Car Faults - What should I do?

Beautiful-Moose

I have a 2001 Vauxhall Corsa. I've owed it for 3 years almost and never had a problem with it until now!

1. The handbrake light comes on when driving even thought the handbrake is fully off and then all the dials on my dash board go back to 0 as if the car was turned off but the car is still going! Then they all come back to life as quickly as they went off. This doesn't happen every journey but from time to time over the past 6 months it has done this.

2. My sun roof has recently got a horrible habit of not working half way through a journey so basically I can open it but not shut it. I have to actually put the car key in the driver door lock at the end of my journey to get it to shut. I've not started to not use the sun roof because of this.

3. My car alarm has gone off for no clear reason. All windows and doors are shut. I do realise this could be due to animals on or near my car as I do have a problem with foxes in my area.

Anyone have any ideas what could be happening to my car? I want to put it in the garage for a service but would like to have an idea at what I am looking at here so I don't get taken for a ride when it comes to paying for this all to get fixed. If there is even a cheaper way to fix all this then I would love to know. I don't know about cars but someone said it could be a fuse has gone which shouldn't be too hard or expensive to replace.

ILW

Most of them symptoms could just be due to a tired battery.

ilikewatch

I'm sure someone will soon come along to correct me, but my first thoughts are:

1)Loose connection/bad earth at the handbrake switch/sensor and/or the back of the instruments

2) I assume it's an electric sunroof? my guess would be a poor switch connection/faulty switch.

3) Read your manual/search the web to see if there's any way of reducing the sensitivity of the alarm - do you need an alarm? does the car have an immobiliser - if so maybe you could have the siren disconnected if it bothers you.

I doubt a blown fuse is responsible for any of your faults - all of them sound intermittent and fuses are either blown or not! If it was me I would check/clean all the connections mentioned and see if that resolved anything. However, if you're not confident/able to do this, then I would just let a garage take a look - none of these things sound like they would take long to diagnose and repair. If budget is an issue tell the garage beforehand and agree how long they will spend fault finding before giving up.

EDIT: Also, as above some/all could be caused by a poor battery/alternator/battery earth - a garage could check these for you in 2 mins.

EDIT2: A quick google suggests that the Corsa C has a known issue with the connection behind the instrument cluster, usually presented as intermittent instrument failure, but can also lead to power loss and in some case non-starting. This can be fixed by ensuring the instrument connections are secure.

colino

Corsa dash "going off" is very common and fix is taking the cluster off, remaking the joint on the multi-connecter, putting in some foam pads to jam it all in - done. A lot of people persevere however just by pushing on the dash to remake the connection.
Sunroof needs a clean and wiping down the moving parts with white grease. Do it now before you have it jammed open.
Car alarm could be a tired back up battery or just the air vents are open and blowing around your Magic Tree.
Handbrake light might be the priority though. Sometimes this doubles up as a low fluid warning light. This might be just low pads and shoes, but needs checked as you might have sprung a leak!

Beautiful-Moose

I shall get the battery changed. That's something Halfords can do for me right?

How much would I be looking at to get this all fixed in a garage? I know it will vary from place to place but a rough guide.

Thanks for the help so far!

Strider590

What we have here is a classic case of ignoring problems as they arise......

The result is a complete mess of faults that may or may not be related.

You need to know which faults started first..... To me it all looks quite simple, but it'd be a right PITA to know where to start with so many faults that could potentially all be linked to each other.

Oh and if you get a new battery, they're very much cheaper online (half the price of Halfrauds) and fitting it is not as complex as people would have you think, you might surprise yourself AND surprise a whole bunch of useless people who let the TV adverts tell them they're too stupid to change a lightbulb.... Now that'll be some bragging rights, right there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Xa6eMAriQ

Plenty more if you search

ilikewatch

Beautiful-Moose wrote: »

I shall get the battery changed. That's something Halfords can do for me right?

Halfords would be more than pleased to change your battery for you - whether it's needed or not! Take it to a local indy garage with a good reputation - they'll tell you whether it needs replacing.

Beautiful-Moose wrote: »

How much would I be looking at to get this all fixed in a garage? I know it will vary from place to place but a rough guide.

How long's a piece of string? My local indy garage charges £30 P/H - it might take an hour to sort, or it might take 3 hours or more. No parts might be needed or some might.

I would start by asking them to check the battery and battery earth and charging, then check/fix the connection to the instruments - this shouldn't take any more than an hour - then see whether the other problems have improved.

colino

Have you read all the responses, not the guess ones or the googlers?
It is very, very unlikely changing the main car battery will do anything to remedy your trivial and definitely not your potential, serious one.

Beautiful-Moose

Strider590 - The faults happened in the order I wrote them down. 1st the dashboard/handbrake sign. It 1st did it 6 - 9 months ago on 1 car journey then hasn't done it again until Sunday morning. The sunroof issue happened this time last week as did the car alarm issue.

ilikewatch - Are Halfords not the best then? I do have a local garage who have done my past 2 MOTs (my dad and uncle use them regularly) and been very good to deal with.

ilikewatch

colino wrote: »

Sunroof needs a clean and wiping down the moving parts with white grease. Do it now before you have it jammed open.

If the sunroof closes ok from the drivers door lock, but not from the switch don't you think this points to an electrical rather than a mechanical problem?

ilikewatch

Beautiful-Moose wrote: »

ilikewatch - Are Halfords not the best then? I do have a local garage who have done my past 2 MOTs (my dad and uncle use them regularly) and been very good to deal with.

Halfords are probably the easiest (they will fit a new battery from stock while you wait), but they won't be the cheapest and the salesman will be more motivated to sell a battery than to win the trust of a potential long-term repeat customer. Also, the local garage wouldn't want to rip you off and risk losing 3 customers they already have (you, your dad and your uncle).