Corsa D FTP (I know they're all shit) Help!

[2MB]

My sister in law (if I was married) has a 59 plate Corsa 1.2. Not exactly prime AS material but like many much more exotic machinery it has decided not to start. Green flag are coming in the morning but I've a feeling they'll attempt what I just have and take it to a main dealer. I just thought I'd see if the collective fountain of knowledge here has any ideas before a young family gets unnecessarily fleeced.

Symptoms:

Dash lights up as normal when you turn the key. No attempt to turn over. With ign in ON position the EML and a picture of a car with a spanner through it stay lit. Helpfully the manual suggests turning it off and trying again. How British. It also says the light could be flagging up an immobiliser issue, BUT when attempting to start you can hear the fuel pump whirring, a high pitched noise from the starter and a clicking relay in the fusebox. I would've thought the immobiliser would have cut power to all these, but what do I know...

Battery was showing 10.2v across terminals, which I thought a bit low so hooked up the transit for a bit. It showed 12.4 with the jump leads on but made no difference to the starting issue. It's the original battery but the weather has been pretty mild and the car gets regular use. Suppose they can go at any time though.

Tried taking the battery -ve cable off and re-attatching. Some noise from starter area but no improvement.

Tried twatting it (it got me out of the shit with an xud in Holland) with a hammer and bar but again no change.

 

Any ideas/opinions would be massively appreciated

[Cavcraft]

Aren't the immobilisors ignition based? If so that would mean you'd hear the noises that you did, bit won't fire up. Green Flag will, I would think, attempt to fix it for you, or at least plug it into an FCR which should flash up the problem.

[Hendry]

I'm not sure with newer Vauxhalla but I know on older ones, mk3 Astras etc the EML would flash if it was an immobiliser issue.

 

Stupid question and probably pointless, but is there a spare key and if so has an attempt been made to start the car with it, just thinking in case it's a key coding issue or a problem with key fob or something, we had similar with a 62 plate Astra at work a few weeks back, due for defleet, spare key came in from fleet, we always try them to make sure it's the right key before it gets picked up by the lease co, anyway it unlocked and locked the car from the remote buttons ok and fitted the locks and ignition but wouldn't start the car oddly.

[2MB]

Ah if they only affect the ignition it could be the immobiliser then, cheers

[2MB]

We tried both keys and neither have the desired effect. Thanks though!

[twosmoke300]

10.4 v , the battery is totally borked

[2MB]

10.4 v , the battery is totally borked

Aye, thought so. Could that trigger the immobiliser?

[twosmoke300]

Yeh possibly but would cause a more obvious non crank situation too

[MarvinsMom]

+1 for a kippered battery, would try another known good battery perhaps before dragging its sorry arse to a main stealer

[2MB]

Surely even a fucked battery would motivate the starter with a running engine connected across it though, or is my rudimentary grasp of electrics failing here?

[MarvinsMom]

with the battery been jiggered i think that would affect the immobiliser.

 

they work on with a constant voltage so with a low voltage that will activate it, and even with jump leads on that wont turn the immobiliser back off.

 

but that could be something that i dreamt or was told in a pub, assuming it makes sense?

[Noel Tidybeard]

alot of moderns wont turn the starter over with a gerjiggered battery- computer says no

[twosmoke300]

A totally buggered battery seems to just absorb all the jump vehicles current . 12.4 with jump leads connected and I assume engine running is very low and prob drops to below 8v when you try and crank

[the judge]

Ignition on,give starter solenoid a good live feed.if no clunk,battery or starter.

[Taff]

I think it's the battery.

 

There, I've said it.

[castros_bro]

Put a known good fully charged battery on it which has 13.6v. Engine management ECU and their horrible little baastard sensors are sensitive to supply voltage.  Try starting it in the normal way.

 

If the fuel pump sounded like it ran to build up the injector pressure then --if you are comfortable with electricity --  put car in neutral with the ignition on and access the starter motor connections on the back of the startermotor/solenoid and using a bit of wire jump the live connection to the small solenoid operating connection, whatever the rest of the car is doing the solenoid should do two things,  wang its pinion into the flywheel and connect power to the startermotor which should turn the engine over.

 

This will show if there's an electrical/mechanical engine problem or an electronic one .  if it doesn't turn over with the key then read the fault codes and write them down, clear them and try starting it again, read the new fault codes. these will indicate where the problem lies BUT there is an art to interpreting them into a proper fault diagnosis