When the Astra went in for its MoT on Thursday 17th Jan, the engine was running fine and the test was passed with flying colours. The next day, I noticed that the engine was more hesitant to pick up when I started it; it seemed to improve after a few minutes running, so I was able to drive it into town. Then the snow followed and I didn’t drive it again until today.
When I attempted to start it this morning, it would run for a few seconds, and then die; it wouldn’t even tolerate a gentle dab on the throttle. This happened 6 or 7 times before I could manage to keep it going – I say ‘keep it going’, but it wasn’t running well (running on 3 cylinders?) and when I put a few revs on, there were clouds of white smoke. It wasn’t at all happy so we quickly decided to use my wife’s car instead.
I daren’t use it for a journey, and clearly an investigation is needed. I just wonder if it had been upset by its earlier visit to the garage – ISTR something about problems being caused by the high revs required for part of the emissions test in the MoT. I’ve checked under the bonnet and there’s nothing obviously wrong e.g. water coolant level is fine.
Before I phone the garage, I wonder if anyone has any suggestions as to what the problem might be? [Please don’t just say “it’s a Vauxhall” ;-)]
Cheers Haywain
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