New Member from Innisfail, Nth QLD

[MaXiLeeCH]

Hi everyone,

My name is Jeff,

I came here looking for information of how to fix the various faults that have and will occur in my daughters 2004 1.8 TS Astra. :)

Primarily now the problem is why did the damned thing start misfiring yesterday even though it has new plugs and a new coil pack. (A genuine Holden one as well, OUCH!)

I pulled the coil pack and all the plugs last night and made sure that there was no oil leaking into the spark plug area which could short the spark to ground (there was none) and put it all back together.

The result?

No more misfiring but the check engine light wont go off.

I know how to fix the engine service light but even removing the battery terminals for 5 mins wont turn off the check engine light.

Your thoughts?

[guy 27]

Welcome to oa

[Elliot_O]

Welcome.
From what I've heard with the battery terminals, others have been leaving them disconnected for 30 mins to reset everything.

[MaXiLeeCH]

Many thanks, I'll try that today.

[dutchy]

Welcome to the forum Jeff.

Battery needs to be disconnected longer than 5 minutes. Try at least half an hour. If the light still comes on after starting, then you still have another fault. Try getting the error code through the pedal test.

[MaXiLeeCH]

Thanks Dutchy,
I tried the 30+ minutes of disconnection, the check engine light came straight back on as soon as the engine was started.
I tried the pedal trick too with no success at all.
I held down both the brake and accelerator pedals as far as they would go without a key in the ignition, fitted the key and turned on the ignition so that all the lights came up.
No flashes at all from any lights.
I did that 4 or 5 times with the same result.
It looks like it's off to the local mechanics that have just replaced to coil pack to find out what the issue is.
Then I'm going to get rid of the car, we'll look for something that has no computer controlled crap in it, we've had enough of these crap boxes with electronics stuffing up on us. (3 cars so far and 2 were brand new!)
I'll go back to something that can be repaired in your backyard I think.......maybe an old Holden (even an early commodore would do) or a 1985 or earlier ford or maybe I'll just get a real car and buy a Toyota..........(Of ANY vintage, all of em are more reliable than Holden Astra's, Mitsubishi 380's and any damned KIA.)

[dutchy]

The mechanics would have a generic code reader which will tell em exactly what the problem is. Too bad you have a bad experience with your Astra. I've had mine from new , 2004, and sold it last year. Was tastefully modified and serviced regularly. Never had any significant problems with it whatsoever. Yes a sensor went, hose cracked but any car has that, even brand new ones. Hope your mechanic can tell you where the problem is and that it will be fixed mate.