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Zafira blowing 60a fuse

My 2001 1.8 petrol Zafira stopped suddenly - no dashboard lights engine dead, steering and brakes virtually gone. RAC man found blown 60A no 3 engine fuse, which is the one which serves the ignition and charging stuff. He replaced the fuse but that one blew as well. He said it looked like a problem with the fuse box or ignition switch but couldn't diagnose any further so recovered the car.

With a dead car outside the house I needed someone to come to me. Vauxhall main dealers don't do this and going by previous experience they are unable to diagnose anything more than mildly tricky - they seem to replace parts in a process of elimination. So got a local garage who I trust to check the car out - clearly there was a short causing the fuse to blow. They towed it to their workshop. eliminated various things (alternator, starter...) as possible causes.

Eventually they got it going - they reckon it was the "main relay"(?) which they said is part of the fuse panel inside the car. I think they said that they disconnected it and then reconnected it and the fault was gone. They warned me that it may go again at any time and that they couldn't provide a permanent fix.

I'm looking for evidence of this being a known problem with Zafiras/Astras before approaching either the Main Dealer (aaargh!) or an auto electrical specialist. I need to be confident of what is causing this problem because driving a car which could cut out at any moment is pretty dangerous hence I'm hoping someone will have hit this problem before.

Does this fault sound familiar to anyone?

Thanks Biggles

Reply to
Biggles
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IIRC they have an alarm system with its own battery back up, when the battery in the alarm fails it can blow that fuse. A vauxhall dealer would be the best people to advise on a fault like that since they see and know the most about vauxhall specific problems.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

I've never come across a relay which has failed such that a fuse blows.

Relays in cars only usually operate on one pole (positive or negative). There is a connection to the other pole for the coil, but a short between that and the contacts as I said very unlikely. Same really applies to solid state relays.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)
[...]

I suppose it's theoretically possible if some sort of polarity changing circuit was involved, but I concur as to that being very unlikely; as the fuse that blew was a 60A one, an internal short within the relay would more likely destroy the relay than blow the fuse.

Mr C's theory seems well worth investigating; lousy piece of design if that's what happens though.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

I think the alarm is on the No 2 fuse as I popped that when the No 3 fuse was already out and the alarm went off :-) I agree in theory about Vauxhall dealers but my experience differs so far. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Biggles

Reply to
Biggles

What Dave and Chris makes a lot of sense - I think I only got half the story from the garage. My wife tells me the mechanic said they wiggled the main connection to the fuse box and the short disappeared. According to Haynes there is a "multi-timer" board which slides into the fuse box and this contains various relays etc which used to be separate - perhaps that was what the mechanic was referring to.

Biggles

Reply to
Biggles

Further update - I spoke to the mechanic again and he said that he had a multimeter across the No 3 engine fuse slot, then disconnected the black connector on the top right hand side of the fuse box inside the car (in driver's footwell) and reconnected it. The multimeter was showing a short before he disconnected the plug and was not showing a short after he reconnected the plug (and everything worked OK after this). This plug connects to the "multitimer" board which seems to be the thing which all the components in the fuse box plug into. I cannot find any reports on the Internet of this board causing a short and blown fuse. Does anyone know what this multitimer board contains? Does it have a brain? Is it possible that disconnecting and reconnecting it has reset it in some way? Any ideas what might cause a short and be resolved by unplugging and replugging in?

Biggles

Reply to
Biggles

My understanding is that the multi-timer module controls all the preset timing intervals eg the automatic cut off for the heated rear screen, the rear 12 socket outlet supply, the switching off of the internal cabin lights after preset time when a door is left open, same facility with boot light, switches off glove box light if left open etc. To blow a 60 amp fuse is some short.

Gio

Reply to
Gio

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