Help - strange electronics problem 58 astravan ????

Help - strange electronics problem 58 astravan ????

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Jamster123

Original Poster:

485 posts

204 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
Hi , hope someone can help I'm lost for ideas . any advice is very much appreciated .

Driviing along symptoms where engine management light , flashing then abs , airbag and various others flashing .

I then lost the radio , power steering , window wipers etc and eventually the turbo would only work occasionally , all this happening on the same journey. Occasionly things would start working again while driving along for example the power steering would start working at 50mph , the speedo would come back to life mid journeythen stay at what ever speed I was doing at that point . Electronics doing crazy things .

Van would run ok but eventually having no electronics/displays at all. I stopped and triied to restart the engine , it seemed the battery was dead . Had to bump start it and drive it with no electronics to the garage .

First diagnosis was alternator which I also assumed ...alternator changed all ok for few days then same symptoms appear.

Van back to garage , next diagnosis was dead cell in battery ....battery changed all ok for one day then again same symptoms .

Latest breakdown had all the above symptoms then just completely died on me .

Van has 80k miles , I have owned since around 75k everything has been ok , only grumble would be that it was always a little slow to turn over (2-3 seconds). It's the 1.9 cdti.

I also noticed that when I did have it idling with no electronics , it was a little lumpy..

Hoping theres maybe an auto electrician around here who can advise on the best course of action , I understand electical problems can be a bit of a PITA .....I'm also not sure whether it was necessary to replace alternator and battery if fault still exists ? Is there any way a fault could be frying a brand new alternator ?


Really appreciate any advice , thanks .

Jamie





Jamster123

Original Poster:

485 posts

204 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
Okay AA came out today to recover the van ....

Looks like the brand new alternator isn't producing the correct voltage to charge the battery , we made the reading at the alternator itself so cable between alternator and battery is ok .

I'm wondering if it's just coincidence that the new alternater is a dud or if there is anything that could be damaging the alternators?

As far as I know the belt drives the alternator which creates voltage , charging the battery I'm not sure there is much else could go wrong ?

I forgot to add on my first post , I have another issue but not sure if it's related . When the fuel light comes on the car cuts out ?

Runs absolutely fine so long as I don't let the fuel go below the fuel light stage which is around 1/8th of the tank .

Any suggestions ?

Jamster123

Original Poster:

485 posts

204 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
Sorry guys forgot to correct my original post van is infact 1.7Cdti.

Alternator was producing around 6v.

Jamster123

Original Poster:

485 posts

204 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
Yep AA guy jacked the car up to get into it .

Could it still be the voltage regulator , is this part of the alternator or different component ?


Cheers