Is the Parking heater volt sensitive?

[chockswahay]

We drove 130 miles from home yesterday…….. battery volts all good…….used diesel heater from 16:00 to 20:30……… out during today then heating on at 17:00…….. by 19:00:the heater kept turning off. Volts show 11.9 when the glow plug starts (around 10 amps) then settles to around 12.1/12.2 once the heater is running hot……..then a few mins later it shuts down!

Now I could understand voltage being an issue but surely it’s not unreasonable to expect the heating to last two ‘short nights’?

I the end I turned the engine on, panel showing 35 amp charge which dropped to 19 amp 30 mins later. During this time the diesel heater has been working fine.

Our van is just over two yr old T.6.1 Coast. Any one have any thoughts or suggestions on what the issue might be? (I can’t really believe my leisure batteries are shot but I s’pose it’s possible?

Thanks team

Edit: just adding that outside temp was around 6 last night and around 5 tonight.

 

[sidepod]

Fuel level ok in the tank?

 

[kurienp]

We drove 130 miles from home yesterday…….. battery volts all good…….used diesel heater from 16:00 to 20:30……… out during today then heating on at 17:00…….. by 19:00:the heater kept turning off. Volts show 11.9 when the glow plug starts (around 10 amps) then settles to around 12.1/12.2 once the heater is running hot……..then a few mins later it shuts down!

Now I could understand voltage being an issue but surely it’s not unreasonable to expect the heating to last two ‘short nights’?

I the end I turned the engine on, panel showing 35 amp charge which dropped to 19 amp 30 mins later. During this time the diesel heater has been working fine.

Our van is just over two yr old T.6.1 Coast. Any one have any thoughts or suggestions on what the issue might be? (I can’t really believe my leisure batteries are shot but I s’pose it’s possible?

Thanks team

Edit: just adding that outside temp was around 6 last night and around 5 tonight.

Hmmm, yes, my first thought would be similar - pointing to the leisure batteries' health. Any way you could get that checked?

130 miles is sufficient to charge up the leisure batteries so no issues there and yes, that should have been sufficient to keep it running for, I would guess - about 4 days, along with the fridge.

AFAIK, the outside temp should not have any impact on the diesel heater other than the heater requiring to run longer than normal to cool down, but what you mention sounds very short.

 

[Stu@rt]

I thought I'd read on here before that fridge and heater will stop working at 11.5v.

11.9v is getting down to about 40% which I have also read could reduce the battery life if repeated regularly

 

[Stu@rt]

Anything on the control panel graphics that might suggest you are only using one battery? Plenty on here have seen a blown cube fuse reduce them down to just the under seat battery

 

[chockswahay]

Hmm, thanks for the replies team…..fuel is over half……batts were showing 12.6 volts after 30 min rest yesterday. @Stu@rt what is the cube fuse? How would I know what/where to look?

 

[chockswahay]

OK, I’m a bit more genned up on the cube fuse….

Leisure Battery now only charges to 50%

We have a 2021 T6.1 Ocean. In our last trip in July 22 we noticed that the leisure battery on the Camper control panel was only showing 50% charged with less than 30 hours at maximum. This is despite driving some 3000 miles and being on EHU each night during our trip. I called out VW...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

I’ll have a look tomorrow

 

[Stu@rt]

I assume that there are no errors on the control panel display to indicate only one of the batteries are in play here? Mindful not to lead up an non existant path. Just throwing some possibilities out there

 

[yossarian]

The blue bar graph can be informative. It appears to be the average of the SOC of the two batteries normalised to display 0 at 50%. If you have no wiring problems you can regard it as accurate on newer models.

 

[chockswahay]

So then team, I haven’t had a look at the Cube fuse yet (too wet n cold outside!) but after the heating issue the other night I kept an eye on the panel. We used the heating for an hour or so then later and during the following few hours I took photos …….. I dunno if these offer up any clues to someone with more knowledge/expertise than me?

Heating just off on this one



Battery after rest and no load (yes, bonkers o’clock but needed a pee)


Just before heating on


Heating firing up


Heating settled down


As above


Heating off



Battery after a min one hour no load

 

[chockswahay]

Then after driving for an hour



Then another 3 hours driving



And finally the panel after overnight no load

 

[chockswahay]

So , charging look OK (?) however I don’t really understand the numbers from when I first had the low volts issue to just 45 mins or so later having ran the engine…… surely that would not be enough time to really charge the batteries to near full (would it?)

Also, can anyone explain the logic behind the >xx figure? is it hours to charge or hours to flat or hours left at a precise current draw? it seems to change at random!

 

[andyinluton]

Also, can anyone explain the logic behind the >xx figure?

I believe its the hours to flat at the rate of consumption that you are using at that moment.
Just turning on the display uses electricity & can reduce the figure, try watching it whilst the heating fires up, it drops rapidly as the igniter works & the fan blows but 15 mins later when all is stabilised its gone up again. The fridge compressor clicking on & off has a similar effect.

Think of it as the same as your fuel gauges range till empty immediately after you've reset it, its trying to forecast for the rest of the tank based on the way you have driven in the last few minutes.

 

[yossarian]

I think you have a problem based on what I see in my van.

Observations: 70% soc and 12.7v at start. I'd expect 90 to 100 soc.

Pretty high voltage sag for 10A load.

Definitely worth checking the fuse.

If not the fuse perhaps a high resistance or sulphated batteries.

 

[yossarian]

And I've had no luck figuring out the actual logic of the time readout. I no longer look at it.

 

[yossarian]

Pm if you want a hand and can drive to EH3.

 

[chockswahay]

Pm if you want a hand and can drive to EH3.

That’s a very kind offer, thank you. I’ll see how I get on with the basics and report back here. (I’m only 45 miles away in KY9 and daughter runs/owns a Café in Morningside so we visit Edinburgh a couple of times a month)

 

[chockswahay]

I will also have a look at this thread that some of you already know about

T 6.1 control panel battery capacity

My New T 6.1 ocean was delivered a couple of weeks ago after a year wait and have been using it for a couple of weeks away. I put it on ehu at home and on site and every time the battery status was constantly showing > 60 hrs After several hours charging. for the past 3 days when on ehu it only...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

 

[Leopold_Stuff]

We drove 130 miles from home yesterday…….. battery volts all good…….used diesel heater from 16:00 to 20:30……… out during today then heating on at 17:00…….. by 19:00:the heater kept turning off. Volts show 11.9 when the glow plug starts (around 10 amps) then settles to around 12.1/12.2 once the heater is running hot……..then a few mins later it shuts down!

Now I could understand voltage being an issue but surely it’s not unreasonable to expect the heating to last two ‘short nights’?

I the end I turned the engine on, panel showing 35 amp charge which dropped to 19 amp 30 mins later. During this time the diesel heater has been working fine.

Our van is just over two yr old T.6.1 Coast. Any one have any thoughts or suggestions on what the issue might be? (I can’t really believe my leisure batteries are shot but I s’pose it’s possible?

Thanks team

Edit: just adding that outside temp was around 6 last night and around 5 tonight.

I had a similar issue with brand new Cali. I did some research and found out that the heater can get blocked due to some errors. One of the error could be low voltage. Such low voltage can occurre even with new battery (my case, after 1 day camping) when for example the heater and the fridge run at the same time. If your battery is 2 years old that could happen. To fix it and reset the heater error you have to run the engine or even ride a few kilometres. Try to read something more on this forum.

 

[chockswahay]

Well I checked the Cube fuse and it’s OK. Volts above and below both showed 12.6 on my meter.

I then ran the engine for 5 mins or so and strangely enough the volt display dropped to 12.2 @13a then I switched max charge on and volts went up to 14.5/13a (I think, this is from memory). Anyway I then ran the heater on 7 for 75 mins.

If you can maintain the will to live here are a couple more pics

After overnight rest


During heater start


Heater settled down


Just turned heating off



After resting the batteries for an hour


Just plugged in to mains


So I’m not really sure where all this will get me..........

 

[kurienp]

Well I checked the Cube fuse and it’s OK. Volts above and below both showed 12.6 on my meter.

I then ran the engine for 5 mins or so and strangely enough the volt display dropped to 12.2 @13a then I switched max charge on and volts went up to 14.5/13a (I think, this is from memory). Anyway I then ran the heater on 7 for 75 mins.

If you can maintain the will to live here are a couple more pics

After overnight rest
View attachment 102448

During heater start
View attachment 102449

Heater settled down
View attachment 102450

Just turned heating off
View attachment 102451


After resting the batteries for an hour
View attachment 102452

Just plugged in to mains
View attachment 102453

So I’m not really sure where all this will get me..........

When you get a moment, I would advise getting the battery health checked. The rate of charge and discharge is not correct and may just point to a degraded battery.

Halfords and even others should be able to provide you a battery health check.

 

[chockswahay]

When you get a moment, I would advise getting the battery health checked. The rate of charge and discharge is not correct and may just point to a degraded battery.

Halfords and even others should be able to provide you a battery health check.

Yes thank you I think I might well do that

 

[Stu@rt]

Let us know how you get on. Its only with the experience of others that we continue to learn about these things. Appreciate you taking the time to post.

 

[yossarian]

Have your batteries sat at a low state of charge for any lengthy period?

 

[chockswahay]

Have your batteries sat at a low state of charge for any lengthy period?

Not during our ownership but I can’t account for the previous owner during the 20 months they had it……..?