So, I’ve got a 10 year old Vauxhall Astra (1.8 litre, 16 valve if anyone’s interested), and it’s lovely to drive 🙂

Recently though, it developed a fault – giving it any gas would make the engine almost stall – not good 🙁

Took it to the garage of a friend of my brother’s (hi Parrot!) and he hooked it to the diagnostic computer – told him it was the O2 sensor, so my brother went and got a sensor and fitted it for me (I was due to travel to Stansted the next day so I needed the car).

Car ran fine down to Stansted, and was fine coming back a couple of days later. I then ran the boss and his wife to Gatwick airport and again, the car was fine – problem sorted thought I 🙂

But then the problem came back, so I started looking on t’internet and found that Vauxhalls/Opels that age are prone to this problem – basically, there’s an EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) valve that is required in Europe (more stringent emissions tests than in the UK), that becomes clogged and needs cleaning (approx. every 2000 miles). I found lots of articles to say just take off the valve and, using a drink can, cut a gasket that blanks off the valve (just disconnecting the valve means the ECU light is on permanently).

Spoke to my brother regarding this, and he agreed it would sort it out, so he got me the tools needed, I found an old drink can (Red Bull FTW – it gives you wings!) and fitted the blank…

Works a treat! 🙂

And so, this post is just to provide a starting reference to anyone googling the fault – yes, as most answers you find will say, you CAN blank it off, and the problem goes away 🙂

Also – from start to finish, the whole job takes about 5 minutes tops.

Linky