Vectra c diesel - 1.9 vs 2.0

[A-J]

Opinions? Thoughts? Experience?

Don't care about power, more the reliability And economy side

[btcctroy]

Heard the 2 litre is better. Planetc will let you know on this

[planetc]

2.0 is a great engine, and in my experience more reliable than the 1.9. It has one main weakness, timing pumps fail, usually around 100k but once changed they are reported to be good for 200k

[Robsey]

2 litre is the half CANbus 2002 to September 2004 vehicle - on the whole a good reliable engine

1.9 comes in 2 guises.. These are the full CANbus common rail diesel engines fitted to cars between October 2004 and the end of production.
1.9 CDTi 120 and 1.9 CDTi 150.

The 120 version is the better 8 valve engine, with few foibles and problems..
Being the later common rail engine, it will be quite pokey, and should be more efficient than the older 2.0 DTi engine.

The 150 version can be a complete nightmare. BUT Not Always.
A good haggling point if buying one on the cheap.
This is the 16 valve engine,and prone to all sorts of issues
mainly the EGR valve, No.3 injector connector, inlet manifold swirl valve actuator and turbo boost sensor.

I have one of these, and up to now has been quite reliable. - Only failure was road springs, but this affects all Vectra-C's.

Do also bear in my the cost of a dual mass fly-wheel when it comes for replacement - you should hear a ticking noise when operating the clutch pedal. The clutch is usually replaced at the same time, and costs vary between £700 and £1000 fitted.

I think the two most dodgey diesels are the 2.2 DTi and the 1.9 CDTi 150 - so as long as you avoid these, then you should be okay.

[A-J]

It's for my old man, and I'll be doing all and any work if (when) it goes wrong. I know the 1.9's inside out (its just an Alfa unit, I used to work on them all day )

As I said reliability and economy are paramount, he does 120 miles every day to work and back, and is fed up of his blue oval tdci going wrong, so he wants to come back to Vaux's

[vauxtillidie]

try find a 1.9 thats had a new flywheel and clutch already when i was looking there was a lot on ebay that mentioned this and a few that mentioned all the other common things being fixed. i didnt end up buying one due me realising they were out of my price range (for a decent one anyway)

[Robsey]

My personal choice would be a 1.9CDTi 120

Like you say - they are the Fiat and Alfa derived units.
They are also used on the Saab 9-3's too. (1.9 TiD)

If you look at the Vectra-C.com forum, you will not find many threads about the "120" unit, but loads about the "150".
As you can guess, most threads are from people desperate to find help to fix their cars - and 1.9CDTi 150 threads probably way out-strip all other engine types added together.

I will bear your experience in mind, If / When the wife's Vectra starts to kick up a fuss.
Good to know someone that you feel you can trust - assuming that's okay with you of course!!

[A-J]

Fine by me, I strangely enjoy working on them

[dave955]

I wouldn't touch a cdti. Piles of crap.

[A-J]

I wouldn't touch a cdti. Piles of crap.

reasons? to be fair the hugely vast majority of modern diesels arn't much cop, but it seems the vaux/alfa units are at least the best of a bad bunch

peugeot/citroen can't build diesels since the 306 (HDi electrical nightmares)
renault's are for sadists
VW/Audi/Seat/Skoda are just hopless in PD form
Ford TDCi are either alright or problem laden, mostly the latter
BMW are ok, but overpriced in terms of original purchase and maintenance
Merc, see BMW
and Jap, well mostly just crap

other than that, theres not much on offer for the age range my old man's after

[dave955]

I spend all day every day trying to fix them at the road side Egr valves , wiring looms inlet manifolds dpfs turbos , ecu faults injectors etc etc

[Robsey]

I spend all day every day trying to fix them at the road side Egr valves , wiring looms inlet manifolds dpfs turbos , ecu faults injectors etc etc

These are all true for the 150 engines (with the red Ti on the boot badge),
The 120 (chrome Ti on the badge) are much less prone to any of these issues, hence my earlier post.

To be honest, on our 72,000 mile 2005 1.9 CDTi 150, the problems so far have been few and far between.
Ours have been -
Premature road spring failure - 3 within 6 months when the car was 3 years old.
Air-con condensor failed last winter at 65,000 miles (perforated condensor).
And one failed glow-plug, causing an "after-glow" spanner light to flag up for the pre-requisite 4 minutes.

Nowhere near as bad as the Ford Focus TDCi's - now there's a bag of crap for you.
Especially the 1.6's
I cannot think of a single work-mate with one of these that hasn't required major mechanical work on theirs.

[planetc]

I spend all day every day trying to fix them at the road side Egr valves , wiring looms inlet manifolds dpfs turbos , ecu faults injectors etc etc

you forgot the alternators Dave...should definitely feature in this list.

Since Dave has added this I will expand on the 2.0. The earlier 2.0 has a vacuum operated egr and swirl flap system which whilst it has occasional issues is far more reliable than the cdti, the later 2.0 also went electronic, but still remained pretty reliable, certainly compared to the newer engines. Vacuum faults are usually due to crappy hose connectors, but can be due to worn vac pumps. The vac pumps don't like it if you are one of those people that runs their car with a low oil level, anything less than full causes premature pump wear. Crank pulleys fall apart but are cheap enough and easy enough to replace when they do. Crank sensors also occasionally fail, but are also cheap and easy to replace. There is very little else that goes wrong on these engines. I have heard of one or two that have lost the timing chain, but it is rare.

[dave955]

Lol how did I forget

[dave955]

The 1.6 tdci,s are french lol

[gsi pie]

and starter motors lol

done injector seals on my mates not a nice job to do, hate diesel oil

[planetc]

and starter motors lol

done injector seals on my mates not a nice job to do, hate diesel oil

Injector seals I forgot....not nice to replace but you can often get away with tightening the bridge bolt a quarter to half a turn and it's enough to seal them. They rarely leak unless somebody has loosened an injector pipe, which rocks the bridge as you undo it and tighten it up again. Lesson is it to leave the injector pipes alone unless it is absolutely necessary!

[mr v6]

think planet c has said it all here

1.9cdti 150 goes like the clappers but have heard not so reliable


the 1.6 tdci in the focus is a french/german shared unit and is in a fair few cars including mini cooperD,206hdi,207,volvoetc

[Ben_L]

An Astra G with the 1.7 or 2.0 DTi unit would be a good buy over the CDTi range of later cars.

It's worth remembering though, that Vauxhall put a CDTi badge on everything nowadays. I saw a MK1 Agila in Portugal with a CDTi badge, yet it's actually a 1.3TD from the Panda.

The 1.3 and 1.6 CDTi is just Fiat derived (If you open the bonnet of the new Combo, all the part stickers say "Alfa/Fiat/Lancia".

The 3.0 CDTi is a nice engine, but I believe that's an Isuzu unit.