Beech interior lights not working

Jonger · Sep 24, 2018

My interior lights have given up the ghost, its a 2016 Beech but I cant find the fuse, I checked under the front seat, no 10 amp fuses blown, under the dash same there, and even under the bonnet, no blown fuse anywhere.
Can anyone tell me which fuse I should be checking as there's no diagram in the book. I'm told it will be a 10 amp (red) fuse but they all seem to be ok.

Thanks

WelshGas · Sep 24, 2018

Jonger said:
My interior lights have given up the ghost, its a 2016 Beech but I cant find the fuse, I checked under the front seat, no 10 amp fuses blown, under the dash same there, and even under the bonnet, no blown fuse anywhere.
Can anyone tell me which fuse I should be checking as there's no diagram in the book. I'm told it will be a 10 amp (red) fuse but they all seem to be ok.

Thanks

How have you checked, just visually?
Better to check with a meter or replace with a known good Fuse.

Also there are some Fuse Diagrams in the VIP Download area.

Jonger · Sep 24, 2018

Thanks for your reply, I just checked visually, there were no breaks in the fuses, there's only one under the front seat where I believe the interior fuse should be.
I will check it again with a meter just to be sure, I looked at the download section but there's not a circuit diagram for a Beech so not much help.

Jonger · Sep 25, 2018

Well I have checked the fuse and its fine so looked further back - no power - flat leisure battery.
This is worrying as I have hardly used the leisure battery this summer, mainly the lights and as LED's they shouldn't be drawing a lot and driving regularly .
every week it should be in tip top condition, so I'm wondering if its not getting a charge and has gradually run down.
I have it on charge at the moment to see if it can be saved, but wondered how to check if its charging when I run the engine

Max-Felix · Sep 25, 2018

Have you charged it on the mains once a month or so? The alternator will only do so much and it really needs a mains charge regularly to keep it in top condition and *fully* charged.

Stick the meter on it with the engine running - should show 14+ volts.

What was the actual voltage you measured with zero load earlier?

jts46 · Sep 25, 2018

Jonger said:
Well I have checked the fuse and its fine so looked further back - no power - flat leisure battery.
This is worrying as I have hardly used the leisure battery this summer, mainly the lights and as LED's they shouldn't be drawing a lot and driving regularly .
every week it should be in tip top condition, so I'm wondering if its not getting a charge and has gradually run down.
I have it on charge at the moment to see if it can be saved, but wondered how to check if its charging when I run the engine

1- check voltage before starting engine
2- check voltage with engine running if it is charging you should notice an increase in volts
3- The leisure battery should be put on charge via EHU for 24hrs once a month

Jonger · Sep 25, 2018

Thanks guys, I used a battery charge indicator rather than a multi meter so didn't take a proper reading, it was enough to show a very low battery so put it straight on the mains charger.
I haven't been putting it on charge via the EHU as I assumed it would be OK as I only use the lights and they are led's. seems I was wrong.so will do that in future.
I'm going to leave it on charge for a while then will check if its charging from the engine once I have seen how it recovers.

Max-Felix · Sep 25, 2018

Really handy to pick up a cheap multimeter on eBay if you have a Beach - at least get one of these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digital-...157057&hash=item48783957b4:g:X2sAAOSwmtJXXAKW

You need to know the actual volts; to borrow from Roger D (solar man) the following indicates the state of the battery roughly, this is with 0 load out and 0 charge going in:

12.60v . . . . . . . . . . 100%
12.45v . . . . . . . . . . 75%
12.24v . . . . . . . . . . 50%
12.06v . . . . . . . . . . 25%
11.89v . . . . . . . . . . 0%

If you've got (had) much less than 10/11 the battery is probably not going to perform well in the future.

Plug the EHU in once a month for 24 hrs regardless of use, or ideally get solar if kept outside.

WelshGas · Sep 25, 2018

Jonger said:
Thanks guys, I used a battery charge indicator rather than a multi meter so didn't take a proper reading, it was enough to show a very low battery so put it straight on the mains charger.
I haven't been putting it on charge via the EHU as I assumed it would be OK as I only use the lights and they are led's. seems I was wrong.so will do that in future.
I'm going to leave it on charge for a while then will check if its charging from the engine once I have seen how it recovers.

If you find No voltage change with engine running then just check the 80 amp Fuse - large Brown fuse under the Front Passenger Seat. I believe there was a rogue batch some time ago.

Jonger · Sep 25, 2018

I have a plug in voltage meter on order now, I'll keep it in the van to easily check the voltage available, the charger seems to be working as the battery indicator has risen from poor (5v) to fair(12v) in just a few hours, its only approximate readings indicated by LED's but going in the right direction, I will see if it keeps rising then check with my multi meter later.
Thanks for the advice and that voltage table is very useful.

Max-Felix · Sep 25, 2018

Are you plugged into the factory VW EHU ie the onboard VW charger now or using a separate battery charger?

Jonger · Sep 25, 2018

I'm using a separate battery charger direct to the battery terminals at the moment, thought that was the better option to bring a "dead" battery back to life. Will change over to the EHU to follow up.

Max-Felix · Sep 25, 2018

Is it one of the generic trickle type or a decent Ctek type?

Jonger · Sep 25, 2018

Its an old fashioned charger max 6 amps which drops to trickle as the battery charges.

Max-Felix · Sep 25, 2018

The inbuilt Cali charger should do a better job.

Jonger · Sep 25, 2018

Thanks, I'm going to take the other one off now and will change to the inbuilt one tomorrow. Can't leave a cable out over night where the van is at the moment, its on my front drive but neighbors have access across my front drive.

Jonger · Nov 9, 2018

Postscript to my problem, I booked it in to my dealer as its still under warranty, a main fuse had blown and apparently there is a technical notice from VW about this and part of the wiring loom needs replacing to stop it re-occurring so that's being done under warranty.
Hopefully that will solve my problems in future.