Over the past 6 months or so car has started stalling while travelling. Starts fine and runs well for a time then the dash board lights come on and all power has gone from the accelerator. I have to steer it over quickly lest it cause an obstruction! The engine will turn over but it doesn't fire up and may take several attempts. It can smell a little of fuel, but I think this is because I tweak the accelerator trying to get it to go. I don't do this all the time in case I flood the engine an/or flatten the battery. There is definitely ignition power there, it just won't turn over. It has also become rather smokey just lately, though it is not blue smoke. We have changed the pollen filter, in-line fuel filter, rotor arm and distributor cap. A mechanic friend of ours who did his apprenticeship on Vauxhalls drove it around for a day but it didn't stall for him and until it does he can't say what the problem is. Someone else in the local parts store said it may be the idle control valve and in his experience it is rarely the fuel pump. We have had it for two years and it has 51,000 on the clock. Any ideas? Cheers...
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You will get lots of ideas from the helpful people on here, I'm sure. Whether they will help fix *your* fault is another question.
But, in narrowing the fault down, I would suggest that you need to find out if the car stops because the fuel supply stops, because the spark stops, or if both of those are OK.
An easy thing to check, is the fuel pump. Is it running while you are cranking the car over after an 'occurrence'? It should make a bit of a whining noise, from towards the back of the car.
To check the spark is a bit more involved. I would suggest that you read a Haynes manual to obtain guidance about how to do that properly - paying particular attention to the safety instructions - ignition voltage is very high!.
number_cruncher
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I wouldn't have thought it was the idle control valve. As it states, it's the valve for making the car idle. You say your problem is that the car stalls whilst travelling.
I note that you haven't mentioned changing the spark plugs or HT leads in the list of things already changed.
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Cam and crank sensors faults are not exactly unknown on Vauxhaulls, and the fact you can smell petrol whilst cranking it would point to a spark fault rather than a fuel fault. The smoke might be a pointer though - this might point to a failed coolant temp sensor - has the mpg gone right down as well?
I'd take it along to an injection specialist who should be able to sort it out reasonably easily.
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Should have mentioned that we changed the HT leads and spark plugs a couple of months ago. The car has also had a new alternator. : )
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