20th Dec 2012, 01:14

I've recently purchased a 2003 Astra for my daughter. Same problem when in drive; seems to take off in 3rd gear, but only from a stationary position, and only about 50% of the time we drove it, so one day it would do, and the next day it wouldn't.

Check engine light was always on.

Codes were all supposed to be reset when we put it in for a service, but the idiots who serviced it decided to hand me back an undrivable car, due to leaving the air flow meter and vacuum gauge off for the engine management system. This set 7 codes off, and I'm still fighting them for my $$ back, after they told me the car had to be towed because they had no idea.

Check engine light is now off, but it now takes off like that all the time. Going to try disconnecting the battery for half an hour tonight, and see what difference it makes, then off to get codes checked again next week.

Good luck with yours; we are getting rid of this car as soon as it runs fine.

25th Jul 2013, 08:41

This is called limp home mode: so you can get the car home or to a garage to check the codes.