A little advice for a newbie, please?

 

New to the site here, so first up, a little bit about me...

 

I'm a first time Zafira owner (though I used to drive my mum's!), but have had an Astra in the past, and my dad is currently on his 2nd Astra, so Vauxhalls kinda run in the family!

 

Bought mine a month ago, it's a basic 1.6 Club, which was surprisingly cheap to buy and insure and a far sight bigger than my trusty Ford Fiesta 1.25 Freestyle, which is handy when you have 3 kids. It's on a 02 plate and had 97k on the clock when I bought it.

 

I know nothing to very little about cars in general, if I'm honest, but have picked up advice and info from Forums (or should that be Fora?) such as this one in the past when required. I've now decided it's high time that I delved in to become an active member of such an online community.

 

I've recently had a few problems with my car, which prompted me to join up and start finding out more about my Zafira and how I can look after it better, so as to steer clear from unnecessary problems in the future.

 

The said problems first started when my battery light came on. I took it to an alternator specialist who told me that the connections had cracked and that was why the battery wasn't charging properly. Reconditioned alternator bought for £55 and fitted by a mate. Next was when the car wouldn't start, had it towed to the garage to be told the immobiliser was the issue, so most likely my key was damaged and that my fuel pump had also burnt out.

 

Was lucky enough to find the lost transponder chip from my key, saving me on getting a new one and having it programmed, but decided to sort the fuel pump at a cost of £110 supply and fit.

 

To the more experienced of you out there, I would like to ask where to post the following...

 

1. I have a light on the dash that stays on until a few seconds after the car starts. Its a box with e star or fan in it and a nozzle type thingy at the top. What does it mean and how do I sort the problem?

 

2. My fuel gauge is very dodgy. It'll show sometimes up to +/- a quarter of a tank difference to what it showed the last time I drove the car. Other than being annoying and not knowing if I'm gonna run out of fuel any moment, is it a problem that needs fixing and how easy is it to fix?

 

3. My car is currently giving a fuel (non)efficiency of roughly 24mpg. Is this normal for a Zafira of similar age and mileage? Is there anything I can do to improve it? I travel around 150 miles per week, so any help would be much appreciated!

 

4. The heater is hardly blowing out any air at all, which means it takes an awful long time to demist the windscreen. Sometimes I have an excessive amount of condensation build up, where the water actually drips down! The heater also takes a long time to heat up, but does get going eventually. Any suggestions?

 

5. The lower backlight on the middle console to light up the heater knobs, etc, is out. Is this simply a fuse issue?

 

I know that's a lot of stuff, but like I said, I'm a complete newbie to (a)owning a Zafira, and (b)wanting to actually take decent care of a car so it'll last as long as possible!

 

Any help would be massively appreciated!

Thanks all!!!