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Flat battery and 4 motion

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paulg

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Hi, I've had a new 4motion Cali for two weeks and already had a small drama!

We've had two weekends away, and on the second last weekend, it was peeing down and the site was seriously boggy, and we all sat in the van for two nights playing games, listening to music from my iphone on the van stereo, cozy and happy. I'm sure you can guess what happened. In the morning the parking heater wouldn't turn on, and was flashing an error. I immediately thought 'battery' and tried to start up the engine. Not a chance, I'd completely flattened it. The site was empty and I hadn't brought jump leads anyway, so. I called VW assist, a bit embarrassed.

Within 45 mins a happy chap from VW turned up in his T5, found us and parked opposite to try jumping me. No problem, and engine started within a few minutes. All good, thanked him hugely and off he went. Except he didn't as he had got stuck in the mud! The field was very soggy, and his van was completely stuck. Obviously one good turn deserved another, so he helped us pack up, gave me a rope and I had a go at pulling him out.

I was really amazed, I pulled his fully loaded t5 clear and honestly wouldn't have known he was behind me it was so smooth and effortless.

So I learned two things:
1. the 4 motion is great, I'd have been stuck like the other guy without it.
2. Don't use the stereo too much when parked up. ( I was a bit disappointed with that as it seems like a bit of a design fault)

Parking heater worked fine soon as I cleared its error. Is it normal that a flat starter battery would cause the parking heater not to start? I didn't think it needed it.

All good learning though!

Paul
 
That's why I have swapped our stereo over to run off the leisure battery, at least we will be able to start the van.
 
I did exactly the same (the flat battery bit) on our first campaign trip.

Luckily the combination of manual gearbox and slight hill meant I bump started it without anyone noticing (at least I don't think so...).

I've been very careful with the stereo use ever since.
 
Going a little off topic (sorry) but I would be interested to know how you switched the stereo over to the leisure battery, Briwy, and whether this still allows you to use the stereo when driving (sorry if that's a really stupid question!). I expect I will be using the stereo quite a lot when on site as I will be camping alone with fairly low conversation to be had from my dogs, and I wouldn't want to end up with a flat battery in the morning!

:?: Maud
 
Two things that I learned quickly, not from a cali but from an early motorhome experience.

Switch off everything that uses the starter battery once parked up.

Interior cab lights off, courtesy lights off, radio off. I carry an LED lantern to illuminate the cab if needed and I prefer my Bose mini soundeck to the vehicle stereo anyway.
 
paulg said:
[...] Except he didn't as he had got stuck in the mud! The field was very soggy, and his van was completely stuck. Obviously one good turn deserved another, so he helped us pack up, gave me a rope and I had a go at pulling him out.

I was really amazed, I pulled his fully loaded t5 clear and honestly wouldn't have known he was behind me it was so smooth and effortless.
4Motion rocks! :thumb We know... :cool:

Weren't you on hookup? When on hookup, and the leisure batteries are fully charged, the loader is supposed to charge the engine battery. Unless you have the 'diode issue' like we had, but I thought new Cali's didn't have that anymore.
 
I have learned something new with this thread, never new about this issue and must have been so lucky not to have been stuck as we usually wild camp and use the sound system for our iPod and watching movies / downloads in the evenings which are long at this time of year. Think I will start to carry my jump leads given the remote locations we usually end up in.

Rewire to the leisure battery sounds like a good idea.
 
Maud said:
Going a little off topic (sorry) but I would be interested to know how you switched the stereo over to the leisure battery, Briwy, and whether this still allows you to use the stereo when driving (sorry if that's a really stupid question!). I expect I will be using the stereo quite a lot when on site as I will be camping alone with fairly low conversation to be had from my dogs, and I wouldn't want to end up with a flat battery in the morning!

:?: Maud
I also had my stereo rewired to the leisure battery, my local auto electrician did it for me for about £80.
I've had a switch fitted at the base of the passenger seat, when driving it's turned off and the stereo runs off the engine battery as normal, once I'm set up on site I flick the switch and it swaps over to the leisure battery.
I'd recommend that everyone gets it done!
 
A quick guide to how I did it here. Straightforward but a bit fiddly.

One thing to be wary of is do not turn the ignition on with any connections undone. From past experience this can lead to fault coming up which has to be reset by the dealer or someone with VAGCOM.

Firstly remove the passenger seat, this makes it so much easier to get at the connections.
(remember to unplug the seat multiconnector)
I used a length of twin multicore cable from an old lawnmower and connected it as below.
The positive goes through a 10amp inline fuse to power on the fuse board and the negative direct to the -ve battery terminal.
All joints are soldered for reliability and conductivity.
P1160682small_zps1e9cd293.jpg

The next job is to get the cable to the back of the radio. I removed the doorstep light for easier access and routed the cable down behind the plastic doorstep and the metal bodywork.
P1160671small_zps153e0fcb.jpg

Up behind the doorseal rubber/carpet and out into the end of the dash after removing the dash end panel.
P1160674small_zpsffa4677d.jpg

I removed the glovebox to make it easier to feed the cable through and obviously the radio has to come out. The facia pulls off (carefully) to reveal the four torx bolts holding the radio in. Remove the top dash tray as well.
P1160686small_zps3a33ce87.jpg

Undo the multiplug connecting the radio and carefully remove the two power wires from the radio side of the plug (this is done using a very small screwdriver and pressing the lock tabs on the individual connector blades, they then just pull out of the plug body)
The connector blades can then then be connected to the cable using spade connectors and insulated with tape. (I've now done mine with heat shrink tubing)
Reconnect the multiplug and check it all works OK before replacing the radio.
P1160687small_zpscecdddad.jpg

While everything was in bits I also wired in a twin USB/cigarette socket through fuses and moved the Aux In socket from the glovebox to a spare blank hole (so much easier to plug things in). The Aux socket is a nice push fit into the hole after removing the blanking plug.
P1160701small_zpsbfe9aa0a.jpg

Hope this all makes sense.
The radio still turns off after about twenty minutes though as this is controlled by the Canbus but in reality this isn't a big problem. Disconnecting the Canbus would mean losing the MFSW and other functions like parking sensors so I am leaving this alone for the present.
 
Yes excellent detail briwy good if you can do yourself.
Not quite sure how my auto electrician did it (I think he used at least one relay) but my stereo stays on as long as my passenger seat switch is on.
The whole switching off after 20 minutes thing is what used to irritate me in the first place so your method wouldn't have been any good for me.
£80 well spent in my case and my parking sensors still work fine.
 
Freeley said:
Yes excellent detail briwy good if you can do yourself.
Not quite sure how my auto electrician did it (I think he used at least one relay) but my stereo stays on as long as my passenger seat switch is on.
The whole switching off after 20 minutes thing is what used to irritate me in the first place so your method wouldn't have been any good for me.
£80 well spent in my case and my parking sensors still work fine.

I guess what your sparky may have done is put the canbus wiring through the relay you mentioned so that it is only connected when you have the switch to the main battery side.
Obviously you don't need the parking sensors etc enabled while parked up.
Good idea if that's it, may have a play with that. I agree £80 sounds good value.
 
Having found out that it takes a long trip to fully charge all the batteries, nowadays I always plug in at home if travelled less than 100 miles home after camping or hammering leisure use off hook up...
Fully charged it should not have run down to flat over a weekend...but if already used weekend b4 it may not have charged up b4 second weekend?
 
bvddobb said:
paulg said:
[...] Except he didn't as he had got stuck in the mud! The field was very soggy, and his van was completely stuck. Obviously one good turn deserved another, so he helped us pack up, gave me a rope and I had a go at pulling him out.

I was really amazed, I pulled his fully loaded t5 clear and honestly wouldn't have known he was behind me it was so smooth and effortless.
4Motion rocks! :thumb We know... :cool:

Weren't you on hookup? When on hookup, and the leisure batteries are fully charged, the loader is supposed to charge the engine battery. Unless you have the 'diode issue' like we had, but I thought new Cali's didn't have that anymore.

I wasnt on hookup, as this site didn't have that. I was running 100% under my own steam...
If I was on hookup, would it top up the starter battery faster than the stereo drains it? I'm doubting it would?
 
paulg said:
bvddobb said:
paulg said:
[...] Except he didn't as he had got stuck in the mud! The field was very soggy, and his van was completely stuck. Obviously one good turn deserved another, so he helped us pack up, gave me a rope and I had a go at pulling him out.

I was really amazed, I pulled his fully loaded t5 clear and honestly wouldn't have known he was behind me it was so smooth and effortless.
4Motion rocks! :thumb We know... :cool:

Weren't you on hookup? When on hookup, and the leisure batteries are fully charged, the loader is supposed to charge the engine battery. Unless you have the 'diode issue' like we had, but I thought new Cali's didn't have that anymore.

I wasnt on hookup, as this site didn't have that. I was running 100% under my own steam...
If I was on hookup, would it top up the starter battery faster than the stereo drains it? I'm doubting it would?

It would catch up over night, unless you run the stereo while you're asleep :D
 
I've been planning to do this rewiring for a while now. However, why is it necessary to get the LB connection from under the seat? Because, when I was measuring battery voltages, I saw that the top tray (in the dashboard) 12v socket is connected to the LB (At least on my beach MY 2015) and the 12v socket in the cupholder in the dashboard is connected to the regular battery.
So can't I just wire it to the 12v socket? And yes, I'd be using the fuse of that 12v socket for the radio.. But I don't really plan to use the 12v socket for anything but charging mobile phones.
 
? Because, when I was measuring battery voltages, I saw that the top tray (in the dashboard) 12v socket is connected to the LB (At least on my beach MY 2015) and the 12v socket in the cupholder in the dashboard is connected to the regular battery.

This is how my SE is wired.
 
So I learned two things:
1. the 4 motion is great, I'd have been stuck like the other guy without it.
2. Don't use the stereo too much when parked up. ( I was a bit disappointed with that as it seems like a bit of a design fault)
Great to hear the 4Motion is worth having and a perfect comparison with two near identical vehicles :thumb

I parked in a pull in the other week and discovered it was really soft and boggy. The Cali had no problem pulling off again but I did wonder whether I'd have been stuck with 2wd.

Regarding the stereo, I think there is a lot more using power than just a radio; it's basically a computer (at least the one with sat nav). I have one of those bluetooth speakers to use with my phone, sounds really good and it didn't cost much. Runs for ages on a charge and saves the vehicle battery; if necessary you can charge it from the leisure battery.
 
I took the feed direct from the LB as this was on our previous Cali which didn't have the upper dash tray socket.
TBH when I do our present one I think I will still do the same as the wire to tray socket is fairly skinny and I can also put in fuses that I know where they are and what they do.
 
Just take a supply from the leisure battery side of the split charge relay. That is, after all, it's function..
 
Last edited:
Does anyone know how to block the CANBUS switch off signal (while leaving all other signals in place)? I'm sure I've seen a solution referred to on the forum somewhere but I can't find it, googling is not helping either!

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
 
Does anyone know how to block the CANBUS switch off signal (while leaving all other signals in place)? I'm sure I've seen a solution referred to on the forum somewhere but I can't find it, googling is not helping either!

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

I haven't been able to find a solution either, not sure it's been solved.
 
I seem to recall from using my VAG terminal that you can change the off time but I dont know of a way to eliminate it entirely.
 
I think I have found a way to do it but I'm leaving it until the van is out of warranty. I don't want any arguments about anything that may go wrong with the van in the warranty period.
Basically it involves fitting an eight pole relay (as mentioned previously) that will divert the power to the the leisure battery and cut off the wiring to the Canbus. Operated by a small switch. To save chopping the wiring loom I have got a extra loom that feeds the bluetooth unit which has all the wires in. Should be a simple matter of modifying the new BT loom and then just plugging in. Hopefully.:)
 
I think I have found a way to do it but I'm leaving it until the van is out of warranty. I don't want any arguments about anything that may go wrong with the van in the warranty period.
Basically it involves fitting an eight pole relay (as mentioned previously) that will divert the power to the the leisure battery and cut off the wiring to the Canbus. Operated by a small switch. To save chopping the wiring loom I have got a extra loom that feeds the bluetooth unit which has all the wires in. Should be a simple matter of modifying the new BT loom and then just plugging in. Hopefully.:)
Hello @briwy !! And Eevryone else in the Forum , Newby in the forum here! First post after loads of searches and reads ,
I know this is an old thread, but I have spend the last 3 days searching the forum * not only this one(! Trying to find a solution to this same question, as I'm wanting to do the exact same, tun the original vw radio stereo through my leisure battery via a switch and bypass the CANBUS,

DId you managed to get round this? Because Im close to give up and spend money in a new aftermarket head unit.

THanks loads! :D
 

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