Vauxhall astra 1.7 cdti power problems...

duckythesailor

Good Morning all

New to the site but wonder if any of you could help me.
at the moment im in the RN and deployed in the middle east region plodding along looking for pirates. my missis is at home and is driving my car (stated above vauxhal astra 1.7 cdti) its a 05 plate and had no snags since i bought it in Nov 2011.

the problem:
1. suddenly the radio will stutter
2. the radio display will go off
3. fuel indicator needle will drop to read empty
4. car lights will go off
but yet the car still drives.....
had the AA out they said it was a alternator problem (im a Weapon Engineer so checked it myself with a Fluke) seems to be overcharging the battery but only by about 0.1-0.2 v.

But the problem seems to occour as if theres either water ingress or a loose cable/wire (everytime the car hits a pot hole or bump the "snag" would either appear or disappear or sometimes nothing)
AA guy then recommended me to a garage where i rang up and they said bring it in an quoted me £650 to replace alternator .....

After leaving the car sitting for a few days i drove it around for a hour or so, the "snag" had dis-appeared. So i decided to brave it and drive during the day back to base. i jumped in the car again the next day to nip to the super market before a stint at sea and the problem came up again.... so left it in the base and went to sea for a month. on returning i wanted to give it a try rather then forking out £125 for a train ticket got in the car all worked fine and drove home 5 hours later no snag. (water ingress dried up idea?)

4 month later and the problem has just occoured again as my missis was driving it to my parents. If it was my alternator would it not be continous ?
I would investigate more myself if i was at home but since im stuck out here (and will be for the next 4 month) theres no chance i can do that.
Rather then forking out for some oily mechanic to have a look and possible take me for a joy ride with me not physicly been there, is there anyone who can give me a few ideas on what the problem could be?

Many thanks

Ducky

Slowly_does_it..

Hi,

I had sort of similar problems in my "new to me" focus - turned out to be a dry joint somewhere in the dashboard. It took my poor dealer ages to get it sorted, but in the end the dash was removed and posted to a company somewhere in England who repaired, then was posted back, re plugged in, and touch wood has been perfect since. (probably why the car was traded in by previous owner)

I agree an alternator would be continuous problems, and 0.2V is not to be worried about.

I would first check all fuse boxes / control boards etc for moisture and dirty loose connections. Possibly pull each fuse out and give it a spray of contact cleaner. I would also remove battery connections and give both terminals a real good clean, re-attach nice and tight and give a good coat of Vaseline.

Good luck!

atrixblue.-MFR-.

alternator will read 14.0v when the engine on and 12v with it off there is no over charge that I can see there.

sounds like a grounding issue to me.

most common would be the ground wire going from battery to gearbox or fusebox groundwire under the bonnet.

colino

Unfortunately I've never seen this fault but some say it is due to a dying battery, a faulty alternator or a dodgy starter motor. My favourite alleged repair is when it happens, treat it like a Corsa and thump the dashboard. They suffered from a plug "relaxing" through age and thumping the dash gives a temporary fix, taking the binnacle off, cleaning the connection and then padding the area to give a constant clamping pressure appeared to do the trick.

duckythesailor

Thanks all

Suggested all to the missis although she's not the wisest when it comes to tinkering i've persuaded her to take it to my parents, my dad is going to play with the fuses and look at the grounding wires as you have suggested. Would be nice to get hands on myself miss playing about with different things other then a warship.

on another note battery is fine and so are the terminals as it's something i checked when it first did it to me.
Trust me colino thumping things/using hammers works on many things other then corsa's .... solves many of things in my trade, ha.