New 6.1 Cali Leisure Battery

[Top Diner]

Some advice to a newbie please from experienced Cali owners. I picked up my new Cali from the dealership today. All went well, apart from that I noticed that despite driving 50 miles home, the “second battery” was indicated as low charge. I have a hook up cable on order as surprisingly one was not supplied by the VW dealership. Does this situation with the leisure battery sound abnormal? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

 

[lohr500]

Was it showing low charge on the overhead display/control panel? What charge does it show?
I have read on other posts that the battery level indication is not the most reliable.

If it is an Ocean as per your membership profile, then it actually has two leisure batteries. One under the passenger seat and one in the bottom of the rear cupboard unit on the nearside.

It could just be that both are low on charge due to them not being fully charged when initially installed at the factory, the van standing around for a while at the dealership and/or the dealership has partially discharged the batteries whilst testing out the various pieces of electrical habitation equipment. Or perhaps they left the fridge switched on after doing some initial checks on it.

There is an option in the overhead display/control to select maximum charge for the batteries. This can be selected once the engine is running and it resets once the engine is stopped.

As a first step, if you are driving the Cali around over the next few days, I would select this option each time you go for a drive and see if the battery indicator on the overhead display/control panel shows an improvement.

 

[scottk]

You will also need a UK plug adaptor for the hook up cable. This is similar to the EU one which the van should have come with but having a UK plug. This is only if you are charging from a domestic supply as campsites use the 16 a blue plug

 

[acer]

Some advice to a newbie please from experienced Cali owners. I picked up my new Cali from the dealership today. All went well, apart from that I noticed that despite driving 50 miles home, the “second battery” was indicated as low charge. I have a hook up cable on order as surprisingly one was not supplied by the VW dealership. Does this situation with the leisure battery sound abnormal? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

I agree with the above comments.
I had the same experience when I picked up mine 3 weeks ago (I had an SE before). I would just leave it to charge for 24 hours when your lead arrives and monitor it from there.

 

[dspuk]

Some advice to a newbie please from experienced Cali owners. I picked up my new Cali from the dealership today. All went well, apart from that I noticed that despite driving 50 miles home, the “second battery” was indicated as low charge. I have a hook up cable on order as surprisingly one was not supplied by the VW dealership. Does this situation with the leisure battery sound abnormal? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

No-one, unfortunately, gets a free hook up cable from their dealers. One assumes it’s mostly costs and partly liability in case it goes wrong.

Sounds like it was just sat a while somewhere, dealer or port, with something draining the battery. Just leave on charge for 24h or go for a nice long drive with your max charge engaged.

 

[Top Diner]

No-one, unfortunately, gets a free hook up cable from their dealers. One assumes it’s mostly costs and partly liability in case it goes wrong.

Sounds like it was just sat a while somewhere, dealer or port, with something draining the battery. Just leave on charge for 24h or go for a nice long drive with your max charge engaged.

 

[Top Diner]

Thanks. Very helpful.

 

[Top Diner]

Some advice to a newbie please from experienced Cali owners. I picked up my new Cali from the dealership today. All went well, apart from that I noticed that despite driving 50 miles home, the “second battery” was indicated as low charge. I have a hook up cable on order as surprisingly one was not supplied by the VW dealership. Does this situation with the leisure battery sound abnormal? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

Thanks.