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[Kevin Wood]

My brother has a Zafira 1.4 Turbo on which the gearbox has started whining quite badly - at about 40k miles.

One garage did the <suck through teeth> "New gearbox, mate. £2k" routine.

Another has offered to replace some bearings for £600.

ISTR some discussion about Vauxhall FWD gearbox failures here in the past. Anyone know what the issue is with them?

Cheers,

Kevin

[Doctor Gollum]

Not uncommon in the higher powered Astra Hs... The gearbox is more compact than the Vectra/Insignia, so not as much space in the casing, hence narrower bearings which don't tolerate abuse.

Bro had a couple of 1.9 cdti 150 Astras as company cars, both were due new boxes at around two years 50/60k.

[dave the builder]

I vaguely remember something about the inner CV joints should have been greased on assembly and it didn't happen ,
 so the output bearings    needed replacement which was ££££ out of warranty 

[STEMO]

My brother has a Zafira 1.4 Turbo on which the gearbox has started whining quite badly - at about 40k miles.

One garage did the <suck through teeth> "New gearbox, mate. £2k" routine.

Another has offered to replace some bearings for £600.

ISTR some discussion about Vauxhall FWD gearbox failures here in the past. Anyone know what the issue is with them?

Cheers,

Kevin

Whatever the issue is, Kevin, if it's out of warranty it's got to come out and it's got to be stripped.
Unless you or bro fancy doing it, it's gonna be a specialist job.

[Marks DTM Calib]

6 speed on the Turbo from memory (140 bhp 1.4?)

Its nothing to do with power at all (torque), the M32 had a bearing which was on the edge with respect to size, in about 2010-2012 this was changed to a bigger bearing with uprated end plate.

The whole thing is very hit and miss to, some boxes will do mega mileage without issue, other go early, I suspect there is also a bearing shimming/preload factor to.

So yes, a bearing change is a fix plus decent oil, the best fix is the later end plate (easy to spot as it has extra ribs for support).
 

[Marks DTM Calib]

Full info here:

https://www.eco-torque.co.uk/post/m32-gearbox-guide-to-faults-fixes

[deviator]

Not uncommon in the higher powered Astra Hs... The gearbox is more compact than the Vectra/Insignia, so not as much space in the casing, hence narrower bearings which don't tolerate abuse.

Bro had a couple of 1.9 cdti 150 Astras as company cars, both were due new boxes at around two years 50/60k.

The 16v 1.9 CDTI engine in the Astra/Zaf is the M32, it's a known weak spot, especially if turning the wick up. It's common to see the box replaced for the M40 (Vectra/Signum possibly Insignia?). I don't know is involved though.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Not uncommon in the higher powered Astra Hs... The gearbox is more compact than the Vectra/Insignia, so not as much space in the casing, hence narrower bearings which don't tolerate abuse.

Bro had a couple of 1.9 cdti 150 Astras as company cars, both were due new boxes at around two years 50/60k.

The 16v 1.9 CDTI engine in the Astra/Zaf is the M32, it's a known weak spot, especially if turning the wick up. It's common to see the box replaced for the M40 (Vectra/Signum possibly Insignia?). I don't know is involved though.

Love to see where that is done as it wont fit in the engine bay without a hell of a lot of modification, turning the wick up isn't the issue, the box can take the torque but, the bearing runs hot and fails, they last just as long on a 1.4 Turbo petrol as they do on a 320Nm CDTi. 

The real answer is the new end plate, I am told this dropped warranty claims by almost 99%!

The M32 in my Zaf was on 193k miles when it was written off (150 1.9 CDTi)

[Kevin Wood]

Thanks for the info, All.