Corsa - loss of power on motorway

JReacher1

Hi

I'm hoping someone can help. I was driving my 2003 corsa SXI on the motorway when the power suddenly cut out as I as accelerating. I took my foot off the peddle and then pressed it again and it came back to life again!

I've since driven 80 miles and the problem has not reoccurred.

Any idea what went wrong? It's a bit of a worry!

The cars only done 60,000 miles and was serviced a month ago.

forgotmyname

Warning lights? Checked the oil and water levels?

Heater working?

When you say serviced what did you get changed? Ever had the fuel filter replaced? Spark plugs?

JReacher1

forgotmyname wrote: »

Warning lights? Checked the oil and water levels?

Heater working?

When you say serviced what did you get changed? Ever had the fuel filter replaced? Spark plugs?

Yes they all look ok and the heater works fine. I had the fuel filter replaced 12 months ago and the oil change last month (along with the spark plugs).

I've googled it and it seems like it may be the EGR valve. Although I'll have to take it to a garage and have someone look at it.

D4nny

it could be a few things really,there isn't really any point in hazarding a guess you will be best to do as you say and take it to a garage who will be able to diagnose the issue.

Strider590

It may well have been some bad fuel, a bit of water in the tank. With the current E5 unleaded petrol, your practically pouring water into your fuel tank, as ethanol is hygroscopic.

Muscle750

I know the later ones were drive by wire basically the accelerator controls the engine speed electronically there is no throttle cable and I've replaced quite a few pedal assys due to this problem however I don't know if yours as it's older has a cable or it's drive by wire Astras suffered from fuel pumps clogging up in the tank another thought on yours I would say it's sensor related somewhere

arcon5

If by loss of power you mean it become lumpy as opposed to anything actually cutting out - then EGR could well be suspect. Clean it out along with the inlet manifold and see how you get on.. if not time for the garage, but i've driven cars with this fault and under load it can be unresponsive, sluggish and lumpy.
Or just see how you go on, sooner or later the emissions light may come on.

Motorway is certainly providing some okay conditions for the EGR to open up.

JReacher1

I completely lost power. All the dials went down to the bottom e.g. Speedometer and Rev counter. The break warning light came on and it was as if the whole engine was turned off.

It got revived by me pressing on the accelerator peddle (frantically).

I've now been driving it round for about two hours and the problem hasn't resurfaced. I'm unsure whether to take it to the garage or just see if it happens again and then go to the garage.

Mankysteve

JReacher1 wrote: »

I completely lost power. All the dials went down to the bottom e.g. Speedometer and Rev counter. The break warning light came on and it was as if the whole engine was turned off.

It got revived by me pressing on the accelerator peddle (frantically).

I've now been driving it round for about two hours and the problem hasn't resurfaced. I'm unsure whether to take it to the garage or just see if it happens again and then go to the garage.

I was going suggest the pedal test to see if you've got any fault code but as soon as yo mentioned the dash dieing I knew exactly what it is.

Common fault of corsa of that vintage. The connectors on the back of the instrument cluster get corroded and temporary loose connection. Hence all the dials dropping to zero. Usually a quick thump with bring it back to life.

The cure is to remove instrument panel and clean the connectors and re-install, not a big job.

JReacher1

Mankysteve wrote: »

I was going suggest the pedal test to see if you've got any fault code but as soon as yo mentioned the dash dieing I knew exactly what it is.

Common fault of corsa of that vintage. The connectors on the back of the instrument cluster get corroded and temporary loose connection. Hence all the dials dropping to zero. Usually a quick thump with bring it back to life.

The cure is to remove instrument panel and clean the connectors and re-install, not a big job.

Cheers that doesn't sound too bad.

I did the pedal test and got nothing!

I'll give that a go.

EDIT - I've just googled this and examples of this seem to be the exact situation that I experienced. So thanks for your advice. I hope that it all it is!