Batteries an electrics

[Isa Neal]

My newish DSG 180 with fridge on standby managed to run the battery down to 10% whilstarked. I am now on hookup but the hookup doesn't work ANY IDEAS

 

[barry]

First check whether the hookup is live and power is detected by the console.
ie there's a plug icon displayed bottom right hand corner.

 

[calikev]

Isa Is the main switch turned on in the cupboard in the back were the gas bottle is
Also like Barry says if you look at your control panel at the bottom right should be a symbol that looks like a plug

 

[swigle]

I think I've got the same issue?

No plug symbol on hook up; have checked trip switch. This is the third time on hookup in the last week, same issue each time; had come to the conclusion I was wrong and that hookup was ok. I had actually stopped worrying about but the mention of the plug symbol has got me worrying again.

I thought the 3-pin socket only worked on hookup? It is working (can boil kettle) - which is why I'd stopped worrying.

Cali stood for 2 days now; battery down to 50%

Any suggestions?

Cheers
Steve

 

[Stu]

Steve,

I'm fairly certain the 3 pin UK socket will only work on hookup.

It could be you have hookup power to the socket but the charging system isn't working.

 

[swigle]

Cheers Stu.

Have turned the engine over for 2 mins and battery back up at 90%, so I know it charged off the alternator (can't believe it's that fast to charge though !)

 

[Stu]

Steve it has the symptoms of the Earth Shunt problem but I wouldn't think that would affect your van.

If the 3 pin UK socket is live then your hookup is working. If the batteries do not charge from the hookup then it might be the charger unit that connects the hookup to the onboard 12v system.

 

[Martin]

From my understanding the plug symbol comes on once the PSU has switched over to 240V and is in charging mode, however the 240v socket behind the passenger seat bypasses the PSU and is supplied directly from the hook so this should work even if there is a fault on the PSU. The reason I think this is the way it works is because when we have been on reverse polarity the control panel did not display the plug/charge symbol yet we still had 240v going to the mains socket.

Best way to check to see if the batteries are being charged on hook up it to put a multi meter on the leisure battery ( or test via the cigar socket behind passenger seat) and it should be 13+ volts.

it may be a relay sticking so another thing to try is remove/plug in the hook up cable a few times and see if it comes back to life.

 

[swigle]

Cali iat Van Centre to check out why leisure battery doesn't charge when on hookup - they are quoting manual to me, saying 'leisure battery will not / isn't supposed to charge off hopkup'. Are they right, have I completely misunderstood? They say the purpose of hookup is to bypass the leisure battery, not charge it?
Are they right????
I'm sure the manual says you should hookup regularly to charge the leisure batteries. (manual is in van, so can't check until I go to pick it up)

Cheers
Steve

 

[Martin]

Hi Steve

You are right and they are wrong, hook-up does charge both leisure batteries ( and vehicle battery on Facelift ) , as mentioned in other threads you can confirm this by putting a multi meter on the battery and then plugging the hook up cable in, it will just from around 12v to 13-13.8v

 

[swigle]

Well, pointing out the 2 'info' points at the top of page 10 in the California Suppliment has convinced the Van Centre that I'm right, and the leisure batteries should charge off hookup.

When connected, the 230-volt-electrical feed will charge the vehicle battery as well as the additional batteries.

The 230-volt-electrical feed will be shown as a symbol in the display of the centre control panel when charging.

So now my Cali is booked in for a week at the end of September for them to 'try and fix it' - a week is needed in case they need to take the kitchen unit out ...

 

[simonizzy]

We had exactly the same problem on a campsite in spain. The 13 amp socket worked fine but the plug symbol only showed intermittently in the control panel and slowly the battery discharged. I tested the lead which was fine as was the mains connection on the site . Interestingly we then connected up on 5 more sites over a couple of weeks where it worked fine. I wondered about reverse polarity but why would it work intermittently ? Disconnecting and reconnecting seemed to make it start working again for a short period which suggests a sticky relay.

Before it started working again I was expecting a week in the garage with the kitchen out, now Im worried that the problem re-occurs when the California is out of warranty. Has anyone else had this problem?

 

[Graham]

Just to add to the mix, we have had hookups with low supply amperage and found it easy to trip the supply with full kettles and the missus' wind tunnel (hair dryer) if not careful. Particularly at smaller sites.

 

[smgcowfoldparts]

Could be the hook-up on the site that is at fault. Have had a few issues with this and when we have checked in the workshop everything has been ok. could also be your hook-up lead at fault possibly? Best way to check is to plug it in to a known good power source and see what happens.

cheers

 

[swigle]

Experienced problem on 3 different sites (1 UK, 1 France, 1 Luxembourg), including trying different hookup points on 2 of these sites, so I think that eliminates the site supply as being root cause. Also tried home. Could be my hookup cable, but this has worked OK in the past. Also given that getting power to 240v socket on hookup would suggest cable OK?

Steve

 

[smgcowfoldparts]

Is the polarity correct? Have had one California in that was used on UK camp site and having problems and the polarity was the cause. Reversed the polarity in the hook up lead and all was well when testing, so worth looking at that as well.

cheers

 

[swigle]

Yup - polarity OK; user polarity tester on each occasion, as well trying with reversed polarity on 1 site (even though polarity showed as OK).

 

[swigle]

Just picked up Cali from VW van centre. Been in since Monday - they have replaced the battery charger under warranty. Now need to test out all the electrics, gas and water - they had to take the fridge and kitchen unit out to get to the battery charger. Doesn't sound as though it's the most easily accessible part of the electrical system!