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[RichardH]

Right,

Driving home this evening in my 2001 2.2DTi when the emissions light popped on (the one with the engine symbol, I think the bulb was taken out of the EML socket as it never lights up).

The car dropped revs, and was in what I assume was limp home mode. I pulled over and turned the car off.  Left it a minute and restarted. The car starts after turning over for about a second or two, but the check light comes on and it idles roughly. (i.e revs seem to rise and fall very slightly).  The car does not want to rev, even if you push accelerator to the floor.

So I turned the car off and called the AA.  I was told it would be about an hour before they arrived.  After sitting in the car for about 40mins I tried starting the engine again, and everything was back to normal and revving freely.  I decided to wait for the AA man so he could read the codes to find out what caused the problem.

AA man turns up, and hooks up his code reader.  He could not get a successful connection.  Then while he was doing his stuff and the car was idling, the issue reappeared.  At the same time that the issue reappeared, the cd player came on and starting playing a CD, but the audio was messed up, it seemed to be speeding up and down so it was like the singer was singing fast, then slow, then fast again.  And then the engine gave one big rev all of its own.

Anyway, AA man tried a few things to get his reader to connect, but he was not able.  He tried revving the car but it really did not want to, and there were clouds of white smoke coming from the exhaust when he put the accelerator down.

Got the car towed home and tried connecting my own code reader which never had a problem connecting before, but it too failed.  When I started the car here at home, it seems fine again but I really don't trust it.

I need the car for work so I will need to send it to a dealer tomorrow.  I am afraid that they may diagnose something incorrectly like the ECU as I don't really trust dealers diagnosis from reading past experiences here.

So I am wondering if anyone has an idea of what path to take to troubleshoot this?

Thanks for your help.

[Proz]

Yes ... stay away from dealers ... no doubt they will say ECU ... anyone near you with a genuine tech 2 ??

[RichardH]

Unfortunately no Tech 2 near me so I really have no choice but visit the dealer. I suppose even if I just get them to read the code it will be something.

[RichardH]

Well the car is at the dealers now so I am waiting to see what they have to say about the problem.  I drove the car there this morning and it was fine for the first six or seven miles, but then the light came on, the rev counter dropped to zero, and I was in limp home mode.

Managed to get the car to the garage, and hoping now they diagnose something inexpensive!

[Proz]

There are other things you can buy from Egay that will plug into your car via a laptop and do almost everything a tech 2 can do .. "My Naff Code Reader" is one that i have and will cost you a fraction of what a dealer will charge for a few hours on there machines.

[3.2manual]

Sounds like crank sensor fault which is common on those 2.2 and 2.0 variants. Not all dealers are bad i work in one....

[RichardH]

Sounds like crank sensor fault which is common on those 2.2 and 2.0 variants. Not all dealers are bad i work in one....

I know mate, and to be fair, the dealers I go to are not bad blokes at all.  The only thing is that they are not used to working on Omega's as they are fairly rare in Ireland, and therefore might not have the intimate knowledge that a lot of people here would.

Is the crank sensor fault an common issue on the 2.2 diesels as well?

[RichardH]

There are other things you can buy from Egay that will plug into your car via a laptop and do almost everything a tech 2 can do .. "My Naff Code Reader" is one that i have and will cost you a fraction of what a dealer will charge for a few hours on there machines.

I have two code readers here and neither managed to successfully connect.  One is the ELM327 and the other is a handheld U380.  Both of these have worked in the past.  And to be honest I need the car back as quick as possible and can't afford to wait around to buy something from Ebay.

[Proz]

Sounds like crank sensor fault which is common on those 2.2 and 2.0 variants. Not all dealers are bad i work in one....

Not all dealers are bad  i work in one

Yup.... point taken       .... my local lot were very good as well to be honest untill i had a problem where they wanted to change a specific part when i knew full well that wasn't what the problem was .... lately they seem to not want the "old" Omega spoiling the look of there bays ... only seem interested in the newer cars . :-/

[3.2manual]

Ive fitted loads of crank sensors to vectras astras and a couple of omegas, usually when the rev counter stops thats a sign that crank sensor is faulty, shame your not closer as id take a look, your dealer shouldnt charge too much just for a diagnosis.

[Andy B]

Sounds like crank sensor fault which is common on those 2.2 and 2.0 variants. Not all dealers are bad i work in one....

I know mate, and to be fair, the dealers I go to are not bad blokes at all.  The only thing is that they are not used to working on Omega's as they are fairly rare in Ireland,  ......

You want to try taking a Senator in to the dealers there. He (Opel dealer near Bantry Bay) reckoned there were only a handfull over there. They didn't fix the fault, ABS light was on, (was a relay in the end) but they couldn't have been more helpfull.

[tmx]

Ive fitted loads of crank sensors to vectras astras and a couple of omegas, usually when the rev counter stops thats a sign that crank sensor is faulty, shame your not closer as id take a look, your dealer shouldnt charge too much just for a diagnosis.

why then if you unplug the ABS unit does the rev counter stop working? and if you d/c the crank sensor does the engine cut out but rev counter still works?

i think the omega uses the ABS system for revs & speed

[RichardH]

Right, just got a call from the dealer.

They were not able to get their Tech 2 to connect.  Apparently it will only let them in so far but it won't let them fully into the ECU.  They also have a second reader (Bosch) which again fails to connect.

So they are diagnosing ECU at fault.  And even if they replace the ECU, they are not guaranteeing that there is still not another underlying problem.

Cost of new ECU, with installation and programming €1,500 Euro!  I really am in a pickle now as to be honest the car is not worth much more than that.

[Proz]

One of the breakers on here may be able to supply a second hand ecu  

[damon80]

The thing that gets me is the fact that your CD Player started playing funny beggars when the problem occurred - sounds like a scene out of "Christine"!

But it defo seems like there's some elect-trickery going on somewhere...