Got a problem. Car making me paranoid. Help please!!!

**123rado** · 12th December 2010, 23:55

Well, while still pondering how my mileage on full tank has reduced from 420miles to around 350miles, some series of problems have started with my vectra.

The bulb light on dashboard has been on constantly for the last two and half weeks. I have been checking all the bulbs on daily basis and they are all fine.

Yesternight, the car swerve a little bit about three times (my speed was not even up to 20mph then).

Now tonight while on the way to pick up someone and just after driving for about one mile, I slowed down completely at a junction and on connecting another road, the car lost it's rev and at the same time the ABS and traction light came on.

I have switched off engine for sometime and restarted the car but the lights are still on.

Car manual says to take it to dealer but can someone tell me what could be causing all these please?

**Jaffatubes** · 12th December 2010, 23:59

what model, year and engine/trans do you have.

**123rado** · 13th December 2010, 00:03

Originally Posted by Jaffatubes

what model, year and engine/trans do you have.

Sorry.

Car is '04 LS DTi 2.0L Y20DTH manual.

**cont1204** · 13th December 2010, 00:04

That could be the ABS plug, that can cause dash errors. So can a duff battery or alternator. Winter can be hard on them.

**Jaffatubes** · 13th December 2010, 00:16

cold and winter generally, could also account for drop in mileage - running in cold conditions forces engine to run richer for longer, takes longer to warm up and if you have heater, heated back winow running, lights etc, puts more load on alternator, especially if battery is poor, temp is low and trips are short.

might be worth getting battery and alternator output checked first. Do you know when/if battery was changed last?

ABS/Traction light, could be duff sensor on wheel, or loss of castelations that the sensor uses to measure wheel speed, on the hub or disc (can't remeber which)- usually due to corrosion, or if snow or ice stuck in it.

I'm sure I had this happen to me before and had to replace the hub i think, on an Astra G - was a long time ago, maybe wrong.

Code reader should be able to narrow down possibles on the error.

**123rado** · 13th December 2010, 00:23

Originally Posted by Jaffatubes

might be worth getting battery and alternator output checked first. Do you know when/if battery was changed last?

Thanks for the reply. Don't know the last time battery was changed but I have not changed the battery since I got the car about 2yrs ago.

**123rado** · 14th December 2010, 11:50

As an update, the ABS and traction lights have both gone out yesterday (at least for now).

Fiddled with the ABS connector around the NS wheel, started the car (ABS and traction lights were still on ) reversed the car out of driveway and before moving 2yards, the lights went out.

Just the bulb light on the dash to sort out now.