Car won't start, new battery or....??

My car has been PERFECT for 7 months. I changed the main + dipped beam on the PS of the car, main beam now works but the dipped doesn't. It took me 2 hours, due to having to remove the bumper. I done everything back up, tried to start it and ... nothing!

Abolsutely nothing, I assumed it was the battery so I got my friend to jump start it, but it still wouldn't start, it was cranking over very slowly but would not fire up... whilst I'm trying to start it, the alarm keeps going off too

I'm not sure what has happened for a car to go from PERFECT, to not starting in the space of two hours, how can something break, the car hasn't moved?

I was thinking about getting a new battery, but people are saying if it's cranking it's not the battery? Could it not be the battery doesn't have enough charge?

Need my car for work, so any advice would be appreciated

Reply 1

Iqbal007

19

Original post by IntriguedUser

My car has been PERFECT for 7 months. I changed the main + dipped beam on the PS of the car, main beam now works but the dipped doesn't. It took me 2 hours, due to having to remove the bumper. I done everything back up, tried to start it and ... nothing!

Abolsutely nothing, I assumed it was the battery so I got my friend to jump start it, but it still wouldn't start, it was cranking over very slowly but would not fire up... whilst I'm trying to start it, the alarm keeps going off too

I'm not sure what has happened for a car to go from PERFECT, to not starting in the space of two hours, how can something break, the car hasn't moved?

I was thinking about getting a new battery, but people are saying if it's cranking it's not the battery? Could it not be the battery doesn't have enough charge?

Need my car for work, so any advice would be appreciated

You might have to call a mechaníc around to have a look, do a battery test and what not.
Does you car have a ímmobílíser?

Reply 2

Nuffles

19

Does the car still have enough power to lock and unlock the doors from the remote fob? If so, then cycle through locking it and unlocking it to reset the alarm. Once my car had a flat enough battery that the doors wouldn't unlock off the remote, so I did it with the key in the driver's door. That didn't disarm the alarm, however, and trying to jump start the car resulting in the alarm going off and me not getting anywhere.

How were you jump starting it? You may need the other car to be revved to around 2krpm for a minute or so before, and during your attempt to jump start. How big is your engine? It may be that your jump cables are just too thin to transfer the current needed to start an engine. I have a set of thin jump cables in my car but I can only use them for starting small petrol engines off my car, as mine is a big diesel and it needs far heftier ones if it's needing to be jump started itself.

Reply 3

IntriguedUser

OP

12

Original post by Nuffles

Does the car still have enough power to lock and unlock the doors from the remote fob? If so, then cycle through locking it and unlocking it to reset the alarm. Once my car had a flat enough battery that the doors wouldn't unlock off the remote, so I did it with the key in the driver's door. That didn't disarm the alarm, however, and trying to jump start the car resulting in the alarm going off and me not getting anywhere.

How were you jump starting it? You may need the other car to be revved to around 2krpm for a minute or so before, and during your attempt to jump start. How big is your engine? It may be that your jump cables are just too thin to transfer the current needed to start an engine. I have a set of thin jump cables in my car but I can only use them for starting small petrol engines off my car, as mine is a big diesel and it needs far heftier ones if it's needing to be jump started itself.

Yes, but it doesn't UNLOCK/LOCK properly, it makes the SOUND that its locking/unlocking, but the actual knobs on the doors don't move. Alarm goes off crazy.

I was changing the dipped beam bulb + main beam on the PS off my Corsa, I changed them both for new bulbs, the main beam now works, but the dipped didn't work. I swapped the fuse for another 10ma fuse and it still didn't work. So I plugged everything back in, tried to start the car and NOTHING.

Someone mentioned something about Corsa being a CANBUS system, and if a fuse or bulb is blown it messes with the motor making all crazy things happens with the light/window wiper/locks...

I'm not sure where to start, I don't get how a can go go from PERFECT to a COMPLETE MESS in the space of a bulb change.

Things to do:

- Try and jump start the car, again.

- Buy new H7 bulb for dipped beam and see if it works (why would a new bulb not work anyway?)

- If it doesn't start, I'll buy a new battery and get it fitted and see what happens.

If everything above fails, then it must not be starting because of the immobiliser or something, which might explain the locks acting weird. The fuel pump is working, there's definitely fuel, but I'm going to get a can and put a few litres in to make sure. Other than that I'm stumped.

My question to anyone out there is: Can a dead or drained battery cause electrics on a car to act funny?

I'm going to take this problem, which is stressful and turn it into a challenge, I will find and fix the problem!

Reply 4

CurlyBen

19

Get it on charge. If it's slow cranking and can't even unlock the doors the voltage is low.

CANBus: You haven't said how old your car is, but older Corsas won't be multiplexed (i.e. use CANBus). The crossover point is probably early 2000s. If it is multiplexed shouldn't make any difference to changing a bulb, though it's probably worth checking the handbook there isn't any special procedure if it has a blown bulb detection circuit. If a CANBus unit goes faulty it should go offline until it's manually reset, but I'm not familiar enough with the tech to say it always will. A low battery could conceivably play havoc with electronics though, especially if you draw the voltage down by trying to start the battery. On a similar theme, if you've got an immobiliser (which will probably be incorporated into the key, not separate) then I'd expect that to prevent the car starting if the alarm is going off.

As for the bulb not working, start off checking for a loose connection. It might just be a bad bulb though. Did you check your handbook for instructions on changing the bulb? Taking the bumper off sounds extreme, but I know some cars are a right bastard. If I had a car that needed stupid amounts of disassembly to change a bulb I'd be tempted to play "how many Halfords employees does it take to change a bulb" with their £5 to fit the bulb offer :biggrin:

Reply 5

Runninground

18

Original post by IntriguedUser

My question to anyone out there is: Can a dead or drained battery cause electrics on a car to act funny?

I'm not expert but I have a Corsa and have had the flat battery problem. If you have a flat battery, the electrics won't go funny but they will just simply not work or be sluggish (for example windscreen wipers will be slow). If it's a battery problem then you should be able to take it for a drive (once you get it going) then stop, turn off the engine and be able to turn it on again. However leave it for a while then it will not start. That's because the battery isn't holding it's charge. You can put a meter (however you spell it) across the points on the battery and check if it's in the correct range. Then come back a few hours later and test again. If it's gone down, then the battery is discharging.

On my car the battery and the alternator went, and I could bump start it down the road and drive it fine each time, for a few days. Then I was driving and it just died and everything went- the window wouldn't open (electric windows), the wipers wouldn't move, the power steering stopped and the acceleration pretty much stops.

And when you say it's cranking, is it doing it at normal speed or is it doing it very slowly and then stopping?