Help?? leisure battery not charging while driving

[seancarden1982]

Hi..

I was hoping someone may be able to help.

I have a old 1990 hymer camp, and as the title says the leisure isn't charging.

 

It used to charge just fine, but when I put a new leisure battery in I wired it the wrong way around ( yeah I know....??)

After doing so, the rocker switch to turn the 12v on and off will only turn off, I have to physically turn it back on, this is the little switch under the passenger seat.

 

When driving the fridge is running just fine and gets cold. The battery will not charge tho, I have tested the voltage with a multimeter.

 

All the lights work just fine from the leisure.

I am guessing I have blown something somewhere.

 

Any help would be great,

Thank you

[Alanb]

Your plea for help seems to have been lost over the bank holiday.

 

Not clear how you managed to connect the battery the wrong way round. Batteries do come with different terminal positions, which can be confusing, but the conical terminal posts are of different sizes to help prevent incorrect connection. Perhaps the battery in your vehicle does not have such posts.

 

I am assuming that you have a split charge relay. (My 1990 Pilote R390 only had a manual battery coupling switch. Not automated but usefull for jump starting.)

 

With leisure battery reversed, when the engine is started and the split charge relay operates, you have a short circuit condition between the vehicle and leisure batteries. This will blow the protective fuse in the coupling circuit. This fuse may be rated as high as 50A. If it did not blow you could have had a vehicle fire!

 

Any appliances with electronic controls may have suffered damage as a result of the reverse battery polarity. Hopefully in a vehicle of 1990 vintage there will be few if any such appliances.

 

I am not familiar with the rocker switch that you mention. Switches by definition are manually operated.

 

Alan

[Charles]

Sounds like the rocker switch could be faulty if it's now difficult to operate. First job is test that, or just replace it as It needs a new one anyway.