VAUXHALL ASTRA 1.6 KEEPS BREAKING DOWN - HELP!!!

[lizzy771]

Hi all,

My Vauxhall Astra is continuously breaking down after only a few miles of driving. I think I am getting an invitation to the AA's Christmas party, they have done several diagnostics at the side of the road and each one indicates it is the crankshaft sensor, up to now it has been in the garage three times and has had 2 crankshaft sensors and a camshaft sensor replaced but still the problem persists. They are now sucking their teeth and saying it has to be looked at by a vauxhall dealer and it is probably the ECU, can anyone out there help me please I am in despair.

 

[Burnerman]

I've no real idea what your problem is, but one of the very best places to go in our area is the Bank Top Garage, Prestwick Village. Its between the airport and Dinnington.
Very skilled and helpful people!
John

 

[Peter.N.]

Just a thought, next time it does it try undoing the fuel filler cap, if you hear an inrush of air and.or the engine runs OK you could have a blocked tank breather.

Peter

 

[Mursal]

Any physical damage to the old sensor?

No, well it's probably a bad connection between the sensor and the ECU.

All the connections will have to be checked for corrosion. The only thing is, the laptop (fault code reader) will not do this for you or the technician, so be patient.

The difficulty, laptop isn't intelligent enough to know the difference between a bad connection and a bad/faulty sensor.

 

[Crickleymal]

I had the wiring to the crank sensor on a Vectra rot away once. The insulation had got so brittle it just fell apart and shorted out. This was on a car that had only done 107k miles. No wonder their "lifetime" guarantee is for 100k miles.

 

[Astra99]

If this is the 8-valve Astra 1.6, it is quite likely the ECU may be the problem. It's mounted on the end of the inlet manifold, and the hot/cold hot/cold continuous cycle causes the soldered connection from the externalconnector to the circuit board to fail. This can throw up any number of different errors. In my case, it was reporting a defective throttle position sensor. This I replaced and the error returned once the engine was hot. Whan it was cold there was no problem. At the time the car was 8 years old with about 45000 on the clock.
Sorry to be a Job's comforter, but this is my experience!

 

[lizzy771]

I've no real idea what your problem is, but one of the very best places to go in our area is the Bank Top Garage, Prestwick Village. Its between the airport and Dinnington.
Very skilled and helpful people!
John

 

[lizzy771]

Any physical damage to the old sensor?

No, well it's probably a bad connection between the sensor and the ECU.

All the connections will have to be checked for corrosion. The only thing is, the laptop (fault code reader) will not do this for you or the technician, so be patient.

The difficulty, laptop isn't intelligent enough to know the difference between a bad connection and a bad/faulty sensor.

 

[lizzy771]

Any physical damage to the old sensor?

No, well it's probably a bad connection between the sensor and the ECU.

All the connections will have to be checked for corrosion. The only thing is, the laptop (fault code reader) will not do this for you or the technician, so be patient.

The difficulty, laptop isn't intelligent enough to know the difference between a bad connection and a bad/faulty sensor.

 

[Sirbendy]

Right. When it cuts out, does it cut out dead, suddenly? My Auto was doing this, and it was a failing output driver in the ECU, which when warm was cutting the power to the fuel pump.

Laptop was reading various fault codes, but nothing that would relate.

Multimeter got the thing pinpointed..

Next time, try this:

Pop the relay cover off (right hand side of the bay as you stand looking at it from the front). One of those..might be purple, or yellow..can't recall now..is your fuel relay. Pop it out, look for the 2 larger spade connectors (As I recall).

Ignition off, bridge the connectors with a wire or similar (I used tweezers, heh).

Try a start now. You're effectively hot-wiring the fuel pump to 12v, do don't forget to disconnect it when you park up, and it's not a long-term solution..but it got me running.

Bluestreak engineering were the company I used to get my ECU rebuilt..they couriered it to their place, tested it the same day, called me back with results (Intermittent runner, quad driver fail), asked if I wanted it repaired and gave me a very reasonable price, I had it back next day good as new.

Vx quoted me a 2 month lead time and a horrendous cost for a new ECU..