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 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
Recently though, it developed a fault – giving it any gas would make the engine almost stall – not good \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
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 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
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…<\/p>\n
Works a treat! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
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 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
Also – from start to finish, the whole job takes about 5 minutes tops.<\/p>\n