davezeebra Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 HI All I have an 06 reg Swift 530 LP. If I charge the leisure battery by either the mains or the engine the gauge shows full charge quite quickly . However if I then stop charging and proceed to use the interior lights the battery loses its charge ( according to the gauge ) rapidly and although the lights still work the igniter for the gas hobs and water heater will not work at all, in fact if these are allready alight they will switch off when the battery runs low. I have checked the battery water level which is fine . The van was puchased second hand in September this year and seems to have hardly been used at all by the one previous owner. I wonder if the gauge is not showing a true reading at either end of the scale. The other half was not impressed last weekend to wake up to a freezing cold van and no coffee and its a bit anti social to run the engine at 7AM on a Sunday morning to put enough charge in the battery to rectify the situation. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 Is not the meter reading the charge being applied to battery not charge in battery, if battery is flat how long to charge it up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michele Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 If you are able to, you could carry out the following procedure: 1. Make sure the battery is topped up to the correct level. 2. Charge it for at least 24 hours to ensure that it is fully charged. 3. Disconnect the battery from the motorhome's electrical system and let it 'settle' for at least 4 hours. 4. Check the voltage at the battery-terminals with a voltmeter. Fully-charged it should read 12.7v or above - if it is below that figure, then either it has not been charged long enough or there is a battery-fault that is preventing it from reaching full charge. 5. Assuming a reading of at least 12.7v has been obtained, leave for a further 24 hours and then take a 2nd reading. If that reading is significantly lower than the first one, then the battery is failing to hold its charge and you will need to replace it. 6. If the battery seems able to hold its charge, then re-connect it to the motorhome's electrical system and check whether a significant current 'drain' is taking place. If there is a drain then you will really need an auto-electrician to diagnose where the problem . This is advice given to me this week and it worked I now am back to normal not having to buy a new one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davezeebra Posted November 20, 2007 Author Share Posted November 20, 2007 hi Colin if i run the van engine for 5 to10 minutes the gauge on the control panel shows the battery to be fully charged Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michele Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 First of all make sure that the motorhome is not hooked-up to the 230V mains and that everything powered by the leisure battery is switched off. The fridge should be switched to the OFF position, the main switch on the 12V control-panel should be OFF and the electric drain-valve for the Truma Combi heater should be open (ie. in the drain-down position. Make sure that the battery's terminals and the cable connectors are clean. Then connect up the battery's negative (-) terminal to the motorhome's earth cable. Then (following your multimeter's instructions) connect the multimeter between the battery's positive (+) terminal and the cable that normally connects to that terminal. Hopefully the multimeter should read zero. Now switch the fridge to 12V. A low current reading may appear, but there's a remote possibility that a fault may have developed causing the fridge to run on 12V power even though the motorhome's motor is not running. A large fridge can draw over 14 Amps when running on 12V and would rapidly drain a battery if the vehicle's alternator wasn't maintaining the battery's charge. Assuming nothing obvious shows up, connect up the battery's positive terminal to its cable, wait for 24 hours and then check the voltage. If it has fallen significantly, then you probably need to replace the battery. I assume you know you have a problem based on some sort of battery-level gauge fitted to your motorhome. I suppose there's the possibility that the gauge is false-reading, so see what it says compared with the voltage readouts obtained via the multimeter.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 If battery is flat I think you will need quite a bit longer than that, check the no load voltage after switching engine off this will tell you if it is fully charged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 I'm giving the quick lazy replies whilst Michele gives the more technical one's :D I hope that isn't a hubby pretending to be michele Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michele Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 No Colin, Its a professional reply from someone who knows what he is talking about hence why I put in the above thread advice given to me . I hope it helps the chap as it helped me and my leisure battery is now fine . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Newell Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 davezeebra - 2007-11-20 11:14 PM hi Colin if i run the van engine for 5 to10 minutes the gauge on the control panel shows the battery to be fully charged Hi Dave, what your on board meter is showing is the instantaneous voltage and immediately after a short burst of charging this could read fairly high, around 13-14 Volts, giving the impression that the battery is fully charged when it isn't. A flat leisure battery will take several hours at least to fully recharge from the engine's alternator and more like 24-36 hours from the mains charger. Follow the advice as given above by Michele to sort out your battery and charging issues. D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Jones Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 michele - 2007-11-21 8:14 AM No Colin, Its a professional reply from someone who knows what he is talking about hence why I put in the above thread advice given to me . Thank goodness for that! I was beginning to think you'd been taken over by aliens! :D :D :D Tony x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michele Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 :D :D :D :D Ok just because I'm dyslexic don't mean you have to take the micky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ris Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 Not sure if this is of any assistance, but had a similar problem with 06 Autotrail with a dealer fitted Waeco air con. They retro fitted an isolator switch as they said although unit was switched off it still drained battery. Regards GAR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davezeebra Posted November 21, 2007 Author Share Posted November 21, 2007 hi all thanks for all the help and advice you guys. The battery is on charge now and I will investigate more at the weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michele Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 And GALS :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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