93 astra dead!

Bartonprince

Ok i have a 93 astra 1.4GL.

I drove to work in it yesterday and only noticed i was pretty much out of petrol on entering the car park, but all was good.

When i went to start the car again later in the day to get petrol, nothing.

Absolutely dead, not a light or a stir. It's like i'm not even turning the key.

Any ideas?

peasant

Left the lights on?

= empty battery, will need jump start.

Bartonprince

peasant wrote:

Left the lights on?

= empty battery, will need jump start.

No it's not even making the ignition sound or anything, nothing at all is happening.

We tried jumper cables and the cables melted. Stil nothing.

What now?

Henry Ford III

Bartonprince wrote:

We tried jumper cables and the cables melted

That should never happen. Are you sure they were connected correctly?

Bartonprince

the fella said they were. You mean they may have been on backwards? There was sparks coming from them and they heated up pretty bad before melting.

Maybe they were on the wrong ones?

MercMad

If you connected them the wrong way then you ghet plenty of sparks and if you left them attached you would damage something, most likely on the car with the charged battery !

Black to black and red to red, and in case these arent clearly marked earth/neg "-" to earth/neg "-" and Pos "+" to Pos "+" !

Now if you turn the key and get nothing even when correctly connected you have some othet problem. Check to see if the headlights shine brightly. If they do and you still dont get dash lights or even a click then its most likely the ignitions switch, ex-stock at most dealers for about €20 quid !

Bartonprince

ok nothing comes on. the dash lighs don't come on, neither do the headlights.

Doolittle51

You might wanna check your fuses.....

Bartonprince

Cool ok , i'll have a look.

Thanks

kluivert

The cables melted! Sounds like you had them on the wrong way or something.

Buy a new battery see if that works.

Make sure the connections to the battery are not covered in a white dusty powder over the connections.

CrowdedHouse

Bartonprince wrote:

No it's not even making the ignition sound or anything, nothing at all is happening.

We tried jumper cables and the cables melted. Stil nothing.

What now?

Something similar happed to me years ago,the battery leads in the car started to smoke.Turned out the starter was fcuked.(IIRC the starter solenoid stuck on/operated)

Had to get it rewound.

Doolittle51

Any result yet?

franksm

Sounds like the starter solenoid has jammed on, right 'nuff. You should still get red lights on the dash though - does your radio work in the ACC position ? Just trying to determine if your electrics are *completely* shot, or just on the "start" position.

If the solenoid is jammed, give it a crack with a hammer - your Astra wants to be an MGBGT or something

dingding

Cheap / low quality jump leads can cause problems like you described. They can overheat / melt.


Might be just the Jump leads

ninty9er

My mom's car died a few wks ago, 02 Xsara, it didn't even peep for about 5 mins after we connected the jump leads. It can take ages and you need to put power through the alternator of the good car by revving it to ensure you don't kill it too