Reading the letters in the current issue of Practical Caravan, I spotted one from a chap who seems to be encountering the same problem as me(Give me air, page8).
About a month to six weeks ago we had been in some extremely heavy suburban traffic in North London when going up a hill on the way home, the ECU light came on and engine power dropped by 50%. This was the first time that this had happened since we bought the car back in Febraury. We reacted as per the handbook instructions ie stop, switch off wait about 20 seconds and re-start. The light went off but came on again within three miles, this time with no power reduction. Went through the same routine again and all was well.
Coincidentally, later that week the car was due to have its third annual service and MOT. I mentioned this incident with the ECU light, they checked for fault codes on the computer and reported back that there were no faults stored in the car's onboard computer. Subsequent to the service the light has come on several times without any loss of power but it doesn't go out on its own. We have to stop and switch off and switch back on.
This doesn't happen much eg the last time it came on was Wednesday of last week since when we have driven from Oswestry to Lake Bala and back and from Oswestry back home to Hertfordshire and around locally here and it hasn't come on once.
My angle is that could my Vectra, a SRi 1.9CDTI automatic suffer from the same problem as this chaps which is a 2.2Dti? Currently my car has 19.5 thousand miles on the clock.
Vic, as Tykey says try www.vectra-c.com. It is an owners club and a mine of information.
I was thinking of getting the Vectra Estate, but the Estate version is limited to 1200 Kgs, because of the auto box, so it's looking like I'll be getting one of the Shalhamra family diesel autos.
The Lucida still pulls OK, but if we change the van I want something which will cope with 1500Kg +.
Cheers,
Jim.
our vectra had the problem of engine management light coming on exactly the same.
diagnostics showed up fault code 400.
this relates to the egr valve,had a fitter check it out who did our diagnostic check,he found that a vacuum pipe connector was perished and loose on the valve on the n/s wing,lo and behold,new connector fitted all checked on board computor cleared of faults and car has run perfect ever since
by the way ours is a series b 2.2 dti ls estate nov 2000 model and max weight for towing at 85% is 1335kgs.manual gearbox tho.
worth checking all vacuum pipes before spending loads of dosh.
I`ve had a Vectra for the past four and a half years and you are correct about the little rubber connectors on the vacumn system there are quite a few of then. Also the thin black plastic pipes can chafe and wear small holes in them causing the same problems, worth checking them all out and not exspensive to replace.
I've had a new EGR valve and all the associated plumbing renewed under warranty, so I'd be surprised if it was that.
My Vectra is the 2005 model and in terms of mileage is quite young for this sort of thing to be occurring.
Having had modified injector switches fitted, a new EGR valve and associated plumbing and new injectors we're now going for the ultimate - a new inlet manifold including swirl valves. Apparently this was a common fault in the early 1.9 CDTI 150 engines and later engines had a modification to overcome the problems. The new inlet manifold that will be fitted on Thursday will of course feature this modification. All the previous work to this has had to be done as part of a process of elimination. Apparently Vauxhall have found that all these things have been a contributory factor to the ECU light coming on but so far none of them have resolved the problem with my car. TYPICAL!!!!!!LOL
Thank goodness all this work is covered by the warranty.
get them to fit a swirl actuator as well cause its that actuator that causes the problem in the first place.
the first mainfolds had two piece brass swirl butterflys and the new ones have one piece alluminium ones but you will need a new actuator because the old on has performed too many swirl cycles hence bringing the eml light on
------------- "Range rovers dont LEAK oil they just mark their territory"
get them to fit a swirl actuator as well cause its that actuator that causes the problem in the first place.
the first mainfolds had two piece brass swirl butterflys and the new ones have one piece alluminium ones but you will need a new actuator because the old on has performed too many swirl cycles hence bringing the eml light on
Dead right. In fact when they checked for fault codes the first time around, the computer actually said that the problem was a sticking swirl activator. I will check that is being done as well.