Vauxhall Combo ignition trouble

Vauxhalls have always had trouble with their ignitions. Since I started fourteen years ago, the warm months cause a ‘sticky’ ignition to become completely jammed. It wasn’t the heat causing the problem, just bringing to light an underlying fault. Vauxhall Combo vans are still prone to this problem. Every month, we attend to van owners that can no longer turn the key in the ignition lock.

This summer we didn’t see many of these.  This is simply because the newer Vauxhall Astra, Vectra, Zafira and Corsa cars have a re-designed ignition.  These new locks seem to be behaving themselves much better than their predecessors. However there is one vehicle that still uses the old design and that is the Vauxhall Combo Van and Corsa C

Vauxhall Combo Stepping back in time

Vauxhall Combo vans were built up to recently, still using an old style of ignition and this weekend we stepped back in time to when I first began, with a lady who had been having trouble for a while with the ignition feeling not quite right, but then early morning one Friday, it totally packed up, at a customers address.

She is a gardener and can visit a lot of places in one day. This stop / start behavior contributes to the wear in the ignition. Stranded outside a customers address, she was passed our number by her local garage. The thing we do different to the dealer is that we can react quickly and come up with a plan to get the vehicle running very quickly.

In this case, we ordered a new ignition for the next day, built it up to the original key, and she was back to work the following day, which is why we love our job. Helping people when they need it most. She was so pleased, she agreed to a testimonial and here is her story.