On the final return leg home of a wet saturday shopping trip the orange engine block light came on and the car started running as though on only three cylinders.
It had been an afternoon of stop/start driving between various shopping destinations but it wasn't until the journey home that the problem occured almost immediately. I stopped to chek the manual which indicates that this is an exhaust emission fault. The car felt and ran just as it would if you had removed a spark plug lead. I made it home (approx. 4 miles) and the fault remained consistent.
If the fault were a simple one, such as a spark plug lead coming off, would this make that light come on? Can anyone give me any pointers as to what it might be? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 05/10/2008 at 13:34
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Ideally the fault code needs extracting from the ECU memory with a diagnostic code reader as this takes away the guesswork of what has put the fault code light on, of which it could be any number of things.
ps, this has no spark plug leads, coil packs are connected directly to the plugs.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 05/10/2008 at 13:35
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Thanks for a rapid response Dave! The lack of spark plug leads explains why I couldn't see any after taking a quick peek under the bonnet yesterday, in my naive hope that it might be something nice and simple.
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more than likely the dis pack has gone down on one cyl, with it being an 05 plate is it still in warranty ? either way you need a trip to the garage find out what it is, ie a code read, it don't need to be a main dealer but a garage that is competent with a code reader/live data reader will be okay unless it's in warranty
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Thanks Topbloke, your diagnosis bears out what I discovered by checking the code as advised by JohnS in his reply.
If I can assume that the dis pack has gone down on cylinder 3, do you have a recommendation? Could I buy a spare and fix it myself? The car went out of warranty in May.
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You can pull the Asta H fault codes yourself. Press down brake and throttle pedals and turn ignition on, but don't start it. Fault codes (Error Code Numbers or ECNs) are shown in the mileometer display in sequence. Explanation of them is available in the Astra H forum of the Astra Owners Network.
JS
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Thanks John, I have done this and the ECN it gives me is 030300. Looking at the list on the forum you kindly advised me of shows the closest code quoted as "P0303 cylinder 3 misfire detected B-021".
This tallys with the nature of the fault i.e. no sparks on one cylinder, so I guess I need to investigate this area next. Your tip was appreciated.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 05/10/2008 at 20:55
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only advise is "only buy genuine " honestly the cheaper ones are crap and dont last long
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is this missfire constant or was it a one off and have you checked that it is not a simple plug issue rather than rushing out and buying a dis pack, just because you have a code all that it indicates is a missfire may be simple as a plug, if you remove the missing cylinder plug swap it with cyl 1 (ie plug three goes into cyl 1, and plug no 1 goes to cyl 3) start vehicle run for awhile the do you code check see if the code becomes p0301 and p0303 if so its the plug if not then its more than likely the dis pack, did you check to see if its still in warrenty 3years or 60 k Regards TB
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did you check to see if its still in warrenty 3years or 60 k Regards TB
Further up he said it ran out in May.
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ooooops missed that bit !!!!!!!!!!!
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Hi Jezzer
I have same fault as you described before. Can you please let me know what was the solution for your problem?
Many thanks
BR. Zoltan
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