Car Battery Completely Flat, Clueless....

[shazam21]

Hi Guys

First post on here. I have a 9-3 56 plate 1.9 TiD (120)

Basically my car had an intermediate service and all round pads and disc change 2 days ago. Its been driven about 20 miles since then. Its been stood for about 24 hours, now I've come to get in the car this evening and everything was completely dead. At first I thought it was the fob, but my spare wouldn't even work. I was able to access the car with the 'real' key, however nothing worked in the car, no stereo, no lights, and the alarm didn't even sound, so i'm pretty sure that the car battery is now flat.

Last week I replaced2  bulbs for, 1 for dipped main beam, and 1 for brake light, which were both working fine afterwards.

My question is, what is the likely cause, and could anything the garage have done during the service affected it? Should I call the garage that serviced my car?

Regards

[Guyver1]

Take your battery to Halfords and get them to test it, my moms car was running fine all week, she turned off the engine for 15 minutes and it refused to start afterwards. I put a tester on the battery and got 12.5v but it wouldn't turn the starter motor.

Halfords put there tester on it and it said 12.5v BUT it also showed only 44% starting power

I put jump leads on it and it fired instantly

It's a free test and it can spot potential problems too

[Max Headroom]

Hi Shazam and a big welcome to the forum!

I'm really sorry to hear of your bother, but I know we have some budding elecktrikle  injuneers  here that will point you in the right directions 

[littlebasher]

Exactly the same thing happened to mine

Except it was caused by my 4 year old son playing with the electric seats non stop for 30 mins!

[shazam21]

Thanks for the responses....

I had a mate use his jump leads on the car today, nipped inside for 5 mins as it was ticking over and when we returned the engine had stopped. We jumped it again and I took off on a spin around the block and down the seafront. This is where the fun started.... Lights were intermittent, windows and mirrors wouldn't work, wipers were slow, indicators didn't work, airbag malfunction warning, ABS didn't work, power steering packed in unless I was revving really hard, so cornering was fun!! And finally the turbo only kicked in at around 3 thou....

The ever trusted AA turned up, and his assessment was that the alternator was duff. although i'm no expert it did seem to make sense. Would anyone agree, is it definitely the alternator, or still be a battery issue? What causes an alternator to become unserviceable, and could it still be due to something the garage touched whilst servicing my car?

Regards

[Guyver1]

Alternator sounds about right, but it could have knackered your battery, only way to check is to fit an alternator and try again, Halfords can test the battery even if it is completely flat to see of will accept and store charge.

[Guyver1]

Did the AA say what was wrong with the alternator ?

Did the battery light stay on when you were driving ?

Usually there are 4 main causes for alternator failure

1. It's just worn out
2. Red light on when ignition is off usually means the rectifying diode is shot but can be replaced
3. Red light on with engine running usually means the windings/brushes are shot so fit replacement
4. Multiplug is loose/hanging off which is pretty easy to see

[Audax]

There's a 5th reason you may need an alternator, it's if you own a Saab 9-3 1.9 diesel and it's been more than 6 months since you last had one

In all seriousness it sounds like an alternator failure, it's very very common on the 1.9 diesels, it's very unlikely that the garage who did an intermediate service did anything that would affect the alternator unless they changed an auxiliary belt but even then it won't be down to them it's just the way these alternators are. When you get it replaced make sure you use a genuine Saab alternator as all of the 3rd party and reconditioned ones I've seen are utter trash, some fail when you fit them and I've not known of any non-genuine item to last more than a few thousand miles.

[Guyver1]

Have a word with your local auto electrician, they might know a fix or which make is best to go for

[Audax]

Have a word with your local auto electrician, they might know a fix or which make is best to go for

Seriously, I wouldn't bother. I've fitted loads of alternators for customers who have gone down that route and just ended up further out of pocket as they end up needing the job done twice.

[Guyver1]

Seems strange that the alternator on diesels plays up, but no known faults on the alternators with the same engine on the vectra

[Audax]

Seems strange that the alternator on diesels plays up, but no known faults on the alternators with the same engine on the vectra

You sure? a very quick search for 1.9 cdti alternator shows up dozens of hits with people having the same problems on the vectra as they do on the Saab although it appears 3 different alternators are in use on the vectra so maybe not all of them are prone to the problem.

[Guyver1]

That could be why, I was on the vectra-c website for 3 years and nothing ever came up as a common fault

What's the main reason behind the Saab unit giving up so often?

[Audax]

Just an all round poor quality part, most failures are caused by the rectifier pack which is available as a spare part but after we got bitten a few times where the alternator bearings went bad a few months after just replacing the regulator. Basically we now insist on a brand new genuine Saab/GM part only as we fitted a couple of non-genuine ones at customer and warranty company request and they all failed within 3-6 months (some of the non-genuine ones would cause battery drain too) and then customers were getting shirty with us as we asked to be paid to do the job again (which imo is fair) as If you supply your own part and it doesn't work you're paying for fitting time only so you have to pay for further removal and refitting time. If we did the job with all parts supplied by us then we warranty the whole job and if there are any further problems it's down to us to sort (and none of the genuine replacements have died quite so quickly these alternators seem to last anywhere from 60-100k ).

[Petemate]

There's a 5th reason you may need an alternator, it's if you own a Saab 9-3 1.9 diesel and it's been more than 6 months since you last had one

Don't frighten me like that Audax! Got my 9-3 Tid Sportwagon with 51k on it, now done 85k+. No probs so far (kiss of death.....)