[ZoePilcher]

Hi everyone! I’ve joined the network in the hope of picking your brains.
I currently drive an Astra H 1.4, 2010 and have done for over 5 years.

A couple of weeks ago, I was driving along and the car stalled at some traffic lights. I started the car again, and it ran fine - however about 10 minutes later, I noticed the speedo and rev counter were ‘frozen’ despite increasing/decreasing speed/revs.

Since then, sometimes when I go to start the car, I turn the ignition and the dash will light up, but the car fails to start - it sounds like it almost whirs? I have checked the battery’s vaults and it reads at 12.2v on a cold morning. The only way to seemingly get the car going again is to disconnect the battery and immediately reconnect it. The battery was new in Feb this year.

Also, I will be driving along and intermittently the whole dashboard (but not the radio screen) will ‘flicker’ or completely turn off.
This has all happened just before my MOT on Tuesday so great timing!!

I have tried to read through a couple of forums on here and attempted to understand - perhaps the starter motor? Others are saying the ECU - could anyone be more specific?
Thank you everyone for your time and I would really appreciate any help and guidance - please feel free to ask questions too and I’ll try and answer as quickly and in much detail as possible!! Thank you xx

 

[Alan G H]

The first place I would look is at the large fuse box under the bonnet (the UEC).
Open the lid and look for any sign of damp, as these are prone to water ingress, which can cause all sorts of problems.
Here is a link to a video showing how to clean it out:

There are several more similar videos on you tube, and, if you search this forum for "clean uec", there are a few threads on this subject.
Hope this helps, good luck.

 

[bogbody]

My old Astra H did that. The cause was traced to corroded earth terminals under the UEC. Was fine after the UEC was removed and the earth terminals cleaned.

 

[ZoePilcher]

Thank you both for your support and guidance, I will try this ASAP and report back. Interestingly we haven’t had much rain recently and I haven’t been experiencing this problem at all/as much.
thanks again! X