New Ocean - leisure battery problems

[Jolberg]

I don't see -15 or so amps all the time while driving but couldn't understand why I would see it at all with no consumers switched on. It does go to a positive number for most of the time during driving. With engine off I see -0.2A most of the time.

 

[WelshGas]

Hi all.
So the dealer replaced one of my leisure batteries only today. I did protest a bit saying that if the capacity was dropping to zero within 48 hours of being fully charged surely they both must be shot but to no avail: "only one of them showed a fault so we only changed one of them".
I'll see how things go in the coming days.
I'm now of course paranoid about what's going on with the batteries and saw something on the panel I didn't quite understand. Whilst driving at low speed and revs with the current reading -15A. As I understand it a minus number means load on the leisure batteries. Where would such a big load come from just driving with nothing switched on that it powered from the leisure batteries? Does the leisure battery charge the engine battery in some circumstances? Otherwise any idea why that load would be seen?

View attachment 44368

Normally the 2 battery systems are separated. The engine battery won't deliver current to the leisure, and vice versa.
This is while driving. What happens with the engine off? What happens if you connect to the mains?
This number doesn't seem right to me.
This is not just a battery (or 2 batteries) being idle, but this seriously is draining somewhere.

I can't relly compare to mine as I have an old California, without recuperation or battery manager that keeps the batteries, or at least just the engine battery never fully charged.

Every time I start the engine, the voltage goes up to 14,1 - 14,4 V, + xx.x A. Only when being connected to the mains on a 2 weeks vacation, when I drive, the leisure batteries don't charge anymore, because they are full. Then I suddenly see -0,6A - 0.0A.

This really is a strange thing that will need some research from VW. And don't take the answer that this is normal, unless all the other T6 owners have the same values like this.

I don't even have this number with fridge, lights and aux heater on at the same time.
Fridge is about -3,5 A, lights about -1A, aux heater more or less -10A when heating up, not containing the heat.

Here I don't see the aux heater light on, so this number is unreasonable.
But it must be something draining in the circuit, and not the batteries itself, because that is not monitored. This draining is from the batteries, through the invertor/control module, through an electrical consumer to the ground.

Normal on Blue Motion, particularly T6.
See here.

Battery current with engine running?

With engine off, the ocean control panel indicates battery current as expected, increasing negative current as load is increased (mains power not connected). With engine on and driving, I see the battery current varying frequently between say -9A and +9A (typically). Any ideas why this is...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

 

[TripleBee]

-0.2A is the drain from the panel itself, so it's normal. I have that too.
I never see over -1A while driving. Only with completely fully charged leisure batteries, and not even then.

It is not likely that the T6 shows the engine battery status?
You should almost need to measure the current from the leisure batteries (using a current clamp??) while driving. Just to see if what you read from the panel is the same as what really happens to the batteries?

 

[Loz]

I don't see -15 or so amps all the time while driving but couldn't understand why I would see it at all with no consumers switched on. It does go to a positive number for most of the time during driving. With engine off I see -0.2A most of the time.

Smart alternator goes to idle once the start battery reaches 80% so current flows from the leisure batteries back over to the start battery and the running of the vehicle.
This why some of us have swapped from a split charge relay to a dc-dc charger.
For your test, I would just measure the draw with the engine not running.

 

[Legin]

Mine does the same and Loz explained why. I have two solar panels so figured the backflow into the starter battery is a Ok as it uses up some solar energy and the panels then top up onced switched off.If i hadnt fitted solar i would have done the DC - DC mod.

 

[MattBW]

Hi all.
So the dealer replaced one of my leisure batteries only today. I did protest a bit saying that if the capacity was dropping to zero within 48 hours of being fully charged surely they both must be shot but to no avail: "only one of them showed a fault so we only changed one of them".

Not ideal changing one but should be ok if the other one is relatively new and in good condition. Hopefully they made sure both batteries were fully charged before fitting?

 

[Geesvw]

I find it really strange that the batteries could be so vulnerable to quite easy mistakes to make. Surely they should design that our with a bit more intelligence in the charging system and maybe automatically turning off things.
The manual does say that they are deep discharge protected. What does this mean?

I recently had a similar problem with battery drain on my engine battery. I’d left a cd in the radio and apparently because it was in there, the radio circuit remained live, 24 hours later, a dead battery. Some people connect the radio to the leisure batteries so they don’t draw too much engine battery power when off charge
Could this be you? - failing that, back to the dealer!

 

[Sheene07]

Hello, i had the same with the cd player, take a cd after playing out if the system. Regards frank

 

[Meoncoast]

I’d left a cd in the radio and apparently because it was in there, the radio circuit remained live, 24 hours later, a dead battery.

I have had a CD in my player since December 2016 with no issue

 

[Sheene07]

thats the way it should be !

 

[TripleBee]

Very strange that a CD left in the radio will drain your battery?

 

[Sheene07]

Yes, very strange, for some reason a control unit kept live, resulted in a empty battery. Only thing i did was playing a cd, stopped the car as usual. I now take out the cd, never had the problem again. It was not possible to reproduce it in the vw garage

 

[TripleBee]

Maybe there is a software update for the car stereo? Or the main unit is broken? Strange things can happen with electronic products nowadays.

 

[TripleBee]

Hi all.
So the dealer replaced one of my leisure batteries only today. I did protest a bit saying that if the capacity was dropping to zero within 48 hours of being fully charged surely they both must be shot but to no avail: "only one of them showed a fault so we only changed one of them".
I'll see how things go in the coming days.
I'm now of course paranoid about what's going on with the batteries and saw something on the panel I didn't quite understand. Whilst driving at low speed and revs with the current reading -15A. As I understand it a minus number means load on the leisure batteries. Where would such a big load come from just driving with nothing switched on that it powered from the leisure batteries? Does the leisure battery charge the engine battery in some circumstances? Otherwise any idea why that load would be seen?

View attachment 44368

This is what I got after a 15 minutes drive.
Only the amps will lower when driving longer.
When being charged for a long time through the mains, the voltage drops to 13,9V. But as said, I don't have a BMT car. This would have cost me about €500 more, just to save up to 0.5 liters of fuel per 100 km (in theory).

 

[motacyclist]

Sounds to me like you have had the same problem we had with our van. It was a showroom model but registered new when we bought it just 12 months ago. The day I picked it up I went through the checks (as per the checklist in the VIP downloads) and when I got to raising the roof to check the bellows it wouldn’t go up.

Turned out the leisure batteries were completely flat. I believe this was due to someone turning the lights on in the kitchen cupboards while it was in the showroom (easy to do) and they had run down the batteries over a period of time. Although the vehicle battery had been on trickle charge (I had noticed this in the showroom) the leisure batteries won’t get charged unless hooked up to the mains, and there wasn’t even a hook up point at the dealers!

I refused to take delivery until they agreed to replace both leisure batteries, and give them their due they agreed no problem, ordered them and fitted them the following week. Expensive for them.

Regarding the high discharge from the leisure batteries when driving I have noticed this and understand it’s as @Loz explains. I find it a bit annoying that when setting off on a trip with fully charged batteries they could be only 80% when you arrive at site. I’ve fitted a solar charger so it shouldn’t be an issue now unless camping in the darker months. On the up side, it probably helps the mpg and I certainly can’t complain at the figures I’ve been getting. Mild hybrid!

 

[Jolberg]

Sounds to me like you have had the same problem we had with our van. It was a showroom model but registered new when we bought it just 12 months ago. The day I picked it up I went through the checks (as per the checklist in the VIP downloads) and when I got to raising the roof to check the bellows it wouldn’t go up.

Turned out the leisure batteries were completely flat. I believe this was due to someone turning the lights on in the kitchen cupboards while it was in the showroom (easy to do) and they had run down the batteries over a period of time. Although the vehicle battery had been on trickle charge (I had noticed this in the showroom) the leisure batteries won’t get charged unless hooked up to the mains, and there wasn’t even a hook up point at the dealers!

I refused to take delivery until they agreed to replace both leisure batteries, and give them their due they agreed no problem, ordered them and fitted them the following week. Expensive for them.

Regarding the high discharge from the leisure batteries when driving I have noticed this and understand it’s as @Loz explains. I find it a bit annoying that when setting off on a trip with fully charged batteries they could be only 80% when you arrive at site. I’ve fitted a solar charger so it shouldn’t be an issue now unless camping in the darker months. On the up side, it probably helps the mpg and I certainly can’t complain at the figures I’ve been getting. Mild hybrid!

I fear my problem is not just dead batteries, as some have suggested. After they replaced one battery it did seem to be holding charge. However after I fully charged on hookup the batteries drained to almost 0% in 4 days so the dealer has had it since Tues and as of today had not yet diagnosed the fault. We did also notice that the LED strip light under the sink/hob had stopped working.
Any further suggestions on what the issue could be or what I should be asking the dealer to do? Any advice really appreciated.

 

[motacyclist]

I fear my problem is not just dead batteries, as some have suggested. After they replaced one battery it did seem to be holding charge. However after I fully charged on hookup the batteries drained to almost 0% in 4 days so the dealer has had it since Tues and as of today had not yet diagnosed the fault. We did also notice that the LED strip light under the sink/hob had stopped working.
Any further suggestions on what the issue could be or what I should be asking the dealer to do? Any advice really appreciated.

Sorry to hear that.

Both batteries should have been replaced. If one is dud it will drain the other one, which will now also be knackered.

They need to replace both batteries before they do any more diagnostics. BTW, I marked the batteries on mine prior to taking it back for the replacements to make sure they didn’t pull the wool!