2003 2.2 vauxhall astra problem

[R1gtr]

Hi there, just returned from 4 days away to find the car completely dead (wont start, even central locking not working).
Tried jumping it to no avail and noticed radiator cooling fan was on as we tried to jump it, took keys out and fan stayed on.
I removed engine cooling fuses to turn off fan, put them back in and car jump started no problem.
My question is do you think that was a one off or could it be something else?
Thanks in advance,
Andy

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

Two things.

Either:

The battery went flat of it's own accord, and often low battery voltages make the car's electrics go bananas and may have caused the ECU to switch on the rad fan, or

The rad fan relay is fecked, caused the rad fan to come on and run for no reason, hence the dead battery.


I'd check the rad fan relay first

[R1gtr]

Cheers, pulling out/putting back in the fuses seemed to turn the fan off and allow the car to take a jump, looks like when we parked it up last week before heading off for a few days the fan came on/stayed on and drained everything.

[neosny]

Find this to be a regular occurance with my VW Golf TDi, but that is just with jump starting.... have never tried that fuse trick though.

I had a Astra mk4 (99) which all of a sudden needed to be jump started regularly before I got rid of it, even though the alternator and starter motor seemed fine, the battery just did not seem to want to hold a charge.... even though it was relatively new.

Hopefully it is just a one time thing.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

R1gtr said:

Cheers, pulling out/putting back in the fuses seemed to turn the fan off and allow the car to take a jump, looks like when we parked it up last week before heading off for a few days the fan came on/stayed on and drained everything.

Hmm, wierd. Fans don't come on for no reason.

As I said, try to find out where the fan's switching relay is, pop it out and prise the top off it. If it looks like it's suffered any corrosion / moisture damage inside, then replace it. In my experience if damp gets into a relay, it can cause the relay to switch 'on' without being told to, and hence drain the battery pretty quick.

[R1gtr]

Will take a look tomorrow after work, dont want to take it to a garage and get ripped off if it is something simple to fix.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

R1gtr said:

Will take a look tomorrow after work, dont want to take it to a garage and get ripped off if it is something simple to fix.

Sounds like it should be simple, and the fact is that if a relay-switched item comes on when the ignition is off, it's a faulty relay - or possibly a corroded block connector somewhere that is causing a short circuit that is closing the switching side of the relay.