BruceM Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 aandncaravan - 2019-03-08 7:13 PM Bruce, in his first post Tom talks of "going flat in a few days", which is more the 2 and could easily be 7. Confirmation of that exact time via battery SOC monitoring over days would be useful. Unless I’ve misinterpreted the response I asked this very question BruceM - 2019-03-06 3:02 PM Alan’s post got me thinking, out of interest, what do you precisely mean by “a few days”. Do you means 48hrs, or 7 days or 10 days? tom1946 - 2019-03-06 3:22 PM He came on Monday, today is Wednesday so almost exactly 2 days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom1946 Posted March 25, 2019 Author Share Posted March 25, 2019 Hi, me again. So the battery from fully charged (I used the mains cable to charge it switched to the 'car' battery) Ileft the battery connected using my shiny new screw connector and a new earth cable and it was fine the next day (Last thursday) so left it over the weekend and this morning there is not enough power to light the ignition lights and the battery measures 3.4 volts. It's back on charge now using the mains cable again. I removed the dab radio and checked for drain again and it was 0.00, great I thought, fixed it and then this morning happened. :-( Soooo.. looking at the pics, should the switches under the brown cover be turned off as well? Can't upload a file pic but the switches isolate the fridge, sockets, water heater. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 The switches under the brown cover relate to the 230V power-supply and the appliances this feeds (see tarted-up image below) I can’t see why the switches being ON should influence your starter-battery’s loss of charge, whether or not your motorhome is connected to a 230V hook-up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom1946 Posted March 25, 2019 Author Share Posted March 25, 2019 Hi Derek, I didn't think they would affect the car battery either but I'm getting a bit desperate now There is no alarm on it, no video, no dab anymore and no loss on my clammeter. Puzzled isn't the word for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceM Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 tom1946 - 2019-03-25 10:59 AM So the battery from fully charged (I used the mains cable to charge it switched to the 'car' battery) Ileft the battery connected using my shiny new screw connector and a new earth cable and it was fine the next day (Last thursday) so left it over the weekend and this morning there is not enough power to light the ignition lights and the battery measures 3.4 volts. It's back on charge now using the mains cable again. My non-professional view is that if you’ve discharged your starter battery down to 3.4v then it’s beyond redemption and needs replacement. Summarising your testing so far (correct me if I’m wrong) 1/ The starter battery was charged via mains overnight, left 24HRs connected, and the van started (once) the next day. 2/ It was then left connected a further 72Hrs and the battery was then ‘flat’ showing just 3.4v . 3/ Your auto-electrician claimed that the battery was fine and that there was no discernable drain on the starter battery. In the absence of better suggestions, and in your position; I’d replace my starter battery with a known good battery, ensure that it’s fully charged and then run the tests 1 and 2 above but with the habitation batteries disconnected to ensure that we’ve not a a missed some sort of connection between the habitation and starter batteries. If you don’t want to buy a new battery at this stage then run the above tests anyway – it might reveal something, although if my battery was showing only 3.4v I’d be really worried that my charger would be damaged trying to charge it. Incidentally, if you do fit a new battery then I’d check the voltage every day during the test and if it drops below 12v disconnect it and/or put it on charge to prevent it becoming permanently damaged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom1946 Posted March 25, 2019 Author Share Posted March 25, 2019 Hi Bruce, Thanks for your detailed answer, very helpful. Until now I have always disconnected the earth cable when the van is not being used, it may be 2 months before I start it again, when I reconnect the earth cable it starts perfectly well. I bought this new battery 2 years ago and it's only done 1000 miles or so in that time and as long as it's disconnected when left for a while it always starts . This year we hope to go to places where there is no hookup so this might be a problem if we cannot get it fixed. I'll disconnect the habitation battery and leave the car battery connected and see if that makes a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom1946 Posted April 6, 2019 Author Share Posted April 6, 2019 No joy with anything I try. I'm going to have to live with this and be careful where we go. I have fitted a battery earth quick release unit that I just have to unscrew the knob to isolate it. I've spent enough trying to fix it and got nowhere. My thanks to everyone who has tried to help, it's been very much appreciated. Tom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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