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[darrendons]

Hi,

Totally new here and not much of a mechanic but i have mechanic friends who help me keep my 2003 Omega Estate in good condition.

Got the car in May 2015 with 157,000 on the clock, got it serviced and it flew through MOT. Did 20,000 miles and it had it's first problem in August 2016 with the EGR valve so put a good 2nd hand one on and checked it at service, all looked as good as can be cleanliness wise etc.
In sussing out the EGR problem, we had the engine smoke tested and replaced one perished pipe.

I then lost key in November 2016 and had all manner of problems as previous owner had changed codes and i only found out after paying for codes from Vauxhall they were wrong so after a lot of hassle and 2 ECU specialists, the ECU was recoded to original codes.

In March '17, i got a flash of lights while driving and realised alternator was going so got home, got a new one, got it fitted and the car started fine.

This is now the problem part, the acceleration has been dipping in and out of driving normally, withloss of  torque or "oomph" as some may say, and almost going into Limp mode whereby the revs won't go over 2500 and the speedo just creeps up so slowly when accelerating.
Get up to 60-70 on a flat stretch, hit a hil land the speedo just slowly drops to about 40-50mph depending on the hill, and stays there. Dropping to 4th does very little except keep it there whereas in 5th you lose it.
3rd doesn't do much better, maybe a 1-2mph increase in speed and obviously revs are up over 3000 by now.

It has been 2 weeks since we changed alternator, it is definitely correct one and there are NO lights on dash and no faults to be found by computer as we plugged it in.

Today we found the large 2" or so diameter pipe/hose that runs to just under EGR valve was collapsing in on itself a bit when under 3000 or more revs in neutral so another of those will be got and tried this week but as a makeshift job, there is a hard piece of pipe in there to stop it collapsing but this has made no difference on the 50 mile run home.

It has had 2 lots of Redex throught it with just £10 of fuel each time, that definitely cleared injectors as the little cough it had had at 1700 revs or so stopped but this loss of power/torque is mystifying us!

The turbo has been checked and is clean as a whistle.

The only other thing i noticed today was that in neutral with accelerator to the floor, the revs wouldn't go above 4000 and the red line on the rev counter doesn't start til around 5500.

Any advice or opinions welcomed.

[TheBoy]

Don't discount that collapsing hose, as it sounds like you're not getting much turbo boost.

Also, carefully check *ALL* vac hoses (turbo is vac controlled, can't remember if wastegate or variable vane on 2.2, thing its the former), as vac leaks basically stop turbo spooling up.

Lastly, given the mileage, clean out the intakes.  But heed all warnings on bleeding the pump, else you will shagg it (writing off the car)

[TheBoy]

Some pics of my Zafira 2.0DTi (essentially same engine) dirty intakes here - http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=138958.msg1792585#msg1792585

[ajsphead]

Don't discount that collapsing hose, as it sounds like you're not getting much turbo boost.

Also, carefully check *ALL* vac hoses (turbo is vac controlled, can't remember if wastegate or variable vane on 2.2, thing its the former), as vac leaks basically stop turbo spooling up.

Lastly, given the mileage, clean out the intakes.  But heed all warnings on bleeding the pump, else you will shagg it (writing off the car)

Totally agree. No variable vane on the 2.2 Omega, that came in with the Vectra. Otherwise could potentially be a failing wastegate causing pressure to be lost.

[darrendons]

So folks, quick update.

After checking all vac hoses and them all being sound, we finally found a 2nd hand Intercooler to Manifold hose from a UK seller (Polish one never turned up after a 4 week wait!) and changed it. No better than she was really.

So have been running it as she was as needed every day for work and have now fianlly got the time to hand her over for MOT retest and for my mates to strip engine down to get these intakes cleaned as that is the only logical thing left it could be due to not 1 single other symptom of any description!

Just for anyone interested, the MOT was done and she failed on a just the broken offside rear coil spring. New one ordered on Ebay as all local scrappies and motor factors were out of stock and being delivered in next hour!
Few advisories but nothing too major, just a small bit of corrosion on brake pipes which i will probably get dealt with then get it undersealed.

I will report back with pics of the intakes, before and after.

Thank you for the suggestions.

[TheBoy]

Really, you need to replace springs in pairs (once you have the MOT sorted, obviously)

[darrendons]

I just went with what the mechanic said for the spring. 

As for the inlet being cleaned, it is apparently a lot bigger job than i though on the 2.2 as the engine is sideways mounted?
Anyway, a camera was borrowed, an "endoscopy" done and the inlet looked in good enough nick to not warrant the cost of stripping it down.

A few tins of Carb cleaner have been used, some clearance of crap with white smoke coming out and at one point, she broke through to the 4500-5000 rev mark in neutral which she hadn't done since problems started but then on a run out on motorway, she accelerated okay to around 50mph in 3rd then there was the "choking" feeling where it just stays there and no more "oomph".

A blanking plate and emulator/simulator has been fitted in place of the EGR valve as one computer we hooked car up to reckoned there was a code showing for the EGR despite us replacing it last year as at the time no blanking plate could be found.
It hasn't made any real difference and now we are scratching heads as to what it could be.

No other fault codes show up on any computers we have hooked it up to so this suggests no electrical faults of ny sort so the problem must be mechanical but where?

No other signs such as unwanted noises or smells, all pipes were smoke tested last year and anything replaced that needed it and there are no other symptoms to suggest any other failing parts.

If anyone knows any Omega specialists near Manchester who may be able to offer some advice, i'm all ears.

Thanks folks.

[Doctor Gollum]

As for the inlet being cleaned, it is apparently a lot bigger job than i though on the 2.2 as the engine is sideways mounted?

You have looked under the bonnet

[TheBoy]

The symptoms natch that of my Zafira DTi (essentially the same engine), that definitely was the intakes.

EGR is a red herring

[darrendons]

Yeah, we ended up fitting an emulator/simulator with EGR blanking plate. This made no difference to the problem.

We then put a new chipped? Mass air flow on which was sourced from same place as EGR Emulator in Poland.  I've been told this sends a signal back to the ECU telling it all is well when it asks.
So I started her up, took off and she went like shit off a shovel through 1st, 2nd and 3rd up to 45mph before i had to slow down.  This repeated itself on the motorway right up to 55-60mph or so then the "choke" came back! 

I was gutted as i thought that had solved it!

However, i now have no problems taking off from lights or junctions whereas before it was slow through all gears! ;-)

If it has to be done, we will strip her down after summer when i have more time but obviously would prefer not to have to do so and am going to rehook it up to Vaux-com and see if anything can be found before that gets done.

If anyone has any other ideas, i'm all ears. :-)

Thanks for your help so far.



So now it's a case of waiting a few days for my mate to get the Vauxh

[ReLLaXX]

I had a simillar problem after I bought the car, also a 2.2 DTi. In the first days I tried to convince myself that its just a underpowered heavy car but still, way to slow most of the times. My car was fine (ish) until 3k on accelerations but after that feeling like a NA diesel, and over 4k was just noise. And this while leaving of the line at the limit of my comfort (I was just a litle bit faster than the 1.4 Logan taxis).

Also after a cold start the engine needed about 5 min to run smooth, without hesitations.

All vacuum lines ok, intake in a decent shape (will need cleaning and also the EGR, soon).

And then, one day, I saw a CEL after an atempt to overtake from aprox. 130 kph. In my case those are the conclusions:

A second hand (but very good condition) MAF solved 90% of the problem. Its no longer the slowest car I've ever owned. In fact, in the city, from 0 to 80 kph is more than I need. On the highway 130 to 180 kph its no racecar but its constant.

What I still have to do:

Change the turbo - works great but some oil is getting by into the intake and that also kills the MAF over time.

Clean intake and EGR. Its a diesel so... Yeah... There is no chance to keep it clean for a long time.

Check the catalytic converters. I've looked at a set from a 300.000 km 2.2 DTi Omega and they are at least 70% blocked. So my 220.000 km cant be that good.

So, in a nutshell, I would sugest trying a good MAF (!! Bosch only, trust me, you are wasting your time and money with anything else) and checking the state of the cats. Both of them but especially the one after the turbo.

The VP44 pumps throw codes when anything wrong so I would keep this at the bottom of my list. But still... On the list.

PS: I know about a case where a 2.2 DTi was sucking in a intercooler hose (keep in mind that this is actually a heavy restriction on air intake and can actually cause all the simptoms you have). The cause was a stuck or defective wastegate controller. I cant remember if it was the actual actuator (on the turbo) or the "coin" inside the turbo hot side beeing stuck.

[darrendons]

Thanks for your input but i think we have tried most things you have suggested.

The MAF was changed for a "chipped" one if that's the right word and she runs fine, if anything faster than before through 1st - 3rd gears but i suspect that is down to the blanking of the EGR and fitting of a simulator after having had problems with that.

The current state of play is that after checking virtually everything mechanically (short of stripping the engine apart!), we discovered the ECU was from an '02 plate and not the original '03 plate so after clearing a couple of other minor codes and running it for a few dasy, every time we plug it in Vauxcom keeps saying it is code P1125.
We have narrowed this down to X part of the accelerator pedal. I say X part as i can't name it but my mechanic friend knows what it is and is hoping it is this that is causing the problem. I think it is an electrical part, possibly as you mentioned, a part that can get dirty over time and cause the EML light to go on and off or to stay on if foot is pushed to the floor such as on a steep hill.

At least i know the rest of the car is in sound mechanical order with us having checked everythign to try find the root of this problem!

Slowly but surely we will ge tthere with it, just like i am slowly but surely getting to work every day lol.
Absolute workhorses these cars despite having problems!