Last Monday the 13th, my wife and I were heading home with the caravan, down the A1 after a fabulous week in North Yorkshire. The journey was uneventful until we ran into a huge queue caused by a serious accident just outside Retford.
It was stop start for about four miles then after that we got going again. A further four miles on, suddenly the engine management light came on and the car went to half power. We limped into the first available layby waited a few minutes and then switched the engine back on in the hope that the ECU may have reset itself. No such luck. So time to call on Mayday.
I cannot sing their praises high enough. A recovery vehicle was with us inside 40 minutes from the original call, he took us to his premises to see if they could get the car going for us. No such luck. So they then recovered us, car and caravan the remaining 130 miles home. Caravan was put on the drive and then the car was taken to my local Vauxhall agent.
Now here comes the real rub to this story. It transpires that the fault was the EGR valve - exhaust gas recirculation valve. Sometimes it can be cleaned out and it works OK, but not mine..........oh no. I've got to have a new one at a cost of £295.00 supplied and fitted and inc VAT.
I REALLY didn't need this and I'll tell you why.......I'm trading the bloody car in on Saturday and the bitch just couldn't hold out for another few days.
Whilst I have loved this Vectra and when it behaves it's fabulous, but it has been the most unreliable car I have ever owned in nearly 50 years of motoring.
I hope the Insignia I am getting will prove to be a better proposition. All the vibes from the professionals are good about it so we'll see.
Bad luck! The EGR valves can usually be cleaned, I use QuikSilver Power Tune which is made for boat engines. It does a cracking job. But main dealers don't like doing it so they always replace the valve.
Now here's the rub - you don't actually need an EGR valve on a petrol engine. You do on a turbo diesel as they help keep the temp. down. But on a petrol engine you can simply bypass it or blank it off and the car will run just as well (in fact usually slightly better as the EGR valve is purely an emissions gadget) - and you'll have no trouble at MOT time.
The usual problem is the extended service intervals - load of rubbish! My Veccy gets new oil every 5k and it's done 90k without missing a beat.
I've had Vauxhalls for over 20 years and had very little trouble with them - the body falls to bits before the engine packs up. But I wouldn't touch the 1.9td engine with a very long stick.
hope u have got car sorted,had same problem with ours,but it was not! the egr.
its more likely to be the vacuum pipes from the egr to the vacuum tanks fitted on the inside off the n/s front wing,one of ours was worn where it pushes onto the valve,cut small bit off pipe new connector,push on to a tight fit,hey presto job done!!!
its not the vauxhall dealer in hemel thats doin the job is it.
sorry to hear about this Vic that is really bad timing for the EGR Valve to die on you.
hopefully it will help you when selling your car off as atleast that part is fixed if its a common problem
Quote: Originally posted by Grad Sailor on 15/9/2010
You do on a turbo diesel as they help keep the temp. down.
Not correct. You can safely remove the EGR valve on most diesels, and this is a very common mod on most LR's, and many other makes.
It makes very little if any difference to the engine temp, but often helps the engine responsiveness.
I ran 2 diesel Freelanders with the valve disconnected or removed with no problems at all
Its good to hear that you had such a good experience with Mayday, sorry to hear the car is behaving so badly.
We have had our EGR blanked off on our diesel for about 12 months, as when they replaced our faulty valve the car played up very badly - down side is the engine warning light is permanently on! Despite numerous try’s they cannot get the warning light to stay off, so garage 's advice to treat the car the old fashioned way and listen out for changes!
Quote: Originally posted by LlaniDavis on 15/9/2010
Quote: Originally posted by Grad Sailor on 15/9/2010
You do on a turbo diesel as they help keep the temp. down.
Not correct. You can safely remove the EGR valve on most diesels, and this is a very common mod on most LR's, and many other makes. It makes very little if any difference to the engine temp, but often helps the engine responsiveness. I ran 2 diesel Freelanders with the valve disconnected or removed with no problems at all
It is correct - on many turbo diesel engines the EGR system also works to keep the gases cool - not the engine coolant temperature. Maybe on LR's you can get away with it, but not on most Vauxhall or Ford (or similar engines.) On these engines without the EGR you run the risk of turbo damage.
Have taken the caravan back to its storage site - an 80 mile round trip and all seems OK.
Swiftsure - it's Marshalls of Knebworth who did the work and having been a customer with them for over 30 years I do actually trust them. They did try cleaning the valve out and the car seemed OK but they wouldn't guarantee how long the cleaned out valve would last before events repeated themselves and I wasn't prepared to gamble.
Grad Sailor - I'm the same as you. I've had loads of Vauxhalls over a period of more than 40 years and apart from the odd niggle, I've never had one like this. One of the best periods was from 1995 for 10 years when I owned three Omegas on the bounce and they were fantastic. Not one of the engines missed a beat and apart from service replacements they just seemed to go on and on. I still see my last one a 2.2 "Y" reg bombing around. I got rid of it five years ago when it had 50K on the clock. Must have double that now.
Fingers crossed for the Insignia on Saturday. Roll on.
Hope the Insignia works out well - they look good. Remember they've gone back to belt driven cams though - Vauxhall had too many broken chains as a result of their extended oil changes.
And I agree about the Omega - they are great. For such a big car they handled extraordinarily well.
glad you got car back ok,heard bout marshalls,and yep they are good,they don't rip peeps off!!
keep us up to date re your insignia,i am contemplating one early next year to replace our 2.2dti,have to have the tourer tho for the dog,so she can relax in the back.
just had our vectra on a full service,garage i use,not main dealer,£309 inc.mot,not bad tho.i know he does a good job,if summat needs doin he calls first,runs like a dream now,he told me bout the vacuum pipes,he did work at vauxhalls at luton on the vectra's,seems as they one of the weak points.
Grad Sailor, your comments are worrying me, but the Ford garage and Ford and the specialties diesel engine people they took the car to all say ours is fine without EGR and it is a ford with a Turbo?
I had the EGR valve go funny on me when I was overtaking in the fast lane on a four lane motorway.I had to cut across the other three lanes to the hard shoulder doing bunny hops.What a frightening experience!!!
We have an Insignia and it'sbrilliant. It has the Ecoflex engine and we easily get 60 miles to the gallon(diesel) out of it.We haven't towed with it but would be interested to find out what the fuel consumption is like towing.
Quote: Originally posted by Ecocamping on 15/9/2010
Grad Sailor, your comments are worrying me, but the Ford garage and Ford and the specialties diesel engine people they took the car to all say ours is fine without EGR and it is a ford with a Turbo?
so now I am confused.
Hey - no worries! This isn't a debate about your particular engine. In general TD engines are best used with the EGR working since many of them use that system to lower the temp. of the gases. But engine setups vary and if the people who maintain your engine know that it's OK to run it with the EGR blanked off then they know the specifics of the application.
Having said that dealerships vary in competence and I note that your Ford garage has had to consult a specialist diesel engineer - says something about the quality of service you get some main dealers! Just so long as the specialists know you are using the car for towing a caravan.
Just thought to add - I remember following my wife who was driving our Ford when the EGR was playing up, when the turbo let go. We laugh about it now, but I seriously thought the whole car had gone up. The smoke cloud was so thick that three lanes of traffic were brought to a standstill - and then she emerged out of the blackness looking a bit shaken. The car was about 6 months old and it took our Ford dealer about 5 weeks to put it all back together again.
Quote: Originally posted by Grad Sailor on 16/9/2010
Quote: Originally posted by Ecocamping on 15/9/2010
Grad Sailor, your comments are worrying me, but the Ford garage and Ford and the specialties diesel engine people they took the car to all say ours is fine without EGR and it is a ford with a Turbo?
so now I am confused.
Hey - no worries! This isn't a debate about your particular engine. In general TD engines are best used with the EGR working since many of them use that system to lower the temp. of the gases. But engine setups vary and if the people who maintain your engine know that it's OK to run it with the EGR blanked off then they know the specifics of the application.
Having said that dealerships vary in competence and I note that your Ford garage has had to consult a specialist diesel engineer - says something about the quality of service you get some main dealers! Just so long as the specialists know you are using the car for towing a caravan.
Just thought to add - I remember following my wife who was driving our Ford when the EGR was playing up, when the turbo let go. We laugh about it now, but I seriously thought the whole car had gone up. The smoke cloud was so thick that three lanes of traffic were brought to a standstill - and then she emerged out of the blackness looking a bit shaken. The car was about 6 months old and it took our Ford dealer about 5 weeks to put it all back together again.
Post last edited on 16/09/2010 08:29:29
The garage we use I have been using for the last 24 years they have been brilliant over the years so I have no worries with them, they know its our tow car, but I wonder if they mentioned it to the diesel specialists, I will check. Thanks for the info.
Just out of interest we have been towing with it quite often since the EGRwas blanked off, what would it do if there was a problem – i.e. what do we look out for before the Turbo lets go?!!!!!.......Now I am really worried! was your wife towing at the time?
I am no mechanic, but going on the above and from reading on car forums the symptoms described above sound as if the diesel particulate filter is the fault. This is a big issue on many diesels of all makes if the car is not taken for a long run at high revs to burn off the residue on the filter. Maybe the EGR and DPF are similar.
Google "diesel particulate filter" DPF and you will be shocked at the numebr of threads that are thrown up.
Blanking off the EGR won't cause the turbo to blow, the biggest cause of turbo failure is lack of oil on shutdown - e.g when you've spent the last hour or two cruising the motorway at 70mph and then pull into a services and switch off the engine. the effect is for the turbo to keep spinning with no oil supply - a reason why you should have and use a turbo timer.
The EGR valve does not cool the temperature of the gasses but the temperature of the burn in the cylinder, this in turn decreases the output power and in turn NOx emmisions
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Topic: Hooray for Mayday Rescue
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