Philip M

It's interesting to note that deneb's Euro 5 van on a 16 plate is six months newer than mine but isn't compliant with Ulez whereas my 65 plated van is. I am also intrigued that there are two emissions standards for Euro 5 in Norway. Do you know what the difference is between these, and is this peculiar to Norway or do these different levels apply in the UK? Surely all the authorities must get their information from the DVLA, but it would seem there is no standard applied to the way they use them. As far as I can see there is no Engine Euro number specified on the V5C document, unless it's in code somewhere, but the exhaust emissions are given which in the case of my Peugeot van are: CO 0.399, NOx. 0.217 and HC+NOx. 0.266. I wonder if deneb's are different. I'm also glad of derek500's input as I had thought the whole of England would work to the same emissions standard. You have possibly prevented me from naively prevented me from blundering into a city centre where I am not compliant. It is basically a mess.

Thanks for the replies. Iv'e just checked on https://tfl.gov.uk as you recommended, and it shows that my motorhome is compliant in London. Just to muddy the waters I also checked cwww.gov.uk/clean-air-zones as mentioned by derek500. This site shows I am compliant in Bath, Bradford and Portsmouth, but not in Birmingham, Bristol, Sheffield or Tyneside. Since my van is Euro 5, I wondered what TFL and other cities actual criterion are for deciding what is and what isn't compliant. This was brought to mind recently in an article I read on line by someone with exactly the same situation and I am curious to know why.

My apologies if this topic has already been covered, but my motorhome which is Euro 5 and was registered in Feb 2016 is shown as compliant with Ulez. This leads my to think that the system which monitors traffic for ulez compliance can only deal with registration numbers and therefore any diesel vehicle with a 65 plate or later qualifies regardless of whether it's Euro 5 or Euro 6. Although the government website site says my van is compliant, is it more subtle than that. Leaving aside any moral ideas, is it actually legal for me to use the van in London free of Ulez charges. It seems their cameras are unlikely to clock me.

Thanks Alanb for setting out your thoughts and experience on batteries which I find most interesting. I've always found that if batteries are well looked after they last long time.

Thanks Derek, My battery probably is the same as yours and does have top up plugs. I can only access one of them as the other five are at least partly obscured. However, I did check that one and the electrolyte is a good 15 mm above the plates. Since I haven't got a problem at the moment I'll settle that. As for the 2CV which we bought new in 1988, I use a modified party balloon pump to pressurise the tank causing the petrol to be forced into the float chamber - I'm a bit off topic here.

If the leisure battery would get me out of trouble in extremis, I am of a mind to leave the auto battery in place for the time being. My wife has on old 2CV which hasn't been used for the past five years or so. It must be over 20 years ago that I replaced the battery in that, but it still starts the car even when it takes quite a bit of turning over to get it to go.

It's the auto battery that I keep on a permanent smart charger as the van (Elddis Accordo) can trickle charge only the leisure battery. I don't leave the leisure battery on charge. I isolate it, and charge it from time to time to keep it in a healthy state. The smart charger on the auto battery (Ctek MSX 5) I am using is specifically designed to be left permanently connected to a battery. Having gone through its initial charging cycle it holds a float charge for 10 days, after which it applies a pulse charge to keep the battery at 12.7 volts. I've been doing this for eight years, without trouble, so it seems work as its supposed to.

My leisure battery failed while I was away on an off grid site the other day. It's always been well looked after, but it was sitting at 12.6 volts, and 2 hours later when I checked it showed 10.6 volts where fortunately it stayed for the next 18 hours until I could fit a replacement. A sudden drop of about 2 volts suggests to me that one cell had completely failed. I can't complain as the battery was eight years old. This got me thinking as to whether I should replace the auto battery which is also eight years old. In common with most motorhomes the auto battery gets pretty light use and when it's not in use it's permanently connected to a Ctek 5 amp smart charger. So far I've not had any starting problems. The new leisure battery is a Yuasa L35-115 and I note the its specifications claim 750 cranking amps and I wondered, if in the event of the auto battery failing at some point (probably in the middle of a field miles from anywhere) would this battery be able to to start a Peugeot 2.2 litre engine via jump leads. Has anyone here tried anything like this?

Thanks Derek, that is the control panel fitted in my van. I'm not too bothered about getting my hands on a wiring diagram, but it would have been useful if one was readily available. As I said, I have now solved my problem of fitting an indicator to the awning light by tackling it from the light fitting where the wiring is straight forward. I originally tried to wire it from the switch, but clearly that isn't possible in this case.

Thanks for your reply. I have seen the wiring diagram that's in the book and online, but unfortunately it only gives a very basic overview and doesn't give any idea of what is actually going on. Having thought about it, I'm increasingly convinced that the awning light switch drives a transistor to turn the light on. It would make sense to do it that way for a security alarm system (which my van doesn't have) to turn on or flash the outside light if triggered. Anyway, the good news is that light itself is wired into a trunking in the wardrobe where I was easily able to tap into the wires and fit an indicator by the entrance door. I would though still like to have a detailed wiring diagram if one is available.

Does any one have a wiring diagram of the habitation electrics for a 2016 Elddis Accordo 105 or similar? I want to wire an indicator into the awning light circuit to stop me leaving it on in error, but it appears that this not a straight forward parallel circuit. I suspect it is switched via a transistor or relay hidden away somewhere. I'd appreciate any help out there. Thanks.