Engine light on my Astra.....

[Gr44]

Question for anyone who knows Vauxhalls... I'm sure we've a few on the forums here!!

My car suddendly came on with a yellow outline of what I can only assume is the engine block when I was driving last week, I was just crusing doing 30 at the time, infact I'd not long been running it ( was just leaving work ). I pulled over and turned her off... had a look inside ( not that I had a clue what I was looking for! ) but I didn't notice anything obvious.

Anyway, I turned it back on, it vanished... so I didn't think much to it. Been running for since and done 3-400 miles in it - until today.

Just got home from work, parked up and I had a failed delivery from the RM... so got back in the car and headed off to the post office, the light came up just as I pulled off my drive and the front wheels hit the road ( down slope to the road ) so again, pulled over... same as above.

Anyone have any ideas on what this could be ? anythign I Can check? Please tell me it isn't expensive!

Oh... PS: It's a 2001 (Y) Astra 2.0 Petrol engine ( XE20XEV I think it is? )

Many Thanks,

Sean

[Howard]

If it drives alright then it's probably not anything major, it's also probably not a good idea to drive it too much like it... Ideally you need to get it to a garage who can read the ECU fault code.

I bet it's the EGR valve, IIRC they're notorious for going wrong on Vauxhalls but I could be completely wrong

[Gr44]

EGR Valve you say... sounds expensive!

It drives fine... except when the light comes on ( obviously self-throttling or something )

Thanks Howard, anyone else any ideas before I take it to the vauxhall monkeys and hand over £40 for them plugging the computer into it...

[Howard]

You could take it to a non-main dealer and hand over less than £40

We fixed the EGR valve on my dad's car, it was clogged up with crud, and saying that, I'm pretty sure that if it is this then there'd be more symptoms like poor running/idling... Hmm

[Gr44]

Well the car doesn't idle fantastic... but it never has to be honest... never thought much of it! Runs fine though.

It's only done 49K at the moment so not exactly high miles... dont know how long these EGR vavles are meant to last though.

Was it easy to fix up on your dads car? eg; could a noob do it?

I might ring round then and find out how much it would be to get a tech2 thingy plugged into her... I really resent paying £40 or 50 for what is about 2minutes work... scam artists!

[filbert]

It drives fine... except when the light comes on

Sounds like something is failing, think your best bet is to pay for it to go on a scanner, before it fails and you breakdown

[Howard]

"Doesn't idle fantastic"? So it's hunting/stuttering when it's idling? That isn't really normal


It was just clogged up, fairly easy to fix, bit of a bugger to get to initially (longitudinal arrangement didn't help)

[Gr44]

Well it stutters a little....

But its a crappy 4 cylinder car, they all do, right?
( am i showing how noobish I am with cars yet? )

I've been doing some reading on this EGR valve and it does look like a worthy guess... think I'll try and get it into a tech place tomorrow though if I can find a cheapo one near work.

[hitman67]

Mines an 18yr old 4 Cylinder Diesel and it runs smooth once warmed up, can be a little coarse when cold. Well as smooth as a Land Rover will ever be anyway.

[[GSV]Trig]

Can you flash the codes out on the XEV's or are they a bit too new for that kinda thing.

[Gr44]

I use saw that 'paperclip' trick on another website. It says most vauxhalls made after 2000 don't allow it though so I'd guess not.

That said the ENGINE is older than 2000 so I don't know... could give it a go I suppose, it won't break anything if I try and it no longer works... right?

[Howard]

But its a crappy 4 cylinder car, they all do, right?

No I don't know mine's running if I'm sitting in traffic and the radio is on or for whatever reason I can't hear the engine, it's smooth as


If you rev it, to 2-3k then let it drop back to idle, it should return there smoothly, as opposed to sort of juddering about when the needle drops right to the bottom which I'm guessing is what it's doing now?

I'm no mecahnic btw, just trying to ascertain how bad it is lol

[mycarsavw]

If the engine light flashes don't drive it, if it's on steadily it's ok to drive but you do need to get it sorted out asap.

Because of the hunting, I'd either guess at the EGR of the MAF. MAF can be cleaned easily enough, EGR pass

[kalniel]

As soon as the light lit up the car will have recorded the condition that caused it and a vaux garage will be able to say what failed (even if it's fine when you take it in). My guess is the oxygen sensor or something, causing the engine to drop back to pre-configured mixure settings. If it's just a sensor it shouldn't be too bad to fix.

[Gr44]

No I don't know mine's running if I'm sitting in traffic and the radio is on or for whatever reason I can't hear the engine, it's smooth as


If you rev it, to 2-3k then let it drop back to idle, it should return there smoothly, as opposed to sort of juddering about when the needle drops right to the bottom which I'm guessing is what it's doing now?

I'm no mecahnic btw, just trying to ascertain how bad it is lol

I rev'd it a little this morning... it drops back to idle fine... smoothly, just when it gets to idle you get a few small judders now and then. It's not terrible but you get a small vibration through the pedal etc.

I phoned up a few garages today and the cheapest I've got so far is £30 plus VAT Best get back to work anyway.... will ring some more in a while!

Thanks for everyones input... I think you're all on the right lines, will let you know what it is when I get her checked out

[Optical668]

Could be a few things, but first as you said it stutters a bit, it might be your fuel filter being slightly clogged up but thats a quess. You could give it a few good revs but let the engine idle for about 10mins to let the oil warm up then do it, might unblock the filter. But if your not sure about these things then pop it in a garage they will most likly check all these things as they can link the car up to a computer and will find out what sensor is reporting the fault.