Doddery Vel-Satis - help needed

[Junkman]

Me again.

 

For the past 7 years, a friend has a 53 plate Vel Satis 3.0 Dizzler Auto, which is shite, and a severe problem with it for the past two years, which is shit.

The issue manifests itself in when driving along at 30-40 and then trying to accelerate, the car is stuttering.

 

It has been in various garages numerous times, and they changed all kinds of parts each costing more than I will ever spend on a complete car, but the problem persists.

All pumps and filters have been changed, the airflow meter is new, and all kinds of other stuff I've never heard of before and am too lazy to memorise.

 

Does any of you have similar experiences with the car and perhaps know what the problem is?

My friend is close to pushing it over the bridge, which would be a shame considering how shite and in what condition it is generally.

[cort16]

Crank sensor maybe? That'd be the cheap solution. I think these things also problems with injectors failing, which would be fun*

R9UKE will have the answers as he's a 5th dan Jedi Shite when it comes to these things.

[R9UKE]

Thank you sir, proud to have that title!

 

But I can say in 5 years of being immersed with these things, I've never heard of that, and every issue possible normally pops up on the site (Vel-Satis.org - I'm a mod on there, worth telling him to join).

 

Crank sensor isn't a bad suggestion. When you say it's struggling - does it make really jerkish progress as it tries to accelerate or just really flat? Any warning messages from the bint behind the dash?

 

Also worth checking out issues with the Saab 95, Vauxhall Signum and Vectra as these got that Isuzu lump thrown into them as well.

[gallondrunk]

I'd be tempted to say the throttle position sensor? The trouble with randomly changing sensors is it very quickly becomes catastrophically expensive, with no guarantee of sorting anything.

 

The best thing anyone with something as complex as a Vel Satis can do is buy a cheap bluetooth or USB wired OBD scanner. I bought a ELM 327 based bluetooth one from China for less than a tenner about 3 years ago.

 

Depending on the fault, It might not give you any engine codes to follow up, but there's a plethora of ECU information - Load %, RPM, coolant temperature, sensor readings and so on.

 

Hook it up, take it for a drive while logging the data and it may log something which can give your mate some clue as to what may be at fault.

[Junkman]

Thank you so much guys!

[R9UKE]

I can rule the throttle position sensor out for you - I've had this issue, this is what happens when it's faulty.