Leisure Battery now only charges to 50%

[andy.bowen-ashwin@]

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 Assistance who said the leisure batteries were showing charged at c13v and then booked me in to the dealer as he could not diagnose camper side problems. The dealer had it a week and said the same and told me no problem. But there is as only 50% (only 1 battery connected??) and on a 2 day off grid trip the last weekend the batteries went to empty after 1.5 days. See example control panel picture below.

The van does charge either by using driving / Max Charge or on EHU but only to 50%. Anyone got any thoughts on what else to check.

I have escalated to the Dealer GM and the van is going in again in September for another check but worried they may not understand Calis.

 

[AlisonF]

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 Assistance who said the leisure batteries were showing charged at c13v and then booked me in to the dealer as he could not diagnose camper side problems. The dealer had it a week and said the same and told me no problem. But there is as only 50% (only 1 battery connected??) and on a 2 day off grid trip the last weekend the batteries went to empty after 1.5 days. See example control panel picture below.

The van does charge either by using driving / Max Charge or on EHU but only to 50%. Anyone got any thoughts on what else to check.

I have escalated to the Dealer GM and the van is going in again in September for another check but worried they may not understand Calis.

View attachment 98018

I’m no expert, but I think you should be looking at voltage rather than percentage. And then a while after charging and with nothing being used (pic is showing -1A).

 

[andy.bowen-ashwin@]

I’m no expert, but I think you should be looking at voltage rather than percentage. And then a while after charging and with nothing being used (pic is showing -1A).

Thanks Alison. Yes it does show a small discharge. Maybe the interior lights? Will try a charge and see what volts and amps goes up to. Normally goes to 13 plus and positive amps for charing.

 

[scabrero]

Cube fuse on rear leisure battery blown, probably.

 

[andy.bowen-ashwin@]

Cube fuse on rear leisure battery blown, probably.

Thanks for suggestion. Where do I find this fuse? Is it under the passenger seat? By cube does this mean it is square looking?

 

[scabrero]

Yes, it is attached to the positive terminal of the rear leisure battery:

2nd battery not charging T6.1 Coast

Sorry to hear this @Coasterman. It look like I have likely the same issue on a coast that is 4 weeks old. I have been away for the last couple of weeks and pretty disappointed with the battery life (2 days or so down to 12.3v with the fridge set to 3 and not really using anything else). I did...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

In the T6.1 each battery has a current sensor on the negative pole. If the cube fuse is blown the rear battery can't charge and from the control unit point of view the capacity is cut by half. This is just a theory, but it will be the first thing I would check.

 

[andy.bowen-ashwin@]

Thanks again Scabrero for your reply and suggestions.
The rear battery is the trickier one to access being behind a hatch in the rear and requiring the rear bed frame to be taken out. VW Assist man and I did that when he checked the battery charge but not sure he looked at the fuse. As it is booked in with VW Dealer will suggest they check this as part of their investigation. Does sound very much like one battery not connected such as a fuse issue.

Thanks again for your input

 

[Stu@rt]

Sounds more of a reporting issue to me. If the cube fuse was blown then the rear leisure battery wouldn't be charging, yet vw assist and dealer confirm that both were approx 13v. How about pulling the rear sensor connector and then reconnecting? That might get it reporting correctly? Just a suggestion, other will have greater knowledge

 

[andy.bowen-ashwin@]

Sounds more of a reporting issue to me. If the cube fuse was blown then the rear leisure battery wouldn't be charging, yet vw assist and dealer confirm that both were approx 13v. How about pulling the rear sensor connector and then reconnecting? That might get it reporting correctly? Just a suggestion, other will have greater knowledge

Thanks for the input and will look at this as a possible solution and certainly pass to the dealer to check again. Last weekend I was camping without EHU and the leisure batteries were flat in just over 24 hours and so had to do a "MAX Charge" which allowed a top up on site and for the fridge to carry on working for another day. So maybe it is right and I have lost access to one of the batteries.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply. Is good to have a forum such as this to reach out and get ideas. Calis seem to be complex things with a few idiosyncrasies or "features"!

 

[Stu@rt]

Something is not right for sure. Our batteries did 2 days without EHU in last week's heat and didn't dip below 12v before we moved on.

 

[Brianandjoy]

I didn’t find the rear battery hard to take out,just raise the rear beb section,undo the cover and slide the battery out on a couple of wallpaper scrapers to get the battery over the edge

 

[andy.bowen-ashwin@]

An update on the above. After two visits to the dealer and the battery level continuing to fall despite EHU and over 2000 miles of camping driving the solution was found. A blown CUBE fuse on the rear battery.

I had told the dealer this could be the problem from the feedback this forum has kindly provided. They still did a full investigation though which I suppose is thorough. So thanks for all the input. If anyone else gets this sort of problem worth checking the CUBE fuse on the rear Leisure battery.