RoboGaz

Tin of Pilchards Toast Taramasalata Tomatoes Tiger prawns ........... I'm hungry

Welcome to the club Ray, good choice of car :D , you'll find a wealth of information and tips on this site. Gaz

Got a Zafira as the main (family) car, but I still try to use the Z every day ............ when it's running. I live out in the sticks, so I need at least one ultra reliable car and I purchased AA membership when I got the Z, just in case of course. Gaz

Still like a drink now and again but not to excess quite as much as in my youth. Gaz

Well there are quite a few things it could be unfortunately and will probably be down to a process of elimination. When you said you cleaned the TPS, was that just the contacts or did you remove it completely. TPS would be a good starting point and if you have a multimeter it is very easy to check: with the car running you just need to test for a value between about 0.40v and 0.45v at idle and you can do this by sticking the +ve lead from the meter into the middle wire on the grey connector (should be a white wire). If you get a value much higher or lower then this could be your problem. If you don't have a multimeter, get the Conzult on it and check the value with that. Do a quick search on here for cutting out problems, you'll probably find more posts than you care to read on the subject. Gaz

One side or both? Don't know exactly what the problem is but the only time I've had anything remotely like that was on another car and I think it was just a dry shock grinding a bit. Can only think the hot weather makes it all expand a little more and possibly on the cooler days it's a little damper. Have you tried replicating it whilst stationary by leaning on each corner of the car. I did wonder if something was grounding on the speed bumps, but then I wouldn't expect that to be happening only when it's hot. Gaz.

Just make sure to let the pressure out of the system before changing the filter otherwise you'll have a fountain of petrol spray everywhere. Easiest way is to leave it overnight before changing it. Gaz

I know it's a big ask, but does anyone nearby have a spare ECU I can borrow to prove if mine is buggered (or not). Been trying to sort my TPS problem and need to eliminate things but don't really want to fork out £100 plus only to find it's not the ECU at fault. Other option would be to swap out the ECU from another car, but not sure how willing folks would be to do that (it's a 10 minute job). Mines a Jap Auto TT if it makes any difference. For those that haven't seen the other thread, my datascan report 0.92v for the TPS at closed throttle, but a multimeter shows that the TPS is spot on at 0.44v and I replaced the TPS thinking it was that at fault. Cheers, Gaz

It should be 20K and I have loads of spare ones if you find the 22K one leaves the speed to high. Mine still reads about 12% to high after fitting cos I've been to lazy to adjust it yet :) Gaz

Phew, got the car running again today and it was just the damn ECU plug. Tested the voltage on the pin (38) into the ECU and this is showing 0.44V so I know that the right value is getting to the ECU from the TPS. So why does the datascan report 0.92V ????????????????? I know it shouldn't as I used it to adjust the TPS about a month or so ago when everything was fine. Knackered ECU perhaps?? anyone nearby got a spare I can try out to rule out an ECU problem (or prove it). Mines a Jap Auto just so you know in case the ECU's are different. Gaz

Thanks guys. I did wonder if it was a wiring problem, but I get 0.44V out of the TPS even with the plug connected, so I must be getting 0.44V going in to the ECU (but I will try and prove that tomorrow when it's light again). Thanks for the offer of help Richard, I know those plugs are a bugger and I'm not the first to have had my one apart by the looks of things. I tried not to over tighten it, but I know it doesn't take much to get the ends splaying out. Fingers crossed that's the problem and i can sort it quickly, then I can trace the TPS issue. Lost count of how many times it's been reset now and the car drives pants with this problem & keeps hunting when your light on the throttle, so I'll not be using it for the next few days. I'll let you know how I get on and certainly post here once it's fixed as it's a really unusual problem by all accounts. Cheers, Gaz

Have been having the same problem with mine for several months, exactly the same symptons. Foot down hard and suddenly it feels like you've taken your foot off the pedal, lift and floor it again and off it goes for 5 or so seconds again. Anyway I fixed it last week whilst rooting around the engine trying to fix a TPS problem, I notice a clip holding one of the pipes at the back of the engine wasn't round the whole pipe completely causing a boost leak (I assume). It was not obvious from a quick glance, but I just moved the clip back into place and problem solved. Definitely worth a look. Gaz

Anyone out there know anything about the Z wiring ...... Been having TPS voltage problems. Datascan shows a reading of 0.92V minimum even with a new TPS installed. Anyway today I get my multimeter on the TPS and the output voltage is spot on 0.44V :confused: , so now I'm thinking there is an ECU fault. So I take the ECU out to check for any obvious wiring issues, but it's not like there's anything to really look at, put it all back start the car and get the datascan on it. Go to the engone bay to measure the voltage again and the car suddenly dies whilst I'm not fiddling with anything and now it won't start :cry: Is there anything obvious I can check for ???? Tomorrow I'll take it all apart again in case it's that crap ECU plug, but does anyone know what would cause this difference beteween the TPS putting out 0.44V and the ECU reporting 0.92V ??. Got it booked into a local garage about 20 miles away (that's local round here) next week, so I'd quite like to be able to drive it there. Cheers for any help folks. Gaz

Well well, had another go at sorting this today .... er well yesterday I suppose and it's all fixed now. Removed the new TPS and could get 0.42V, so put it all back together and reset it all again and it's fine. I'm not convinced it was anything I'd done, so I'll have to watch things for a while, but I'm just glad the car is running nicely again, well nearly nicely, just need to get the back end sorted out as it's very twitchey, so I suspect either an alignment issue or a HICAS problem. Anyway :) :dance: Gaz

"Eeek would you look at that, someone has spray painted that cloud" or "I told you that bumper sticker said 'if you can read this you're to f*kin close'" .

Oh poo! :( Got a new TPS today and it's made no difference. Still reading 0.92V with the datascan and no amount of adjusting changes this voltage. Car is running pants, so I'm not driving it now :( Anyone have any ideas why the voltage will not adjust, why is it so high?, can't be the TPS itself. Checked the fuses (just in case) and now wondering if there's a wire broken somewhere, but it all looks fine. May well do another check tomorrow with a multimeter and possibly take the TPS right off and see if it will adjust down, but I think I already know the answer to that. Still not all bad news, I believe I found and fixed a boost leak today that's been causing a loss of power under load, but I won't really know until I've sorted this TPS issue. Gaz

So what actually happens, does the moden sync up then disconnect straight away or just never sync. What fixed rate service was you on before and if it was a 0.5M service, did you have that because you are a long way from the exchange?. Have you tried connecting the modem where the phone line enters the house (see above post about NTE5's). If the modem is syncing then disconnecting rapidly then my advice would be to leave it plugged in and switched on for at least a day or two as this will help the BT systems determine if anything can be done automatically to stabalize your line. Gaz

Well at least they got that bit right, yes unfortunately it is an 'upto' 8Mps product and in practice about 25% of people are getting 8M and the average speed of everyone on Max is just over 6Mps. Of course that's no comfort to everyone having problems, but if you follow the advice I posted above, then you can rule out lots of potential problem areas.

I'd be interested to know what was done to fix your problem in the end and also what your mates Service Provider is telling them. The cause of dropping to below 1M (I assume this is your sync up rate) could be many factors, one of them is lightning of course, something we've had a bit of recently. But if you find you get a low sync rate every now and then, it's worth seeing if it is at any particular time of day or maybe it just happens at weekends. Even a neighbour switching on something could in theory cause problems if the noise spikes are big enough. The Max service works very differently from a fixed rate service and as such highlights issues with noise and bad filters that won't have been noticed before. Unfortunately because it's quite a complex product I've seen a lot of bad advice out there, so if you have any specific issues, post them here and I'll try to help where I can. Gaz

As has been said, if you are now on a Max service it can take a little time to settle down. If the line is really unstable and things are working correctly it should settle within 24 hours, but that assumes you are connected and using the service (and experiencing a problem). Normally it could take a few days to settle and the more time it's in use, the better the analysis of the line. One of the biggest factors that affects this service is the wiring in your home, but there are ways to test if you have a problem and ways to fix it. It's far easier if you have one of the NTE5 boxes where the phone line comes into the house. You can tell because the box is split into 2 and if you undo the bottom screws you can unplug the bottom bit of the phone jack. This effectively disconnects all the wiring in the home and leaves you with a clean line. Inside the NTE5 you should see a phone socket, plug your microfilter into that and then try your modem or router to see if there is any improvement. Another thing that causes problems is bad microfilters and you might not have realised it was knackered on your old fixed rate service, so if you see no improvement after doing the above, try a second filter if you have it. If you still see no improvement and you can borrow a different modem/router, then that's always worth a try depending how desperate you are to eek that extra bit of speed out of your line. Don't forget to ensure you have microfilters on all sockets that something is connected to, including the sky box, fax machines etc. And don't think that your nice shiney new house will be noise free, some of the new houses around have badly laid out wiring with no thought put into how to cut down on background noise. I have run CAT6 cable about my place whilst I had some building work done, it makes a big difference. If you do find things improve with the home wiring unplugged and can live with a wireless router sitting next to the main socket, then it might be time to consider a service specific front plate (SSFP). These things replace the bottom half of your NTE5 and split the line into phone and ADSL as they have a microfilter built in (and tend to be good filters). These SSFP's have two outlets on the front, one for a phone and one for your ADSL. You can still have all your phones around the house, but the SSFP is the only access point for ADSL, but it's about the best set up you can get if you want speed and stability. Of course if you're lucky enough to be close to the exchange you'll likely get an 8M sync rate without any problems and laugh at us poor sods on a long line. Sorry, went on a bit there, but there's a lot of info on the net out there and a lot of it is misleading. Gaz

Yep same here, a giraffe. now I'm not looking foward to that drop when I'm reborn. :shock: ouch! .

Thanks for the replies both of you and for the offers of a TPS Hi Richard, I did disconnect the TPS and used the datascan to reset the self learn which helped bring my revs down, but the minimum voltage I can acheive is still 0.9v, so I suspected the TPS. Thanks for the offer of a spare TPS and if it's OK with you I'll take you up on that especially as you're so close by and can meet up with you and pick it up. I'll PM you some contact details. Gary

I use the car nearly every day for a 40 mile trip to work and it has been fine for quite a few months now. Anyway come to use it on Monday and the revs are way to high and the gear shifts are all over the place (it's an auto). So last night I put the Datascan on it and TPS is reading 0.9v at idle and I cannot adjust it any lower, reset the ECU and it's idling much better but the only adjustments to the TPS I can seem to get are from 0.9v up to about 1.3v at idle. So has my TPS died or is there a chance it's something else. Cheers for any help, Gaz

De-cated mine about 2 months ago and went for a Mongoose cat back and downpipes with the mini silencers from Luke. I chose this option not because of any back pressure consideration, but because I wanted the system to be on the quieter side. The system replaced the Jap one, so removed the restrictors as well and it made a hell of a difference to the response from the car. Not sure if it added any BHP but the difference was very noticeable. Fingers crossed, running 0.9 bar and still no smoke after about 1500 miles (cars done about 75K). Gaz

Very nice, but of course the first time you hit them hard the engine will leap out onto the road along with your fillings :) Gaz