Hi! I just joined this group. I used to hang out at saturnfans.com but that site seems to be down more often than not lately.

Anyway, I own a 2008 Astra XR that has been very reliable. However, today I went to start it and when I turned the key, nothing, not even a click. The battery was fine. I thought maybe it was the starter but with no sound whatsoever I decided to check the starter relay in the front fuse box. It seemed to test ok but I decided to replace it anyway. Discovering that it was not available locally I decided to try manually jumping the relay by removing the relay and jumping pins 30 & 87. Bingo, car started right up.

i reinserted the relay and put the car in the driveway (I had been stuck on the street). Just for kicks I tried restarting the car and now all seems fine. It starts normally over and over as if nothing was ever wrong. I ordered a spare relay just in case it had an intermittent fault ( and it was cheap on Amazon).

i suspect that this may have been some sort of computer glitch that prevented the car from starting. I have heard that this can happen for “safety” reasons.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had ever had a similar experience and or had any advice.

 

Just like battery cables coming a bit loose and not making good electrical contact, this can happen with any electrical connection.
There may have been a thin layer of corrosion in the fuse panel terminals that receive the starter relay. By pulling and putting back in, you swept the contacts free of that corrosion, thus restoring the operation

Could also be a defective relay that did not close.
Other possibilities include an intermittent connection in the fuse box at the terminals.

We do not see many Astra owners come through, so to be honest, I can't say whether it is a common Astra issue or not.
Do you live somewhere that is damp/humid/salty w r t air?

 

Welcome to the better forum.

Man. I would be all over the Astra if it came with the turbo motors like it did overseas.

With the ions, starters go like crazy.

Could of just glitch. Check the fuse box grounds to be safe.

I had a g35 That the starter ground came loosr and kept popping fuses. Drove me crazy as it wasn't visually loose.

 

And........

 

Then you determined the issue was...

 

still determining. disabled, so I took a breather. I'm going to give it an hour or two now and also going to order the Opal Saturn repair book on Amazon now if I can find it. I had to wait to today for my SSI, broke. have a few bucks now. Off to the races, turtle.