Astra J new battery not working
Astra J new battery not working
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Discussion

lir7

Original Poster:

19 posts

Hi,

I've changed the battery on my 2010 Astra but it won't start. The lights are on the dash when turning on the ignition so it's clearly connected to a certain level, I get a couple of messages that I didn't note down (low fuel - there's half a tank, check power steering) but it doesn't make any sound when turning over the engine. To check we put the old battery back in and it's the same. I know there's a code for the stereo but is there something else that needs to be connected after the battery or is there something we could have accidentally disconnected when removing the battery? The new battery's voltage is 12.6 so I haven't been sold a dead battery. Jump starting didn't work on either battery.

It's recently been in the garage and showed a low battery warning before so I told them I was concerned about the alternator. I was told that's fine and it must be an old/dying battery (I can't remember how old it is). I'm sure the car knows I'm trying to get rid of it but I need to keep it going a few more months!

TIA

LuS1fer

42,827 posts

263 months

Check or replace the earth strap between the engine and body. On Fiat Pandas, these fray and you get similar symptoms.

normalbloke

8,212 posts

237 months

LuS1fer said:
Check or replace the earth strap between the engine and body. On Fiat Pandas, these fray and you get similar symptoms.
Or test that theory by running a solitary jump lead from the battery negative to a sound connection on the block, like a lifting eye etc.

mmm-five

11,897 posts

302 months

Is the engine even turning over...i.e. is the starter motor/solenoid even engaging/clicking/turning?

DaveF-SkinnysAutos

51 posts

2 months

Another vote for checking the earth.

As other members have posted, connect a jump lead from the negative on the battery to a different earth point in the engine bay and see if it turns over then.

I know you need to plug it in to diagnostics when you change an Astra battery sometimes to get the stop/start to reset, but it doesn’t affect starting the vehicle after changing the battery.

E-bmw

11,477 posts

170 months

lir7 said:
Hi,

I've changed the battery on my 2010 Astra but it won't start. The lights are on the dash when turning on the ignition so it's clearly connected to a certain level, I get a couple of messages that I didn't note down (low fuel - there's half a tank, check power steering) but it doesn't make any sound when turning over the engine. To check we put the old battery back in and it's the same. I know there's a code for the stereo but is there something else that needs to be connected after the battery or is there something we could have accidentally disconnected when removing the battery? The new battery's voltage is 12.6 so I haven't been sold a dead battery. Jump starting didn't work on either battery.

It's recently been in the garage and showed a low battery warning before so I told them I was concerned about the alternator. I was told that's fine and it must be an old/dying battery (I can't remember how old it is). I'm sure the car knows I'm trying to get rid of it but I need to keep it going a few more months!

TIA
As others have said.

General PH rule of thumb, if you do something & make matters worse than expected/ worse than before you started check, double-check & triple-check what you did first.

cknotty

106 posts

146 months

Could it be the fuse for the starter? There is a high current fuse which I think is the starter wire connects to (top right of the picture below, black square):



Also, on the Astra J there is no radio code needed (if it is the standard radio). It is paired to the VIN. When I changed the battery on mine, radio worked fine straight away.

lir7

Original Poster:

19 posts

Yesterday (10:57)
quotequote all
mmm-five said:
Is the engine even turning over...i.e. is the starter motor/solenoid even engaging/clicking/turning?
No, that's the problem. Not even a coughing and spluttering, it's as if there is no battery in there. If the dash didn't light up I would think there was no battery. But we've changed back to the old one and treble checked against videos and have done everything right.

Edited by lir7 on Saturday 18th October 11:02

lir7

Original Poster:

19 posts

Yesterday (11:02)
quotequote all
cknotty said:
Could it be the fuse for the starter? There is a high current fuse which I think is the starter wire connects to (top right of the picture below, black square):



Also, on the Astra J there is no radio code needed (if it is the standard radio). It is paired to the VIN. When I changed the battery on mine, radio worked fine straight away.
Thanks. I've checked a few fuses (16/17) that look fine but in your pic the bolt top right that's missing a nut has a cable that connects. We did miss at first but it's definitely connected now. If by high current fuse you mean one that's a big block I don't see a map online that refers them as ignition of any kind and also can't see through the plastic of them. Fuses 16/17 are ignition related and clear plastic where I can see a good fuse.

CanAm

11,956 posts

290 months

Yesterday (13:10)
quotequote all
lir7 said:
Thanks. I've checked a few fuses (16/17) that look fine but in your pic the bolt top right that's missing a nut has a cable that connects. We did miss at first but it's definitely connected now. If by high current fuse you mean one that's a big block I don't see a map online that refers them as ignition of any kind and also can't see through the plastic of them. Fuses 16/17 are ignition related and clear plastic where I can see a good fuse.
Have you checked the earth strap as described above by luS1fer and normalbloke??

lir7

Original Poster:

19 posts

Yesterday (14:52)
quotequote all

Yes, all conditions were fine. I'm this the red bolts are the ones we undid, yellow were didn't touch and green are the points we checked the voltage of the fuses which all showed 0.0. The black starter motor fuse seemed a likely culprit but I can't see inside it and the volume meter seems to be fine. I'm stuck as both old and new batteries are both not working so something seems to have tripped out, but what.

E-bmw

11,477 posts

170 months

Yesterday (15:06)
quotequote all
EXACTLY what voltage do you get when across the right hand (red circled) connection in your pic and a bare bolt/nut on the top of the suspension?

Then do the same test with a jump lead etc connected from the battery - terminal to a bare metal bolt/nut on the engine

lir7

Original Poster:

19 posts

Yesterday (15:07)
quotequote all
CanAm said:
Have you checked the earth strap as described above by luS1fer and normalbloke??
Yes, that's the blue cable on the pic here isn't it? Looks good both ends. The only thing related to this is forgetting to connect it when first starting the engine which is why it made sense that the black fuse there could have blown, but it's impossible to see thorugh the black plastic and the voltmeter looks OK.


lir7

Original Poster:

19 posts

Yesterday (15:08)
quotequote all
normalbloke said:
Or test that theory by running a solitary jump lead from the battery negative to a sound connection on the block, like a lifting eye etc.
Thanks. Earth lead looks fine and connecting the jump lead did nothing.

lir7

Original Poster:

19 posts

Yesterday (15:10)
quotequote all
DaveF-SkinnysAutos said:
Another vote for checking the earth.

As other members have posted, connect a jump lead from the negative on the battery to a different earth point in the engine bay and see if it turns over then.

I know you need to plug it in to diagnostics when you change an Astra battery sometimes to get the stop/start to reset, but it doesn t affect starting the vehicle after changing the battery.
Thanks. Connecting the jump lead did nothing. I don't have a start/stop.

Incidentally plugging in a diagnostics gadget doesn't work. We get a connection error but it works fine in another car.

lir7

Original Poster:

19 posts

Yesterday (15:11)
quotequote all
E-bmw said:
As others have said.

General PH rule of thumb, if you do something & make matters worse than expected/ worse than before you started check, double-check & triple-check what you did first.
Yup we did that by putting the old battery back in but that now doesn't work either. Something has clearly been tripped out as the engine is showing no signs of turning over yet the dash lights/messages come on. I've searched some fuses but they either look fine or are impossible to see through.

lir7

Original Poster:

19 posts

Yesterday (15:28)
quotequote all
E-bmw said:
EXACTLY what voltage do you get when across the right hand (red circled) connection in your pic and a bare bolt/nut on the top of the suspension?

Then do the same test with a jump lead etc connected from the battery - terminal to a bare metal bolt/nut on the engine
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by connecting to the suspension but we connected the orange bits and 0.26 both with and without the jump lead connected.

paul_c123

1,273 posts

11 months

Yesterday (15:43)
quotequote all
lir7 said:
Yes, that's the blue cable on the pic here isn't it? Looks good both ends. The only thing related to this is forgetting to connect it when first starting the engine which is why it made sense that the black fuse there could have blown, but it's impossible to see thorugh the black plastic and the voltmeter looks OK.

Nope, its not the blue highlighted cable.

Also you don't check fuses with a voltmeter across the fuse. You can either check them using resistance on a multimeter, or if you know they should be +12V, checking both ends with one probe of the multimeter (on voltage) with the other end attached to a good earth. One end should read 12V and the other end would read 0V if the fuse was blown.

lir7

Original Poster:

19 posts

Yesterday (16:54)
quotequote all
Sorry wrong term it is a multimeter. I found an earth point on the body and tested that to both sides of each fuse and got a consistent 12.46 volts on all green points so fuses definitely seen okay. But the starter motor is doing nothing so clearly not getting power.

Also found another earth point and tried the jump lead from there to negative and still nothing.

Edited by lir7 on Saturday 18th October 17:03

paul_c123

1,273 posts

11 months

Yesterday (17:20)
quotequote all
And you say when you scan it for codes, you can't communicate with the ECU?