Fault with Vauxhall Vectra C

gazfocus

I've got an 04 Vauxhall Vectra 2.2i Automatic and the other day, on my way home from taking our dog to the vets, the car decided to konk out while I was at the lights. The car wouldn't start back up, and a warning light came on the dash (an outline of the car with a spanner through it), so some kind man helped push the car to the side of the road.

A few minutes later, the car started and I managed to get home (a 5 mile journey), but which time the warning light had gone off.

Having read online, it could be a number of things from Electrical Problems, to the High Pressure Fuel Pump, but using common sense, I had put £20 of petrol in the car that morning (the car only had about 20 miles worth of petrol in before putting petrol in), so I'm wondering if its more likely to be dirty fuel from Asda.

I've not tried the car since, and have it booked into the garage to go on their diagnostic reader on Monday, but just wondering what you guys think it could be.

motorguy

gazfocus wrote: »

I've got an 04 Vauxhall Vectra 2.2i Automatic and the other day, on my way home from taking our dog to the vets, the car decided to konk out while I was at the lights. The car wouldn't start back up, and a warning light came on the dash (an outline of the car with a spanner through it), so some kind man helped push the car to the side of the road.

A few minutes later, the car started and I managed to get home (a 5 mile journey), but which time the warning light had gone off.

Having read online, it could be a number of things from Electrical Problems, to the High Pressure Fuel Pump, but using common sense, I had put £20 of petrol in the car that morning (the car only had about 20 miles worth of petrol in before putting petrol in), so I'm wondering if its more likely to be dirty fuel from Asda.

I've not tried the car since, and have it booked into the garage to go on their diagnostic reader on Monday, but just wondering what you guys think it could be.

Could be one of a thousand things, but i would say with 100% certainty, not "dirty fuel from ASDA"

Lorian

If the engine management light was on the it probably still has the codes stored that will tell you what failed. You need to look at the codes to see.

prowla

I had a Vectra some time back and the engine management sensors were incredibly unreliable.

As per the previous post, all modern cars have error codes stored, so you can read them and find out the issue. A garage may charge for their diagnosis, or you can buy a unit on ebay and see what it says for yourself.

facade

The usual cause of conking out when hot and restarting when it has cooled down a bit is crankshaft or camshaft sensor.

The crank rarely sets an error code, so it is more likely camshaft.

bigjl

It is probably more likely to do with the fuel system in my limited experience with that engine.

My BiL had a 2008 Vectra 2.2 Direct SRi, it was a nice car when it was running properly.

Which wasn't very often.

He still managed to put 80k on it in just over 3 years mostly up and down the A12 from Colchester to East London.

I would buy a cheap OBD Dongle from eBay and Torque App of similar and read the codes of it happens again. Though there may well be a code there to be read even if the engine management light has gone off.

motorguy

facade wrote: »

The usual cause of conking out when hot and restarting when it has cooled down a bit is crankshaft or camshaft sensor.

The crank rarely sets an error code, so it is more likely camshaft.

As an aside, from memory the 2.2i doesnt have a crank sensor. Any errors relating to it are caused by a stretched timing chain.

If its that thats caused the problem, the O/P is about to have a VERY bad day.

arcon5

No crank sensor? So how does it know engine position


If it's a petrol op there won't be a high pressure pump

getmeouttahere

Thanks for the replies.

I actually had the car up for sale (before the fault occurred), and someone ended up buying it today in full knowledge of what had happened (and I put on an AA receipt about the fault so there's no comeback).

This is the symbol that was displayed, but it's gone off now. I also had the car running on my drive for 30 minutes today with no issues (kept revving the engine to heat it up).

arcon5 wrote: »

If it's a petrol op there won't be a high pressure pump

That's a relief...I think.

I still don't know what caused the problem, and I hope to goodness the new owner takes the issue seriously as I'd hate to think of someone having a lemon.

Inner_Zone

arcon5 wrote: »

No crank sensor? So how does it know engine position


If it's a petrol op there won't be a high pressure pump

Wrong, if the OP's car has the Z22YH engine (likely as they were fitted from 2003) it defiantly has a high pressure fuel pump, recently changed one on my Vectra's Z22YH engine.