Hello,
I recently changed the timing belt on my 2000(W) Astra G 1.6 8v following the instruction of a Hayne's manual for this vehicle. After I had finished putting it all back together the car wouldn't start.
I have found that I have no spark when turning the engine over and I don't understand why. I checked all the electrical connections and all seemed okay. The only thing I disturbed (electrical) was the fuel pump relay which was removed and the engine run to depressurise the fuel system as instructed by the manual.
I understand that there are many components in the ignition system that could fail (sensors, wiring, ECU, etc..). and cause this fault.
I discovered on the internet a way of reading the ECU fault codes by counting the blinking ECU light on the dash and I got three fault codes : 0230 (fuel pump), 0105 (inlet manifold pressure) & 0443 (unknown).
At this stage I gave up trying to fix myself and took it to my local Vauxhall garage and explained what I had done. They have had it for two days now and still can?t trace the fault. I find this hard to believe as surely they have advanced diagnostic tools and a lot of experience of these vehicles.
They have phoned twice with updates and the latest update informed me I need a new ECU (£230 fitted) which I reluctantly accepted but they wouldn?t say for sure if this would cure the problem.
I am now worried that I could end up with a huge repair bill for some simply cured fault.
Am I expecting to much competence from the Vauxhall trained technicians?
Or is it really a difficult problem to solve?
Cheers
|
P0443 is circuit malfunction on the EVAP canister purge valve - not the problem.
Most of those codes were created by disconnexion of the components. The first check should be the crank sensor signal and the cam/crank syncronization if a cam sensor is fitted? [There are no less than six different 1.6 engines fitted in a 2000 Astra.]
If this is an X16SZR single-point injection engine; did you re-connect the crank sensor's 3-pin plug?
Edited by Screwloose on 27/05/2008 at 20:34
|
Thanks for the quick response Screwloose.
The engine is a X16SZR single point injection, I didn't remove the crank shaft sensor and I don't think there is a camshaft sensor on my engine.
The reason I put the car into the garage was because i didn't want to start guessing at faulty components and replacing them. As this garage is a Vauxhall dealer i presumed they would be able to diagnose the fault easily.
If the garage are just replacing parts as guess work it seems they have started with one of the most expensive parts!
|
The ECUs on the dreaded SZR used to fail for fun and did have an extended warranty on them.
Did you disconect the battery while you changed the belt?
|
|
Yes, I disconnected the battery. Again I was following the guide in the manual. Would this have caused any problems?
Edited by no_spark! on 27/05/2008 at 22:06
|
Disconnecting the battery is good practice - but always carries a risk. Fragile ECUs can die from the shock of re-booting.
I would hope that your dealer knows how to diagnose a no-spark fault - starting with rev info showing in live data. The ECU can't be completely dead or you wouldn't have got flash codes out of it.
|
I hadn't thought about the ECU working to give me the flash codes but i suppose it could still be the cause.
I am just worried that the garage are just starting to replace parts for the sake of it and my bill will start to spiral out of control. If this was the case i could replace parts at random myself until the fault cleared instead of paying huge labour bills.
I may be niave but i assumed that a main Vauxhall dealer would have parts the could be used as temporary spares to assist in fault finding. I know that this is a pretty standard practice in other engineering maintenance.
|
|
common misconception all ecu's are different and are unique to each car, cant even swap from one identical car to another due to immobliser codeing etc (even if you have codes for both vehicles) it would make life so much easier if we could as we could swap, program, and see if fault cured before condemming, not so easy nowadays, back when i was a lad if it was broken you could see it and then fix it, nowadays its a best guess
|
Thanks for the input Topbloke.
I'm learning a great deal with this fault but it's an expensive process for a car that's not worth a great deal of money. Can i also assume that all the different ECU's come with their own sensors? Is there a process for testing the sensors or do the technicians rely on error codes from the ECU to fault find?
Edited by no_spark! on 27/05/2008 at 23:54
|
|
sensor's do the same job but are different in that they may have a shorter or longer cable/harness the ecu just interprets the signals and sends a pre-determined signal out for that parameter ie water temp -6 degrees more fuel ie choke,longer time the injector is open 3 milli seconds as opposed to 2 milli seconds all sensors have there own test steps ie water temp sensor is a resististor, higher temp less resistance or lower depends which type fitted, crank sensor is usually a hall sensor type where a small voltage is generated,approx 0.5 v faster rpm more volts ! the fault code is a general guide where the problem lies its the skill of intepreting these clues that decides your worth
Edited by topbloke on 28/05/2008 at 00:08
|
I finally got my car back today from the garage and the faulty component turned out to be the coil/transformer.
They took the new ECU off and the price was reasonable, £110 for parts and four hours labour for all the time they had spent on it. I don't think I can complain too much about that.
Thanks again for all your help.
|
