Holden Vectra Engine Problems

You haven’t given me much to go on here, Rebecca. There are plenty of warning lights on a dashboard these days, and even a 2005 model will have a variety of lights that illuminate to tell you something’s not right.

There are also a host of reasons for the car not starting, so it’s all a bit hit and miss at this stage. To gain a better idea of what’s happening, you could grab the owner’s manual and try to identify what symbol has lit up and which of the car’s systems it represents. From there, you can start to narrow down the causes, but an electronic scan of the car at a workshop sounds like a pretty wise investment. The warning light might even be a by-product of the engine’s refusal to start, and may go out when the engine is finally running.

I’d check both the throttle body, which could need a clean, and the throttle-position sensor (TPS) which can fail or send incorrect information back to the computer. Both these components have a major effect on how a car idles and both can require maintenance or even replacement. Other possible causes could be worn fuel-injectors, a vacuum leak and a huge range of other possibilities. But those are the two I’d investigate first. Once I’d had the car scanned for fault codes, that is.

You need to remove the timing cover on the engine, remove the old belt and fit the new one, it’s not terribly difficult. Costwise I would expect to be around $400-$600.

Clean the throttle body and check the throttle position sensor.

There could be a number of reasons it won’t start, from a battery that’s down, a problematic starter or starter solenoid, a poor electrical connection in the starter circuit, or a problem with the ignition switch.

It sounds like it's not running as it should, and is perhaps in need of a tune-up.

It's most unlikely that the problem is related to the belts. Have the throttle body cleaned and the idle speed checked.

It sounds like they might have got the timing wrong when they installed the new belt. Have them recheck their work, and have them check the crank angle sensor.

You first have to find out why it is stalling when you come to a stop, and that could be that it just needs tuning. I would replace the spark plugs and leads, and clean the throttle body. If you fix that problem you will probably fix the problem you’re having with the battery. It could also be that the battery is old and needs replacing.

It is possible that it could be in limp-home mode, but if it is you should have warning lights showing on the dash indicating a problem. If there are lights on you could try turning the ignition off and on again, which might reboot the computer it it's a glitch in the system. If it won't reboot and there are warning lights on take it to a mechanic to have the problem diagnosed. If there are no lights showing it could be a blocked exhaust. Again you need to have a mechanic check the exhaust, particularly the catalytic converter to see of the ceramic structure has collapsed.