Terrible problems with engine management

sopwithuk · Post by **sopwithuk** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 7:00 pm

Hi all this is my first post and rather long sorry!

My 1998 Corsa 1.2 16v had the lambda (O2) sensor and crankshaft sensor replaced in August 2005 at a cost of Â£250, it ran with no problems until this Sunday when the engine management light came on 6 times on the motorway and engine lost power each time, the following day it did it 5 times.

Phoned independent garage (which uses genuine Vauxhall parts) where I had the sensors replaced as I thought they had gone again and they have had the car all day.

First they phoned and said car is now OK, they had to re set the computer, they have test driven it on the motorway and it works 100% perfectly.

So I pick car up and as soon as I pull away I can feel there is not enough power, anyway I take it onto a dual carriageway where the speed limit is 70, the light came on again as soon as I accelerated and the car almost came to a stop half way up a hill. Fortunately hardly any cars on the road so I crawled up at around 10 mph and found an exit in the middle of the road so I could drive back down into the town, and just about got back to the garage OK. Light is now on all the time!

Garage takes another look and now says lambda sensor fitted in August is faulty, and will be replaced under warranty.

Get a phone call to say they fitted new lambda sensor and it made no difference, they say they phoned Vauxhall technical support and they think it is the air mass sensor that is faulty. This part wont arrive until tomorrow and will cost me Â£213 ex vat! But they say if that doesn\'t work they will not charge me for the part and put the old one back.

I don\'t understand how they road tested it on a motorway with no problems, and why the diagnostic machine keeps telling them different things every time they hook it up to the car. How many sensors does the car have?

Nik

j1400 · Post by **j1400** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 11:43 pm

The 1L and 1.2 16V are well known for the airflow meter\'s going funny, and giving odd fault codes.

Sounds like your gargae kow\'s what they are doing.

sopwithuk · Post by **sopwithuk** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 12:16 am

Oh really? Well as soon as I can afford it the car is being part exchanged for something else.

Forgot to mention that on Sunday we had to drive on the motorway in really bad weather conditions, very heavy rain. The car was fine going, but when we had to go home that\'s when the problems started with the ECU light, I think the car was saturated with water as the hand break made a huge bang when I took it off and the breaks were making scraping noises for a while. Could it be that all this water mucked up whatever sensor is not working correctly?

sopwithuk · Post by **sopwithuk** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 8:47 pm

Car is now fixed, new air flow meter fitted at cost of Â£250. It drives like new and goes like a rocket!

But ECU light still comes on sometimes and wont go off unless you turn engine off. Garage thinks there is a fault in the wiring loom and said I would need a new one at a cost of over Â£200 so I am not bothering with that right now just driving it as it is.

garrito · Post by **garrito** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 12:20 pm

alright mate ive got the problem you had with the lambda sensor.

ive got warranty from the garage that i bought it from, but i will have to put my standard filter to get it.

if i put my new filter on afterwards will i get the same problem again or shall i just buy the part myself and fit it with my pipercross already on?

any help will be appreciated thanks guys

punkheadgray · Post by **punkheadgray** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 12:43 pm

put your standard filter on and get the garage to change it if its under warrenty matey, the fault will still be there