For anyone with a Vauxhall (or probably any other modern car!)

[5150]

I had a fault on my Zafira one day last week, an odd mis-fire, seemed like possibly a loose connector because it cleared after i'd gone over the car checking everything. However I'd checked with the Vauxhall dealership at cramlington about getting the engine diagnostic error codes read - £70 purely to get the codes, since the car was working fine the next day I didn't bother taking it in. However I've had two mornings this week where the swine was a pain to start in the mornings, so I rang a parts shop to find out if they could get me a code reader, yes and it's a whopping £12. I wasn't amused that the tool is so cheap compared to what Vauxhall were wanting to charge me, swines.

So, if anyone has a problem with their car or their engine management light has been coming on, you can pick up the gadget dirt cheap from a car parts place, you can find the lists of error codes and what they mean all over the internet on car forums too.

[KeithB]

My engine management light came on a year or two back on my astra, the car would sometimes cut out when you stopped after doing high speeds. As you say vauxhall wanted £70 for the diagnostics. I took the car to Blueline in Wallsend they charged £30 for the test but deducted that from the price of fitting a new EGR valve. The same fault re-appeared a few weeks back, I didn't bother with a test, I just bought an EGR valve from ebay for £40 and fitted it myself (2 bolts).

Can you post me a pic of this reader m8? interested to see what it looks like, the machine the lad at blueline used looked like a handheld computer. Are you talking about summit that connects to a laptop?

Cheers!

[KeithB]

Just been looking at them on ebay, looks like Draper make one.

Thanks again!

[5150]

I'm getting it from Kens in Blyth, probably be in tonite/tomorrow as he had to order it. One he's ordered is a Gunson I think. I'm presuming it either links to a laptop or has a small display, let you know what it's like soon as I get it tho.

[KeithB]

Cheers mate!

[5150]

I'm guessing it'll be this one: http://www.gunson.co.uk/downloads/77004_en.pdf
Oddly it's showing up on the net priced anywhere from about £20 all the way upto £150! I'm hoping Kens has the right price, he definitely said £12 on the phone...

[Red5]

I have a 52 plate Fiesta and engine management light came on last Christmas eve when we were going to visit the in laws....Car spluttered a bit but managed to keep it going till we got to Alnwick. Started the car to go down the street and engine completely died....Was without a car for 4 months as the EMU had caused too much fuel to go into the engine, causing the cylinder heads to overheat, warp and then blow most of the engine to bits.
Garage where I got the car from only six months previous wanted me to pay thousands to get it fixed. Told them where to go and got it done for nowt...Story with regards paying is a bit more complicated but I won't go down that road!

[5150]

Nightmare! Should get rid of all this new electronic rubbish and bring back the good old days of carburetors and contact-breaker points!

[Lowrider]

Yeah, selling my daughters car when she was at Uni in Norwich.
Couple had a test drive,liked it,came to collect and had a little run around the block,engine management light came on.
The guy was a retired mechanic so we did a deal as he knew the score but we had to drop the cost by £220.

[jamiebrennan]

I work for Vauxhall and they pay me pitence to what they charge for labour! Anyway, the genuine Tech 2 machine does more than just read codes but it costs £2000! Keith, i take it you have a 8 valve 1600cc astra? If so then you will need an ECU update, Vauxhall brought out a new software that basically disables the EGR valve.
5150, the Zafiras suffer from faulty ignition packs and also Crankshaft sensors, pretty common and usually what id go for 1st. I would however advise not to drive it too much though because it will be putting unburnt petrol direct into the Catalytic convertor and this causes them to collapse and they are very expensive. Just to confuse things a bit more, the codes that are sometimes brought up may not be the actual faulty part but a code that is triggered by another fault! I agree, go back to basics!

[5150]

Just to add an update to this - the Gunson one is only suitable for cars upto about 1999 but did a good range of vehicles. Since it didn't do the Zafira I returned it and they ordered a Draper one, which also was no use :-/ The Draper ones are documented as being suitable for 10 and 16 pin connectors, the place rang Draper who said it was as "documentation error", they do NOT fit the 16 pin and currently Draper don't make one that does.

[KeithB]

Thanks for that Jamie, spot on, I have an 8 valve 1600.

Any idea how much the ECU update costs?

Thanks for the update as well 5150.