Shower Problems - No power but tap works fine

[pieman]

Hi, I'm trying to figure out a why the shower in my California doesn't work. It hasn't worked since I bought it a couple of months ago, so don't know what has happened with the previous owner.

It doesn't work at all and makes no noise when the pump is switched on. There doesn't seem to be any power at the connectors inside the shower point at the back, but the switch does seem to work when I tested this on a meter. The tap works fine, but it looks like someone has previously done some dodgy repairs. It looks like a power wire runs straight from the fuse box under the seat to the tap. Any ideas what could be going on here and how this is supposed to work? I thought the shower and tap shared the pump, so can't work out why I don't have power at the shower.

Thanks for yourr help,
From a new Cali owner!

 

[vbk1975]

Hi, I'm trying to figure out a why the shower in my California doesn't work. It hasn't worked since I bought it a couple of months ago, so don't know what has happened with the previous owner.

It doesn't work at all and makes no noise when the pump is switched on. There doesn't seem to be any power at the connectors inside the shower point at the back, but the switch does seem to work when I tested this on a meter. The tap works fine, but it looks like someone has previously done some dodgy repairs. It looks like a power wire runs straight from the fuse box under the seat to the tap. Any ideas what could be going on here and how this is supposed to work? I thought the shower and tap shared the pump, so can't work out why I don't have power at the shower.

Thanks for yourr help,
From a new Cali owner!

The shower switch is just a parallel switch to the tap switch. The fused feed for the pump is wired to both the shower switch and the tap switch and both the tap and shower switch outputs go to the pump. So if you attach the shower hose and run the tap, you should get some water out the shower as well as the tap. (To test the plumbing)

 

[pieman]

The shower switch is just a parallel switch to the tap switch. The fused feed for the pump is wired to both the shower switch and the tap switch and both the tap and shower switch outputs go to the pump. So if you attach the shower hose and run the tap, you should get some water out the shower as well as the tap. (To test the plumbing)

Thanks for your help, I'll check that first and if the water side works OK I'll have to dig a bit deeper into what's going on with the electrics

 

[pieman]

I'm not sure if I am making progress here, or got more questions than when I started?!

I tested the shower with the tap on (thanks vbk1875 for the suggestion) and the water side works fine. With the shower connected water comes out the shower and tap.

I've checked the fuses and found a replacement piece of red wire that runs from the fuse I think is supposed to be for the water pump, all the way to the tap. Looks to me like someone has cut into the wires from the tap and connected this 12v feed up straight to the tap.

Does anyone know what is going on here?! I appreciate this is a bit of guess work as this is clearly not standard wiring! My guess here is that the last owner had issues with the tap on the factory wiring so put this bypass piece of wire in directly to the tap. I'm not sure how this impacts the shower switch, but guess it's not part of this 'new' circuit.

 

[vbk1975]

I'm not sure if I am making progress here, or got more questions than when I started?!

I tested the shower with the tap on (thanks vbk1875 for the suggestion) and the water side works fine. With the shower connected water comes out the shower and tap.

I've checked the fuses and found a replacement piece of red wire that runs from the fuse I think is supposed to be for the water pump, all the way to the tap. Looks to me like someone has cut into the wires from the tap and connected this 12v feed up straight to the tap.

Does anyone know what is going on here?! I appreciate this is a bit of guess work as this is clearly not standard wiring! My guess here is that the last owner had issues with the tap on the factory wiring so put this bypass piece of wire in directly to the tap. I'm not sure how this impacts the shower switch, but guess it's not part of this 'new' circuit.

View attachment 142800

View attachment 142801

There is a common modification to add a relay into the water pump circuit. This is because the tap microswitch isn't very robust to the pump current, so it might be this type of mod, but i would expect a relay to be visible. The other possibility is that the shower has been added as a DIY project after the van was built.

Loz did a nice diagram: https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/tap-relay.28944/post-423346

 

[cpaharley2008]

Sounds like the previous owner bodged a direct feed to bypass a faulty tap switch but left the shower circuit disconnected from the new wiring. You'll probably need to trace where that red wire connects and splice the shower switch into the same circuit to get it working again.

 

[pieman]

Sounds like the previous owner bodged a direct feed to bypass a faulty tap switch but left the shower circuit disconnected from the new wiring. You'll probably need to trace where that red wire connects and splice the shower switch into the same circuit to get it working again.

I think you are probably right. I can't see relay mod anywhere, looks like a bodge to directly power the tap. I assume there's a break somewhere in the original wiring. Been doing A LOT of reading around the forum and wondering if this connector might be the original problem:

https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/t6-dead-control-panel-fridge-control.59180/post-754827

Will do some more digging tomorrow. Hopefully if I can find the original problem I can repair that and not need the bodge. I'm not too keen on the connection of a wire pushed in with the fuse, I'm not really sure if that new wire is on the correct side to be protected by the fuse or not

 

[vbk1975]

I think you are probably right. I can't see relay mod anywhere, looks like a bodge to directly power the tap. I assume there's a break somewhere in the original wiring. Been doing A LOT of reading around the forum and wondering if this connector might be the original problem:

https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/t6-dead-control-panel-fridge-control.59180/post-754827

Will do some more digging tomorrow. Hopefully if I can find the original problem I can repair that and not need the bodge. I'm not too keen on the connection of a wire pushed in with the fuse, I'm not really sure if that new wire is on the correct side to be protected by the fuse or not

I was about to suggest the same, in that thread I posted the pinout for the connector with the water pump feed in Pin 4

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