I have a Vauxhall Zafira 1.8 Elegance X reg. A light has come on which is the car with a spanner through it. The day after this happened an alarm started from under the bonnet. It's not the main car alarm but a much quieter one.(Thank God) I can't find anything in the manual about it nor can you see anything obvious under the hood. Anyone had this problem before and how do I stop it? It's starting to hurt my ears now. I've just spent nearly £1000 at a Vauxhall workshop and I'm stony broke!

Mandi., June 2006

The alarm problem is most likely down to the battery in the sounder which has degraded and your car needs one of two things - a new sounder (about £60 + fitting + VAT) - or just remove the sounder (detailed elsewhere on other help forums).

To answer David - the binding rear calipers were covered by a dealer callback some years ago, but lease companies never bother doing it, and if your car was previously owned by a lease company, you can bet it won't have been done. The fix is a different caliper which doesn't lock up.

The air-con issue you have is a typical aircon fault - either a hole in the condenser (in front of the radiator), maybe a leaky pipe fitting, or in a T-plate vehicle, as it's getting on, the compressor may be faulty if it's been running without coolant (and therefore oil). Get it checked by a proper aircon engineer, not a dealer who will take your money and keep filling it up, and if they did fix it, charge you the earth for the work compared to a proper aircon engineer.

Rob, August 2008

Hi, I have a 2.0 DTi Zafira 04 plate. Started having problems with the alarm going off very soon after the sevice light started comming on. Never had a problem with the vehicle the previous year and initially put the problem down to leaving the vehicle in direct sun, which was then causing air thermals inside the car and tripping the sensors. I then took to overriding these upon exiting the vehicle by pressing both courtesy light buttons for 10 seconds, but to no avail. It is now booked in for a service so we will see. Vauxhall charge £60+VAT just to hook up the diagnostic laptop!

Ed Hiam, July 2007

The chip in your alarm system has gone. This is a common Zafira problem which Vauxhall refuse to admit happens- they will tell you you are the first one to complain. It happened to me. The unit needs to be replaced. I found many problems on my T Reg that are quite widespread- binding rear brake calipers, air-conditioing system lasting 6 weeks after a re-fill, loss of eingine power due to clogging etc.

David of Rotherham, August 2006

That light means that you should take the car to a repairer. The alarm may mean the same thing. Those kind of lights usually mean that the car need tot be plugged in to a diagnostic computer - which is not usually a DIY option. If you have already spent a lot of money with a dealer recently, they should at least check it out for free.

Terry, June 2006