Astra H main beam not working

Hi all,

I had my air-con re-gassed about 10 days ago and I have just noticed that main beam no longer works, and only the nearside dipped beam is working. Side lamps are fine. Does the snap-on machine have any electrical connections to the car while it is working ?, or do they disconnect the battery for safety (it's butane gas now) ?.

I have a new H7? bulb for the offside dipped beam but before I swap it, does anyone know how the fuses work for this model of Astra (59-reg Astra 1.6 manual petrol estate).

It's a bit strange, on Aug 1st I made a trip to Wales to attend a funeral, travelling down in daylight and returning in the dark, and it was fine then.

Normally there is a audible click from the relay and the blue main beam warning light appears. Now there is no click, but pulling the lighting control towards me makes the main beam (s?) flash. I'm not sure if both beams are flashing. I'll need to ask a passer by to check for me.

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew
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Solved.

After replacing the offside dipped bulb, the main beams started working again.

I guess this could be a safety issue, because the lack of main beam would alert the driver to a problem, whereas the loss of the offside dipped beam is easily overlooked by many drivers. Only people coming the other way notice (and might pull out to overtake thinking it is just a motorcycle).

Reply to
Andrew

How old is the car?

R600 isn't a normal gas choice for automotive air con due to the fire hazard of ~0.5Kg of boiling liquid fuel (butane boils at -1°C). I have witnessed a small 2.75Kg camping gaz bottle incident. The bottle was the smallest refillable size "R907", they where trying to screw the cooker fitting in and it sheared (gorilla on the job) holding the safety valve open. It produced a flare 20 ft high for about 6 hours. It lit the entire field being used as a motorcycle rally camp site very well and ran out at about 1am. So 0.5Kg with a small leak could last about 1 hour. If it was released quicker - like all at once it could be explosive.

The flammability of released gas in the engine bay with hot ignition surfaces and tendency to produce a long lasting flare from a small leak makes putting out a fire much more difficult and makes ignition of the

50-60L petrol tank much more likely.

R134a is the most common air-con since R12 was banned. R134a is 1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane (R134A) (C2H2F4). It is not compatible with the oil used in older R12 systems as it will not transport the oil and mixing of oils to "top up" the oil produces a jelly.

R290 / R600a (CARE 30) Propane / Isobutane is a substitute for R12 as it can transport the oil used for R12. This is also a fire hazard.

The correct automotive replacement for R12 are R437A or RS-24, these are blends of HFC134a, HFC125, butane and isopentane. Although it contains fuel gases these are present to transport the oil so are in reduced volume compared to R600 and R600a and hence reduce the risk.

Reply to
Peter Hill

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