Engine management light

Rainbow Kitty

I have a 141 Opel Corsa 1.2, I have it 2 years and a couple of weeks ago the engine management light came on. It was due a service so i said it to the garage when i left it in. The fault code was P00B3 which says 'Radiator coolant temperature sensor - circuit low'.

So the garage said i needed a new sensor, got it done yesterday but on the way home the EM light came back on. I've spent E400 this week on a service and brake fluid change and now the sensor so i don't want to keep throwing money at what they think it may be, can't afford to!

I don't suppose anyone here has seen this fault code before and found out what it was?

Any advice appreciated.

NIMAN

Was it an Opel dealer who serviced it?

Rainbow Kitty

NIMAN wrote: »

Was it an Opel dealer who serviced it?

I bought it in Airside Opel and that's where i have always got it serviced but they have recently changed to Renault Dacia, they said they still have Opel mechanics and Opel parts. Does that matter?

Dravokivich

I think he's just asking to see if it was one of the franchises that just does servicing, or something along the lines of that. But to be honest, just because the light came back on, doesn't mean it came on for the same reason it did previously.

w211

Possible faults

Defective radiator or other coolant temperature sensor (CTS)
Dirty/plugged sensor pickup
Sensor O-ring/Gasket leaking Broken or damaged wiring harness
Fuse
ECM issue
Pin/connector problem (corrosion, melting, broken lock tab etc.)

So before the replacing any sensor, please be sure you do not have any other problems.
These days should every garage have a lab scope. Not very hard to test.

Alanstrainor

I would go back to them and have them read the codes again. They have only just fixed a fault, and it appears to be back, the least they can do is read and assess again. 400 does seem really expensive for the work done though, eye watering stuff.

The car is now 5 years old, it's time to say goodbye to the main dealer (which is no longer Opel anyway) and take it to an independent mechanic. At least this is what I would do next year presuming this fault does not drag on.

w211

The regular scanner, even 1000eur one does not show the actual problem. It shows only the direction. Anything can be broken on that area. There can be something else broken, and the sensor can be 100% ok. Need to read schematic and then figure out the real problem. These days mechanics thinks, scanner does the full job. Yes it helps but it does not tell the full story. The same power source can feed several sensors or accessories. On many cases they send the signal back by the same cable. The scanner can not detect that noise, only oscilloscope can detect that. How many times you seen the mechanic to using it? Almost none. Walk away if they do not have oscilloscope, because otherwise they are blind and only guessing. 400eur bill can rise that way over 4 000 easily.

Rainbow Kitty

Update: I had a mechanic (work colleague) look to see if he could see what the problem was, the same fault code is coming up. He said my car has 2 sensors, one in the engine and one in the radiator and they changed the wrong one.
I rang them back and they are so busy the next available appointment is next Thursday and he wants to book the car in for the day, the sensor change took an hour so why do they want the car for the day? I told him what my colleague said but he didn't seem to want to know. Surely they made the mistake so surely they should make an effort to sort it out!!?
Where do I stand here?

Alanstrainor

Rainbow Kitty wrote: »

Update: I had a mechanic (work colleague) look to see if he could see what the problem was, the same fault code is coming up. He said my car has 2 sensors, one in the engine and one in the radiator and they changed the wrong one.
I rang them back and they are so busy the next available appointment is next Thursday and he wants to book the car in for the day, the sensor change took an hour so why do they want the car for the day? I told him what my colleague said but he didn't seem to want to know. Surely they made the mistake so surely they should make an effort to sort it out!!?
Where do I stand here?

You can try push them on time I suppose, but I wouldn't be overly worried about driving with this fault for a short time. They want to keep the car to make sure the fault is dealt with, so as not to repeat what happened before. Seems reasonable.

w211

No, the real reason is the lack of time management. They can not promise for you specific time, because they have no idea how long takes the previous jobs or your job. You should be lucky if they do not ask the car for entire week