Vehicle is Vectra Club DTI 16v with 2 litre engine. Manufactured November 2004.
Bought from dealer October 2012 with 55,000 miles on the clock. No reason to doubt mileage - local original owner and maintained at nearby garage known to dealer.
General problem is that if vehicle is left over a weekend (i.e from Friday evening to Monday morning) parked nose-up on a sloping driveway it fails to start on the Monday morning. In reality it starts, runs for
3 seconds, and dies. Then requires 5 minutes of cranking in 40 second bursts to get it going, after which it limps into life then runs normally.If left for a shorter period (i.e. just one or two nights) it starts and runs OK.
According to Haynes this vehicle has the Bosch VP44 injector pump, and no other pump for priming or whatever.
Remedial work to date:
1) Replace injector seals - done by dealer under warranty.2) Replace spill pipes.
3) Investigate fuel pipes.A stiff pipe runs from the tank to the back of the engine compartment right hand side, then via a flexible pipe to another stiff pipe crossing to the left side of the vehicle into the fuel filter.
A similar stiff pipe takes fuel from the filter back across to the right. Both these stiff pipes loop downwards under the coolant expansion tank. Another flexible pipe couples to a stiff pipe leading to the injector pump. The return outlet from the injector pump runs via another stiff pipe and flexible coupling to the rear right-hand corner of the compartment, and from there a pipe parallel to the inlet pipe circulates fuel back to the tank.
Discover that two non-return valves have been fitted, one in the flexible section between the feed from the tank and the pipe leading to the fuel filter; the other at the start of the return pipe to the tank. These look to be amateurishly fitted and likely to leak air. So remove and replace with new sections of flexible fuel pipe. However it does suggest that poor starting because of air leaks has been a problem before.
4) Fit two short lengths of transparent pipe, both at the back right corner of the engine compartment; the first in the line arriving from the tank, the second (fitted a couple of weeks later) in the line between the fuel filter and the injector pump.Run engine. See that the first sight tube (from the tank) shows only the occasional small air bubble; but the second shows a continuing stream of small air bubbles (pinhead sized) with the occasional larger bubble (thumb sized). Conclude that air must be leaking into fuel filter housing.
5) Park on Friday evening on sloping driveway. Examine sight tubes on Saturday: see one tiny air bubble (slightly bigger than pinhead) in first tube. Examine again on Sunday. Air bubble is now about the size of a small pea. Examine on Monday: now there is no fuel whatever in first sight tube. Try to start engine; runs for 3 seconds & dies; requires several minutes of cranking to start. Presume this is to purge air from fuel filter.This would consistent with an air leak into the filter chamber; because of the way the pipes loop downwards under the coolant expansion tank the filter chamber could completely fill with air before the fuel would disappear from the sight tube; and this could well take a few days.
6) Replace filter chamber with new assembly, complete with filter element. This has new quick-release seals from the pipework into the housing.Run engine. As above, small air bubbles visible only in sight tube between filter and injector pump. Same after driving about 10 miles, which I would have hoped would have purged air from new filter.
So perhaps the pipes crossing to and from the fuel filter are leaking air?
Will leave it for a few days.
Any other ideas?