help me please!
Hello,
I am very sorry for writing in English but I thought you guys in Germany could help me. I own a new astra h, 1.6, easytronic, ids+. This is a beautiful car but unfortunately I have a problem no one could find a solution even the official Opel service. The BC display backlight flickers especially in day time and when the easytronic is shifting gears. I guess this is because too much electrical current is drawn from the system and so the backlight (also the instrument lights on the dashboard and the in-door lights) flicker. My car came from factory with a 55 amperes battery. Is this the regular battery for such a car full of electronical parts and systems. Is'nt it too small for this car? I wonder if anybody else shares the same problem. Will the problem go if I equip a more capacious battery, say 60 or 65 amperes? Also I will be very grateful if you guys give me the e-mail for the technical division of Opel factory in Germany so that I mail tjem and ask my questions and problems. Thank you so much, if you like you can answer me direct to my e-mail: avensye@yahoo.com
11 Antworten
Hello from Germany.
What happens if you deactivate all current consumer, like radio, lights, air conditioning and so on?
Is the problem although there?
Greetings
RC
P.S.:
Deutsche Übersetzung gewünscht?
Hello and welcome to the forums,
just a few other possibilities :
there can be a problem with ground connection :
-there is a bolt on the cockpit frame, that supplies all control units in this area with ground level voltage. If this connection is not properly assembled, these control units suffer a power loss.
-another possibility is a loose connection at the control unit responsible for the background illumination.
-the transmission takes too much energy, as suggested, try turning the steering wheel while the car stands still, this will take a lot energy too.
This problem will not be solved with a bigger battery, imho.
Regards,
BlackTM
BlackTM and Red Corsar,
Thank you very much for your responses. Flicker still happens when you turnoff all the consuming equipment. I noticed that a parallel flickering takes place in the interior lights. However, no flickering in headlamps. Maybe these are extra-regulated. Display backlight is parallel connected to the warning lights such as ids+, oil level etc.. (I took off the fuse in the lugage compartment and they all went dark), so I don't think there is a specific control unit controlling only the display illumination. This can also be an alternator problem but as afar as I know, from my old Astra G, if something is wrong with alternator, then the electro-hydraulic steering won't work. Probably there is a problem with the cables supplying the power to these lamps, as BlackTM sugested. Now I'll try to sort out these, I wonder which area in the cockpit has to be de-assembled for reaching that bolt connecting the grounds?
Kind regards.
It appears that Opel has chosen a rather complex system to stabilize the backlight intensity of the GID backlight (don't know wether this also applies to the tachometer backlight) against voltage variations. They measure the actual battery voltage by software and adjust the "PWM" (pulse width modulation) for the backlight accordingly. This way the circumvent using a stabilized supply for the backlight - which would be a more obvious solution anyway. The problem with the software solution is that it is too slow to respond to quick voltage drops and even emphasize the problem.
The BC "Testmode" lets you explore how the backlight PWM works. PWM-Percentage depends on the intensity setting as well as the actual voltage.
Regards
Ähnliche Themen
Maybe i did a wrong conlusion with the ground connection.
Zitat:
Original geschrieben von avensye
However, no flickering in headlamps. Maybe these are extra-regulated.
Xenon is not affected, afaik.
Zitat:
so I don't think there is a specific control unit controlling only the display illumination.
The illumination for instruments and GID backlight is transmitted digital, so its a power-supply problem to these units. The LEDs of the switches and buttons in the cockpit are on the same wire (supplied by the controlling ecu), i think. Door panels are controlled special.
Zitat:
I wonder which area in the cockpit has to be de-assembled for reaching that bolt connecting the grounds?
Just to complete the info : i think it can be found behind the glove compartment (?).
Now i think i know what you mean, this problem is known from the Vectra C and afaik still not solved. It occurs when the engine is at idle speed and the big power consumers like power steering (or automatic transmission) demand energy. This is not a problem of the voltage regulators(or PWM) responsible for in-car illumination, but an impact to the whole power distribution system.
Regards,
BlackTM
Thank you all for responses.
Tomorrow, I'll check again Opel service and tell them the infos you supplied and I'll inform you the results. But what I wondered is that isn't this a common problem for astras. Since I don't talk German well I could not notice a heading in the forum which complaints the same or a similar problem. This made me think that problem was specific for my car.
Regards.
Just a question: How do I get to the 'test mode'?. I continously pressed settings button for a few seconds, a beep is heard, the display wrote " test mode", but nothing happened then. Just the normal indications. How to get to the test values and indications when the display reads "test mode"?
Thanks in advance.
Regards.
Hi,
it sure is a common problem/customer annoyance for the Astra series. I noticed this once but never minded further, because it only shows up when the car stands still.
So for me, its not important.
Regards,
BlackTM
This is so interesting. In my car, when the car stands still, despite all my efforts to turn the steering wheel from one side to another continually, there is no flicker. But when the car is travelling, especially when the gears are shifting, it flickers.
And about my question in my earlier message; "How to get to the test values and indications when the display reads "test mode"?, no responses?
regards
Ah sorry, i forgot this one.
When you hear the sound, you are able to switch the test-mode pages by pressing the bc button some more times. This works with other modes too.
Regards,
BlackTM
Danke schön..