Access to autel Maxicom or similar?

[Ian Geary]

Hi there,

Short version is I think need to carry out a "relearn fuel regulator value" process for my vauxhall/Opel 1.7 cdti engine. But the tool is too expensive to buy for a one shot, and garages/mechanics I've tried don't have it.


This is after replacing the suction control valve (sits on the back of the high pressure fuel pump)

My cheapish £90 autel code reader can't do it - fair enough, I got it to reset the oil service light.

Took the car to a local garage - after £200 for very little work, they say their computers can't do it either (?). Odd, as they wanted to replace the fuel pump, which would require a relearn process for the scv...)

Emailed some local mobile mechanics - ignored me, as this is probably too small fry.

Whilst I'm not averse to buying tools, I think these autel Maxicom tablet style things start at £350 and go over £1k. That is some serious cash for about 2 minutes of button pressing.

So, my question is if anyone can suggest a good way to get access to one for a while?

I don't know anyone with one, and there doesn't seem a good local hire market, or second hand options.

Also, with my BMW,ford, triumph and Alfa, I could download software on my PC, and use an elm327 cable to talk to the car

Yet vauxhall equivalents seem difficult to pin down. Delphi ds150e gets mentioned a bit.

Does anyone have any advice about practically how to use a laptop for this sort of stuff?

Thanks

Ian

[stevieturbo]

Are you sure it even needs done ?

I've changed the valve, and pump, and don't recall doing any relearns, although it was a good few years ago.

Probably your cheapest route, is buying one of the dodgy clones of OpCom. The genuine software is very expensive.

[Ian Geary]

Morning,

Thanks for the reply.

No, I'm not really 100% sure, but the intermittent fuel pressure errors (both high and low) have been going for a while, and two or three YouTube vids / forums have mentioned this step.

If it isn't this, the next step is to replace the hpfp, though it's £400 parts alone, so I was trying to rule out the easier stuff first.

Ian

[LordLoveLength]

Facebook marketplace has lots of adverts for people doing scanner services.
Just need to find a local one and ask the question.

[Escy]

Where are you? I've got one that will do it

[stevieturbo]

Ian Geary said:

Morning,

Thanks for the reply.

No, I'm not really 100% sure, but the intermittent fuel pressure errors (both high and low) have been going for a while, and two or three YouTube vids / forums have mentioned this step.

If it isn't this, the next step is to replace the hpfp, though it's £400 parts alone, so I was trying to rule out the easier stuff first.

Ian

Next step is to try and diagnose the problem, not replacing random parts.

Exactly what is the problem ? too high ? too low ? under what circumstances ?

There is the pump itself, the suction valve ( weird name ), there is also a relief valve on the fuel rail.

You'd need to log relevant sensors and controlling actions and determine what is actually happen, to try and determine where any fault lies

Last one I bought some morons had been working at it to try and sort some sort of problem, there was some receipts amid claims of new pumps and all sorts. Load of bks and lies.
They had replaced the pressure relief valve on the rail, but then rammed the new one in so tight the head had mushroomed and then trapped the plunger.

Whatever problems they had been trying to resolve, they made it worse...ended up shortly after I bought it, it died completely. Had to thoroughly clean what I could, and replace the entire fuel system. Pump, lines, rail, injectors etc. All bought second hand.
Certainly not a nice job to do, although not horrific.

A genuine low miler too....low miles and little use is not always good. My other Combo had 660k on it before it gave any major trouble. The low miler was only 30k.

[Ian Geary]

Escy said:

Where are you? I've got one that will do it

Hi there

I'm near Gatwick, but commute to south London on and off. I think your profile location probably puts you outskde reasonable range tbh, but I do appreciate the offer.

What kit have you got by the way?

LordLoveLength said:

Facebook marketplace has lots of adverts for people doing scanner services.
Just need to find a local one and ask the question.

Ok ta, will take a closer look. I'm in a couple of cars for sale fb groups, so might try a wanted post and see if admins let it stay.

[Ian Geary]

stevieturbo said:

Next step is to try and diagnose the problem, not replacing random parts.

Exactly what is the problem ? too high ? too low ? under what circumstances ?

There is the pump itself, the suction valve ( weird name ), there is also a relief valve on the fuel rail.

You'd need to log relevant sensors and controlling actions and determine what is actually happen, to try and determine where any fault lies

Last one I bought some morons had been working at it to try and sort some sort of problem, there was some receipts amid claims of new pumps and all sorts. Load of bks and lies.
They had replaced the pressure relief valve on the rail, but then rammed the new one in so tight the head had mushroomed and then trapped the plunger.

Whatever problems they had been trying to resolve, they made it worse...ended up shortly after I bought it, it died completely. Had to thoroughly clean what I could, and replace the entire fuel system. Pump, lines, rail, injectors etc. All bought second hand.
Certainly not a nice job to do, although not horrific.

A genuine low miler too....low miles and little use is not always good. My other Combo had 660k on it before it gave any major trouble. The low miler was only 30k.

Hi, that's a totally fair point. Car has 100k miles, and a reasonable service history.

Initially I had P000F - fuel over pressure and hitting limp mode. Some googling led to the scv, which cleared it up for £80 ish.

But was then intermittently getting P228C (fuel pressure too low) and hitting limp mode, with stumbling and hunting at idle. I replaced the fuel filter and pressure sensor at this point - both quite cheap and easy, which didn't resolve it.

More recently though we've been getting P228A - excessive fuel pressure, which shuts the car down.

Intermittent as in 10/20 journeys fine and then it hits when you're not expecting it. It doesn't seem to equate to hard acceleration, more like coming off the gas tbh.

It was at this point I took it to a garage for diagnosis, but they just did the filter again, and want to do the fuel pump next - over £800 fitted. Classis parts darts.

This is why I wanted to see if the lack of "relearning" the scv might be causing this fuel system confusion, and could rule it out.



Finally, I have a autel diaglink, but it won't connect to the fuel system - just says connection error.

Other modules work ok, and the scan tool used to show fuel pressure desired Vs actual when I got it, but more recently won't connect.

This might point to some deeper error in the fuel ECU perhaps? I tried some continuity testing between scv and ECU but tbh wasn't really sure why to test.

Doing the hpfp is a last resort, and I'm not really convinced it's failed, as when the car works it can go just fine at motorway speeds.

Ian

[Belle427]

I bought a clone op com some years ago and it did its job well on a couple of cars, cant remember the cost exactly but think it was £50 ish.
Well worth having in your armoury if you do all your own maintenance.
DS150E is a great piece of kit though if you could still get it reasonably.

[Ian Geary]

Well an update from me nearly a year later.

No-one I contacted about hiring or diagnosing it ever replied.

I laid the car up on SORN at Christmas after it cut out in a dangerous situation (I had become blase about coping with a bit of stumbling and hesitation a dbhad taken it down the M23 smart motorway )

However in May 24 I decided to get it moving again.

I bought vaux-com for £30, but it won't talk to Chevrolets at all. I borrowed a topdom diagnosis tablet and although good, didn't have the range to do fuel pump relearn.

I then read up a lot more on suction control valve failures, which ultimately was the problem.

The internet said cars should relearn values pretty quickly anyway, so I began to think this was a red herring.

Experiences online said garages wouldn't replace GM svcs unless with genuine Denso parts- cheap Chinese ones had a high failure rate.

So I bought a genuine Denso item for £120 (I had paid £80 for my one equivalent 2 years ago) and fitted it.

The hiccup was that GM use a different plug than Denso generic svc, and so the harness only "rests" in place rather than clicks in - solved with 6 inches of rubber tape.

The car now runs really well again. I'm 20 miles in and had nary a hiccup or stumble. So the relearn procedure was a complete red herring, and it was just a poor quality scv.

Note - the garage mentioned above would have replaced the high pressure fuel pump for £800, which comes with a new scv bolted on. So this would have also fixed the problem (assuming they bought a decent one and not a Chinese copy) in a roundabout way.

I will resolve the wiring plug harness problem -waiting-to-happen by buying a Denso pigtail to fit the valve, and soldering it into the female plug from the GM valve.


Ultimately, I've updated this so anyone searching on it can hopefully find it useful - I found a real lack of practical examples online for Chevrolet Cruze problems, which isn't unsurprising of course.


Ian

[stevieturbo]

Poor quality Chinese parts are like a plague, it's a disgrace trading standards or whoever is allowing these into the country.

[GeniusOfLove]

I've become very cautious about parts, even some brand name stuff is crap now, and if it's something that's got a major labour investment to change I'll go with OE.