Hello everyone!
I have a manual 5-speed 28 year old Opel Corsa B 1.2i (8 valve, 4 cylinder, mono-injection, original transmission / engine) with a current total of 140.000km (bought it 5 years ago, with 90.000km only).
The car never gave me any problems or issues, and I'm also a calm driver, who mostly drives on highways and I do the maintenance myself.
QUESTION:
Around 2 weeks ago I finished a 1600km road trip within 4 days.
It's not the first time I do a road trip of such distance, but this time something unusual happened:
During the road trip, part of it consisted driving in a slight uphill for around 30 minutes with a lot of slight turns where I constantly was in 4th gear at around 3000rpm. The thermostat temperature was always at low as it always is during normal temperature and normal driving conditions.
Suddenly, all the dashboard lights turned on (like if the key was on ignition), and the car begun to slow down and no longer accelerated (it didn't shut down, though).
I stopped at the side of the road while the car still kept rolling upwards, turned it off, and waited for 10-15 minutes. I checked outside, and no fluids were being released, no burning smell of any kind, and everything seemed fine inside the engine bay as always.
After waiting 10-15 minutes, I turned it on, and everything was normal, and I resumed back to driving with no further issues or unusual behaviors of any kind.
I still drive the car almost everyday, and everything is still operational on all 5 gears.
Did the clutch plate/disk (which are still original) simply overheated temporary, and resting for 10-15 mins was sufficient to recover?
Any permanent damage to transmission?
Who marked this as private?
Nah clutch won't do that it won't make lights and stuff go on that's more electronic failure like a weak battery or alternator or bad wiring have that checked first
Thank you Scotty, I will keep the wiring/alternator in mind. I bought a new battery (12v, 45Ah, 360A) 7 months ago, is it strong enough?
Keep up the good videos 😉
If the situation was related to the wiring or the alternator going weak, which is very plausible since they are probably original, wouldn't that cause future failures? Since that incident, no further issues occurred.
It is not unusual to experience intermittent electrical problems, especially on an older car. In addition to testing battery and alternator be sure to check the battery terminals for corrosion and tightness. Also check all grounds especially the ground cable between engine block and chassis.
Your clutch would only overheat if it was slipping and in that case you'd both feel the slippage and smell the burning clutch lining.
Thank you for the feedback 🙂
Yeah has nothing to do with the clutch - sounds like an electronics fault.
With a clutch you first get a foul smell (and later a “gearbox temperature” light if equipped with a temp sensor)
Has nothing to do with the rest of the systems.
if you would have plugged in an OBD2 scanner shortly later maybe there should be a clue to what’s wrong
Thank you, I believe it was not any fuse or relays, because when that breaks it breaks for good, right?
Yes.
Thank you again for the feedback.
I have 1 final question: I changed the fuel pump 2 months ago before the trip, because the one it had was still original and I didn't want future surprises.
The fuel pump I changed to, looks exactly the same as the original one, and the store confirmed it was compatible.
Could this be the issue? Temporary fuel pump failure/overheat during a long uphill?
I'm unsure, I do not think so... but with fuel pumps and other complex equipment it's best to buy OEM and not Chinese junk.
Thank you again @Dan.
Yes, the one I got was brand new from ERA, an Italian brand, this one: https://ecom.eraspares.com/ec/print.asp?Idreferenza=12296
I checked full specs in their website, and they have a very decent database, so it looks very legit
If the situation was related to the wiring or the alternator going weak, which is very plausible since they are probably original, wouldn't that cause future failures? Since that incident, no further issues occurred.