Help! Astra not starting when hot.

Doc_

Hi all,

I have a problem with my 2002 Holden Astra that I cant seem to find an answer too. I have searched but cant find a solution anywhere.

It has the Z18XE engine. After it gets warm, it just stalls. It is random and doesnt stall when it reaches a certain temp. I can leave it running in the driveway and the fans will cut in and out without stalling.

The real problem though, is that most of the time it wont start after stalling. Leave it sit for 20 minutes to a couple of hours and it will start just fine. The car runs perfectly when it is running.

When the car wont start, I get no engine light on the dash with the ignition on. After letting it sit I get an engine light again and off she goes again.

I have so far replaced the crank angle sensor and coolant temp sensor.

I have found this thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055290903 on BOARDS.IE which sounds suspiciously like the problem I have. Would a faulty fuel relay earth cause the engine light not to show on the dash also???

old_aussie

Hi Doc,

Sounds like a fuel problem.
Check there isn't a second(partially blocked) fuel filter near the fuel tank, also check/replace the fuel filter in the engine bay.

Doc_

I would of thought it was an electrical problem with the engine light not showing on the dash? A blocked fuel filter wouldnt cause no engine light to show would it? Thats what leads me to believe its the earth on the fuel relay with the symptoms being the same as the problem in the other thread. I would imagine the bad earth on the relay could cause the engine light not to show?

Sorry to be critical but I can see this being a very expensive excersise if I were to replace all the things it COULD be, so I'm trying to narrow things down. Going by the other thread, I think eventually I'm still going to be up for another ECU?

old_aussie

Hi Doc,

Yes you are right about the electrics and dsah lights.

I saw this(below) on the Vauxhall forum.............
The last one seems to be a good read

Cheers
Gaz



BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING, IF YOU HAVE ANY SORT OF:

Idling problem - Erratic idling and maybe dropping low enough to cut out
Hesitation or holding back when accelerating
Kangarooing - jerking usually when in a high gear and a lowish speed

Astra MK4s are prone to gunking up the throttle body with oil vapours which when cooled goes hard. Faults of cutting out, lumpy idling and kangooring when driving can be attributed to a manked up throttle body and if not checked first a garage could rip you off big time as It can seem like an electrical fault (Plugs, leads, EGR, Air Flow meter)
Its a 10 min job for yourself to check as all you need to remove is jubilee clip that secures the air flow pipe (the one that come from your airbox) to the throttle body and look inside. Mk4s for some reason can use a **** load of oil with no smoke and it will pass its emissions fine. If you have a mk4 thats a few years old (like mine is) and have any sort of engine running problems i would check the throttle body before you do anything as when mine was running really badly the throttle body was absolutely caked in hard oil. Once I had removed the throttle body (mine was far to caked to clean on the car so see your manual if you intend to clean off the car) and totally cleaned out the TB it ran like a dream and only cost the price for a tin of cleaner spray

---

I think over the last few days I have read nearly every post in my attempt to find and fix a fault on my recently bought astra.

After collecting the car from Cambridge and setting off down the A1 to the south coast the car seemed to be running "rough" with hesitation evident when "in the cruise". Then I hit the M25 roadworks. 'Oops, I stalled it'. Ooops, again? I don't think so. It stalled itself.

Temp showed Normal

No Lights, temp/oil/ECU

OK, plod on and get her home.... Fuel consumption also seemed a bit heavy, but this was my first Vauxhall....

Investigation starts:

1. Breathers - All ok, clear.
2. Intake air leaks. - none
3. Air Filter - Ahhhh. BLACK.... changed (£8), test drive. Same dodgy idle and acceleration
4. OK, I can do this. Search the net for help. Found this forum and started reading.
5. No point in reading ECU as no light seen. (error)
6. Clean Idle control stepper motor. - Idle now stable, no more stalls, but still hisitation on acceleration. We go on...
7. Disconnected O2 sensor - Ahhh... that's better, idle ok and pulls better, replace with new O2 sensor (£39)
8. Drove well for about 10 miles, then back came the symptoms.
9. Check and changed Plugs (£18) - still the same
10. Cleaned all fuel areas - Thorough to the letter - still the same.
11. Back to the forum - OK, EGR perhaps? Cleaned - same.. Do I buy a new one? Damn, £70... oh well, got the car cheap so go for it. - Same symptoms again.
12. Read that it could be the Temperature sensor - OK, £11, in for a penny...(lots of them) - result... nope, same hesitation...
13. Rechecked all of the above. I am now a master at this.... or am I?
14. OK, forum tell me it could be the MAP sensor. This time none in stock at local Vaux dealer, so down to scrappy... Yep.. £8.81 (bargain) But, still no change.
15. Do an ECU reset, lets see if it needs it. Memory cleared, not that I had checked it. (error)
16. So, what more can I do? The only improvement was the stepper motor clean which made the idle 100%.... But the forums are also telling me to get a new one.... OMG... another £75, and no guarantees.... OK, last time I go into that parts shop...

YES, YES, YES.

Hesitation Gone, idle perfect..... I am soooo good... NOT !!!

I bet if I had read some codes from the ECU I would have seen the Stepper Motor error, but oh no, I just cleared All Previous Error codes didn't I.

Spent perhaps £130 I didn't need to spend and got through perhaps £30 of petrol road testing it.

This is posted for those like me who think they KNOW what's wrong and for general information. The ECU is a smart bit of kit, USE IT. READ IT. BELIEVE IT.

Doc_

Again, the TB isnt an electrical fault. Also, the car runs perfectly when it does run.
lol, I'm sure I've read that thread also in my search. Believe me when I say I have spent days searching the net for an answer. The thread I've linked too in my first post is the closest I've found to similar symptoms. On another board I have posted at, I had a reply from someone saying they had the same symptoms as mine and it was also a fuel relay earth problem. I think I could nail it to that if that also caused the no engine light. Even then it would still be a try and see scenario I think.

I do appreciate your help though.

cascade35

Clean the trottle body and see if it helps, not going to take you long to do it and will not cost a cent if you do it yourself.
Seems to be a common fault on the astra and will probably need to done whether its the problem now or not.

You have received some good tips and advice here so far, you really need to start the ball rolling by checking the simple things mentioned in above posts and let the lads know what you checked and whether or not it solved the problem.

Was thinking of buying an astra for the missus so im intrested to see how you get on.