Any ideas why our electric hook up won't work?

[Jennydddd]

Hi there,

We usually go away in our Cali at least once a month but because of illness it sat on the driveway for 2 months. When we went away at the weekend and tried to connect to the electric hookup on site, it didn't work. We double checked with the campsite and their side of things were fine.

Any ideas?

 

[WelshGas]

When connected upto mains, did you have mains power at the mains socket on the kitchen unit?
Did you check the Isolation switch above the gas cylinder was ON?
If you did have power at the mains socket then check the mains lead into the Charger unit located by the Leisure battery in the wardrobe/kitchen unit.

 

[Jennydddd]

Hi, no we didn't have power in the mains socket. I will check the isolation switch in the morning.

Thanks for your respons

 

[T5WOB]

some sites when you plug into there socket .you have to turn the lead left or right .to make it power up ..

 

[briwy]

Try it at home if possible, either get or make up an adapter so that you can plug in to a domestic three pin plug. It's always easier to check these things out at home rather than on site.
Could be the cable itself, unlikely but we have had one fail. We carry two cables (one long, one short) now as a matter of course after being plonked on a pitch too far from the hook up.
You can carefully check if there is power at the van end of the cable with either a multimeter or one of the little screwdrivers that light up.

 

[Jennydddd]

It wasn't the isolator so have just ordered a multimeter to test things. Thanks for your commemts

 

[graeme]

i had this problem and found out the cable was faulty. seems like they are quite delicate if you do not store correctly

 

[Laurence102]

Had a very similar problem as yours and it turned out to be a faulty power converter. Is the plug symbol in the centre roof display registering when you are hooked up? If not, suggest you have your power converter checked out. As an aside, ours was not working from new. I hope this might help. Good luck.

 

[HistoryBob]

I'm in France with a similar problem. Cannot get electricity on hookup. This was working just a few days ago. Now as soon as I plug in my lead into the socket on the side of the van the circuit breaker in the rear cupboard trips out.
My diagnoses would be a short circuit somewhere in the van and without a multimeter I'm lost.
Anyone any other ideas.
Everything on the van appears to work ok although I have had some problem with the hydraulic unit (pump) for the roof overheating and this is probably a red herring.

 

[calikev]

Bob do you have anything plugged into the socket in the van?

 

[Hotel California]

Hi , did you try and reset the roofdisplay?
Holddown the "back" button ( the one below right) for 30 sec. , it resets the fridge,heater,popup roof mechanism ,...afther it has got a malfunction or error.
Can do nothing wrong , worth a try

 

[motacyclist]

I'm in France with a similar problem. Cannot get electricity on hookup. This was working just a few days ago. Now as soon as I plug in my lead into the socket on the side of the van the circuit breaker in the rear cupboard trips out.
My diagnoses would be a short circuit somewhere in the van and without a multimeter I'm lost.
Anyone any other ideas.
Everything on the van appears to work ok although I have had some problem with the hydraulic unit (pump) for the roof overheating and this is probably a red herring.

It's a while since I've been to France, but I seem to remember there is a possibility of reverse polarity because their plugs can be connected either way; so have a check on that.

 

[rich-s]

You could try pulling the plug out of the charging unit under the wardrobe. If the charger has gone down it might throw the trip out? It's a 3 pin plug similar to one that goes into the back of a PC or kettle etc.

 

[GrannyJen]

Mine is now going back to SMG next week, 10th month into trying to fix the 240V charging system and I'm getting a little irritated. Ever so more irritated in that I wanted to be away next week in the vehicle rather than it spending yet more time in the workshop for what my numbskull brain thinks should be a simple problem to solve.

From being intermittent it is now a permanent refusal to charge leisure battery from hook up although 240v is going through to the 240v plug on the side of the kitchen.

A new charger was fitted just 2 weeks ago

 

[Isa Neal]

Hiya
I'm now on my second New California- I P/E the first after less than 3 years ownership from new and it needed yet another roof repair.....with that vehicle which was bough new March 2012 eventually the only thing that sorted the electrics was a shunt repair and replacement of BOTH leisure batteries after that electrically everything was fine. I even had SMG as home address on the satnav. I now have another new VW Cali which already has a roof that won't stay up...... Has now had roof pump replaced so New Cali now on drive with roof up so that I can see when/if it drops. Previously it dropped and canvas became baggy at 4-6 days on hookup with the roof up, but I'm at day 5 now so have to wait and see......

 

[HistoryBob]

OK. Here is an update. I called VW Roadside Assistance for help who arranged for me to go to a non VW garage. Spent 2 hours today in an auto electricians at Beziere. After much investigation it turned out to be a faulty Residual Circuit Breaker. This was replaced and all now seems well. I'll be more confident if we get through the night on hookup.
Down side is: California's are only guaranteed for twelve months in France (mine is two years) and so I had to fork out 204euros on the spot. This I am told I can claim back from VW when I'm back in England.
Thanks for the help and suggestions non of which worked in my case.
Have Fun

 

[bvddobb]

Mine is now going back to SMG next week, 10th month into trying to fix the 240V charging system and I'm getting a little irritated. Ever so more irritated in that I wanted to be away next week in the vehicle rather than it spending yet more time in the workshop for what my numbskull brain thinks should be a simple problem to solve.

From being intermittent it is now a permanent refusal to charge leisure battery from hook up although 240v is going through to the 240v plug on the side of the kitchen.

A new charger was fitted just 2 weeks ago

Jen, we had replied in another thread to your problem. We have the same setup as you, with the fridge on top of the charger. When we did our earth shunt repair, we noticed our charger had a dip switch, that had a 'temperature sensor on/off' text. Ours was on 'off' and we have never had the charger switch off when the temp down there got hot because of the fridge working hard. There are even cases documented on the web where people have installed a ventilator in the cupboard to cool the charger/fridge cooler when in Italy...
Perhaps yours has the same switch, and it could be set to 'off' to solve your problem.


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[rich-s]

Mine is now going back to SMG next week, 10th month into trying to fix the 240V charging system and I'm getting a little irritated. Ever so more irritated in that I wanted to be away next week in the vehicle rather than it spending yet more time in the workshop for what my numbskull brain thinks should be a simple problem to solve.

From being intermittent it is now a permanent refusal to charge leisure battery from hook up although 240v is going through to the 240v plug on the side of the kitchen.

A new charger was fitted just 2 weeks ago

Eek. I hope you get it sorted. Ours was exactly the same - Power to the Plug socket, but no charge. New charger fitted Monday. It worked Monday night, but I haven't tried it again yet. Dealer (Heritage Bristol) said the original charger was blowing fuse straight away. Fingers crossed.

 

[GrannyJen]

Jen, we had replied in another thread to your problem. We have the same setup as you, with the fridge on top of the charger. When we did our earth shunt repair, we noticed our charger had a dip switch, that had a 'temperature sensor on/off' text. Ours was on 'off' and we have never had the charger switch off when the temp down there got hot because of the fridge working hard. There are even cases documented on the web where people have installed a ventilator in the cupboard to cool the charger/fridge cooler when in Italy...
Perhaps yours has the same switch, and it could be set to 'off' to solve your problem.


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Thank you xx

I am quoting your reply in total to Jason at SMG. It really should not be rocket science. Power is coming in. The lead works, the hook up cable works, it only has to be a few feet of cable and a couple of devices that are failing.

Hardly frigging rocket science to just change the lot is it?

 

[Andy80F]

First hook-up of the year and no power

Cable looked in good order, display reset, different supply point (campsite supply) but nothing working. Last resort was to empty the boot and look at the power supply cable at the converter but it looked okay. However I did just give the plug at the converter a bit of a jiggle and it seated itself a little better in the socket. Power was then on (after reaching the supply). It's quite. Smug feeling sorting a problem though it was this forum that supplied the hint of what to check.

 

[snowy55]

Although my hook up has always worked properly the other day I took off the hatch in the boot to have a look and see what goes on in there and tried the plug and to my surprise it moved in a lot! So it's worth a look.

 

[GrannyJen]

The latest on this is now, after the 5th time of being away to get fixed ...

I have no 240v charging

The CCU, which was changed last year in order to "rectify" the problem, now has the bottom third of it's display missing.

As I said to VW customer care, it is now little over 200 years since Volta invented the battery, we really should now know how to charge the thing without a problem. Instead Volta's piles are now giving me a pain in the same place ........