Vauxhall Astra F (1991 - 1998) - 1996 petrol auto - keeps cutting out

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Tue 14 Jul 2009 04:13
1996 petrol auto - keeps cutting out - Lud
An acquaintance has a 1996 Astra automatic, 1600 or 1800cc she thinks. She says the model is a GTX (I can't find it listed in CBCB).

She has had it a year or two, bought from a dealer in Brighton, mileage allegedly 58,000. It hasn't had an enormous amount of use but hasn't been left standing longer than three weeks.

The symptom is sudden engine stalling on the move. It usually starts again more or less immediately and behaves normally. Last time it happened the engine symbol on the dash lit up. Apart from this fault the car has been very satisfactory.

The car did this apparently when first bought, and the dealer got the problem fixed. Now that the symptom has reappeared, the dealer is being uncooperative.

Does anything obvious suggest itself to Vauxhall owners or other experts? If it was my car I think I might start by unplugging and trying to clean all the electrical unions to the engine electronics. Does that sound sensible? Anything else basic?

{moves to Technical Matters}

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 14/07/2009 at 11:19

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Tue 14 Jul 2009 09:10
Astra GTX Auto 1996, cuts out - gordonbennet
First thing i'd do is bung a set of good spark plugs in it, and give it a service with new filters and maybe plug leads if it hasn't seen those for some time.

Thats basically cheap stuff and should be done routinely (apart from the leads maybe) anyway, and eliminates those items before trying to diagnose anything more complicated.

Not an expert Lud sorry, but seems a common sense way of starting.
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Tue 14 Jul 2009 09:58
Astra GTX Auto 1996, cuts out - davidh
Its the idle control valve sticking.

Its on the inlet manifold.

You can either take it off and give it a good clean out with carb cleaner or buy another for about 70 quid. (That auction website or a vauxhall parts website)
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Tue 14 Jul 2009 11:05
Astra GTX Auto 1996, cuts out - bell boy
i would get the codes read
you might be able to do it yourself on this year
is the self diagnosis connecter
10 pin
or 16 pin
it might just be a dodgy crank senser even
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Tue 14 Jul 2009 11:21
Astra GTX Auto 1996, cuts out - Dynamic Dave
you might be able to do it yourself on this year


Yep - www.topbuzz.co.uk/info/fault_codes/fault_codes.htm

ps, never heard of a GTX Astra either. More likely something like GLS. I doubt the GTE would be an auto.
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