Battery Change/Power Steering issue
Discussion
Hey everyone, thought this'd be the best place to ask.
We've a 2010 1.4 16v Astra J and the (Lion brand, standard lead-acid) battery that came with the car isn't fantastic so, a few weeks ago before it started getting below freezing, I'd taken it out to charge and put it back and upon doing so the power steering was not working (OPCOM said unable to communicate with EPS I think, I can't remember but it wasn't very specific).
I spent the best part of an hour wiggling all the cables around the battery, disconnecting, leaving it to reset, etc and nothing worked, and then at some point I got back in the car and it was once again working correctly.
This has happened again since when I disconnected the negative terminal to replace the steering wheel buttons, after reconnecting the negative lead, the EPS had once again stopped working and the car was largely undriveable until, once again, it seemed to fix itself.
The battery is showing 11.6-11.8v with ignition on/engine off through the 12v socket and also on the main display in the instrument cluster, and although it's starting the car okay I'm concerned about it giving up and would like to replace it.
I have a couple of spare batteries that I keep charged, so that's not a problem, I'm just scared to change one over because I don't know what's causing it to stop functioning.
I can't see it being a loose connection as it never stops working when driving or wiggling any of the cables around the area/the one that goes down to the steering rack, only after battery disconnection.
Not to mention this never happened with our previous 2.0 CDTI Astra J (AGM battery) which I've disconnected multiple times without this issue.
Alternator charges okay too, when driving the voltage is between 12.3v-15.0v(+-0.5), the low voltage bothers me but seemingly that's just the "smart" charging system going into economy mode when it detects over 80% SOC... headlights on brings it back up to 13.9v or so.
Earthing points were checked too and all seemed fine, just looking for suggestions as to what else it may be?
We've a 2010 1.4 16v Astra J and the (Lion brand, standard lead-acid) battery that came with the car isn't fantastic so, a few weeks ago before it started getting below freezing, I'd taken it out to charge and put it back and upon doing so the power steering was not working (OPCOM said unable to communicate with EPS I think, I can't remember but it wasn't very specific).
I spent the best part of an hour wiggling all the cables around the battery, disconnecting, leaving it to reset, etc and nothing worked, and then at some point I got back in the car and it was once again working correctly.
This has happened again since when I disconnected the negative terminal to replace the steering wheel buttons, after reconnecting the negative lead, the EPS had once again stopped working and the car was largely undriveable until, once again, it seemed to fix itself.
The battery is showing 11.6-11.8v with ignition on/engine off through the 12v socket and also on the main display in the instrument cluster, and although it's starting the car okay I'm concerned about it giving up and would like to replace it.
I have a couple of spare batteries that I keep charged, so that's not a problem, I'm just scared to change one over because I don't know what's causing it to stop functioning.
I can't see it being a loose connection as it never stops working when driving or wiggling any of the cables around the area/the one that goes down to the steering rack, only after battery disconnection.
Not to mention this never happened with our previous 2.0 CDTI Astra J (AGM battery) which I've disconnected multiple times without this issue.
Alternator charges okay too, when driving the voltage is between 12.3v-15.0v(+-0.5), the low voltage bothers me but seemingly that's just the "smart" charging system going into economy mode when it detects over 80% SOC... headlights on brings it back up to 13.9v or so.
Earthing points were checked too and all seemed fine, just looking for suggestions as to what else it may be?
Gassing Station | Home Mechanics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff