:19 pm, in reply to "Re: Vauxhall Zafira. Recent fire issues !"
Andrew Young

Interesting.Can Euro crap parts do a returns note for a burnt out vehicle??

Re: Vauxhall Zafira. Recent fire issues !

Posted by Tony Powell <iframe src='https://members4.boardhost.com/ukautotalk/info/user=ukat3923' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on October 24, 2015, 4:48 pm, in reply to "Re: Vauxhall Zafira. Recent fire issues !"

We work at a multitude of Vauxhall Dealerships up and down the country. I have seen an internal Memo Which states.....

Vauxhall have approx 20 cars that have burnt out due to the total destruction of the vehicles it has been very difficult to narrow down an exact cause BUT as a safety measure all Zafira's coming in for other work should have the heater resistor pack changed with the latest version.

The resistor pack is now on back order...... country wide

HTH

Tony

Link: A P Autodiagnostics ltd injector and glow plug removal specialists

Re: Vauxhall Zafira. Recent fire issues !

Posted by John Hall <iframe src='https://members4.boardhost.com/ukautotalk/info/user=ukat3023' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on October 24, 2015, 11:04 pm, in reply to "Re: Vauxhall Zafira. Recent fire issues !"

Thanks for that Tony. It gives us all some info if we're ever in there doing some work on one.

Re: Vauxhall Zafira. Recent fire issues !

Posted by Matt Booth <iframe src='https://members4.boardhost.com/ukautotalk/info/user=ukat3028' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on October 25, 2015, 6:44 pm, in reply to "Re: Vauxhall Zafira. Recent fire issues !"
Matthew Booth

We had one catch fire in the workshop. Was sat idling and luckily one chap noticed the flames before it really took hold. Insurance assessor said its not unusual on these.

On the plus side I didn't have figure out the engine fault! Very nervous about having these in the workshop now. I researched this issue at the time and there were loads of people complaining of it.

Matt

Re: Vauxhall Zafira. Recent fire issues !

Posted by Tom Williams <iframe src='https://members4.boardhost.com/ukautotalk/info/user=UKAT5478' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on October 26, 2015, 7:07 pm, in reply to "Re: Vauxhall Zafira. Recent fire issues !"
Thomas Williams

I didn't think that Vauxhalls could catch fire, they merely have what Vauxhall Motors used to refer to as a 'thermal event'

Re: Vauxhall Zafira - Recent fire issues #

Posted by Graham Bullock <iframe src='https://members4.boardhost.com/ukautotalk/info/user=UKAT2744' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on January 5, 2016, 4:37 pm, in reply to "Vauxhall Zafira - Recent fire issues #"
Graham Bullock

DVSA confirm that the cause is "improper repair of the thermal fuse of the resistor in the heating and ventilation system, undertaken outside of Vauxhall’s authorised network"

It will be interesting as to who will be held responsible if vehicle owner still has receipt for work undertaken at independent garage.

Garage Wire Link

Re: Vauxhall Zafira - Recent fire issues #

Posted by Paul Howd <iframe src='https://members4.boardhost.com/ukautotalk/info/user=UKAT5151' width='330' height='300' border=0 style='border:none;'> on December 3, 2016, 8:34 am, in reply to "Re: Vauxhall Zafira - Recent fire issues #"
Paul Howd

At the risk of a "Holy Thread revival Batman"

I haven't see any fires, but I have seen resistor/fan motor failure.

What I think happens is this.

It isn't the resistor, it is the Fan motor. As the fan motor fails, it draws excessive current causing the resistor to fail.

The (Expensive) resistor is replaced but fails again fairly quickly because the underlying issue has not been resolved. At this point the "Unauthorised repair" occurs.

The fan motor circuit is now no longer protected and overheats causing the fire.

The safe approach when coming across one of these with a failed resistor is to replace the fan motor as well.

(At the very least do an amps drawn check, but bearing in mind that the overloading might well be intermittent)

My basis for this was coming across a corsa rather than a zafira where the fan wasn't working but the resistor had already been replaced and failed again. I noticed that the fan motor was rather stiff.

Replacing both resolved the issue.

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