[turbocharlie]

Apologies if this is a duplicate post from eariler but it seems to have vanished from the site.

Just purchased a '98 Vectra 1.8 Petrol.

Runs fine, when it's running, but starting it is quite hard work.

When you turn the key, the start motor spins as it should but the engine doesn't start. Only after you keep the starter going and keep pumping the accelerator does it finally struggle to come into life.

I've cleaned the leads and replaced the plugs.

The paper clip test with the engine not running and it's coming up with 0335 (crank sensor). If that had failed, wouldn't it not run at all? Engine seems to be fine once it's started.

Not sure where to look but any ideas welcome. I was thinking fueling????... but not sure how to test.

Thanks

[turbocharlie]

I've heard you get crank failure codes if the engine is not running, but some posts say it does and some say it doesn't.

i'll check the fuel filter? I've got £30 in my tank and I've never changed one before. Should I then expect £30's worth of petrol to come squirting out when I disconnect the filter?

Ta

[PhilCavy]

I've changed an inline fuel filter on my Cavalier and I didn't lose all my petrol... from memory (it was a while ago), I think I did run the tank down a bit, but I'm sure I put a clamp on the fuel pipe going into the filter to prevent any spills. Does that sound plausable?

[Damian DTi]

Hi,

My mk3 astra 1.8 16v has the same problem. My crankshaft sensor is also well past it's use by date. I know what you mean about the taking an age to start up, this is normal for a dead crankshaft sensor. Once the sensor has been changed, the starting up will go back to how it should be.

As for changing the fuel filter, the best way I can think of to save all your petrol, would be to de-pressurise the system (remove fuel pump fuse and crank engine for about 10 -15 seconds). Once you have changed the filter, replace the fuel pump fuse, turn the ignition on and off a few times to repressurise the system, check for leaks before starting the car up "properly". If no leaks, job done.

Hope this helps.

Kindest regards,

Damian

[turbocharlie]

Unsure if I've bought a comedy car, but this morning when I started it... fine.. started first time. Drove it to work and halfway there (about 10 miles) in the EM light came on. 8.5 hours later, started my car to go home, again first time it started (no EML). Pulled up at a friends house, had a brew and then tried to start the car, it started and then stopped. Started it again and it took a couple of brief pumps of the peddle and it started.

Defintely think it's the filter. So i'll give that a go first (maybe a tank of redex as well). (Thanks for the advise here)

Not sure if it's related, but when I change gear, the revs jump up a little rather than drop???

[biffbangpow]

well if the eml been on , that means theres a fault code stored , so do the paperclip test , or shove it on tech 2 and get the fault code sorted

mate has a vec gsi and its cranks sensors on the way runs on 4/6 most of the time !!

hth

[turbocharlie]

Fixed the starting issue but it was a bit unusal.

I floored the car in 2nd whilst joining the motorway the other day and instead of the usual grind up the motorway speed, it decided to stutter and struggle and cover the car behind me in thick white smoke. A bit like pulling a thundercloud. It went after a few secodns and everything seems ok.

Fearing my car was about to explode I decided to start stripping the bits I could get to down to see if something was leaking or about to break. I started to take-apart the air-intake pipes and discovered everything was covered in thick lumpy old oil. The car had recently had it cam-cover gasket replaced so I'm assuming it had previously failed bigtime and pi***d oil into everything. The bufferfly valve was covered in lumps of oil (I assumed when I floored it and the valve when vertical, a lump of oil fell of the valve and into the engine making it look like a genie was coming out of the car).

Stripped all the air-intake and spent the best part of 2 hours cleaning it all. The car now seems fine.

The garage will be looking at it on Thursday as a matter of course but it seems to be fixed.

Thanks for the advise.

P

[paul666]

Firstly if you change the fuel filter you won't empty the tank but you can drop the pressure by looking for the "dust cap" on the injector rail, undo it put a cloth around the thing that looks like a tyre valve and press. Vectra's or basically anything right down to our scorp cossy s**t up on the injection bank sooner or later. You need a can of carb cleaner (make sure it's cat safe) and some cat clean for later to clean the fuel side and burn any garbage you've washed into the combustion chamber. On the veccy's I like to yank out the inlet air temp. sensor and squirt the carb cleaner in whilst holding the idle up. the 1.6 ecotec's are a g*t as the bank goes down and around - I always call it an upside down inlet system. You can clean them by turning the engine off and removing the vac pipe from the Maf on the butterfly body stick your carby tube in and blast away. Refit the pipe and gas it as you start it, don't park anything behind it when you do - as I found when parking the fronty behind the astra started it and I turned it black OOPS! I'll go now I'm boring!!

[Vauxhallnutter Mark]

Fixed the starting issue but it was a bit unusal.

I floored the car in 2nd whilst joining the motorway the other day and instead of the usual grind up the motorway speed, it decided to stutter and struggle and cover the car behind me in thick white smoke. A bit like pulling a thundercloud. It went after a few secodns and everything seems ok.

Fearing my car was about to explode I decided to start stripping the bits I could get to down to see if something was leaking or about to break. I started to take-apart the air-intake pipes and discovered everything was covered in thick lumpy old oil. The car had recently had it cam-cover gasket replaced so I'm assuming it had previously failed bigtime and pi***d oil into everything. The bufferfly valve was covered in lumps of oil (I assumed when I floored it and the valve when vertical, a lump of oil fell of the valve and into the engine making it look like a genie was coming out of the car).

Stripped all the air-intake and spent the best part of 2 hours cleaning it all. The car now seems fine.

The garage will be looking at it on Thursday as a matter of course but it seems to be fixed.

Thanks for the advise.

P

What you've said sounds feasable and tbh I dont think that your garage will find owt else wrong. Might be a good idea to change the fuel filter though.