P0400, Car/Spanner, Eml light, Limp Mode. Help Required.

[jingerman]

Vauxhall Vectra C 2005 1.9cdti 8v 120bhp Breeze

Doing 80mph on motorway and suddenly Had loss of power and Car/Spanner light came on.

Had no issues for months car drove normally but still had Car/Spanner light on.

Never drove over 2,000 rpm per gear change until one day running late I put my foot down and it lost power and EML light came on and stayed on.

Removed egr and cleaned it out with mr muscle and opened 4 Torx screws for solenoid and the pin was sticky.

Kept spraying contact cleaner and mr muscle and it finally loosened and went in/out.

Put everything back to normal and the car was like new, but car/spanner randomly still comes on with p0400 P code and eventually goes back to eml light.

Took egr off again and drilled a hole at the back of solenoid and loads of rubbish came out, but could not punch out the pin to fully clean the inside of solenoid and pin housing.

Double checked pin and it was clicking in/out, re-installed and reset with obd2 scanner but still getting car/spanner and eventually eml light permanently.

I have my mot at the end of the month and could do with advice, I've managed to source a egr from eBay but didn't purchase it until I can fully understand what's wrong.

P.S I remove MAF connector whilst running and it gave me maf code error, re-attached maf sensor and code automatically disappeared but left dreaded P0400.

Any advise would be most welcome. Thanks in advance.

[fatfred]

Blank it off and get it mapped out. Not the cheapest option but the only way to go to eradicate the problem problem completely.

[northpole]

Doesn't the 120bhp have a VNT turbo?
9 out of 10 times after the egr is cleaned and working right, the VNT mechanism needs cleaning... it is easy to test there is a little rod that you should be able to move easily and with just a little pressure off your finger if it isn't smooth and easy to move than the VNT is partly blocked... it is located on the hotside of the turbo... take off the downpipe and spray MR MUSCLE all the way in the back until the product starts oozing out....than work the vnt lever until it is smooth to the touch and easily moveable with one finger... depending on how bad the soot built up is this can take anytime from 2 min. up to 45 min.


Once it is smooth you put the downpipe back and take the car for a long drive in 2nd and 3rd gear on the motorway...
This will make the turbo so hot it starts glowing red and this will burn the ovencleaner off... this process takes at least 60 miles in 3rd gear on the motorway doing 70mph.... if you don't do it the product will just not burn off and stick the vnt mechanism again.

But do that and you should be fine.

Although you do have the p0400 error in my experience, after you sorted the EGR and the car goes back into Limp mode.
The VNT mechanism is the culprit.

[jingerman]

Thanks for replying, took off egr n cleaned it without pulling out pin housing from solenoid. Put back and car starting juddering and white smoke and eventually turn. Took off egr again, but this time knocked out pin housing from solenoid after drilling into solenoid, sand papered all the crap of it and put put all parts into degreaser oil, reassembled and popped back in and it worked like a dream.

You have to drill the solenoid part and tap out the pin housing for correct clean, very important.

Oh I lost a gasket for egr pipe into the starter motor ( lost forever ) and installed it without it and it still worked.

[jingerman]

You're a mind reader I was going to do this next as maintenance, but I don't have a clue where to even start.

on my egr I have pipe under it which is attached to it, is that where you put mr muscle and where is the rod you mention.

Any pictures of rod and mr muscle insert location.

Id love to have a go.

Thanks in advance