3 months of problems to find it is this

[MikeS]

well 3 months on and I think i have finally got down to the root of the cause

i am well and truely shocked and personally i cannot believe this could happen

i have replaced tb, coil pack, cts, lambda sensors, injectors, egr valves

and to find it is this a complete joke

the new cat cost me 115 quid and didn't come with a precat

all i am going to suggest is to any owner of a 2.2 with a precat is remove it asap as your car will not show up a fault with this kind of failure, the section of precat was found down the bottom of the downpipe effectivly blocking the cat like a golfball in a garden hose

here is a photo enjoy

 

[ecky1972]

could it have been some of this that damaged the lambder sensor

 

[JohnnyN]

Well i'll be f**ked! Not seen anything like that before.

 

[robo22sri]

happy you got to the bottom of this mate, can start modding again!!!!

 

[sdbutler10]

wow i never knew that could happen. madness.

 

[daaaaavek]

well that's an extreme way of removing the pre-cat

glad to hear you sorted out your problems

 

[bigstring]

Bloody hell, what was the final bill for all that carried out? ? never heard anything like it before!!

 

[bigstring]

Now some one in wiltshire help me get mine out!!!!!!!!!

 

[MikeS]

did it myself

all the work i done bar a tech2 diagnostics fee that i have now got back due to a failing precat that they failed to diagnose

so in total all the work i carried out on the car cost me peanuts except the new cat that cost 115, the parts i got from ecky for peanuts

so it has cost me around 200 quid to fully get down to the problem

about 50 labour hours on my side as this has been going on since beginning of november

if you cant be arsed to remove precat then go buy a new cat from a parts place and ask em that u want one without the precat and fit yourself, takes about an hour or 2 to fit the cat yourself

2 bolts on centre section flange and 3 bolts on the downpipe to manifold flange - 13 on the back and 16 on the front

undo the front lambda connection and try and remove the back lambda from the cat as this saves trying to hook it back up to the clips underneath, you can pull the cat out with the front lambda connected and take it out without doing it under the car

i would use to some carb cleaner on the lambdas and give em a quick going over, dont use wd40 but use wd40 on all the bolts and let it soak for a few mins, i also drowned the back lambda in wd40 to get the bolt loose but make sure no wd40 gets on the sensor hence carb cleaner

 

[Sjdickso]

How has it managed to get like that? Glad that you have managed to find the fault to your issues.

 

[braders]

so what symptoms or faults was this causing??

 

[kirstyandjames]

seen similar on a zafira and guess what vauxhall failed to diagnose it , the giveaway was that the lambda senson looked as if it had been hit with a hammer when it was removed it was a zafira with the cat built into the manifold , a piece of the cat had come away shot down the exhaust hit the lambda and damaged it , a three and a half year old car with 50 thou on the clock and a new cat/manifold cost 700 quid

 

[MikeS]

ouch

 

[Wiswion]

had to change mine this febuary (exhaust manifold/dp flange had a failure)
was around 800$$(CAD) but passed on warranty was around 50k miles

 

[vectraplasm]

yep,just found the same 400 quid the poorer...now the point is .what causes it to happen, was it a gm part or after market jobby.worth looking in to... andy ,newbie.

 

[Hareng]

Seems the genuine have the pre cat, after market dont.
Never had the problem incidently, one of the cheapest mods is to bash out the pre cat done 4 yrs ago, sounds tinny after.
200 cell cat of decent quality went in 3 1/2 yrs ago, total outlay with flexi joint and tubing £85.

 

[justathome]

Photo not working. Would be interested to compare it to mine recently..

 

[MikeS]

scroll up !

 

[poundy]

straight through exhast.its the only way lol

 

[kfet]

I'm guessing the symptoms were poor acceleration and gutless in general?
Growly induction sounds but otherwise little throttle response perhaps?

If this has happened to my Zafira, would it definitely have taken out the O2 sensor? I recently had the car hooked up to a diagnostic tool and the O2 sensors appear to be working perfectly. I have no error codes, no dashboard lights. Just poor performance... Yesterday I blanked off the EGR valve but it didn't result in major improvements. Based on other posts here I'm inclined to swap the coil pack as a next thing to try. I'm hesitant to buy a secondhand coil pack though in case it's also 'tired'. But a new one is a significant cost.. And if it's something like this it's obviously wasted money..

I do find my car makes more than your average induction sound but with little acceleration to show. Would kinda make sense that the exhaust is blocked...

Are these the symptoms you were having?

Thanks, Kristian