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Vauhall Astra dealing again

Hi all,

Just done an oil change on my mates Asta '86 1.6 petrol after starting it runnning it for a while and then stopping doing the normal to run oil through ready to top up where necessary.

Wouldn't start, flat battery. Jumped it off mine and it started fine. Took the jump leads off and idled it for about 10 mins, just wanted the oil to circulate so I could top it up. put some more oil in, and went to start it... flat battery, jumped it again and no probs, started first time.

Took the leads off again straight after starting it, not a flinch, switched evrything on, still not a flinch... took it down the road (to my stupidity) drove down the motorway and back up no problems :) no oil light or anything so thats a good sign. Stopped at his house, tried to start it... nothing.

Swapped the battery for a newun and it started 1st time perfectly. Stopped it, started again works fine... thinking I won't push my luck here so took it out for about another 30 mins, got back to his and tried to start again.. nothing.

Ok now for the question, new battery so hopefully nothing wrong with that, car runs fine with all electrics on until stopped/started so alternator fine?? each time there was enough for it to try and turn the engine over once before the dreaded clicking so starter fine? oh and not once did the battery light come on.

Any ideas? Starting to think his cars not worthwhile looking at :(

Tim

Reply to
Tim Anderson
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Ok, done some checks. 14.5 volts while running & 12.5 slowly dropping when off. Going to check again in an hour or so and see wht it reads then.

Tim

Reply to
Tim Anderson

What made you think the battery was actually flat? Just the fact that it wouldn't start the engine? If so, it's more than likely that you had a poor connection at the battery terminals. This would prevent a start but allow it to run. The fact that you could start it off another battery lends credence to this view. Although battery terminals may look clean, often they have a coating of grey which acts as an efficient insulator between the lug and the connector.

Rob Graham

Reply to
Rob Graham

Loose engine /battery earth strap?

Reply to
Duncan Wood

hmm checked the battery earth strp and this seems to be fine, would the starter solenoid work if these were not?

Tim

Reply to
Tim Anderson

Nope the starter solenoid clicks and not much else.

Normally I would agree with you be I have put a new battery on it AND cleaned/greased the terminals and this hasn't helped.

Tim

Reply to
Tim Anderson

the running voltage is ok but the turned off voltage should be 12.8 after an overnight stand, not 12.5 as soon as you turn off.

MrCheerful

Reply to
MrCheerful

So probably was the battery before and I may have got a faulty un?

Tim

Reply to
Tim Anderson

Sounds like an almost identical problem with my old 1.6 Astra, I had to call out the AA and it turned out to be a 'high resistance' braided type earth strap from the [gearbox side] engine to the body work.

It looked fine, but on giving it a good tug it totally disintegrated, so he replaced it with a new lead and haven't had a problem since.

Reply to
Orange

They're notorious for the engine earth strap snapping.

Reply to
Conor

Are you sure it's the starter solenoid clicking?

I once had aproblem with a battery clamp that seemed tight but was not. Under load it moved slightly on the post with a "click" and broke the connection ...

Reply to
R. Murphy

hmm, sounds like the solenoid, tryed it this morning and it turned over slowly twice and the gave up with a rapid succesion of clicks (quite loud).

Tim

Reply to
Tim Anderson

Checked continuity on the earth strap and it seems fine, gave it a good hard pull first to. Check continuity between battery neg and body this was fine. Checked between engine and battery neg this was fine and engine to body also fine.

Tim

Reply to
Tim Anderson

Checked continuity between many different places and it seems fine, tugged on the two braids (battery/engine) and these still read fine on the multimeter.

Tim

Reply to
Tim Anderson

What's the voltage at the battery & at the starter when it's cranking?

Reply to
Duncan Wood

I know this sounds daft, but...

Measure the voltage across it when the engine is turning over.

The resistance at low current may be OK, but if a high current flows, this may change.

If you're dropping a "reasonable" voltage across it, that could be at fault.

Something else you could try is measure the voltage when cranking between the engine and another bit of bodywork the strap's connected to. The strap may be OK, but the contact between the gearbox & strap and strap & bodywork may be poor.

Pete.

Reply to
Pete Smith

Woohoo, swapped it at Halfords, ploked it in and it starts now, don't know what was wrong with the first new one.

I did the oil change for him and he did 90ish miles about 10-15 miles at

30-40mph and the rest at 90 odd. No oil light :) God knows what it had in it before but in the filter untill it cooled down it was like water.

He comes back and guess what? He's broke the window LOL I can't hep but laugh. a bit down, nearly all the way up so for now I told him to push the glass up and use packing tape to hold it up. I had a quick look, took the handle off and the metal bit the handle attaches to just turns and turns and turns, it won't go up/wont go down.

Fantasticly put together for DIY'ers it's all riveted together :(

Any ideas other than going to a scrappie and buying a whole new door, glass and all?

Tim

Reply to
Tim Anderson

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