Anyone having issues with wheel wobble or the car shaking usually 40-60mph?
Ive had a mare of a time with my Croma with this issue, fortunately now all sorted permanently.
a fiat specialist looks after mine, mentioned this wobbling as it was getting quite bad, and looking at the forum its this driveshaft and a good fix was the vectra driveshaft, mentioned this to the fiat specialist and he said as he is Italian wasnt comfortable and that a new spider joint is the start, but i would have preferred to fit a vectra shaft, anyway £170 later new spider joint on, wobble now only very minimal, hardly noticable but im fussy. my croma is used as a taxi, i went on holiday for 6 weeks to return to the croma with a new problem, drivers wheel getting very hot and no meat on the pads, specialist said caliper and pads, i fitted new caliper and pads, still the same, i then thought maybe the disc was warped as what was happening was the wheel was catching a third of the way on the pad creating friction, bought new discs (expensive on the 16v) to find problem still there, had to be the shaft.
so found a vectra shaft but there are two types f40 and m32, the specialist confirms there are no numbers on the gearbox unlike the gm cars usually f40 or m32, i took a chance and bought a vectra shaft m32, fitted it myself and the car is now fixed with no wobbling.
so i can confirm that these vectra shafts fit for the 16v jtd 150.
took me a few hrs but heres how to do it.
jack car up both wheels - quite high, remove engine tray, remove wheel, and the driveshaft nut cap, using a 32mm socket undo fully the driveshaft nut. using i think a 17mm and 11mm undo the ball joint bolt, using a ball joint splitter undo the joint and move the wheel clear. pull on the disc towards you and the driveshaft will slit and come out of the cup, you can then knock the shaft from the hub, BUT BE CAREFUL WITH THE NUT if your used shaft doesnt have one!!!
using the 11mm i think undo the three bolts securing the shaft to the sump, place a tub under the gearbox where the shaft goes in. the bracket with the three bolts needs to be slightly wedges as there are small dowels on it so i seperated it so the dowels were free of the sump and placed a slim spanner there to keep it wedged out, then tap that towards the drivers wheel so it comes out of the gearbox then remove.
feed the new shaft in, locate in the box and line up the holes for the driveshaft bracket, you will notice these are closer than the fiat system, bolt them up, feed cv end into hub, gently put the nut on (as the threads are fine), refit balljoint, torque driveshaft nut, dustcap on, put wheel on and refil gearbox of lost oil (not sure on that as took it to garage but only loses around half a cup), refit engine tray.
THEN LOOK FORWARD TO THAT PROBLEM GOING!!!!
Make sure your used shaft comes with the three bolts for the bracket as these gm ones have thick washers on them, and the bolts looks slightly shorter, and the driveshaft nut, yours should fit but i damaged mine removing the shaft from the hub as i was hitting the nut to remove it.
Mine was a m32 other posts also say m32 but they are around £25-40 used delivered, easy job if you take your time and get someone else to do the gear oil.
my car has done 67k only and ive never had a car before with so many parts to change at such low mileage, just goes to show how gm and fiat build cars - wont be having another.
any issues just ask pref by email thanks
steve

garage never admitted to the issue of fitting the driveshaft incorrectly, how can only one side of the car get hot and only since the shaft was fixed?
i reckon it took 7 weeks for the pad to run out as they were new 5k ago.
so drivers wheel getting hot, pad wore out in 7 weeks last job was the spider fitted on the shaft, in my eyes only reason.
useless mechanics just want £50 + vat and double on parts.

according to some info on the net these spider joints can be machined slightly oversized which may have been causing it to not run true and pressing on the hub creating the friction on the pad.

rubbish design fiat and if you price up new cup and spider you need a mortgage, gawd this car is very expensive to maintain, my friend has a stype jag diesel, front discs and pads from trade £43 all in, fiat from same place......£139 all in
get the vectra shaft on £30 used only issue you have is garages dont like fitting vauxhall parts to a fiat as they dont believe you, they should just do it im paying for the labour right? if my guy had done that, i would have saved, discs and pads and a caliper.
rant over

will ditch this car at easter when pit test due, most expensive car ive had where maintenance is concerned

I think the hot wheels and the drive shaft are not related, even though it may seem like it.

The front right pad wearing quickly and over hot front o/s wheel suggests brake is binding: this is common on Croma. One contributor managed to sort it by changing the master cylinder. The thread is quite recent I think.

Re the expense. I had mine 7 years and spent an effin fortune on it. Parts always seem to cost megabucks.

hi thanks, was definately the shaft, car was fine before, and is fine now, brakes all good.
what was happening was i think the spider joint wasnt right and when the wheels were up the wheel wasnt spinning true it was free for two thirds of the reveloution, and as it was spinning like an egg so to speak so was the hub which in turn was making the pad make unneccasary contact on the disc on that third of a turn which the friction making the wheel hot.

all this started after the spider was fitted, and because the pads were relativly new it took 7 weeks to wear out then you get the loud noise on braking all coming from the drivers side.

as mentioned i replaced the disc pad and caliper and the wheel was still sticking, but when the vectra shaft was put on the wheel was free like it was before and now runs as it should, so can only have been something with the shaft.

i have learned to loathe this car, but like i said its used as a taxi, my other driver loves it, whilst i only treat it like an f1 car at the weekends, so can live with it for three days, and my driver miss daisy loves it.

any sniff of it needing a clutch then its gone as thats around £800 also

thanks

Hi. Thanks to this thread I have just done my O/S drive shaft using a second hand vectra part bought from eBay. Never felt so good to not have the feeling of being sat on the spin cycle. Thanks everyone who has had input on this topic.
Buyer beware you want the M32 not F40 shaft.
Only set me back 30 quid and feels like new. Well feels like second hand but not broken.
Cheers