2nd Mar 2003, 02:07

Hi! I'm also from the Philippines. I'm a 25 y/o medical student and I just had my vectra last year. It is a 1999 model 2.0 automatic transmission. I have no qualms with the drive cause it is very smooth. what bothered me is the idling problem and overheating. The idling still bothers me now even if I changed a chip that costs P7,000 (120 USD)!!! My panel reads Automatic Transmission every morning I start it up. and yes it does die every now and then. My other problem does not bother me anymore. They placed a ground that fixed my temp. and it never reached catastrophic levels again. My dad told me that it is due to our tropical temperature that is why it is not tropicalized. I dunno what to do!!

10th Aug 2003, 10:14

Hi.

I'm also from Portugal and own a 1997 Opel Vectra 17 TD CD. The car has more or less 150.000kms. The main faults I find in it are: severely underpowered engine (but I was aware of that before buying, so can´t really complain), and overheating problems. The car has never stalled because I take real care with the temperature gauge which routinely crosses the 100ºC mark and reaches the red zone. The problem is especially bad on hilly motorways. I used to own a 92 1.5 TD Opel Corsa and never had any heating problems: I could do 300 kms straight, at any air temperature, at an average speed of 140 kph and it would never overheat. With the Vectra I never tend to go faster than 120/130 kph on motorways, and even so it heats really bad (especially in the summer).

5th Mar 2004, 19:19

HI I live in Egypt. It seems that I have the same problem with the heating and I hope you still check this so that I can help you out with your problem. I also have an opel vectra 2.0 1997 and well the weather is really good so yeah I had the same problem you did until..

I put coolant water in the radiator its not cheap, but it does the trick and this car requires putting water in a different manner than any other let me explain.

1. drain all water

2. make sure engine is cold

3. Add all the water you need and then close the lid and start the car.

4. Don't drive yet, run the car let it heat up and then when the fan turns on, the engine will take in water now you have about 15 seconds to add more water and close the lid before the water rises up

5. Keep doing if necceary.

You see the problem is that this car sometimes has air mixed with water like that its just water. I know it might even sound stupid, but give it a shot, it sure as hell worked for me :)

6th Mar 2004, 09:27

To the last comment, that is how every car works, the entire system needs water not just the radiator, otherwise you've got a lot of air in the system, which is not good. To the original review; I live in south central Canada, we have

-40 C winters and usually 6 to 8 weeks of +30 and above weather in the summer. The average car here has a thermostat that lets the car run at 180 to 190 degrees fahrenheit. The only ones that overheat in the summer are the ones that have some mechanical problem such as a faulty water pump, faulty cooling fan, faulty thermostat, low coolant, or anything that causes the engine to run roughly, bad valves etc. We use a 50/50 mix of water and antifreeze. The antifreeze prevents freezing and boiling of the coolant water. Do you use any such fluid? (probably not called antifreeze in your part of the world). I think you probably don't if the thermostat attempts to keep the engine so cool.

29th Sep 2004, 01:57

I am also from the Philippines and owns an Opel Vectra V6 2.5. I also experience same overheating problem. The temperature goes to red when the air conditioning is on and stays at 100 degrees when off. however, when you accelerate above 120 kph, temperature starts to go up again.

To everyone, I wonder if there is a solution to this. I appreciate your help. If you have some suggestions, please let me know.

30th Oct 2005, 07:58

You need to fit an uprated radiator, not a different thermostat.

I would also get the dealer to check the compression as you may have a blown head gasket.

29th Jan 2006, 10:52

Hello I'm from England and own a Vauxhall Vectra SRI 2.5 V6 I'm a big fan of the car and the overheating problems aren't a problem over here... Maybe Opel should have realised that having the same engines in radically different climates would have some diverse effects.

30th Jan 2006, 23:49

I'm in Australia and have a 1999 vectra 2.2l manual. When I got it 2 months ago it overheated regularly on hot days and once boiled badly when the fans didn't come on. I found the fan power wire (connected directly to the battery terminal) was loose. That fixed the fan problem, but it still ran too hot (over 100 deg always). I removed and tested the thermostat and found it was a 92/107 deg one, and didn't start opening until 98 deg anyway. I've just removed it for now and the car is fine. Australian vectras are supposed to have 82/97 deg thermostats, so I will have to get the correct one before winter (but they are very expensive!).

5th Aug 2006, 16:20

Two things about overheating:

1. Check the thermostat! Removing it at all isn't a good solution, because while the engine heats up, it will consume more fuel and extensive wear. You must use a thermostat with a lower opening degrees. Such as 87C.

2. Do not use ordinary water!! Water boils up (depending on sea level) 96-100C. Use a mixture of water/antifreeze, antifreeze or fluid which in our Baltic countries called tosol and made from some kind of ethanol mixture. It boils up around 104C degrees. It should solve the problem. Of course, you should check engine head (faulty gasket can force air into cooling system), may be there is air in the cooling, which prevents thermostat to open, and check fan, fan sensor and sensor in cooling pipe near engine head.

5th Nov 2006, 00:16

I never knew about the problems of the vectra. I'm also from the Philippines and I'll be getting a second hand Opel Vectra 2.0 CD 2 days from now. It's a 1997 model, but has only run 25,000kms and has been parked in the garage of the previous owner since 2002 since the owner was out of the country that long and recently returned and decided to sell it. Anyway, I hope the car doesn't have all these problems mentioned or that would be a pain! Hopefully it works well with the tropical climate here.