VR idling issue

[johnws]

I am hoping someone can help.... this is similar to the other stalling queries but our VR commodore sedan (auto, aircon, cruise, 120k kMs) runs perfectly with normal fuel consumption, starts normally and normal performance. However, when we stop at lights the engine may sit at idle for any variable period and then sometimes miss a beat and recover. It istarted to appear about 6 months ago but is getting worse. Over the past 4 weeks the engine has actually stalled 2 times, but the car can be immediately restarted and all is fine. The problem only occurs when the engine has warmed up and the aircon makes no difference, as does sitting in neutral.

I have replaced the HT leads but to no avail. I have also opened all of the engine electrical plugs and all are clean. I have spoken to an auto electrician who rattled off a stack of things that would be wrong and it all started to sound like he would be using the 'suck it and see' method. I was worried that I could be spending more on the repair than the car is worth.

This is my first atempt at using this site and so I hope I have provided enough information.

thank you

[aceventura]

The first piece of advice is check your error codes then report back:

Checking error codes VR/VS (Revised)

[johnws]

Thanks for the advice. I did the code check and only 2 codes are

12 - OK
47 - 18x Reference signal missing

not sure what this means

thanks

[aceventura]

Code 47 is your crank angle sensor - and makes sense with the problems you described, and is a fairly common problem

It is located under the harmonic balance, and will need replacing. There are a few threads on how to do it yourself - see how you go.

[johnws]

Code 47 is your crank angle sensor - and makes sense with the problems you described, and is a fairly common problem

It is located under the harmonic balance, and will need replacing. There are a few threads on how to do it yourself - see how you go.

I have just spent a few hours on this site and love it! I have been looking in "http://forums.justcommodores.com.au/holden-commodore-how-tos/" but cannot find any reference to how tos for this. Am I off the track?

thanks

[aceventura]

Yeah, not sure if there are any specific how-to threads, but there are plenty of threads on the topic - even another one today.

Once you remove the harmonic balance, the job is easy. Do a search for harmonic balance removal, and that should get you going. In addition, a Gregory's or similar is worth the money, and it explains the procedure well.