Hi, everyone!

[silviud]

Hi, my name is Silviu, I am from Romania and I am a new member of the Cali's family, as I have bought a T6.1 Cali Ocean 2 months ago.
I like traveling a lot and I have already made some nice trips with it.
I love this car for it's versatility, for being so dynamic, for the fact that it is both an everyday car and a small home when you are traveling.
Although I bought this car new, I couldn't get many information regarding the car from the dealer, as they have sold only a few California in Romania over the years. So, I'm asking you for help with some information.
1. I've had some problems with charging the leisure batteries. I've been in the mountains by bike for a few days and I left the car with the fridge in function and after 4 days when I returned to the car my batteries were empty. I could not charge the batteries driving seversl hours with the max charge function, neither going in a camping and hooking up for about 15 hours did not help at all.
I went to the dealer and they just updated the soft and after that they were able to charge but they coldn't explain what hapened.
Now I stay with my eyes on the monitor all the time, but I don't know how to properly operate the charging, I don't know if it's charging.
How much does it need to hook up for a full charge? How do I know that it is charging and when is full?Even if the yellow sign appears when I hook up, I left it charging more than 24 hours and the blue sign with the battery on the display indicated the same number of lines as before charging and the hours range the same. Than both the lines and the hours range can increase or decrease and I never know why...
2. I tried to switch on the auxilary heating to see how it works. Neither pressing the button on the remote, nor switching on the continuos mode on the display did not work. Playing in the menu I was able to start by chance the heating only by pressing continous mode and then pressing start imediately. And it started after 3-4 minutes. I must say it was not cold outside. Does it depend on the outside temperature to start? And why only after pressing the combination buttons as described?
3. I am thinking about installing some solar penel. Any recomandation? And do I loose my guarantee?
Thank you!

 

[AlisonF]

Welcome and hope to see some pics of your 6.1 soon.
For your questions, if you are able to use the search function, there are a few threads that discuss leisure batteries, auxiliary heater and fitting solar panels, which may answer your questions.

 

[silviud]

I tried to read as much as possible but I could not find much information regarding the T6.1, with the new display. That's why I put these questions, because after all reading it is still unclear for me how it works...
The remaining battery energy is shown like a range, now it can be more than 60 h left and after some time it can drop to 10 hours left and then increase again. I can charge it for many hours even hook up or driving and then show the same range as before charging.
So, I never really know if it is charging properly or not. As I have some stress because it happened to me to empty the batteries and not to be able to charge it anymore.
Maybe someone who knows can explain how do I know if it's charging indeed and when is it full charged.
And regarding the auxilary heating I don't understand why it is not starting when I operate the settings in " continuous mode" or when I simply press the remote button. It works only when I operate "continuous mode" and after a few seconds I press " heat imediately". And it starts only after 3-5 minutes. It is strange. I just wanted to check if it works, the temperature outside is more than 20 gr celsius. It could be related to this?
Thank you!

 

[silviud]

Some pics of the car

 

[Saesneg Shaun]

Looks great, love the wheels

 

[Hotel California]

If you leave the fridge on for 4 days without it beeing on 220v hook-up and no driving , this will be about te maximum i think.
You could set it on a low setting not to cold , as long the fridge stays closed it will not run that much and saving energy .

The heather always takes a few minutes to warm up inside before starting , that is normal .
How to start it up in the T6.1 and the new panel i can not help you with.
if you have a remote it should work by pressing the button.

Lots have a solar panel , some have mounted it themselves , some done by a professinonal , what it does to your warrenty ? best check VW Romania ?

 

[silviud]

Thank you for the reply!

I am not concerned on how long the batteries last, but on the fact that I don't know how can I check if it's charging or not. While driving I think the charge is ok but during hook-up I don't know... I can see the yellow sign on the display when I hook-up but I cannot see any increase in remaining hours.
Unlike T5 and T6, where you can see the battery life in percentage, at T6.1 you can see 10 blue lines and the remaining hours. But I never really know how much energy left. It looks more like a range. It can remain the same after charging, or suddenly increasing or decreasing. And after what happened in Austria when I couldn' t charge at all after emptying the batteries( the problem solved at Vw by resofting) now I never know if it is charging on 220 hook-up. I left 48 hours on hook-up but the yellow sign was still there and the battery range the same...

Anyone with T6.1 here? I am interested to find out how it is working to others.

And the auxilary heating as well. It did not start pressing the remote button, operating the "continuous mode" or " heat immediately". These are the options on the big display al T6.1. It only started after playing in every possible way in the menu and discovered that if I press" continuos mode" then after a few seconds "heat immediately " it starts in 3-4 minutes. I cannot explain why does it start in this way and in the normal way written in the car's book it doesn't. I asked at Vw but they didn't know what to answer.

That's why I am asking here, maybe someone who has got a T6.1 can describe how it works on his car...

Thank you!