Hi from newbie, I have 2007 Zafira 16 Life, approx. 80000 miles.

For the past 12 months the engine management light (orange) has been on and off intermittently; car has run fine during this period. (Fault code 0171: i've cleaned the inlet manifold and checked the operation of the EGR valve)
Occasionally it has refused to start (maybe twice in the past year), but after being left for a few days it starts and runs fine.

Last week we were on holiday in UK and used the car to drive from Southampton to Essex and back which it did with no problems.

The day after we returned we went to start the car; it refused to start and seemed to spit back in the air cleaner.

Later that day I tried again; the engine would start and race to ~5000rpm for about 2 seconds then cut-out. (without touching the throttle pedal). it has done this repeatedly since.

Occasionally it will run at approx. 1000rpm making 'strange' noises (not very technical description) and again after about 2 seconds then cuts out.

The faults (using the pedal trick) were:
17152 Which I assume is the EGR valve or the ports in the cylinder head
P0201
P0202
P0203
P0204
160638

After again cleaning the EGR valve (didn't seem to need cleaning) I checked the fault codes and now have 160638.

The battery voltage is good (12,5 volts), I have taken the electrical panel (with fuses and relay) off and checked for corrosion: I couldn't see any, but sprayed some electrical cleaner anyway for good measure.
I have taken the connectors off the ECU: they are clean with no signs of corrosion.

from various forums it looks like a new ECU is required: any comments from the experts out there?