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Mystery: Insignia automatic dies in panic stop, won't restart for 30 min.

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  • Mystery: Insignia automatic dies in panic stop, won't restart for 30 min.

    Greetings, friends,
    On Thursday, my wife had a panic stop to avoid a head on collision with a car who pulled out from a stop sign without looking.

    The engine of our 2017 Insignia automatic died instantly without explanation. Fortunately, the car was able to role a short distance so that she could partially clear the roadway.

    for 30 minutes, my wife tried to restart the car without success, as the car partially blocked the road.

    As suddenly as the problem developed, it fixed itself. After 30 minutes, the car restarted and she drove it home.

    We made an appointment with our Opel dealership to have the car inspected. It is a low-mileage car in very good mechanical condition. The computer chip checked out. No sign of a problem.

    The only possible explanation was that the battery was old and needed to be replaced. So we replaced the battery, and now we are waiting to see whether the problem recurs.

    Does anyone else have an experience with an Insignia automatic where the engine dies in a panic stop and won't restart for 30 minutes?

  • #2
    Good thing nothing happened, could have been a major accident. Is your wife okay?

    There should be a device in the car that cuts the fuel supply in case of an accident, but as far as I know those devices require a manual reset.

    ​​​​​​Normally a car, especially an automatical, shouldn't cut out when braking hard, as engine power is needed for power breaks and power steering. Last thing you want to happen is those stop working in case of emergency breaking.

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    • #3
      Thanks for the sympathy, Ernst. Fortunately, she was fine.

      If the fuel supply cut off was triggered by the panic stop, even though there was no accident, that would explain the sudden stop. But then the car would turn over but not start, correct? My wife says that the car did not turn over, and no one looked under the hood.

      Yes, a mystery indeed! Let's see if anyone else has additional explanations.

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      • #4
        Not unless the car had a hissy fit and thaught the car was still in drive.which would explain the car unable to turn over.

        Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk



        .K.M.P.C.U
        YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAA

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        • #5
          Quite new to the VX range but on my Merc, and nearly every Merc this issue was quitre a common problem. The CPS (Crank Position Sensor) would go open circuit when warm, this would tell the Engine ECU that the engine wasnt rotating and so the fuel is cut off. Once the CPS cooled down(say 30mins) the car would restart until the next time.

          Many (I did) change the CPS as preventative maintenance. Like I say unsure if this is even a thing with VX

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          • #6
            Originally posted by EssexMiffy View Post
            Quite new to the VX range but on my Merc, and nearly every Merc this issue was quitre a common problem. The CPS (Crank Position Sensor) would go open circuit when warm, this would tell the Engine ECU that the engine wasnt rotating and so the fuel is cut off. Once the CPS cooled down(say 30mins) the car would restart until the next time.

            Many (I did) change the CPS as preventative maintenance. Like I say unsure if this is even a thing with VX
            My wife's Astra 1.7 diesel once had that issue, but it did crank over. Seems in this case it wasn't even cranking. Almost sounds like the car though it was still in drive or reverse.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by lizzard-t View Post
              Not unless the car had a hissy fit and thaught the car was still in drive.which would explain the car unable to turn over.

              Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
              So to summarise the information you all have contributed, Lizzard-T's explanation that our beloved Lady Opel thought she was still in drive and had a "hissy fit" for thirty minutes or so is likely the best technical explanation. I understand that EssexMifi thinks that changing the crank position sensor as preventative maintenance might prevent a hissy fit.

              Of course, I didn't recognise it, since it is the first time in my life that I have dealt with a woman I count on in the midst of a hissy fit!
              I know you men will protect me by not communicating to any of the women I so count on in my life what I just said.

              That's the man-code, correct?

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              • #8
                If one of you kind respondents was indeed a woman, kindly excuse my brief lapse into sexism.

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                • #9
                  One thing I know for sure, you can't roll a car when it's in park mode. In all other drive modes you do can move it.

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                  • #10
                    I'll be anything you want me to be sweet cheeks !





                    ,58657777+8568587677 yeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaa ride them cowboy!

                    Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk



                    .K.M.P.C.U
                    YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAA

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                    • #11
                      f
                      Originally posted by Ernst View Post
                      One thing I know for sure, you can't roll a car when it's in park mode. In all other drive modes you do can move it.
                      "If the car stalls again, honey, keep it in neutral until people help you get it out of the road."

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by lizzard-t View Post
                        I'll be anything you want me to be sweet cheeks !





                        ,58657777+8568587677 yeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaa ride them cowboy!

                        Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
                        I throughly deserved that!

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                        • #13
                          Greetings, friends,

                          Incident 1:
                          My wife made a panic stop to avoid a head on collision two weeks ago. The car died. For 30 minutes, the car would not restart and it sat in the middle of the road. Then it restarted, and performed well for awhile.

                          Incident 2:
                          The car was parked and would not restart. We called a tow truck. The tow driver was able to restart it with a battery jump, but only after completely disconnecting the cables, and jumping the car with the battery disconnected from the engine. Possible explanation: disconnecting the cables "resets" the electronics.

                          The car died again as the mechanic reconnect the cables, and would not restart. He was able to restart it again, but only after opening and closing the door locks on the remote. (That may have had anything to do with it restarting).

                          What Opel did after the first incident:
                          1) Ran a full diagnostic and found nothing to explain the problem.
                          2) They replaced the battery, which was six years old and tested as weak.

                          I first posted the problem under "engine, drive train, transmission."
                          EssexMiffi suggested replacing the Crank Position Sensor.
                          Would that explain the second incident?

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                          • #14
                            If youhoo have crank but no start then its plausible the crank position sensor is at fault,
                            if youhoo have no crank , and no start then its not the crank position sensor at fault.
                            yes disconnecting the battery completely will re-set all electronic modules, a bit like re-booting a computer .
                            If a certain module is not communicating via the can network, then it can disable the car , all modules go through a "self check "procedure on start up ,and report that they are on line and communicating, so in theory if there is an issue the module can report that it has a problem, and then will turn the "check engine "light on , or put the car into either a limited performance state or fail safe mode .
                            thats a bit of an explanation in layman's terms !


                            .K.M.P.C.U
                            YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAA

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by lizzard-t View Post
                              If youhoo have crank but no start then its plausible the crank position sensor is at fault,
                              if youhoo have no crank , and no start then its not the crank position sensor at fault.
                              yes disconnecting the battery completely will re-set all electronic modules, a bit like re-booting a computer .
                              If a certain module is not communicating via the can network, then it can disable the car , all modules go through a "self check "procedure on start up ,and report that they are on line and communicating, so in theory if there is an issue the module can report that it has a problem, and then will turn the "check engine "light on , or put the car into either a limited performance state or fail safe mode .
                              thats a bit of an explanation in layman's terms !
                              When you said, "no crank, no start = no crankshaft problem", you made it too easy to solve the problem, Lizzard-T!

                              Mystery solved! It is the vehicle anti-theft system! At least the second time, that was the problem; I remember seeing the "lockout" symbol on the dash board, and didn't know what I was looking it.

                              The tow truck driver didn't have it fully solved. I was in lovely Monaco, right across the road from what had been the only Opel dealership in the city state; it had just surrendered its Opel registration. Neither that shop manager nor any Opel dealership on the Riviera coast wanted to schedule me for service before the end of August. So tow truck "Jacque" did me a solid and did the electronics reset you suggested. He got me on the road! But he was a bit puzzled by the key acting up at the end.

                              Two vehicle anti-theft questions:
                              1) Any ideas what causes Lady Opel's anti-theft to have a "hissy fit?" Was I messing with the key and got Lady Opel ticked off at me?

                              2) What are the work arounds to an anti-theft system "hissy fit"?
                              a) "Keep the second key handy!" seems to be one key. The Key Good Luck GIF by Barbara Pozzi
                              b) Doing a hard reset on the electrical system is a second solution, right? Illustration Loop GIF by Jimmy Arca​`

                              But if my partially-abled wife is about town on her own without a second key when I am in another country, and doesn't want to call a tow truck for a hard electrical reset, is there any other way?

                              I seem to remember a Toyota Avalon that I owned twenty years ago. Occasionally the vehicle anti-theft system would have a hissy fit and the old Avalon wasn't going to start until it was ready. As I remember, the secret was to get the key out of range of the car for a fifteen minutes or so, If you went just the right distance away, then said the right mantra over that key, the car would eventually start right back up again.

                              It is possible that my wife did some version of saying the right mantra over that key when it wouldn't start; she walked away and came back, and Voila! Off went Lady Opel!

                              But that trick didn't seem to do me any good in Monaco. I walked fifteen minutes across the country looking for an Opel dealership to help me before I returned to discover that former dealership across the street. Lady Opel still wouldn't start. the anti-theft system felt too sophisticated for that trick.
                              Lady GIF by Madman Films

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