Opel Astra engine light on

doright

doright

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Hi

My Astra 2011 (manual, non-turbo) has a couple of issues:

Engine light stays on,
Idling revs fluctuate from normal sub 1000 rpm, up to 2000 and even 3000+ rpm by itself,
Clapping sound on pull away sometimes (almost sounds like diesel engine),
Car’s power doesn’t feel right,
Sometimes huge amount of smoke comes out the exhaust when starting.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! From reading another thread, I’m planning on taking it for a diagnostics check first thing tomorrow (Monday), but for now I still have about 30km I have to drive today, and I’m worried I’m going to kill my kar.

Engine oil and coolant levels are OK.
Car also shows “Coolant Level Low” warning more frequently lately, which it never did before.

Thanks for any help in advance
 
What happened prior to these issues, was it just a sudden problem or did you have prior issues such as overheating? The symptoms you have described are consistent with a top gasket failure.
 
Sounds like an air problem. Let's hope it's that and not a top gasket issue.
 
Take the car to any mech that can do diagnostics, Bosch is good cost me R350 IIRC, got a printout of the errors and arranged to fix them.
 
thechamp said:
What happened prior to these issues, was it just a sudden problem or did you have prior issues such as overheating? The symptoms you have described are consistent with a top gasket failure.
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Thanks for the reply. We’ve never had overheating issues. Last time we had similar issues, we had to replace the coil pack. Bought the car at 160 000 km and it’s now around 220 000 km
 
doright said:
Thanks for the reply. We’ve never had overheating issues. Last time we had similar issues, we had to replace the coil pack. Bought the car at 160 000 km and it’s now around 220 000 km
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Just take the car for diagnostics so you can see what faults the ECU is reporting, you shouldn't drive unless you have to, if you can't find somewhere close Google mobile diagnostics they'll come out and give you u a report and advice on what you can do next.
 
doright said:
Thanks for the reply. We’ve never had overheating issues. Last time we had similar issues, we had to replace the coil pack. Bought the car at 160 000 km and it’s now around 220 000 km
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The most worrying thing is the smoke, but it's easy enough to check the coil pack, although the coil pack can only explain the loss of power and not the other symptoms. Check for loose vacuum hoses as well as disconnected sensors. Good luck on the 30km journey, hopefully you make it without major issues.
 
Do NOT drive your car AT ALL, as you may indeed cause irreparable & costly damage to an already sick & ailing engine - your cam-belt may be worn & on its way out - it may have slipped a tooth on the pulley and caused the timing to go out of sync - drive it ANY further and it may snap completely - and the end result of that is NEVER good for the head & valves.
 
Hi guys. Thanks for everybody’s messages and advice yesterday (on a Sunday!), I appreciate it tremendously. OK, update time and more history...

Took the car to an Opel dealer in Witbank this morning, explained the situation, and without booking a service, they sorted me out free of charge before 11:00.

A little history... About 2 weeks ago I took the car to a car cervice centre in Boksburg to replace the tappet cover gasket. Before that we did our 210K service there and were relatively pleased with the price, service etc. They mentioned that the tappet cover gasket was leaking a little bit of oil, and we should replace it pretty soon. The car’s issues started after that gasket replacement. The Opel dealer in Witbank / Emalahleni said it’s better to replace the entire tappet cover in one go, and not just the gasket. Apparently the entire tappet cover costs around R15K because there’s a little thing in there called the PCV Valve, and you cannot replace it separately.

When we opened to check the spark plugs, we found some oil in there, especially on nr2.

When they checked the error code, it showed an air vacuum issue. They couldn’t find any leaks, except for our little friend - the tappet cover.

I’ve managed to drive 150km today, engine light hasn’t come on, but the fluctuating idling revs etc are still there. Pretty much every issue is still there, except the smoke issue (which only happened twice).

As always, any advice appreciated
 
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thechamp said:
The most worrying thing is the smoke, but it's easy enough to check the coil pack, although the coil pack can only explain the loss of power and not the other symptoms. Check for loose vacuum hoses as well as disconnected sensors. Good luck on the 30km journey, hopefully you make it without major issues.
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Good to see that the bones of the dead still work as intended, not that I ever doubted them.
 
If the code showed an air vacuum issue then you probably still have an air vacuum issue.
 
doright said:
Hi guys. Thanks for everybody’s messages and advice yesterday (on a Sunday!), I appreciate it tremendously. OK, update time and more history...

Took the car to an Opel dealer in Witbank this morning, explained the situation, and without booking a service, they sorted me out free of charge before 11:00.

A little history... About 2 weeks ago I took the car to a car cervice centre in Boksburg to replace the tappet cover gasket. Before that we did our 210K service there and were relatively pleased with the price, service etc. They mentioned that the tappet cover gasket was leaking a little bit of oil, and we should replace it pretty soon. The car’s issues started after that gasket replacement. The Opel dealer in Witbank / Emalahleni said it’s better to replace the entire tappet cover in one go, and not just the gasket. Apparently the entire tappet cover costs around R15K because there’s a little thing in there called the PCV Valve, and you cannot replace it separately.

When we opened to check the spark plugs, we found some oil in there, especially on nr2.

When they checked the error code, it showed an air vacuum issue. They couldn’t find any leaks, except for our little friend - the tappet cover.

I’ve managed to drive 150km today, engine light hasn’t come on, but the fluctuating idling revs etc are still there. Pretty much every issue is still there, except the smoke issue (which only happened twice).

As always, any advice appreciated
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I had a very similar issue to yours on my sis' Ford Fiesta, the tappet cover gasket failed and the spark plugs were all swimming in oil, took me a while to clean all the gunk in there. Fortunately there was no leaking of oil into the cylinders as yet.

The is nothing wrong in replacing only the gasket contrary to what the dealer says, it is just recommended to get new bolts, I learnt very hard lessons with the stretch bolts they used on the Fiesta.

What I suspect happened on your car is that the spark plug seals on one or more plugs are compromised, therefore they are leaking oil into the cylinder, that is where the vacuum leak is coming from as well as the smoke.

Spark plug
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tube seals prevent oil from escaping the valve cover or cylinder head and contaminating the spark plug. The seals attach to the top and bottom of the spark plug tube to provide an air-tight seal. If oil gets on the spark plugs, this can cause misfires or a dead cylinder.
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So, warranty on parts and workmanship is still valid. Planning to get it replaced, with new bolts, AND I’m going to ask to check the other things mentioned:

Faulty mass air flow meter,
Loose vacuum hoses as well as disconnected sensors,
Spark plug tube seals.

I suppose it’s fair to ask them to torque it correctly too!

From another thread’s comments, I’d also ask them to check:
CO2 test (my car is also losing coolant slowly),
cog (not sure what this is?) which gets worn and it messes with the timing.
 
By the way I have a good feeling the guys at that dealership are talking BS when they say it will cost you R15k to replace a tappet cover, it is a basic thing to do that won't take you an hour with the right tools.
 
erratic idling i had on my Terios a coupla years ago, turned out to be a vacuum air flow pipe that had a crack in it, and eventually it popped off and i also had idling around the 2500 RPM. Replaced the R20 pipe and all well now :thumbsup:
 
I know that my dad's old '95 Astra used to rev itself if the battery was flat. After jump starting it, it works rev itself from idle up to about 3000 rpm to charge the battery.

The stops thing was that it did it even if you were trying to drive it.

Anyway, check your battery
 
Update:

After extensive testing at a Bosch service centre, it was determined the tappet cover was faulty. That means when the Car Service shitty replaced the seal, somebody did something bad and the tappet cover was now behaving different to what it normally did (I see this as sabotage). Had to replace entire tappet cover. Opel dealer quoted R17K, but luckily ended up paying way less at the Bosch service centre.

Thanks for all the comments and advice given - much appreciated!
 
doright said:
Update:

After extensive testing at a Bosch service centre, it was determined the tappet cover was faulty. That means when the Car Service shitty replaced the seal, somebody did something bad and the tappet cover was now behaving different to what it normally did (I see this as sabotage). Had to replace entire tappet cover. Opel dealer quoted R17K, but luckily ended up paying way less at the Bosch service centre.

Thanks for all the comments and advice given - much appreciated!
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The Tappet cover?

Iemand vat jou vir n gat.

This is not a functioning component, its just a cover it doesn't have any behaviour.
 
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