Astra la Vista battery!

[Dacious]

Anyone know anything about Astra 'lectrics?

Missus' Astra started flashing red charge light at her tonight on the way home. It multimeters 11.8 volts running at the terminals, revving or not. I can hear something clicking under the right front of the bonnet with car idling.

Am I right in presuming the regulator is cactus? I presume it hides on the right near the aircleaner?

[Haze]

For some reason the battery is not charging. Could be the alternator, the belt driving the alternator may have come loose (could be your clicking sound?), wiring problem. I had an Astra, but I never looked under the hood... (If it's not a V8, my interest in the engine is Zip)...

[planetdavo]

Could be an item called a "decoupler", which is the pulley the belt drives on the alternator shaft, but they have a bearing inside them, and can lock/unluck themselves I believe. That might be your "clicking" noise. If it is this, it is quite common. I'm not sure how they diagnose these though, sorry.
We've had a couple of alternators as well, but not so common.

[Dacious]

Well, Booran couldn't diagnose any fault - 'ghost in the machine'. They tested battery, regulator and alternator. All to spec. Missus drove car home last night and to work this AM with normal service resumed.

So whether it was something like a bad/dirty/corroded connection which just got remade when components unplugged and reassembled I don't know.

At least they didn't go us for a new battery/alternator/regulator.

[VYBerlinaV8]

Out on a limb here, but a faulty relay making the clicking?