Weird electical fault

[JamesClark]

Hi there,

Would really appreciate some help with this one, my Astra J has developed a weird electrical fault. Most of the exterior lights have stopped working except for the middle brake light and high beams, the interior lights have stopped, the central locking, fans and rear window washer as well. This all happened at the same time, I get lights on the dash saying that I need to check the bulbs but that doesn't make sense with everything stopping at once. I've had it to a couple of garages who have both said it's the fuse box, but Vauxhall want around £700 to replace this.

Is there anything else that it could be? I've going to try and take the fuse box out and spray with WD40. Also, my car was serviced about 10 days before this happened - when I took it for the service I had a message on the dash to check one of the daytime running lights, this message went after the service but the bulb was never changed. Could that have anything to do with it?

[Rusty2009]

You could try removing the negative off the battery for 60+mins this will allow full system shut downs.

Have you checked all the fuses?

Also if you do need to replace fuse board then look on ebay they a really easy to change this will help explain it hopefully.
https://www.vxoc.org.uk/forum/Thread-AFL...7#pid11907

[sparkyscfc74]

Hi there,

Would really appreciate some help with this one, my Astra J has developed a weird electrical fault. Most of the exterior lights have stopped working except for the middle brake light and high beams, the interior lights have stopped, the central locking, fans and rear window washer as well. This all happened at the same time, I get lights on the dash saying that I need to check the bulbs but that doesn't make sense with everything stopping at once. I've had it to a couple of garages who have both said it's the fuse box, but Vauxhall want around £700 to replace this.

Is there anything else that it could be? I've going to try and take the fuse box out and spray with WD40. Also, my car was serviced about 10 days before this happened - when I took it for the service I had a message on the dash to check one of the daytime running lights, this message went after the service but the bulb was never changed. Could that have anything to do with it?

As Rusty says go through every fuse as this seems very similar to what I’ve just gone through and thought it was the body Control Module. It’s surprising how many different components one fuse can control and not listed in the handbook!!!
Hope you get it sorted


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[JamesClark]

You could try removing the negative off the battery for 60+mins this will allow full system shut downs.

Have you checked all the fuses?

Also if you do need to replace fuse board then look on ebay they a really easy to change this will help explain it hopefully.
https://www.vxoc.org.uk/forum/Thread-AFL...7#pid11907

Thanks for the advice, I've checked all the fuses and they all appear to be ok (no breaks but haven't got a proper tester). I've read that it might be worth cleaning all the connectors with WD40 as well so I was gonna give that a go too.

[JamesClark]

Update: Left the battery disconnected for about 90 minutes but no joy. Going to invest in a fuse tester I think and then go from there.

[Rusty2009]

You could try cleaning with WD40 but I doubt it'll make a difference.

If all fuses test ok look on ebay for the same fuse-board as yours can pick them up for around the £30+ and they are real easy to change yourself.

Have you had it plugged on to see if there are any error codes stored?

[vocky]

it does sound like a power distribution problem, check both terminals at the battery especially the positive terminals and wiring