Persistent ECU fault on my Corsa

I have a Vauxhall Corsa 1.4 Diesel 09 reg. I bought it from Evans Halshaw and it came with a three month warranty which has now expired.
The problem I have been having is a persistent ECU fault. I took it back to the dealer’s branch in Elstree (NOT a Vauxhall main dealer) and they plugged in a laptop diagnostic tool and apparently tweaked the ECU settings which caused the warning to go away. But only temporarily.

The warning light keeps coming back. I reckon that the engine performs sluggishly when the light is displayed and is fine during times the light is off so it is clearly an intermittent fault.

Vauxhall Chingford say that they will look at it but only if I pay a “£60 diagnostic fee” from the getgo. Plus £140 for labour thereafter. This seems unreasonable to me. It took the last dealer all of three minutes to plug in his diagnostic tool, albeit that did not bring a cure to the problem.

This persistent yet intermittent ECU fault is really bugging me. What advice can you give me please?

Asked on 8 June 2013 by seymour

Answered by Honest John

I wonder if this is actually the diesel particulate filter problem that this GM/FIAT 1,252cc Multijet engine is notorious for. If you repeatedly drive the car short distances from cold starts, then the DPF will be unable to regenerate and clear itself of the unburned hydrocarbon soot from the cold starts and this will lead to the sort of problems you describe.

Tags: dpf warning lights

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