I had a look for coolant drain and related searches, but didn't turn anything up for the location of the coolant drain plug / bolt / nut on my particular engine.
The engine is longitudinally mounted as opposed to the usual transverse, and the coolant temp sensor is really hard to get to -and NOT on the thermostat housing as far as I can see. I think it's on the side of the oil filter mounting, but want to make sure.
Can anyone help?
Read on for the long story anyway.
So I got an engine management light about 2 1/2 months ago, a few weeks after buying the car. It'd been used for short runs and I thought it was build up in the cat. However, a blat down the motorway didn't help - about 300 miles actually. So, the first thing it pointed to was a replacement cat. £1000+ from Vauxhall, no kidding. After market cat = £150 so less ouchy, but the guy at Wilco said an aftermarket cat wouldn't last 10 minutes.
So a friend has a kiwi OBD adaptor and I used torque on my android to clear the fault after replacing the lamba sensor (downstream, after the cat). A few trips later the fault comes back. Meanwhile I'm getting poor mpg - 300 / 350 miles to a tank, about 20mpg. Also, I noticed sooty deposit on the exhaust.
Now if I'm really careful, I can get 400 miles out a tank / about 30mpg, if I don't go near the accelerator. I don't know if this is good / bad / normal but I hope I can get a bit more than 400 or maybe I'm "livin in a dreamworld son". I'd like to know what a 16v 2.2L normally aspirated Omega is supposed to do by the way if anyone knows?
Right, recently, I bought a kiwi myself, so hooked up my phone and it was showing coolant temps the same as the dashboard reading, roughly. But, keeping a closer eye on them made me notice that the temps were really intermittent - it takes ages to get up to 80 - 85C but will stay about there, and only occasionally get to 90+ and then I'll see it go down by 5C quite rapidly as the thermostat opens - like it should, I suppose.
So, I think the thermostat is stuck partially open / knackered anyway and thats the bit I'm replacing when I get one through. I do have a coolant temperature sensor, but, there are TWO to choose from. One in the radiator, and one really hard to get too, by the dash one wire sensor, on the back of the engine block. I've got skinny wrists and it's nearly impossible for me even after removing the ignition wires.
Hence why I bought a £15 thermostat because I can get to the housing much more easily. Now all I need to do is drain the coolant... Apologies for length ;D
