Battery not charging from hook up!? help.....

[WelshGas]

It might be! But seeing as we don't hear of many problems in the newer California's then GrannyJen's was probably a fault rather than an inherent problem. Something to bear in mind though.

 

[GrannyJen]

Forget everything

Literally five minutes after posting my last message I wandered out to the van to see how cold the fridge was (switched it on last night after it being off for 2 weeks whilst at SMG)....

Battery gone from 100% to 40% in 24 hours ...... the "G" and two fingered salute are flashing consecutively in the all new display,

Switch the engine on .... the voltage discharge goes crackers with the engine running ..... -6.2v -3.8v .... -10.5V and the two pronged salute and "G" continue to flash consecutively with no apparent charging with engine running ....

SMG are taking it back tomorrow morning

I am ever so slightly irritated

 

[CaliPuds]

Forget everything

Literally five minutes after posting my last message I wandered out to the van to see how cold the fridge was (switched it on last night after it being off for 2 weeks whilst at SMG)....

Battery gone from 100% to 40% in 24 hours ...... the "G" and two fingered salute are flashing consecutively in the all new display,

Switch the engine on .... the voltage discharge goes crackers with the engine running ..... -6.2v -3.8v .... -10.5V and the two pronged salute and "G" continue to flash consecutively with no apparent charging with engine running ....

SMG are taking it back tomorrow morning

I am ever so slightly irritated

Oh good grief. That is so unbelievably disappointing. And you had given me hope.... I now have no hope. So sorry for you and Albert. At least SMG were prepared to take it straight back, my dealer tried to put me on a long waiting list, however, they too are taking it back first thing but I suspect the relationship is well and truly soured.

I have, nonetheless, mentioned earth shunt and the mechanic has agreed to take that into consideration.

 

[WelshGas]

So sorry to hear that.

 

[snowy55]

Jeez aren't they a useless bunch! You ladies must be really fed up, you have my sympathy.
A few months ago wasn't there talk of some dealerships being made "Cali Specialist" does anyone know if this is happening?
It's about time someone learnt how to fix this type of problem.

 

[GrannyJen]

This is my Cali this afternoon. Everything turned off. No hook-up, no engine turning. Note the two-fingered salute bottom right (no hook-up connected) and oscillating between two-fingered and "G"







This is the display with the engine running.

The engine running .... no hook-up connected, The engine charging yet according to the display a 5.2A
Discharge.

The mind boggles. Surely a few bits of wire and few relays is not rocket science. This is after the vehicle being away for two weeks and returned yesterday.

 

[AlanC]

As I understand it, VW have established 'Lifestyle Centres' that includes the Cali sales.

With my local company, Breeze, I think Poole is the 'Lifestye Centre' out of the three.

The one Cali trained tech works around all of the workshops and if he is not in on the day your van is in the workshop, then one of the other workshop techs will look at it and may be as puzzled about the camping bits as we often are.

Alan

 

[CaliPuds]

Mine has been at a Cali specialist, and, to be fair, the engineer/CaliTechMan seems very knowledgeable and reasonable (unlike the front desk/Middleman), however, it isn't fixed despite him saying that it was.

And with the saga that poor Albert and GrannyJen are enduring, I am just shuddering to think of what might lie ahead....

Let's see what tomorrow brings (apart from a 9.5 mile walk back home from the dealer because I insisted on them taking it back this week rather than waiting 2 weeks for a courtesy vehicle) and Middleman is now trying to blame the whole thing on me because on the last 2 visits I wanted to wait in reception (albeit I was happy to wait for as long as it took i.e. 2-3 hours rather than leave the van with them for a few days and walk 9.5 miles). So it's my fault, allegedly. Deep breath.....

 

[GrannyJen]

Middleman should get off his lazy butt, recognise who's money it is that goes into his bank account every month as wages, and give you a lift home apologising profusely on behalf of the company he is representing (VW).

I can't fault SMG, they pick up and drop off my vehicle and they are in constant touch with VW technical who are orchestrating what happens next and so far proving they couldn't even orchestrate a Wolfsburg kindergaten tin whistle sextet.

 

[CaliPuds]

I'm not sure Middleman and I will benefit from being in a small confined space together. Plus, the walk will benefit my lungs and stamina in readiness for the call to VW customer care tomorrow.

Do you have a useful contact at VW? I had to break off my call with them today as my dealer actually finally rang me back, but what I had gleaned so far was that they couldn't put me through to anyone technical and they were recommending that I took my problem to my local dealer (so we were about to go round in circles when I cut the call short).

 

[Bramco]

LinkedIn is a good source of high up names in VW UK. I used this and some judicious Google searches to find the then name of the commercial vehicles director when we had massive problems with our order, he's since moved on up to passenger vehicles, so no use anymore.

Email addresses at VW UK all have the same form, so if you can find the right name then forename.surname is the standard format. I fired off a miffed email, copying my local guys (I had informed them I was going to do this beforehand as the problem wasn't their fault). Within no time I was on first name terms with a PA in the executive team who updated me every fortnight on where our re-order was in the system and agreed the compensation.

Also, for obvious reasons they won't give out email addresses even when you are in direct contact with customer care. I was told to add FAO: executive team or something like that to get emails to the team handling my issues. Might be worth a punt.

 

[CaliPuds]

Thank you Bramco.

Civil dialogue has been resumed so far today, and they did arrange to drive me home, so I will see how they get on over the next couple of days.

Even if they do now fix it quickly though (I live in hope, but it's very very faint hope) then I still feel a letter coming on, especially since this was one of the things I specifically asked the supplying dealer (not the same as my local dealer) to check before I took delivery of the vehicle. Supplying dealer fobbed me off, saying that it would obviously work, never heard of such a problem, and anyway they didn't have a hookup cable to test it. (yes, main supplying official Cali dealer allegedly didn't have hookup cable). And now several weeks later I still don't have a fully functioning van. So LinkedIn will be useful in helping me target my frustration, thanks for that.

 

[CaliPuds]

A cautiously optimistically happy update from me, whilst knocking on much wood and keeping all fingers and paws crossed:

By the end of Thursday both the VW engineer and I (and Middleman to be fair) were all quite dispirited, as after 2.5 hours of extensive testing the engineer was scratching his head and could not identify the cause of the fault.

Then on Friday afternoon I had a call to say that they had found and fixed the problem! After many more hours of pretty structured and detailed troubleshooting (I have a copy of the raw notes and they are impressive I will admit) he found a fault with a connector not fitting fully into the terminal block and causing poor contact (this was under the fridge which by now had been taken out). He removed the locking tab, fitted the terminal correctly, reconnected everything and it now works.

So 48 hours on I keep checking it in disbelief, and it still works. My leisure battery is charging from hookup! I sincerely hope this constitutes the end of my particular saga and I have to say that I was very well looked after by my local VW dealer in the end (although there is an unrelated snag in that they slightly damaged the seat base of the passenger seat when taking it out but I hope that is relatively easily rectified).

View attachment 14.5v hurrah.jpg

 

[GrannyJen]

Thank goodness!

How strange it should be under the fridge.

I have been banging on now for over a year that everything on mine goes pear-shaped as soon as the fridge gets turned on.

Can back working perfectly last Tuesday .... until I turned the fridge on Wednesday!

 

[GrannyJen]

Thank goodness!

How strange it should be under the fridge.

I have been banging on now for over a year that everything on mine goes pear-shaped as soon as the fridge gets turned on.

Came back working perfectly last Tuesday .... until I turned the fridge on Wednesday!

 

[WelshGas]

Maybe you should ask SMG to have a word with CaliPuds engineer? I presume they had to take out the fridge to replace the Earth Shunt?

 

[briwy]

Unreal.
With any electrical problem the first thing to check are the simple and obvious.
Glad its sorted for you eventually.

 

[Skylark2.0]

Go back and mention two little words:

Earth shunt:

I went from:

Fridge switching off and on ... traced to 240v charging symbol displayed but batteries low and seemingly not being charged..

Control unit replaced: Batteries would charge then mysteriously stop charging on 240V but this time the control panel would at least tell me that things had stopped charging.

Charger replaced: Ditto the above.

No charging at all: Another new charger plus various relays:

Back to intermittent charging, sometimes a lot, sometimes a little, but never holding.

Now, as of last week: Earth shunt replaced. So far all working sweetly. VW Customer service are fully conversant with the problem as both myself - often, and SMG - when asked, have been telling them.

The earth shunt apparently, amongst other things, relays back to the control panel to display state of charge so if it is intermittently on the blink then logically so would the control panel information be haphazard.

Fingers crossed

 

[Skylark2.0]

Fingers crossed

Oh +&£?! I was so excited it was fixed that i didn't read on

 

[WolfPack]

Ocean one month old so thought to plug into the mains today to charge up the leisure batteries. Problem. The control panel still showed battery symbol instead of expected 2-pin plug symbol. Read this thread and removed and refitted plug to charger unit behind hatch under wardrobe as discussed by Petec, WelshGas and AlanC above. Bingo. Problem solved. This is a brilliant Forum. Many thanks

 

[AlanC]

Pleased to be of help from so long ago...

Alan

 

[craig j]

Funny you mention that, but had the same problem yesterday. Brand new Ocean which when plugged in would not display the plug symbol. With a little rummage around with the charger plugs the problem was solved. Thanks to the forum!

 

[WelshGas]

Funny that this should be so common, relatively speaking, on new vehicles. I wonder why?
Do they check the system with a mains input direct to the charger and not plugging the mains lead from the RCD unit in properly until afterwards?

 

[JULIANLISMORE]

2011 180 DSG SE
I'm currently trying to find out why my batteries are not charging when vehicle is on electrical hook-up.

I've read through all of this thread and learned that I should check that plug to the built-in charger is pushed right home. I've looked through access hatch below the wardrobe (for the first time) and can see the leisure battery but can see no sign of the charger. Can anyone advise whether it is to be found elsewhere on a 2011 vehicle?

I've owned the van since 2013 and find it difficult to believe that ECU has not charged leisure battery at all during this period.

Van hasn't had an outing since I had a tow hitch fitted last October and I'm wondering whether the guys who did what I gather are quite complicated and difficult electrical works i.c.w. tow bar had taken out the charger and not replaced it.

Any advice gratefully received. Of course I had to discover this issue on a bank holiday!!

 

[Hotel California]

2011 180 DSG SE
I'm currently trying to find out why my batteries are not charging when vehicle is on electrical hook-up.

I've read through all of this thread and learned that I should check that plug to the built-in charger is pushed right home. I've looked through access hatch below the wardrobe (for the first time) and can see the leisure battery but can see no sign of the charger. Can anyone advise whether it is to be found elsewhere on a 2011 vehicle?

I've owned the van since 2013 and find it difficult to believe that ECU has not charged leisure battery at all during this period.

Van hasn't had an outing since I had a tow hitch fitted last October and I'm wondering whether the guys who did what I gather are quite complicated and difficult electrical works i.c.w. tow bar had taken out the charger and not replaced it.

Any advice gratefully received. Of course I had to discover this issue on a bank holiday!!

On a 2011 Cali SE the inverter is located under the fridge....
Open the round plastic cap in the left sliding door under the cooker