Please could someone give advice, I have a Vectra 1.8 LS with an ecotec engine X18XE1. The engine management light is on all the time. We took it to a local garage and they put it on their computer and it showed up some codes:-
Coil pack and also p0115 Intake Coolant Temperature Sensor (CTS) malfunction.
The garage cleared the coil pack code and tried to clear the CTS code but this kept coming back. We changed the CTS and took car back to garage to have code cleared but it wouldn?t. We were advised that we needed electrical check done which we did. We were told that the ECU was giving out the wrong messages and we need a new one and also the coil pack code had showed up again. Contacted local Vauxhall dealers and given a scary price of £742 for new ECU! I asked if we got a brand new one ourselves would they fit it for us (trying hard to save some money!) And they said they would only fit one if it came with a Vauxhall receipt.
The car starts okay when cold but when knocked off very hard to restart! And when restarted misfires badly! It is drinking petrol only doing 200 miles for a full tank. Scared to use it now can anyone offer any advice?
If we got our ECU refurbished would we need it recoded of would it just go straight back on?
Kind regards
{Shouting amended, and ETC replaced for it's correct name, which is CTS - DD}
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I'm not a mechanic so I could be completely wrong but why did they clean the coil pack and then replace the ECU? Surely they should have replaced the (much cheaper!) coil pack first?
P.S. This will no doubt get moved over to the other forum "Technical Matters" later so if you can't find it, that's where it'll be!
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Hiya , the coil pack or ECU haven't been replaced yet , have been spending lots of money on car so far and can't afford to waste any more , could the coil pack be messing up the ECU?
{More shouting amended - DD}
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Ignore me - sorry. I read ETC as ECU.
When my coil pack...packed up (on a different car admittedly) it ran like a tractor and seemed to drink loads of petrol. I'm sure it "only" cost me 50 quid or something for a new one.
Someone more intelligent will be along soon to help you though.
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ANDREA PLEASE STOP TYPING IN CAPITALS IT MAKES IT TIRING TO READ {It's now been amended - DD}
I would think that most vauxhalls of this age will have the ECU coded to the immobilser - assuming this veccy has one, not 100% sure - which means that swapping the ECU will mean having to shell out more £££ to ge the ECU matched to the immobiliser.
I would check out the likes of www.autovaux.co.uk for the price of a new coil pack, more likely than ECU I would think.
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Yes, the coil pack should be changed first.
I had a similar problem on a vauxhall - traced to the coil pack, after many other things got changed - unnecessarily.
My vauxhall agent would fit a reconditioned ECU.
Good Luck !
ps - typing in capitals will reduce the number of people reading your thread (all capitals = shouting!)
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Sorry everyone about typing in capitals , I am new to this site so I didn't know , I am very grateful for all the advice offered so far , thanks
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Andrea, I'm not an expert by any means but looked into refurbed ECUs for a car last year and the opinions I got from a lot people was that it's not a simple task despite what many companies offering this may say.
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Reading the original psting again - the coolant temperature sensor has been replaced, but the fault code is still there?
I'd make absolutely sure that the wiring between the coolant temeperature sensor and the ECU is intact - I did this on my X20XEV Omega my removing the ECU and checking the appropriate pins on the ECU connector ( amongst the hundred or so) had the correct resistance between them when the engine was cold, and that this resistance changed when the engine was hot.
I imagine if the ECU is getting an incorrect signal from the CTS it might well think the engine is still cold and over fuel it. I would think that nay half sensible garage would check the CTS signal continuity at the actual ECU connector before suggesting an ECU change, but you never know.
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A further thought along the same lines - SWMBO's Zafira has this engine , and it had a random engine management light for a few months, although it still drove OK. I cleaned up the connection to the CTS and re-routed the wiring slightly ( it was rubbing on the engine cover), the light hasn't come on since.
I'd make absolutely 100% sure that the CTS is working and the wiring is OK, as per my previous post, before swapping £££££ ECUs.
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>>I'd make absolutely 100% sure that the CTS is working and the wiring is OK<<
I completely agree. wiring/connectors and sometimes sensors are more likely to fail than the ECU.
You may find an auto electrician is far more useful at resolving this type of fault than a dealer.
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Hiya , we have had an auto electrician look at the car and he checked the wire from the ecu to the temperature sensor and said it was ok.When he disconnected the cts he said that the ecu showed that the temperature was still rising even though the cts sensor was disconnected . He couldn't understand or explain why , this is why he came to the conclusion that the ecu is defective and should be replaced.
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I agree with Spamcan's approach.
By all means fit a new coil pack - these fail so often, that they should almost be added to the service schedule. Check the earth connection is good.
Then, check the wiring between ECU and temp sensor.
Don't rush into buying/fitting a new ECU - a large proportion of so-called faulty ECUs are wrongly diagnosed.
Once the faults have been rectified, they are cleared from the ECU memory after a number of engine/ignition on off cycles - you don't need to pay anyone to remove or wipe them. The number of cycles is between 20 and 60, depending upon software version.
Number_Cruncher
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>>Don't rush into buying/fitting a new ECU - a large proportion of so-called faulty ECUs are wrongly diagnosed.
Not specifically related to Andrea's problem, but it seems to me that some garages don't appreciate that the ECU is like any other computer, it operates on a 'garbage in, garbage out' basis. So any dodgy sensor inputs to the ECU will likely cause a dodgy ECU output.
'replace the ECU' is the modern day equivalent of 'I recommend a course of leeches' in olde worlde medical terms...
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"'replace the ECU' is the modern day equivalent of 'I recommend a course of leeches' in olde worlde medical terms..."
Sorry: It's the most expensive and most profitable cure for the garage's profit and loss account:-(
madf
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