1996 Fiat Kontiki electronics.

[Andy.P]

Hello everyone,  I am new to forum  so thanks for accepting me. I have been experiencing some electrical issues in my 1996, six berth Kontiki. I've checked all the fuses in the MCU and under the bonnet. The main problem is my refrigerator. It works on gas, and off the engine when running. But it will not switch on in battery mode (new battery) or mains when hooked up. I removed it to check the wiring behind (never again! ). I'm wondering if the MCU ,which is sealed is faulty. Any ideas would be appreciated,  thanks. 

Edited September 24, 2023 by Andy.P

[Ninian]

Did you check the 240v element was OK.

[Labby]

I would not expect the fridge to work off the batteries except when the engine is running and the problem, as suggested, on the 240v side, could be a faulty fridge element, have you have checked the 240v feed to the Motorhome is ok and the trips and mains switches within the Motorhome do not need resetting.

[Brian Kirby]

3 hours ago, Andy.P said:

Hello everyone,  I am new to forum  so thanks for accepting me. I have been experiencing some electrical issues in my 1996, six berth Kontiki. I've checked all the fuses in the MCU and under the bonnet. The main problem is my refrigerator. It works on gas, and off the engine when running. But it will not switch on in battery mode (new battery) or mains when hooked up. I removed it to check the wiring behind (never again! ). I'm wondering if the MCU ,which is sealed is faulty. Any ideas would be appreciated,  thanks. 

The good news is that the fridge works!  All energy sources use the same ammonia based cooling circuit, and all that varies is the energy used to heat that circuit to start and maintain the thermo-syphon.

If it cools when the engine is running, then the 12V heating element is sound.  If the engine is not running, it should not be possible to run the fridge on 12V power, as a relay prevents this in order to protect the starter battery (which would otherwise be left powering the 12V heating element, and would quickly become flattened).  So, on that evidence, the relay is also functioning as it should.

So, from what you have said it seems the fault is on the 240V side.  It could be a 240V fuse, but I would advise against merely replacing the fuse before you find out why it blew.  Unless there is a manual energy selection switch on your fridge that you have not yet spotted, I assume energy selection is automatic, but it might help if you could confirm which model fridge you have.  On a 1996 van I would imagine Dometic (successor to Electrolux) branded.

If the other 240V circuits all seem to be satisfactory then, as Labby suggests above, either the power supply to the 240V element is defective, or the 240V heating element itself has failed.

These elements are available, though whether for all variants of the fridges I know not.  That is where you'll need to seek out the fridge model to identify the replacement element.  If you can find that, a simple "Google" search for "Dometic fridge (model No) 240V heating element" should give an idea of the cost and availability of the part.

Replacing the element is, I believe, a relatively straightforward job, but will almost certainly involve removal of the fridge.  Sorry!  🙂  If you employ a Dometic service engineer for the replacement, you should be able to save some money by removing and re-fitting the fridge yourself, so all you pay for is the actual element and the labour to install it.

If you can access the 240V junction box from which the fridge element is fed, it should be possible to test with a multi-meter whether you have power to the terminal feeding the element, but, - usual warning about 240V electrics: unless confident, and suitably competent, in that field, leave it to someone who is.  🙂 

Otherwise, get hold of your nearest Dometic engineer to check the fault and price the repair.  You'll probably save him some time, and yourself some cost, if you can give him the fridge model number.

 

Edited September 24, 2023 by Brian Kirby