Newbie needing help

[crag]

I seem to have lost 12v power from the engine battery on my 1995 Kontiki/Peugeot. Leisure battery works fine but when switching to the engine battery the control panel shows nothing from the battery and the lights and everything don't work. All is well when swithced to leisure battery.

 

I know the battery is fine as the engine starts without a problem, but I am wondering if the fridge will work when driving or if the batteries will charge whilst driving.

 

Being a newbie I have checked fuses under the bonnet, in the glove box, and the ones on the consumer unit, but all is well with them. I have also checked the connections at the engine battery, and have studied the wiring diagram in the manual, but haven't a clue where else to look and don't really have anything to check things out with other than a voltmeter that I'm not overly confident of using.

 

It all worked fine until the vehicle had it's last visit (recent) to the dealer for warranty work. And I am quite reluctant to take it all the way back again. It took them 4 weeks last time and I'm in the height of my charity work and will be needing the MH.

 

If someone culd direct me on where else I could find fault, it would be a great help

 

[paulni]

I may be wrong but doesn't the 12v only work from the leisure battery? The lights etc. dont work when the engine is on, only when the ignition is switched off.

Correct me if i'm wrong.

The fridge should work when driving along and the battery should charge when switched to battery when driving along.

 

Paul

[crag]

The lights should work off the engine battery when the engine is off, I imagine for emergency use only as you wouldn't want to flatten the engine battery.

 

The control panel should show the state of both batteries but according to the control panel either the battery has had it, or someone has knocked it (lol)

 

I have a rocker switch on my control panel, left is engine battery, right is leisure battery and centre is off.

 

[Mel B]

Crag

 

To try to sum up, I think we've established:

 

1) Your control panel normally shows the state of the engine battery and leisure battery, but it no longer does this, only showing the state of your leisure battery.

 

2) Your habitation lights used to work from your engine battery as well as the leisure battery, depending on which you were switched to at the time, but you no longer have lights when on your engine battery.

 

3) This has only just happened and worked fine before the warranty work was carried out.

 

Can you tell us:

 

1) I assume, seeing as you've driven it, that the vehicle starts okay which means that the engine battery is okay? Do the cab lights come on when you open the cab doors? The answer to this should be yes.

 

2) What was the warranty work that was carried out? Did they have to alter/touch the electrical system?

 

Mel B

 

 

 

[Derek Uzzell]

Crag:

 

The logical explanation (though not necessarily the correct one!) is that the control-panel (or the battery selector switch) has developed a fault.

 

It ought to be straightforward, even with just a basic voltmeter, to confirm whether or not the batteries are being charged when the motorhome's motor is running. Check the voltage at the battery-terminals with the motor not running; start the motor; recheck the voltage at the battery-terminals and, if the readings are higher (expect somewhere around 14V), then the batteries are being charged.

 

Doesn't the refrigerator (presumably an Electrolux model) have an indicator-light (normally RED and built into the fridge's 12V ON/OFF switch) on it to show when it is running on 12V. While not a 100% certain proof of correct operation, if the red light is illuminated when the 12V switch is placed in its ON-position and the motorhome's motor is running, then it's reasonable to assume that the fridge will work OK while the vehicle is being driven.

[Basil]

My guess would be one of the relays that are normally found under the bonnet has gone faulty. This sounds very similar to a fault that occured with ours where the internal lighting on the vehicle became increasingly intermittant before packing up completely due to the connections corroding and giving a high resistance causing the socket and relay to melt and go open circuit.

In vans of the era of yours it was common practice to put two standard automotive relays under the bonnet to give split charge and refrigerator on when engine is running and normally used a Zig type unit inside the van where the battery switch and circuit switches are.

 

Bas

[crag]

Thanks for the replies.

Just had a quick peek whilst dinner's on the go.

Cab light does come on when opening the cab doors.

There is one light on the front of the Electolux Fridge that normally flashes prompting you to press the igniton switch when switched to gas. I don't know myself if this is supposed to light up when switched to engine battery with the engine running.

I did see two relays by the battery under the bonnet, and id have a look at the connections. There eas a bit of the white stuff on the connections but not enough that I would have thought would cause a problem.

Will try and get hold of a couple of relays tomorrow unless anybody comes up with any other suggestions.

 

too many things to list for the warranty work, you'd need a bigger screen *-)

The only real electrical thing was the Water Level gauge was replaced.

[crag]

Latest update is that I got the multimeter on the batteries and from what Derek has said, the readings show the batteries are charging when the engine is swithced on.

 

I've just had a quick trip to Halfords with one of my relays and was given what they say was the equivelent (although I've got as much confidence in them as I have of going into PC World and asking for computer bits (lol) ), so have bought two.

 

Have just put them both in and still the fault persists :-(

[trooper]

Hi, I would suspect either a wire or a connection has been disturbed accidentily, this can happen on repair work, Just a thought.

[crag]

Have been looking for a loose connection somewhere but have ran out of places to look. I've had the control panel off the wall, I've checked around the relays and can't think where else I should look.

 

My last trip out was the first time I've tried running the fridge whilst travelling and was only a 90 minute trip, so it didn't really have chance to get cool, or was it that it wasn't working.

[Mel B]

If they've had to sort out the water gauge that means they've had the control panel off. There are various bits and pieces behind there can could've got damaged in the process, so it's not necessarily a lose connections.

 

When we had a Rapido we kept getting a high pitch squealing alarm emiting from it for no apparent reason, it was a warning that the battery charge was low but it wasn't - everything was fine except for the squealing which, when it starts to go off at 2.00 am in the middle of a campsite isn't good! It used to take ages to get it to stop as the override button didn't work properly. As we had recently had some work done by the dealership to renew a relay for the fridge they must've disturbed or shorted something, in the end it needed a new control panel fitting as they couldn't get to the bottom of it.

 

Best bet is to contact the dealership and get them to sort it I'm afraid. The sooner you tell them the better otherwise they might deny they've done anything especially if you admit to taking the control panel off!

[crag]

It's amazing what cleaning the contacts of the fuses under the bonnet can do *-)

 

Problem sorted

 

Thanks all for your guidance

 

And I've learnt where all my fuses, relays etc are too (lol)