My Opel Died!!!

[Tommi]

Hey guys n gals,

This afternoon after work I jumped into my 04 Astra SXI, I turned the ignition and the engine light went on and as I went to drive off I felt something was very wrong... The car sounded like a WRX .... after ringing RACQ who luckly were fixing a car in the same car park and becoming a member ($200) I I was told I'm running on 3 cylenders (something I figured by the sound and less power)...
Then I couldn't rev at all... car would only idle... it fixed itself after a while so it could rev normally but still the same problem..and possibly a future issue tomorrow morning??

The racq guy told me all the plugs appear to be fine and its most likely a coil and hopefully not a bent valve!

Anyhow, I limped home (30km)on 3cyls, now I need to get it into a mechanic tomorrow, any ideas what I'm looking at price wise to fix hopefully a blown coil ???

[Nurb608]

I'd read the fault codes first before you bring it in, stop them from stuffin you around. Not to sure on the Astras but dropping 1 cylinder doesn't sound like the coil. Could even be the head gasket.

[Tommi]

I checked the coolant, no oil thankfully, that was my biggest worry...

how do I check the fault codes?

[Nurb608]

Not sure if the accelerator/brake test works on your astra. Have a search on here for how to read codes. If it doesn't work, there may be someone close with an op-com if your lucky.

[Nurb608]

Or try this.

http://www.opelaus.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14342&highlight=astra+fault+code

[Snotty]

sounds more like it was in limp mode rather than 3 cylinders

[Tommi]

Thanks mate, I'm having a look at it now.

[Tommi]

limp mode?
It was idling fine but it sounds like its running on three cylinders and there's a lack of power

[Snotty]

when the ecu detects a fault, the car goes into limp home mode, which is what it is, allows you to limp home hopefully with out causing any damage to the engine depending on what the problem is.

limp mode is exactly what you describe, no power and the car sounds crap somewhat like a subaru engine. take it to holden they,ll check the fault codes and tell you whats wrong.

you may also find that when you go to start the car in the morning, it has resets itself and the car will run fine

[Tommi]

ok, ummm this may seem like a silly question, if the car is running fine again, and I take it to Holden can they still check the fault ?

[Nurb608]

So long as the fault code is still stored they can. They will charge you a fair bit just to read the code though.

[USC]

Does your car have a distributor? If so, check the spark plug leads.
Otherwise, check each lead from each coil to the spark plug if it is distributorless. might be a coil but most likely the lead.

[Tommi]

Yeh its 4 coils per cylinder type that are sitting on top of the block.
Hmmm.... I'll take it in first thing tomorrow morning to the dealership... I'll let you guys know the outcome.

Thanks so much for helping me out, I really appericate it.
Night guys.

[lithium]

sounds like coil pack failure or ECU failure...both are very very common problems

to test coil pack: swap with a known good one and see if it helps
if not, most likely the ECU is starting to fail - take it to Holden and prepare to fork out the $$$ :(

[CNBLU]

+1 coil pack

[ROCCO]

+2 coil pack...also you said you checked the coolant for oil...it should be check the oil for coolant...

[DirtyHarry]

+3 pack of coils

[DirtyHarry]

+4 hows your mum?

[vectraguy01]

if its the coil pack your up for about 600-800 for a new one!

[DirtyHarry]

or you can go to your local friendly car park and treat your self to a free coil pack from a similar year astra.

[CNBLU]

if its the coil pack your up for about 600-800 for a new one!

your having a laugh right??

call mark @ autovaux. should be around 180 delivered:cool:

[Jerram]

what about water in the distributor or under the HT lead ends?

[DirtyHarry]

no such things as HT leads or distributor on the astra...its a coil pack.
full sik

[Tommi]

Alrighty.... limped into Holden, they told me ECU Fault, $1713.00 to replace.
And then chagred me $86 for the fault scanning.

After I received that phone call and fell of my chair and advised the gentlemen I will call him back in a second, I called my sisters local mechanic who advised to take it down to him, he is 99% sure its the coil pack, and was horrified when I told him what Holden told me (it was ecu).

So the mechanic wants to check it out for himself, so I'm going to drop the car off and leave it with him tomorrow and see what the 2nd opinion is. (he didn't have a test coil in the workshop today so couldn't find out, tho he did check the codes which came up as ignition problem).

I was thinking about it today, it doesn't make sense for it to be ECU, as the car idles at 500rpm and doesn't fluctuate, it’s just miss-firing, how could that be ECU? Wouldn’t the ECU just be programmed to fire the cylinders in a sequence, how could it stuff up its programming? *rant over*

So, hopefully tomorrow we shall see what the outcome is, thanks for your replies, I shall keep you all posted.

P.S: I have checked oil for coolant and coolant for oil

P.S.S: Something interesting to note - when the mechanic pulled the coil pack off one of the parts that goes onto the spark plug was broken off - that was courteously of Holden as when the RACQ guy the night before pulled it off it was 100% fine!

[J]

P.S.S: Something interesting to note - when the mechanic pulled the coil pack off one of the parts that goes onto the spark plug was broken off - that was courteously of Holden as when the RACQ guy the night before pulled it off it was 100% fine!

Wow. If this is really the case i.e. a (Holden) dealer's mechanics deliberately breaking customers' cars so they can get paid more to do a bigger job, or force the customers to trade up to another car that they prefer to, say, half-fix (eg. Commodore), then that's definitely criminal!

If only we can actually watch them as they do their stuff...!

[Keep'emRunning]

..most here will advise you to change the coilpack first and go from there.

If it's misfiring the ecu will throw up some codes anyway, you can check it yourself via the paperclip method, or a mech can scan it (usually for nothing if they're helpful)

It's a possibility that it's the ECU, most likely the transistors/fets driving the coils have gone open circuit. Being an EE I've always wanted a dead ecu to pull apart and poke around in :)

Before forking out 2 grand for a new ecu call around the wreckers, make sure you have the astra model and options. Most will sell you the ecu and immobo which can be installed straight in without reprogramming. A local wrecker here in sydney actually sells ecu's to holden dealers who then charge adds their huge markup. Crooked as.

Best bet is, if you have a week to wait for it to arrive, buy yourself an obd scanner for 70 bucks off ebay and diagnose it yourself with a laptop and op-com, dead easy.

[lithium]

Holden is probably right, sadly. ask your local mechanic to swap with a known good coil pack. if the coil pack doesn't fix the problem - 99% of the time it's the ECU. only Holden can reprogram a new ECU to match your key fob/immobiliser so you must go to them; or, try your luck with a second hand ECU/immob as mentioned above.

typical characteristic of failing ECU is misfire on cylinder X. i don't know how many times i've had to post this link!

http://www.carclinicmagazine.com/vauxhall_vectra_zafira_astra_1.html

re. coil pack damage by Holden, was it just one of the rubber grommets on one of the legs of the coil? if so i wouldn't worry too much about it - ok as long as they haven't cracked the coil pack itself

[lithium]

..most here will advise you to change the coilpack first and go from there.

If it's misfiring the ecu will throw up some codes anyway, you can check it yourself via the paperclip method, or a mech can scan it (usually for nothing if they're helpful)

It's a possibility that it's the ECU, most likely the transistors/fets driving the coils have gone open circuit. Being an EE I've always wanted a dead ecu to pull apart and poke around in :)

i've always wanted to do this too. my guess is that solder joints work themselves loose inside the ECU from years of vibration/heat cycling


Before forking out 2 grand for a new ecu call around the wreckers, make sure you have the astra model and options. Most will sell you the ecu and immobo which can be installed straight in without reprogramming. A local wrecker here in sydney actually sells ecu's to holden dealers who then charge adds their huge markup. Crooked as.

Best bet is, if you have a week to wait for it to arrive, buy yourself an obd scanner for 70 bucks off ebay and diagnose it yourself with a laptop and op-com, dead easy.

i scanned mine when this happened. the code was a very obvious: misfire on cylinder 4 :) OBD diagnostics are great in all cases except when the ECU itself is dying :p

[Tommi]

Yep its the ECU,

My mechanic called me and said he put on a brand new coil pack and it was running 95%better and maybe there was a problem with an injector, so he swapped that and same problem.

He explained that when the ECU goes, it starts to arck between two coils causing the miss fire, etc etc... he went on in detail which I didn't remember to much of it - I think its what your saying Lithium.
He has pulled the whole ECU and Immob out and its been sent to some mob who fix them, apparently they can fix 7 out of 10. for a cost 500 bucks.

J - The coil pack is broken, snapped off in the part that goes onto the plug, I guess it doesn't matter due to it already being fried by the ECU system.
Oh, that reminds me, my mechanic told me that if I only replaced the coil pack and left the ECU as is, it would wreck the new coil pack within days... something to take note of if it ever happens to you.

My car is now with my local mechanic, and I'm driving a borrowed car to be able to get to work.

The saga continues... will let you know what happens when I get it back.
P.S: The mechanic i'm using now is great, he will be getting my business instead of Holden Dealerships!