Astra valve cover overheating ??

LewisR

Last week the engine light showed up on the IP, I disconected the battery for half hour and after starting the engine and waiting for it to warm up the engine light did not show up agaiin until today.

After driving about 25 minutes with the light on, I turned off the engine and waited about 10 minutes to check the oil level. My Astra is using plenty of oil just like many others mention here. Anyway, when I was cheking the oil level was ok, but was going to add a little more oil when I noticed the engine plastic cover was extremely hot.
I took off the oil cap and it was burning my hand. I know the engine gets quite hot, but I don't think It has been that much hot before.

I took off the plastic cover and the measured valve cover temperature with an infrared thermometer, and behind the coils was ₆₅ deg C , and the front about 55 deg.
Considering that the car was turned off ₁₀ minutes before, and that the air temp outside was ~ 30deg C, does that sound normal?
I dont have any reference to know if it is overheating, but it may be the reason why the engine light came on.

Anyone has any experience with this problem? does it sound normal for the valve cover to be so hot?
Is it possible it is overheating??

vocky

sounds about right, they can get very hot in the summer months

JohnnyN

I could cook a pasty on my supercharger at anytime of the year! Saying that, I reckon that I could start up a road side cafe and use the supercharger as a griddle!! pmsl..

My engine is still warm to touch after 2/3 hours after driving. Aluminium is a very good conductor of heat.

Daniel

my ran has started running after i turn myn off but i just put it down to the hot days we been having ???

LewisR

I understand it is supposed to get very hot, but I have previously worked on the engine after running and it just felt excessivley hot .
I forgot to mention I took off the plugs last week after the first time the engine light came on. I'll just verify they are properly torqued.

I'll take the car tomorrow to get scanned to know why the engine light is on, and I hope it is noting too serious.

thanks

Sjdickso

As said sounds normal to me, what ever you do dont over tighten the plugs you could crack the head.

I would Just disconnect the bat and see if the code comes back, unless it is a mate thats reading it FOC.

MikeS

thoroughly grease up the threads on the plugs and put em in hand tight using a long extension

there must be about 6 or 7 threads this year about cracked heads

scary stuff

LewisR

After scanning the ecu I'm getting the following error code.
P0420 Catalyst system efficiency below threshold

Does that mean the catalyst is not working properly? or could it be a bad sensor? The car has ~ 120kmiles
If I remove the catalyst will that remove the error code? or do I need to put a new catalyst?

thanks for the advice

vocky

could be either, try the lambda sensor first as it's cheaper

dodger

there is a torque figure for the spark plugs, i can't remember off the top of my head.

I can find out later if needed

JohnnyN

18Nm for plugs IIRC.