08 Saturn Astra XR issues
 

Not many posts on astras anymore its seems? Lol.

I have an 08 astra for 10years, was going pretty good, until... I handed it over to my daughter lol, almost been a year, some issues now, she said the other day the battery light came on. Then a day later she's stuck , picked her up and boosted car, battery light and Wrench symbol was on, then all of a sudden all lights went out including dash, no power steering , and driving a little rough. Took home and put on a charger. In the morning, started up fine, drove about 10 mins and started again, all lights went out no power steering , went straight home. Turned off car and wouldn't restart, just click . So thinking the battery i brought it to canadian tire, they tested it and told me it's good ( 1 hr on a tester and gave me a printout). Put power to car to pull codes:

P2096
P0456
P0562
P0442
P0700


P0501
U0073
P0856

What you guys think , battery? ECM? wiring, alternator ?
im usually good at fixing, but this is one of those mysteries to solve

I hear a dead battery can cause a host of issues but has never happened to me, dead battery is usually fine when driving

Alternator output is probably down or zero.
Car is running off battery only which doesn't last very long, and if you keep doing that to your battery it's not going to live very long. If you can safely drive it to an AutoZone, advance Auto, or similar, they will do a load test on your full charging system for free. Normally I would say just pull the alternator and take it in for testing, but I don't know where it is on an Astra. If it's easily accessible just take the alternator in rather than punishing your battery. Just remember you do not have to buy a replacement alternator from wherever you go..

Get it tested first. Don't buy one Just because. It's your money and I never tell anyone to spend it. Just suggestions on diagnosis

You are going to have to drive it back home to put a new alternator in if that is the issue, so call ahead and make sure they will lend you a battery charger to use while parking their lot to recharge your battery before you leave for home

Hmm you guys might be right, but funny thing is I checked the battery while car was off and read 12. Something volts then with a multi meter with car running was 14. Something volts, which signified to me alternator was good ? Perhaps showing 14 v but not enough amps ?

I did take a look and alternator is not easily accessible, but at this point I will have to take it out and try and get it tested


Thanks for replies as well !!!

Was the battery light still on on the dash when you were measuring 14.4 across the battery with the engine running?

Yes I beleive dash lights were on , the car was fully functional and operating fine at that time.

Other thing i didnt mention was a weird smell, daughtter told me about , and i did smell it, weird burning smell, making me think alternator is the culprit, that area in engine compartment does smell when I smell down in the engine bay near alternator

Batteries need to be load tested.

Yes, canadian tire told me it was load tested, gave me a printout, I'll post results.

Although I hear battery tests can be wrong

The alternator is a real big job to remove from the car. Removing the fender liner, unbolting the engine mount and then you have to turn/fish it out with 2 millimeters clearance on both sides. Try cleaning all of the wiring grounds while you are in there too. This is critical and often the cause of these problems..

It definitely was my alternator that went bad also burnt an inline fuse in the wiring harness. Yes removing the alternator was a task, now I can do it in minutes lol, since I did one at the scrap yard ,then twice at home... engine mount bolts yes fender plastic no, enough space to get it out once you pull the engine that few mm"s. Its all fixed now