Leisure battery change

[chris kurt]

I am about to change the two rear leisure batteries in my 2014 california Can any one tell me if you need to disconnect the battery leads in" situe" on the battery below the wardrobe or is there enough wire on the leads to remove battery still connected. It looks quite tight. I know the battery under the passenger seat needs seat removal.

 

[Loz]

Aux battery swap procedure.

Removal
1. Remove the rear wardrobe battery first and only disconnect the negative.
2. Remove the negative and then 3. positive of the under-seat battery
4. Now disconnect the positive of the rear.

Fit
5. Swap the rear battery and attach only the positive connection
6. Swap the under-seat battery and connect the positive
7. Connect the under-seat negative terminal
8. finally fit the negative on the rear battery and slide back in.

see the pictures here; https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/posts/270632/

 

[WelshGas]

I am about to change the two rear leisure batteries in my 2014 california Can any one tell me if you need to disconnect the battery leads in" situe" on the battery below the wardrobe or is there enough wire on the leads to remove battery still connected. It looks quite tight. I know the battery under the passenger seat needs seat removal.

Plenty of length to get the rear battery out. Suggestion - undo the clamp at the front of the battery and use something like a paint scraper to lift the battery, like a slide, over the lip and slide it out into the boot area.

 

[Jubilado.]

Plenty of length to get the rear battery out. Suggestion - undo the clamp at the front of the battery and use something like a paint scraper to lift the battery, like a slide, over the lip and slide it out into the boot area.

I have just done this and replaced the battery with a Bosch AGM 800A (EN) 80Ah 12v.
Neg off first and last on when fitting the new battery. Agree with all above.
Mine is a 2007 lhd California with only the rear house battery. Only problem is, there are now no rear lights, water pump, fridge or display until the engine is running.
My battery is at 12.85v. Any suggestions as to what is wrong and what others should look out for?
I'm travelling slowly North in France and VW garages are not prepared to have a quick look. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[jts46]

Mine is a 2006 and has 2 x leisure are you sure you don't have 2 x battries?
Did you have the cali from new?

 

[WelshGas]

I have just done this and replaced the battery with a Bosch AGM 800A (EN) 80Ah 12v.
Neg off first and last on when fitting the new battery. Agree with all above.
Mine is a 2007 lhd California with only the rear house battery. Only problem is, there are now no rear lights, water pump, fridge or display until the engine is running.
My battery is at 12.85v. Any suggestions as to what is wrong and what others should look out for?
I'm travelling slowly North in France and VW garages are not prepared to have a quick look. Any help would be much appreciated.

Why did you change the Leisure Battery?
I cannot find any details of a California SE with only 1 Leisure Battery.
Is the 50 or 75 amp cube Fuse on the +tve terminal intact?

ALL the Habitation electrics, Lights,Fridge, Heater etc are normally wired into the Front Leisure Battery under the Front drivers seat on a LHD as far as I am aware.

Now, if you only have 1 battery at the rear then it sounds as if no power is getting to the electrics in the front.

 

[Jubilado.]

There was definitely only the one battery in the rear which served us well over a 2 1/2 month trip over a year ago.The original house battery when we bought the van wouldn't hold charge and we were setting off again for months. We didn't want any problems, so I fitted the new battery. There is room for a second battery under the passenger seat but no terminals or any indication there ever was one. Since everything works with the main engine running it should be the main house fuse. I believe this is the 80A fuse under the driver's seat but that is good.
Any further suggestions would be welcome.

There was definitely only the one battery in the rear which served us well over a 2 1/2 month trip over a year ago.The original house battery when we bought the van wouldn't hold charge and we were setting off again for months. We didn't want any problems, so I fitted the new battery. There is room for a second battery under the passenger seat but no terminals or any indication there ever was one. Since everything works with the main engine running it should be the main house fuse. I believe this is the 80A fuse under the driver's seat but that is good.
Any further suggestions would be welcome.

I've just seen your your reference to a fuse on the +ve terminal. I didn't realise there was one there. I'll have to check that tomorrow morning as I'm fully loaded and not in a position to unload and check.
Thanks for your help. I'll get back to you.

 

[chris kurt]

Thanks for good advice will change batteries tomorrow. Wasn’t sure whether there would be enough cable length to take out battery still connected. Cheers

 

[Jubilado.]

Thanks so much for bringing my attention to the +ve fuse on the rear battery terminal.We had to drive from Clermont-Ferrand to VW Châteroux to get a new one before the Bank Holiday weekend but now all systems are go.
Thanks again Welshgas.

 

[aileron346]

Just changed my leisure batteries. Varta LA80. All went smoothly and many thanks to all the information posted on various threads; all very useful. My biggest fear was upsetting the airbag connection under the front seat, but it seems OK.
I just reconnected the vent pipe on the same side and used the blanking plug from the old batteries to blank the other vent. A second pair of hands is useful for manoeuvring the front seat.

 

[Ocean Spirit]

Aux battery swap procedure.

Removal
1. Remove the rear wardrobe battery first and only disconnect the negative.
2. Remove the negative and then 3. positive of the under-seat battery
4. Now disconnect the positive of the rear.

Fit
5. Swap the rear battery and attach only the positive connection
6. Swap the under-seat battery and connect the positive
7. Connect the under-seat negative terminal
8. finally fit the negative on the rear battery and slide back in.

see the pictures here; https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/posts/270632/

@Loz
I went to the other thread you linked to for pics and saw that removing the seat is necessary to get to the front leisure battery. There fore do you also need to disconnect the starter battery to change the leisure batteries? I guess so because of the need to disconnect the airbag and heated seat connections? That looks essential in your heated thread but as its not picked out here. Just trying to get clarification. Thanks.

 

[Loz]

You can disconnect the airbag without disconnecting the starter battery as long as you don’t turn the ignition on during the process.

 

[ThomasHJ]

There was definitely only the one battery in the rear which served us well over a 2 1/2 month trip over a year ago.The original house battery when we bought the van wouldn't hold charge and we were setting off again for months. We didn't want any problems, so I fitted the new battery. There is room for a second battery under the passenger seat but no terminals or any indication there ever was one. Since everything works with the main engine running it should be the main house fuse. I believe this is the 80A fuse under the driver's seat but that is good.
Any further suggestions would be welcome.

If I am not mistaken, the second battery is always under the -driver's seat- and never under the -passenger seat-. Even on RHD-verhicles. Although I assume yours is a LHD. So you not finding anything there seems normal. I'd have a look under the driver seat though, because as @WelshGas mentioned I don't think its normal for your Cali to have just one battery, so perhaps you get a surprise and find there is indeed a second one, under the drivers seat.

 

[AlisonF]

If I am not mistaken, the second battery is always under the -driver's seat- and never under the -passenger seat-. Even on RHD-verhicles. Although I assume yours is a LHD. So you not finding anything there seems normal. I'd have a look under the driver seat though, because as @WelshGas mentioned I don't think its normal for your Cali to have just one battery, so perhaps you get a surprise and find there is indeed a second one, under the drivers seat.

The second leisure battery is under passenger seat in RH drive vehicles. I.e. under LH seat.

 

[ThomasHJ]

good to know @AlisonF. I made a mistake anyways, was responding to @Jubilado who has a LHD while his post in this thread is years old.

 

[barry]

My two recreational batteries are originals (57 plate van).

BACKGROUND
They’ve done just over 100,000 miles in Spain Portugal France England and Scotland. About 75% of the day/nights we’ve stopped we’ve been on EHU.
I’m afraid we’ve never followed the handbook’s advice and periodically charged them at home. They seem to have performed well, nevertheless.
The van’s not our daily driver but when not in serious use it’s used a couple of times a week for probably 50-ish miles per week. It’s not garaged.
Many years ago I lost the heater remote, several days ago I found it. This morning I replaced the remote battery and used the remote to switch on the heater to defrost the van to drive down to our excellent fishmongers.

HEATER PROBLEM
The heater switched on fine, blew cold air for about 3 minutes but instead of the blown air warming after this time (which is what it normally does), it stopped blowing air and switched off. Same thing happened when I tried it again about a half hour later.
The fuel tank is 3/4 full and the weather in Glasgow for the last week has been 3oC down to -8oC.

I’ll try it again later in the week on domestic hook up (embarrassingly a first) when the 13A-16A adapter arrives.

BOTTOM LINE
From reading around these forums they probably should be replaced ;-)
I guess the most expensive way is through the VW Van Centre (which services the van). Probably (but only probably) the safest?
Has anybody with a T5.0 had these replaced by VW recently and what was the damage?

 

[WelshGas]

My two recreational batteries are originals (57 plate van).

BACKGROUND
They’ve done just over 100,000 miles in Spain Portugal France England and Scotland. About 75% of the day/nights we’ve stopped we’ve been on EHU.
I’m afraid we’ve never followed the handbook’s advice and periodically charged them at home. They seem to have performed well, nevertheless.
The van’s not our daily driver but when not in serious use it’s used a couple of times a week for probably 50-ish miles per week. It’s not garaged.
Many years ago I lost the heater remote, several days ago I found it. This morning I replaced the remote battery and used the remote to switch on the heater to defrost the van to drive down to our excellent fishmongers.

HEATER PROBLEM
The heater switched on fine, blew cold air for about 3 minutes but instead of the blown air warming after this time (which is what it normally does), it stopped blowing air and switched off. Same thing happened when I tried it again about a half hour later.
The fuel tank is 3/4 full and the weather in Glasgow for the last week has been 3oC down to -8oC.

I’ll try it again later in the week on domestic hook up (embarrassingly a first) when the 13A-16A adapter arrives.

BOTTOM LINE
From reading around these forums they probably should be replaced ;-)
I guess the most expensive way is through the VW Van Centre (which services the van). Probably (but only probably) the safest?
Has anybody with a T5.0 had these replaced by VW recently and what was the damage?

What voltage is the Control Panel showing?

 

[Loz]

It's a possibility that you have summer diesel in the heater fuel line and it has waxed up?

If you can wait until it has warmed up a bit I would test it again before splashing out on batteries that also will be suffering in the cold.

 

[barry]

What voltage is the Control Panel showing?

It's a possibility that you have summer diesel in the heater fuel line and it has waxed up?

If you can wait until it has warmed up a bit I would test it again before splashing out on batteries that also will be suffering in the cold.

Dear Both,
Thanks for the replies.

WelshGas
Outside temp 1oC in bright sunshine.
Voltage showing 11.9v this afternoon and battery icon in BRH Corner flashing on and off.
Attempted to fire up the heater.
Cold air blowing from heater.
After 2 mins WARM air came in !!!!!!!
12.0v showing and 3amps rising to 5amps.
Switched heater off after 5 mins.
Air cooled to cold after a couple of minuts.
Air stopped blowing after 3 mins.
12.1v showing.
Battery icon flashing throughout.
To the right hand of 11.9-12.1 voltage showing, 0% indicated unchanged throughout.

Loz
Last two fill ups of diesel were from local supermarkets - I've no idea whether we have the concept of winter and summer diesel here in Glasgow.
Nonetheless, warming up from minus 3 when tested yesterday to plus 1 this afternoon coincides with the heater working.

Any feedback from you two guys would be very welcome.

 

[WelshGas]

Dear Both,
Thanks for the replies.

WelshGas
Outside temp 1oC in bright sunshine.
Voltage showing 11.9v this afternoon and battery icon in BRH Corner flashing on and off.
Attempted to fire up the heater.
Cold air blowing from heater.
After 2 mins WARM air came in !!!!!!!
12.0v showing and 3amps rising to 5amps.
Switched heater off after 5 mins.
Air cooled to cold after a couple of minuts.
Air stopped blowing after 3 mins.
12.1v showing.
Battery icon flashing throughout.
To the right hand of 11.9-12.1 voltage showing, 0% indicated unchanged throughout.

Loz
Last two fill ups of diesel were from local supermarkets - I've no idea whether we have the concept of winter and summer diesel here in Glasgow.
Nonetheless, warming up from minus 3 when tested yesterday to plus 1 this afternoon coincides with the heater working.

Any feedback from you two guys would be very welcome.

The Parking Heater will fail to start if the Leisure Batteries voltage drops to 11.5v, or so, during the startup procedure.
The output of the Leisure Batteries is temperature dependent.
I think you need to give your Leisure Batteries a good charge, 24 to 48 hrs.

 

[barry]

The Parking Heater will fail to start if the Leisure Batteries voltage drops to 11.5v, or so, during the startup procedure.
The output of the Leisure Batteries is temperature dependent.
I think you need to give your Leisure Batteries a good charge, 24 to 48 hrs.

Thanks, will do.
The Parking Heater failed to start early evening after the successful afternoon start. Outside temp much lower early evening, -3oC.

 

[barry]

Welshgas
The 16A-13A adapter has arrived and the van has now been on EHU for 48 hours.
The outside temp has ranged between 3o and 8oC throughout.

Here's the display details after the charge period ......
Unhooked, and heater off, the display reads 13.0v and 100%.
Unhooked, the heater fires up fine and after giving heat for 15 mins the display reads 12.4v, 80%.
Unhooked, the heater off and about 15 mins later, the display reads 12.8v, 80%.

This sounds more promising, but the two batteries are originals and old.
What do you think?

 

[WelshGas]

Welshgas
The 16A-13A adapter has arrived and the van has now been on EHU for 48 hours.
The outside temp has ranged between 3o and 8oC throughout.

Here's the display details after the charge period ......
Unhooked, and heater off, the display reads 13.0v and 100%.
Unhooked, the heater fires up fine and after giving heat for 15 mins the display reads 12.4v, 80%.
Unhooked, the heater off and about 15 mins later, the display reads 12.8v, 80%.

This sounds more promising, but the two batteries are originals and old.
What do you think?

If your always on Hookup, no problem.
If you plan on camping for more than 1 night off Hookup, then you may have a problem.
I presume the batteries are at least 10 yrs old, so they are in their twilight years.
Changing them yourself is very easy, if you can wire a plug, and substantially cheaper than VW.

 

[barry]

If your always on Hookup, no problem.
If you plan on camping for more than 1 night off Hookup, then you may have a problem.
I presume the batteries are at least 10 yrs old, so they are in their twilight years.
Changing them yourself is very easy, if you can wire a plug, and substantially cheaper than VW.

Thanks for the reply.
I think I'll plan a DIY replacement for the summer [assuming the travel restrictions are lifted and sites are opened] but in the shorter term probably put up with the limitation you raise.

Other posts on here identify an appropriate battery as
Varta Professional Dual Purpose AGM 80 Ah [Short code LA80]
and I see that TAYNA is one distributer
https://www.tayna.co.uk/leisure-batteries/varta/la80/ - £170 delivered
and the fitting instructions posted on here look pretty clear-ish.

Thanks for your help.

 

[WelshGas]

Thanks for the reply.
I think I'll plan a DIY replacement for the summer [assuming the travel restrictions are lifted and sites are opened] but in the shorter term probably put up with the limitation you raise.

Other posts on here identify an appropriate battery as
Varta Professional Dual Purpose AGM 80 Ah [Short code LA80]
and I see that TAYNA is one distributer
https://www.tayna.co.uk/leisure-batteries/varta/la80/ - £170 delivered
and the fitting instructions posted on here look pretty clear-ish.

Thanks for your help.

Tanya also sell via eBay, same batteries, and sometimes they are cheaper than from their site.

eg: No Postage.

LA80 Varta Dual Purpose AGM Leisure Battery 840 080 080 | eBay

Varta LA80 Dual Purpose AGM Leisure Battery 12V 80Ah - 840 080 080. You must check against the battery currently fitted to your vehicle before ordering to ensure that this is the correct battery for your vehicle.

www.ebay.co.uk