Vectra fault help please

ironed_out

We have an N reg Vectra which we bought about 18 months ago, and haven't stopped spending on it since. It has been in various garages trying to find out what's wrong with it to no avail They'll do 'something' to it, which seems to work and then it'll start happening all over again.

I can be driving along and as soon as I take my foot off the accelerator, the engine dies on me (like if I'd stalled it) This can happen anywhere/anytime, several times in the space of a few minutes, or not happen for a week or more... totally unpredictable! Hot/cold/wet weather seems to make no difference to it happening. We also wondered if it had anything to do with the petrol level but again it happens on a full tank as much as a half or empty tank.
The course of events seems to be
1) (sometimes) Slight juddering
2) engine management light comes on
3) engine cuts out
4) strong petrol smell.

As I said, it's been in several garages (one being the vauxhall dealer) but last time it went in, I said enough was enough and it's on it's last chance now. That was about 6 weeks ago and although it's still happening, I'm so used to it that I take it in my stride.

So does anyone have any ideas on what might be causing this please?
Do you think it could be a sensor of some sort?

Any help appreciated . Thanks

big_gay_kirk

could be something daft like a tiny hole in one of the pipes.. modern engines are just too sensitive... the petrol smell could indicate some sort of leak in the fuel system.. which really needs checking properly... if it was a Lada with a belt drive engine and the fancy engine management system it would almost definitely indicate an obstruction in the in line choke filter between the carb and the fuel filter proper... but thats probably no help.. if anyone's interested, that can be fixed by removing the filter, and using the provided attachment on the provided stirrup pump to blow through the filter.. good old VAZ....

punkaled

you say a smell of petrol so i assume its not a diesel vectra, and its an n reg so its the old shape vectra, there is a trick to diagnose fault codes on petrol vectras using a humble paperclip (saving you the £70 or whatever vauxhall charge nowadays for connecting your car to a computer and pressing a button).
check vvoc.com theres plenty of stuff there about the paper clip thing and tables for the fault codes to tell you whats wrong, also worth doing a search there as it may be something common with that model and chances are someones had the same problem before and maybe found a solution.

slummymummyof3

Had a similar problem with my N reg vectra a numer of years ago and it was the EGR valve failing. I had my Vectra from 15 months old and it was under Network Q guarantee and they just kept replacing the valve without investigating the cause (8 times it was replaced.) It transpired, my car was factory fitted with the wrong sized pistons!!!!!!!! Vauxhall eventually paid for a new short block (lower part of the engine, costing £3k.) We were getting through copious quantities of oil, car kept cutting out and stalling every time you changed down a gear (eg. would drive 120 miles down motorway, come of slip road and change down to give way at top of slip road and it would just cut out and not restart for 10 minutes or so.) Vauxhall dealer was totally useless -Vauxhall however were excellent.....eventually.

ironed_out

Thanks for your help. I've just registered with vvoc. See if there's anyone else over there with the same problem. Will also look into the paperclip thing as well

harveybobbles

Engine light coming on will be the cam and/or crank sensor or possible EGR valve.

The cutting out will be the throttle pot that needs cleaning out cos it's fulla carbon...