Vauxhall Astra G Petrol (1998 - 2004) - 02 1.6 Car cutting out (recurrent fault)

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Sat 10 Jan 2009 17:09
02 1.6 Car cutting out (recurrent fault) - nadz61
Hi,

I have an ongoing problem with my car. It's a 1.6 8 valve Vauxhall Astra Automatic (2002).

Last year the car started to cut out when approaching a junction or roundabout, when the revs would drop to under 1 thousand then the revs would completely cut out and the car would stall.

In the end the fault was traced to a faulty EGR (Exhaust Gas Recycle) valve. Essentially, this valve is supposed to close when the car slows to keep the revs high. Now this valve failed in February 2008, after much going back & forth (with Vauxhall) the problem was traced to this EGR valve. Once the valve was replaced the problem was fixed.

The exact same problem recurred in October 2008, the valve was replaced under warranty and everything was fine.

Unfortunately, the same issue has started to happen again, and I am 100% sure it is the EGR vavle again.

The mechanic at Vauxhall mentioned that it could be an issue with my ECU that was causing the EGR valve to fail. My question is whether it is feasible for the ECU to cause the EGR valve to fail over time?

Any help on getting to the root cause of this issue is much appreciated, as this is becoming a very frustrating problem.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 10 Jan 2009 18:08
02 1.6 Car cutting out (recurrent fault) - Andrew Moorey (Tune-Up)
EGR valves are a pain in the botty on all cars. Vauxhall were doing a mod whereby they cleaned the valve to make sure it was gastight shut, disconnected the electrical connector to it and flashed an upgrade into the ecu so it no longer looked for the egr valve.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 10 Jan 2009 18:56
02 1.6 Car cutting out (recurrent fault) - nadz61
Thanks Andrew - much appreciated.

The Vauxhall technician said that they couldn't blank the EGR on my car as it is an automatic. Can I ask them to do the same job and do you know where I can find any further information?

Many thanks in advance!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link

We give you the low down on how to save on insurance, little-known tricks and tips, what insurance groups mean and how to use insurance aggregators to beat insurers.

Insurance group finder and how to save on insurance