VYII Berlina ECOtec wont start - suspect fuel issue.

[Slave to the VYII]

Hi All, I am new to the forum and in need of your help/opinion! Last week I had my car serviced. It is a series 2 vy berlina with the 3.8 ECOtec, completly stock. There is a short story to this so bear with me,

Before I had the car serviced I had never had any issues at all with the motor. I have always had my Holdens (past and present) serviced at the Holden Dealership, and I service them every 10'000km.

After my last service (135'000km service carried out by Holden, car has actually travelled 125'000km) the car ran perfectly as it always however this is where it started going wrong,

Day 2 after the service; the car takes 2 turns of the key to get it started. I thought nothing of it as it was a cold moring

Day 3 after the service; again the car takes 2 or more turns of the key to start the motor, hot or cold the result is the same

Day 5 after the service; car starts up first pop, goes into reverse fine into drive and you're off. But put your foot down on the pedal and the motor almost stalls, back off and try again with the same result. Absloute loss of power, foot right to the floor and your doing 30km/h with the engine vibrating and missing badly. I crawled the car home and took my other car to work.

So later on in the day after I thought i'd check it out... this is where i'm at:

-Motor turns over but wont start/Motor turns over starts and dies strait away.
-Checked all the fuel lines right up to the top of the motor, return valve and fuel pump. All clear with apparent good pressure. petrol tank is full
-Checked the plugs - all ok
-Checked coil pack - ok
-Battery was in v.good condtion but is now flat

So I give in and phone Holden, they send their mechanic out to come and check it and he finds all of the above and says he thinks it is likely a fuel issue.

The car is then towed back to the dealer ship and I am left with a loan car. I am yet to find out what the problem is.

Has onyone else had a similar problem?? If so what was causing it?? This is the third ECOtec motor I have had and I never had a similar problem with my last ones. Both were in VS Calais/Berlina however.

[wortus]

I'd suspect fuel pressure or high resistance/open circuit spark plug lead(s). Let us know what Holden find is wrong.

[Slave to the VYII]

You're dead on mate. I got the call yesterday.

Holden after much thought have come to the decision that they suspect there could be a fault with either the fuel pressure regulator or the releif valve.

The fuel pressure was found to be 70-80psi!!! ... possibly causing the engine to flood (normal fuel pressure is around 50psi)

Oddly enough, both the releif valve and the pressure regulator were tested and found to be working correctly? Nothing was replaced and I got my car back as good as new, infact better. My freeway economy has dropped from 7.9 - 7.5L/100km to 6.9 - 7.2L/100km.

I've been told to monitor the problem; if it happens again, remove the fuel pump relay and try to turn the motor over. If its a no go then back to Holden on the tow truck. We will see what happens I guess...