98 Vectra Engine Mangagment Light

Itchytrigg

Itchytrigg

Itchytrigg

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Looking for anyone who might have experience with this ib my 98 Vectra SRi140.

The engine managment light comes on intermittently, it's mostly after my 7ish mile drive home from work if I stop at the shops it comes on when i start it again for the short hop home. When this comes on it appears it's in limp home mode as it wont go past 4k rpm with out the rev limiter coming in.

Since this started I've driven longer journeys to the in-laws (bout 40 miles) and it wont come on during the journey. It only appears to be if i restart the engine before it's fully coolled down.

Any ideas? End of the day for me its a cheap car that I dont want to spend a fourtune on if its somthing relativly simple to resolve, google would indicate that the wireing is a little prone to issues which could cause this.
 
I could be way off the mark but it sounds as though the EGR valve might be stuck/broken, same thing happened on mine. A new one costs about £150 fitted or you could blank off the valve which would be significantly cheaper, although in the long run I've heard this can damage the engine.
 
my idle control valve had issues, cleaned it out with carb cleaner, and bought a new gasket for £1 (the old one had split)

it was very jumpy when it had the problems, this instantly fixed them. not sure if it's the same problems you're having
 
Just to make it a bit more confusing (sorry) the EGR valve was faulty on my 2001 Astra and it didn't have anywhere near the kind of effect your describing. I'm not sure if the Vectra is any different but a stuck EGR valve never put my car into limp mode.

You can get the code read for about £20 if you don't have an OBD reader yourself, certainly worth doing to find out what it could be.
 
Thanks chaps, you've given me some ideas to thing about but it does seam the best action is to get it plugged in to read the error.

Thing is, as it's intermittent would this show up even if the light isn't on at the time it's checked? I stopped in at the shops on my way to work this morning and it didnt come on when I restarted the engine.
 
Same thing happened on my ecotec cavalier (same engine iirc). On various occasions, it was the cam sensor, crank sensor or airflow meter - each time with the same symptoms you have. Plugged it in at the garage, read the code, replaced the offending sensor myself, and it was fine again.
 
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