1994 Astra 2L CD - Engine Dies While Driving

Sounds like you either have an intermittent short, or a loose connector.

I don't know how the UK roads are, but here in the US they put a series of ridges just off the normal road surface (to wake up drunks and sleepy heads). Most likely the vibration from bumps and ruts is what is inducing the fault. Try running over those ridges to see if that makes the fault occur. If it does then:

1. Check the wiring bundle from the dash where it goes through the firewall. There should be a grommet (or some material) that keeps the wires from getting cut by the metal.

2. Check the connectors to the fuse boxes and the electronics module.

Agreed with above, I put Emphasis on a bad ground. Check all your chassis, Engine, Body, Battery Ground Connections. Once all Grounds are removed, cleaned and reinstalled, If problem continues, I'd start checking the 12V Lines, starting with the one which feeds the CPU.

Paticularly the ground between the engine and chassis.....

Try a different battery as I once was involved on a problem where a battery had developed a bad contact internally.....when you went over a bump, you lost power for a split second. I personally cannot fathom how a battery can develope such a problem...

Do take this seriously, you could have an accident, run over by a truck etc.. Stall on a busy junction etc....its not worth dying for.

Also a partially blocked cat can cause such problems. Have you had the car checked out on the car computer for any error codes????

ABS stand for Automatic Breaking System in my world, so the others may be more on track than I may be.

The 99 Kia Sephia I bought has long had a propensity to cut off the engine at inopportune times. This particular car is considered one of the worst cars ever made.

I think it now has 120 thousand miles on it and both front axles are shot, and the oxygen sensor is shot, and the passenger door won't open.

In the case of this car it is the oxygen sensor that repeatedly fails, and was the source of a mandated recall, that causes the engine to stop working.

ABS = Anti-lock Braking System (In my world, However your world sounds interesting... We just recently came out with automatic breaking).

His world is VERY interesting.

Have you tried an aftermarket O2 sensor? It may live longer than the OEM units.

The front CV joints will drive long after the clicking on turns develops. Try to avoid long high speed drives though. Re-manufactured front axles are marketed very reasonably if you are up to the task though.

Well it the Kia, has become increasingly untenable, or undesirable.

Luckily my wife, was able to get a good price on a low milage Toyota Camry, and if we fix anything it will be the Honda Acura.

I myself agree that improper grounding can cause the problem the OP has been having, for I had a similar problem with my motorcycle. I was embarrassed that the ground was the last thing I thought of.

I mentioned the oxygen sensor as a possibility, due to experiences with the Kia.

The ground is ALWAYS the first thing to inspect/repair when dealing with an electrical fault (in my experience, which as Del stated, and I will steal: I reserve the right to be wrong.. _{(I like that one)} ).

I said I was embarrassed.

I agree with the electrical component check as the condition described sounds like a low voltage issue. I would add that the alternator should be checked. Went through identical symptoms last month on my mother's C220 Mercedes and it turned out to be the alternator. Check both the brushes and the bearings. The bearings had enough play to let the worn brushes lose contact.

I agree also with posts#1 & #2 however instead of tackling all the grounds at once I prefer to rig a jumper and without removing anything use the jumper to create a direct grounding to each individaul component one by one until a correction or change is observed.

I had one that acted "similar"

I'm guessing that it is a similar model.

The ground cables from the battery, and from the ABS were attached to engine head bolts.

The connection to the head bolts (a stud at the top of the bolts) were good, but the head bolts went into the water jacket. They had a sealant applied, and over time some corrosion developed. there was an intermittant open in the ground circuit. Cured it by cleaning the threads on the grounding bolts, and applying fresh sealant.

I would recommend disassembling the battery connections, and all the ground connections, and clean them.

ABS faults are often caused by imperceptably loose hubs.

cranking the engine, while moving, will not damage the starter as long as the trans is in neutral

cranking the engine, while moving, will not damage the starter as long as the trans is in neutral

or the clutch is depressed

I had a depressed clutch once, a supply of Prozac soon sorted it out.

There are a couple of ways to look at this. Firstly, either the alternator isn't charging the battery or the battery isn't holding a charge or you have a loose lead somewhere, hence the dash lights coming on. when the battery loses its charge it can cause the engine management system to malfunction. Any Vauxhall dealer will be able to give it a quick diagnostics test and re-set your cars basic settings if that's all that is needed. you could also check the multi plug from your dash pad harness to your fuse box, also where the dash harness goes through the bulkhead to the engine compartment multi plug. there is also a multi plug behind the r/h panel next to the accelerator that you may also wish to check. Good Luck.

Thanks for so many quick replies.

I'm off to try some of the simpler ones (If they don't work the garage will have to try the rest).

Cheers guys, you're a great bunch.

The poor connection sounds right to me. It could be almost anywhere. Have you checked for stored trouble codes. Check and post them for us. If there are no codes stored, it means that the computer never had the bad connection. What about the radio? does id also die or work sporadicly when the lights start to flicker? What about the headlights? Same questions.

The only thing for sure is the negative post of the battery. Make another ground wire going from the negative post to the firewall. Use at least 10 gauge wire. If the problem goes away, you are done. If not, Locate the heavy metal brace under the dash. Connect a good 10 gauge ground wire from this to the inside of the firewall. If that cures the problem, you are done. If not, find the color used for ground on your car. Locate a wire under the dash of that color. Attach a 14 gauge wire to that wire and connect it to the metal brace under the dash that you grounded in the last step. If that does not correct your problem, you will have to determine which component is not grounded correctly, or has a inconsistent power supply. That could be the ignition switch, a power relay, or a power connection at the firewall, or fuse box(s). There just ain't no easy way to check for these problems, except for carefully watching what dies, and what does not. Good luck.

Thanks for the observations Bob.

THis afternoon I had a look at the grounds as suggested by RVZ717 but could only find the connections to body and engine. Everything seemed tight so I closed the bonnet (hood) and tried running the engine. The fault appeared immediately with much more severity. Stalled six times getting the car back into the garage.

Decided to clean the ground connections i found.

Engine connection was solid and wouldn't budge. Body connection had ground wire from negative battery terminal and three or four other ground wires. I followed one of these back up the loom through the bulkhead but there isn't any way to easily access behind the dashboard.

I cleaned the spade connectors on the ground connection to the body and tightened the bolt. Tried running the car again and the problem is still there but it had drastically reduced from just before, when I'd wiggled the wires while inspecting the grounds. This suggests to me that the body ground point might be involved.

I ran the car for about 10 miles this evening. ABS cut in several times but just one stall.

From my recollections of what power is lost during a stall I'm pretty sure that the radio switched off and I'm also quite sure the lights and dashboard light stay on, no flickering.

The car does have some computer controlled functions but its pretty old and I don't see any way to access codes except on a proper test bench. I really don't have the expertise or tools to do any REAL maintenance so I shall take it into a garage asap and get a diagnostic test. I'll try to post any error codes here.

I can see the reasoning behind your thinking in creating new grounds from neg battery terminal and dash. If i can get a good service manual for the astra I might carefully go back over your suggestions in detail. But like i say, my practical knowledge of car maintenance is nearly zero and I don't relish the idea of messing with the wrong thing and blowing up the electrics, or even myself :)

Thank you Bob, and everyone else for your comments. I've learned more about cars today than I ever did before. This is a great forum.

If you have checked the easy grounds, with out finding anything, try this cheater's trick. Make up a custom jumper wire. Use what ever you are sure is well grounded. Bolt a new good wire to this. Put an alligator clip on the other end. Clip this to anything that you question, and drive it.

As a test for the ignition switch, or power feed, Scrape some insulation off of the wire that feeds the circuit that does dead. attach a wire to that point, and attach the other end of that new wire to a small light socket. the other end of the light socket goes to a known good ground. Now as soon as car starts to act up, you can look at the newly installed indicator light ( it is in a visible location when you are driving is it not). if the light is still on, it may just be an ignition control module not a bad ground. If the light goes out, it is the power supply. At least you are getting a smaller list of possible causes. Good luck.

Any time an engine dies, it lacks either spark or fuel, or in some cases both. By far the easiest way to find any of these problems is by using a volt meter, or a video volt meter (lab scope) to watch the voltages with. The best way to find poor grounds is to use your volt meter to test the volt drop of the grounds. Hook the negative lead to the battery ground, (since this is the most negative part of the electrical system, when the engine dies) hook the positive lead to the engine block, and check the voltage. Anything more than .5 volts is too much. Move your positive lead around the grounding system, while loading the grounds with their real world loads. Anything more than .5 volts is too much voltage. Another point of failure could be the ignition switch. Since the ignition switch powers up the ignition module, hook your positive meter lead to the B+ terminal, since this will be the most positive part of the electrical system, when the engine dies, hook the negative lead to the pink wire at the ignition control module. Start the engine, and drive. Here again, anything more than .5 volts on the meter is too much. Fix the resistance problem. This might sound a little confusing, but in all reality, you are testing the voltage that didn't get to the point of load. It is way simpler to know how much voltage did not get to the point of load, than how much voltage did get there.

Hi again,

THis week, the car has been in for diagnostics on the engine management system and the abs system.

No fault codes logged and the fault couldn't be reproduced by the mechanic.

Since i got the car back from the garage the fault is still occurring but far less frequently since i cleaned the ground-point.

One frustrating thing i found is that last time i experienced the fault i noticed another warning light flash on the panel. When i checked the owners manual to see what the light signifies, the layout of the warning lights in the manual is different to that of my instrument panel. Can't find any schematic on the net with my panel layout. ah, well.

The car is due for a service in December. I shall try to follow bwrench's advice about testing voltage drop on the grounds and also bob c's suggestion of temporarily grounding various parts with a new wire. I think i should be able to do some of that and hopefully have some info for the mechanic when i take it in for servicing.

Thanks again to everyone who has taken time to post with advice.

I've just checked the instrument panel again. By shining a torch carefully i can see that the warning light that came on last time the fault occurred seems to indicate "drive train", i.e a symbol that looks like the front and back wheels, axles and transmission.

(The owners manual shows a different symbol indicating a two-bar!)

This makes me non the wiser about the fault though.

I still think you have a bad ground.

Opel Fault Codes

Astra Technical help

Replace ABS control module; Bosch type 220

Vauxhall Astras and Corsas fitted with this Siemens ECU commonly fail with cutting out
after starting or complete non-start.

Vauxhall Astra 1.2i, and Corsa 1.0i and 1.2i (1996-2000) are fitted with Bosch type air flow meters, part number 0 280 217 123. We are seeing these commonly fail, suffering usual air flow meter problems such as poor idle and stalling. BBA supply brand new with 2 year warranty.