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1

Omega General Help / Re: Does computer (ECU) reduce engine power when throttle and brake applied

« on: 01 October 2013, 23:22:39 »

I used to have a 2.2 auto Zafira (2001 model) and it would certainly allow me to floor the throttle and hold the car on the brake like that for a fast getaway. I only ever held it for a second at most - don't want to boil the oil and melt the torque converter seals.

2

Omega General Help / Re: Head Gasket or Oil Cooler

« on: 01 October 2013, 23:17:08 »

I have been getting more confident about my car in the last few days - I have filled it with proper coolant mix and the heater works very well, which I take to be a good sign of the system being pretty clean.

Today I took the car along a five miles of motorway followed by 10 miles of urban dual carriageway in the rush hour and then back again when the roads were clear at normal speed, so there was plenty of varied driving and good opportunities for the car to either overheat or for a hose to fail but I had no problems. The temperature varied between 85 and a little over 90 but I was watching it like a hawk. There is still a bit of a different smell to the car but it looks as if the car is back to working pretty well.

Now to sort out the leaking windscreen, the front discs that wobble under firm braking, the uneven tyre wear on the inside of the front tyres and the strange vibration that appears to come from the transmission!

3

Omega General Help / Re: Head Gasket or Oil Cooler

« on: 22 September 2013, 19:25:59 »

Oil cooler replaced yesterday, Thanks JamesV6CDX.

Spent a few hours today flushing the system using gunk and then driveway cleaner. After that, there didn't seem to be much more crap coming out, so I've just filled the system with water for now and I will drive it for a day and see what comes out after that. I will get some more drive cleaner tomorrow and have another go.

It's quite a messy business but it is quite rewarding when you see a load of sludge come out.

The good news is that the car seems to drive fine, despite having overheated on the motorway at the start of this saga. I haven't used it properly yet though and I expect it will be some time before I am confident to storm down the motorway. Fingers crossed.

4

Omega General Help / Re: Passenger door locked

« on: 04 September 2013, 22:19:42 »

When my door would not unlock, I eventually managed to unlock it by pulling the lock button up with big pliers. It took nearly all my strength to do it mind.

5

Omega General Help / Re: Head Gasket or Oil Cooler

« on: 03 September 2013, 13:19:41 »

Thanks guys, I'll see how much my local garage want to replace the oil cooler. It'll still be a few hours work, no doubt, but cheaper than getting a replacement car.

6

Omega General Help / Head Gasket or Oil Cooler

« on: 03 September 2013, 10:55:22 »

I recently had my Omega 2.6V6CDX serviced and the garage said that I was losing oil into the coolant, so that suggests a head gasket has gone. I was a little sceptical as I suspected the oil cooler. A few days later I had to use the car to go down the motorway so I drove gently (60mph on cruise control). I kept my eyes on the gauges for the first 10 miles but then I was distracted by the rush-hour traffic. At 20 miles the car lost power with the temperature gauge off the scale and the warning light flashing. Brown water was leaking all over the front of the engine and there was brown foam leaking from the header tank.

Having been towed home by the nice RAC man, I tried the car and it starts and runs fine with no lumpiness and no steam in the exhaust. It still seems to me like the oil cooler, rather than a head gasket but I don't understand why that would cause the car to overheat. I understand that oil is not as good a coolant as water but at 60mph I'd only be using 30bhp or so, and I'd have thought that the system could cope with that.

Any ideas? I think that a head gasket is not an economic repair as the car has done 147,000 miles and other parts might be about to fail.

7

Omega General Help / Re: Inaccurate Trip Fuel Consumption

« on: 27 February 2012, 08:07:55 »

Thanks, I had managed to find that page but it doesn't cover my model as the table only goes to 1998 and doesn't have the 2.6 - mine is a 2003 V6 2.6. Frustrating.

8

Omega General Help / Re: Inaccurate Trip Fuel Consumption

« on: 26 February 2012, 22:49:28 »

I've checked the MID configuration and got the following numbers:
084 1
24060
I haven't been able to find whether this is correct for my car although I did find a key to the numbers on this site.

I am pretty sure that it is the right unit for the car because I have lots of garage bills from the previous owner, going back to when the car was 2 years old. I can see that he spent quite a bit on maintaining it with the local Vauxhall dealer. None of the bills mention anything that looks like a MID. So I think that this is the original unit fitted during manufacture.

9

Omega General Help / Re: Inaccurate Trip Fuel Consumption

« on: 26 February 2012, 08:32:23 »

The advice on adjusting the remaining range is very interesting. However, I think it is for calibrating the fuel tank sensor, whereas I think that I need to calibrate the injector. It does seem to be a very detailed description of the procedure so you seem to have found a good source. I would be interested to hear where you found this information, as it seems likely that there is a similar procedure to adjust for injector characteristics.

I suppose that I could just try pressing a different button to see if that invoked a different function. Failing that, it may be that I need to use a different pin on the diagnostic socket but without knowing which one then I am sure to make a very expensive mistake, so I'll not try that.

10

Omega General Help / Re: MPG 2.6 v6 auto.

« on: 23 February 2012, 22:58:20 »

I have an estate. I get 16-17 on a 3 mile commute with only a couple of stops for traffic lights. I get 28-29mpg on a long motorway journey with the cruise control set to 70mph.

11

Omega General Help / Inaccurate Trip Fuel Consumption

« on: 23 February 2012, 22:50:27 »

Being a bit of a nerd, I have kept track of my fuel consumption since getting my 2.6 CDX a few months ago. I always fill the tank to the top and mostly at the same petrol pump. When I fill up I also reset all of the trip data. I normally drive with the trip consumption showing because the instantaneous figures go up and down so much with road conditions, and also because I find the occasional 7mpg rather depressing! I had the impression that the actual consumption that I worked out was different from what the display had shown (i.e. lower). I was sure that it said 18.6mpg but the real figure was 16.8mpg.

I have recently done a couple of long motorway journeys, about 300 miles each, using the cruise control most of the way at 70mph. The display showed a trip average of 32.4mpg but the actual figure was 28.6mpg. That is about 10% wrong. I was rather surprised that the meter is that far out. The trip distance corresponds with the mileometer reading but the fuel used does not agree with the petrol station.

I had supposed that the trip computer had access to accurate fuel metering data from the engine management unit but I must be wrong on that. Maybe the fuel metering is done by feedback from engine and exhaust sensors and the system does not actually know the absolute amounts. Maybe the figure is calculated from typical injector characteristics.

Do you know if there is there any way to adjust or calibrate the display?