T
tweeky
- Messages
- 10
Suffering from my leisure batteries discharging whilst parked on my drive. My Cali is 2008 model with the original batteries. After reading some of the very useful threads, it started to make me think that the problem may lay with the batteries, however after giving them both a good charge up, the voltage at the terminals indicated that the batteries were in reasonable shape, even though I hadn't perform a load test I was fairly sure the discharge problem was being caused by something else. I removed the passenger seat to expose the fuse and termination area and found that when I extracted the 10 Amp fuse (next to the 2 x 30 Amp fuses) the 0.6 load on the Central Control Panel dropped to zero amps. I extracted all the light fittings on this circuit, 6 in all and operated them in turn, all seemed well until I found the the strip light above the cooker hob (its like a miniature fluorescent fitting) was operating intermittently. I disconnected and removed the fitting and powered up the 10 Amp lighting circuit, the indication on the CCP was now reading Zero Amps. I assume that there is a fault with the electronics of this strip light (yet to be investigated) which was causing my problem.
I did some further measurements and found that each of the lights draws between 0.4/0.5 Amps, multiply that by 5 (not including the strip light) and its going to give you less than 60 hrs from your leisure batteries, less when the strip light is being used. In one of my light fittings I have installed an LED light, when this was switched on there was no indication on the CCP, it was reading 0.0 Amps, obviously the LED cluster is pulling some current but it is negligible, so I will be swapping all my lights over to LED's in the near future, I guess more modern California's have them fitted as standard.
There was another associated problem with this job and that was when removing the passenger seat, you have to disconnect the Airbag & Seat heater connections, this has to be done carefully, as you cant just rive the seat out, I found that once you had removed the nuts from the front seat rail and the splines bolts from the rear seat rail, by lifting the seat rail clear of the front threads you could easily tilt the seat over to rest against the drivers seat and gain easy access to the seat connectors, which I then disconnected and removed the seat.
Once I had reconnected the Airbag/Seat heater connections and went for a start up an Airbag fault light came up. I have found out that if the ignition is turned on with the Airbag disconnected it generates a standing alarm, which can only be reset by a garage that has the appropriated computer terminal and software, or if you know someone who is lucky enough to own one. I called up a VW specialist who I use for my servicing and repairs (Auto Technica) and he said bring it down and I will reset it, which I duly did. So far things are looking good, until the next fault arises.
I did some further measurements and found that each of the lights draws between 0.4/0.5 Amps, multiply that by 5 (not including the strip light) and its going to give you less than 60 hrs from your leisure batteries, less when the strip light is being used. In one of my light fittings I have installed an LED light, when this was switched on there was no indication on the CCP, it was reading 0.0 Amps, obviously the LED cluster is pulling some current but it is negligible, so I will be swapping all my lights over to LED's in the near future, I guess more modern California's have them fitted as standard.
There was another associated problem with this job and that was when removing the passenger seat, you have to disconnect the Airbag & Seat heater connections, this has to be done carefully, as you cant just rive the seat out, I found that once you had removed the nuts from the front seat rail and the splines bolts from the rear seat rail, by lifting the seat rail clear of the front threads you could easily tilt the seat over to rest against the drivers seat and gain easy access to the seat connectors, which I then disconnected and removed the seat.
Once I had reconnected the Airbag/Seat heater connections and went for a start up an Airbag fault light came up. I have found out that if the ignition is turned on with the Airbag disconnected it generates a standing alarm, which can only be reset by a garage that has the appropriated computer terminal and software, or if you know someone who is lucky enough to own one. I called up a VW specialist who I use for my servicing and repairs (Auto Technica) and he said bring it down and I will reset it, which I duly did. So far things are looking good, until the next fault arises.
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