Opel Corsa

jobonar

My girlfriend is looking at an opel corsa to buy. It has quite low mileage for the year(1997) but has yet to have a timing belt changed. While googling to find the mileage to change it at i saw a few articles mentioning timing chain in stead of timing belt. What's the difference between a timing chain and a timing belt?

astraboy

Whats the mileage? You will definately need a timingbelt change on an 11 year old car for safety anyway if its never been done.

A timing chain is a chain and does not need to be changed for the life of the car, a belt is just that, a belt and needs to be changed to the manufacturers spec. What engine is in the Corsa? On a car that age the regular things need to be checked, oil, coolant, temp as you drive, make sure the head gasket is not on the way out.

Have you test driven it yet?

E92

There's no way a belt would go for 11 years without having been changed at one point or another(assuming there's a belt), low mileage car or not. At most a timing belt would last for 8 years or 80k miles, whichever is the sooner. It would have snapped by now and left a trail of (very expensive)destruction behind.

I'd say it has a chain if it's never been done(chains last the lifetime of the engine).

If it has a belt and it has never been changed then I would say run away, very fast.

jobonar

astraboy wrote: »

Whats the mileage? You will definately need a timingbelt change on an 11 year old car for safety anyway if its never been done.

A timing chain is a chain and does not need to be changed for the life of the car, a belt is just that, a belt and needs to be changed to the manufacturers spec. What engine is in the Corsa? On a car that age the regular things need to be checked, oil, coolant, temp as you drive, make sure the head gasket is not on the way out.

Have you test driven it yet?

55,000m and its a 1 litre. Yeah i've driven it. it drives well and everything seems to be in good condition. trying to organise a mechanic to look at it before a deal is done but my only concern is the timing belt not being changed. any idea if this model is a belt or chain? google is being very helpful

jobonar

E92 wrote: »

There's no way a belt would go for 11 years without having been changed at one point or another(assuming there's a belt), low mileage car or not.

I was thinking that too....

martinr5232

If its a one litre corsa it has a timing chain.

Make sure its not rattling.Or it could be very expensive to replace its a myth that timing chains last for ever.

Those one litre corsas suffer from a lot of problems and all fairly expensive to remedy.

For example Coil packs,EGR valves,mass air flow metres,idle control valves, Rpm sensors and oil pressure sensors.

Also head gaskets gave a bit of trouble.

All that ive listed above is on the one litre three cylinder engine as far as i can remember that was the only one litre that was in them the one point two was a four cylinder and a lot more reliable but they had a timing belt.

Earth Worm Jim

Not sure about the 1997 model but I had a 1999 model from new- It had 40k and it had a timing chain which I never replaced - only problem I had was the Air Mass Meter which cost 80 quid in a motor factors (easy to fit)

The car never let me down and was very economical (eco engine)

Only thing I would say is the pre 99 corsas had no power steering and I think the eco engines only came out in 99 too. The eco engines were classed as bullet proof by the opel mechanics (their words)

E92

Corsas got PAS back in 97 when the 1.0 litre made it's debut IIRC(well at least my cousin's 97 1.0 Corsa had PAS anyway:D).

Being only a 1.0 it's unlikely to get you anywhere even remotely quickly(0-100 in over 16 seconds confirms this in my mind, though I haven't driven it so can't be sure about that), so most will have had a hard life. It's called "ECOTEC" as all Opel petrols(and now diesels) have been called for the past while.

I'd say get the 1.2 ECOTEC (i.e. the 16V engine) minimum. The non ECOTEC one was there before 97 and had even less power than the 1.0 12V, no PAS(on basic versions anyway) and is clearly a model best avoided IMHO.

astraboy

Agree with the above statement. The 1.0L is woefully underpowered and the 1.2 would be a better option for any driving outside of pure city driving. The additional tax/running costs would be minor. A 3 cylinder 1L engine is too small for the corsa really.

HJL

Id stay away from 1.0 Corsa's, was going to buy one a few years ago, but was advised by everyone to stay away. 1.2 seem to be much better, the 16v ecotec 1.2 didnt start till '99 though AFAIK, it went into the last of that shape of corsa.
Id still sooner the older version of the 1.2 over the 1.0, pretty basic engine so less to go wrong and cheap tp fix if/when it does.