Dave thats brilliant thanks very much.
Just one more problem though - my diagnostic plug is not as described- it is a plug with space for six pins but only three are installed. Pin A ( Top row left side) has a thick brown lead. Next to pin A, in the bottom row, Pin D has a thick brown
and white lead and pin C has a thin black lead. With the ignition on, both pins C and D show 12 volts. With ignition off, on checking resistance to earth, all give different readings forward and reverse- ie I presume they are connected to the processor. The haynes manual wiring diagram only shows two pins connected- and does not show the black lead at all.
I see the topbuzz page lists up to 1996 models - so things have changed by the 1998 model year.
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Just another odd thing- the car will tickover and rev on the drive for hours with no fault light showing- its only when moving after about 1 mile cold, 1/2 mile hot does the lamp illuminate.
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Hey - ignore this post for a while- I may be looking at the wrong plug! Found another that seems to look like the one on topbuzz.
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Very many thanks to Dynamic Dave- have been able to sort it- EGR valve faulty. It was all there as per the topbuzz site- the Haynes manual was not up to date. Mine has the Simtec 56/5 system. The kindly local main dealer quoted £150 - £160 just to run the diagnostic program! The very busy local independent garage ( Not surprised they are busy) said he could do it in 15 minutes but not for 8 days!
So Honest John you have saved me a fortune!
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About 18 months ago the local BMW dealer quoted £180 to read the fault codes on my 7-series. Can you believe that? I poked around the engine compartment a bit and found the air flow meter plug was not properly snapped 'home' (probably by same main dealer when changing air filter!) - cured it.
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You are dead right Aprilia. Another example of Rip off Britain at its worst.
The most worrying thing is that it says on the topbuzz site that you cannot download the codes for more recent cars - only main dealers can do it. So it looks like they have a licence to print money.
The happy footnote to my little saga is that the EGR valve was fine once I had scraped the crud off it- it was jammed shut on a ridge of carbon deposits.
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