Hello! And my first of many questions ;)

[bmxninjamum]

Hi all Lovely to be joining the VW California Club!

My husband, 2 boys and I have just picked up our beautiful VW California T6 Ocean today, brand new and shiny. I've dreamed of having a camper van for 40+ years so we are all extremely excited! But we've got her home and have discovered that while the interior lights work when the engine is on, they don't work when the engine is off. Can anyone help please? Is it because the leisure batteries haven't charged enough yet? (We drove her about 30 miles to get home from the dealership) Or is there something we need to do to switch the leisure batteries 'on' as it were? Any advice gratefully received please as my husband is going bonkers watching youtube videos and getting no answers!!

Many thanks in advance for your advice

 

[Brian’s Dad]

Hi all Lovely to be joining the VW California Club!

My husband, 2 boys and I have just picked up our beautiful VW California T6 Ocean today, brand new and shiny. I've dreamed of having a camper van for 40+ years so we are all extremely excited! But we've got her home and have discovered that while the interior lights work when the engine is on, they don't work when the engine is off. Can anyone help please? Is it because the leisure batteries haven't charged enough yet? (We drove her about 30 miles to get home from the dealership) Or is there something we need to do to switch the leisure batteries 'on' as it were? Any advice gratefully received please as my husband is going bonkers watching youtube videos and getting no answers!!

Many thanks in advance for your advice

There's a trip switch in the back cupboard. But it sounds like you're leisure batteries are flat. Can you plug in to an EHU and charge overnight? (Your dealer should have done this)

 

[westfalia]

Yep, sounds like your batteries are banjaxed.

 

[bmxninjamum]

Thanks guys, we think it’s been sat in a dealership lot for a while... going to give it a good long drive tomorrow and hope that sorts it. Long charging cable and adaptor so we can charge it from home ordered on a amazon prime!!

 

[Wesel]

Batteries that have been completely discharged for a period of time may have been destroyed or at least severely degraded. It is not acceptable that your dealer has left a vehicle in this condition, and if this should be confirmed you should react to it

 

[westfalia]

There is a small chance that you can bring them back to life.

Once they have been on hook up for 24hrs unplug it. start the fridge on number
3 and see if it keeps running for about 3 days.

 

[Ta51tac]

Hi all Lovely to be joining the VW California Club!

My husband, 2 boys and I have just picked up our beautiful VW California T6 Ocean today, brand new and shiny. I've dreamed of having a camper van for 40+ years so we are all extremely excited! But we've got her home and have discovered that while the interior lights work when the engine is on, they don't work when the engine is off. Can anyone help please? Is it because the leisure batteries haven't charged enough yet? (We drove her about 30 miles to get home from the dealership) Or is there something we need to do to switch the leisure batteries 'on' as it were? Any advice gratefully received please as my husband is going bonkers watching youtube videos and getting no answers!!

Many thanks in advance for your advice

Can’t help with the problem, but congratulations on your new fab addition.

 

[bmxninjamum]

Batteries that have been completely discharged for a period of time may have been destroyed or at least severely degraded. It is not acceptable that your dealer has left a vehicle in this condition, and if this should be confirmed you should react to it

Thank you - we’re going to drive 150 miles tomorrow so if that doesn’t charge them then we’ll definitely be going back to the dealer to complain!!

 

[Wesel]

What could happen is that it charge during your trip but that this charge does not stay long after.
Anyway it's up to the dealer to bring the solution.

 

[TripleBee]

The problem with those new California's is that the batteries will never be charged completely while driving, due to the "Bluemotion Technology".
Best way to spice them up is really on hookup. Get them 24 hours time, and try to find out how long the voltage stays above 12,7V with noting in use. If they drop back to 12,5 or lower in a few hours, nothing in use, you will need 2 new batteries.
Don't wait too long to inform the dealership, or they will try to put it back to you as being your fault of abusing the batteries.
If they hold their charge for a few days without dropping below 12,7V, then it looks ok.
Mine still stay above 12,5V after a few days, even when they have reached the blessed age of 10 years.

Keep us informed?

 

[bmxninjamum]

Thanks everyone - as soon as the hook up cable arrives we will get her plugged in and hopefully that will sort it out. 150 mile drive today got the leisure batteries saying they were 'alive' but still on 0% charge. The salesman at the dealership will be getting a phone call tomorrow!!

 

[WelshGas]

Thanks everyone - as soon as the hook up cable arrives we will get her plugged in and hopefully that will sort it out. 150 mile drive today got the leisure batteries saying they were 'alive' but still on 0% charge. The salesman at the dealership will be getting a phone call tomorrow!!

It is under Warranty. The Leisure Batteries will have been damaged and although they might charge up they will never perform as they should so they should be replaced automatically and don't take No for an answer.
The vehicle should never have been handed over with flat Leisure Batteries.
These batteries cost upwards of £350 for the pair from a 3rd party or nearer £500 from VW so dont be fobbed off.

 

[GrannyJen]

@bmxninjamum as @WelshGas and others have said: A battery reduced to 0% charge is a battery that is almost certainly going to be below par for the rest of its life. Thay should not have been allowed to drain to 0%. Once connected up they should have been regularly charged. Sadly dealers who are used to selling transporters etc are not always savvy to the fact there are two other batteries on the vehicle.

Please rattle their cages and if you get no where than plenty on here will advise on how to contact VW Customer support. If you have problems we would also like to hear about it for our dealer review section.

Best wishes and good luck for tomorrow.

 

[Karlos]

Hi all, glad I read this as just checked our Cali that has been stood for 2 weeks and the batteries have dropped to 40%. The van was delivered on 1st September and bought new from stock. We then went to Italy in it when it was 2 weeks old for 3 weeks and it has sat for the last 2 weeks on the drive. I have just hooked it up to recharge the batteries but my question is how long should the charge last from 100% with nothing on in the van?

 

[TripleBee]

I can't really tell, because my van is my daily driver, so the batteries are charged completely (old T5.1 without Bluemotion Technology, so always charged to 100%). But 40% would be something like 12,3V or less? That is quite low.
A battery at ease should not really drop below 12,5V, which is about 60%?

 

[SimonB]

I was given these resting Battery Voltage to percentage of Charge figures which should be a guide

12.6V = 100%
12.45V= 75%
12.24V= 50%
12.06V= 25%
11.89V= 0%

 

[Karlos]

Ok Thanks, It's got to go back to the dealers as the fridge kept switching itself off when we were away, also the engine oil has dropped from full to half over a distance of 3.5k (my last t6 never used oil) so ill advise them of the possible leisure battery issue.

 

[SimonB]

If I remember, and one of the others will come back to confirm, when the battery gets to a certain level the fridge turns off, this is to protect the battery so it doesn't leave it in too low a state to recover.

 

[flying banana]

If the control panel is reading 0 % you should be concerned. And the engine running putting nothing in at all? I would be looking at 2 new batteries under warranty and then a charging check. On hook up and via the engine. When the engine is running you should get a G symbol on the control panel. On hook up it should be a little 2 pin plug sign. You could have 2 problems here. Batteries knackered and not charging up via the slit charge relay. It's odd that you can't get them above zero percent on the engine.

 

[Ksar-el-kebir]

Hi all Lovely to be joining the VW California Club!

My husband, 2 boys and I have just picked up our beautiful VW California T6 Ocean today, brand new and shiny. I've dreamed of having a camper van for 40+ years so we are all extremely excited! But we've got her home and have discovered that while the interior lights work when the engine is on, they don't work when the engine is off. Can anyone help please? Is it because the leisure batteries haven't charged enough yet? (We drove her about 30 miles to get home from the dealership) Or is there something we need to do to switch the leisure batteries 'on' as it were? Any advice gratefully received please as my husband is going bonkers watching youtube videos and getting no answers!!

Many thanks in advance for your advice

Back to the dealer pronto!

 

[Frans_T5]

Our vw cali dealer told us that you must hook up to the mains 24h once in eight weeks. We have replaced ours after 13y of use.