Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Car Chat => Topic started by: Entwood on 19 May 2016, 11:59:38
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36330439
another recall .....
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Ah the joys of climate with PWM fan controllers.....
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Must be costing GM a packet ???
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"The manufacturer blamed improper repairs to the car's blower motor resistor for the fires."
http://www.itv.com/news/2016-05-19/father-tells-of-terrifying-moment-car-burst-into-flames-with-family-all-sat-inside-despite-vauxhall-repair/
Always knew main dealers were useless
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I love the way the media make a frenzy over it, littles one may die etc.
I wonder, over the last 20yrs, how many people have been injured or killed in non-impact car fires? None?
Yeah, its inconvenient, and GM need their arses kicked, but the trashy side of the media have to make it into the worlds biggest problem. Thank god they have a plane to find to give them something else to get creamed up over, and make up a load of 'dangle berries'.
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Agree...bunch of drama queens ::)
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All to sell their scandal sheets. :y
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Had the fan resistor pack changed at local dealers on my "B". They had behind the service desk one they had taken out of another local car. In place of two resistors was soldered 6mm bolts cut down
Keith ABS
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So what's the actual issue with these? Material used for the resistor combusting? :-\
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Had the fan resistor pack changed at local dealers on my "B". They had behind the service desk one they had taken out of another local car. In place of two resistors was soldered 6mm bolts cut down
Keith ABS
The report gets off to a poor start by referring to 'engine problems' but the quote from VX says that the 2nd recall will replace solder fuses with wax ones.
I wouldn't mind betting that those 6mm bolts replaced thermal fuses. ......
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Had the fan resistor pack changed at local dealers on my "B". They had behind the service desk one they had taken out of another local car. In place of two resistors was soldered 6mm bolts cut down
Keith ABS
Proper job ;D
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So what's the actual issue with these? Material used for the resistor combusting? :-\
My guess is that the bearings in the fan motors have been seizing (possibly made worse by water ingress through the scuttle). A partially seized fan will draw more current than it should but pass less air over the resistors.
More current and less airflow results in an overheating resistor pack. VX probably fitted one or more solder links on the base of the resistor pack to act as thermal fuses (the solder used in sprinkler heads melts at 70 degC so VX could have chosen a low melting point solder)
The final piece of the jigsaw is either a DIY fix to link out the thermal fuses (or an ebay replacement without fuses) to turn the resistor pack into a glow plug.
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My guess is that the bearings in the fan motors have been seizing (possibly made worse by water ingress through the scuttle). A partially seized fan will draw more current than it should but pass less air over the resistors.
More current and less airflow results in an overheating resistor pack. VX probably fitted one or more solder links on the base of the resistor pack to act as thermal fuses (the solder used in sprinkler heads melts at 70 degC so VX could have chosen a low melting point solder)
The final piece of the jigsaw is either a DIY fix to link out the thermal fuses (or an ebay replacement without fuses) to turn the resistor pack into a glow plug.
I doubt GM/VX would be recalling a whole wodge of cars to guard against a possible user instigated fault (using non genuine parts and/or bypassing fuses).
The problem has to be with something getting hot enough to set some part of the dashboard/underdash alight. The fact they're recalling the cars again to rectify the same fault implies that whatever they did the first time around wasn't enough, or was in itself a bodge.
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http://garagewire.co.uk/news/vauxhall-recalls-zafira-b-models-again-after-first-fix-fails/
“When the recalls are complete, all vehicles will have a new wax fuse resistor, a new blower motor and a new moulding at the base of the windscreen to address water ingress.”
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http://garagewire.co.uk/news/vauxhall-recalls-zafira-b-models-again-after-first-fix-fails/
“When the recalls are complete, all vehicles will have a new wax fuse resistor, a new blower motor and a new moulding at the base of the windscreen to address water ingress.”
Roughly translates to "This car is utter rubbish, please buy a nice new Zafira C VW Touran instead..." ::)
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So what's the actual issue with these? Material used for the resistor combusting? :-\
My guess is that the bearings in the fan motors have been seizing (possibly made worse by water ingress through the scuttle). A partially seized fan will draw more current than it should but pass less air over the resistors.
More current and less airflow results in an overheating resistor pack. VX probably fitted one or more solder links on the base of the resistor pack to act as thermal fuses (the solder used in sprinkler heads melts at 70 degC so VX could have chosen a low melting point solder)
The final piece of the jigsaw is either a DIY fix to link out the thermal fuses (or an ebay replacement without fuses) to turn the resistor pack into a glow plug.
Over heating of the fan motor also easily caused by a blocked pollen/cabin filter :y
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It's a shame, really. Zafira was/is the cheapest and simplest people carrier/van around. Just about everyone has had one at some point. I never had any bother with mine and I certainly gave it some grief.
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In fairness the number of vehicles of different makes being recalled-albeit maybe not for fire causing issues-is quite frightening :o