# Leisure Battery Not Charging From Alternator



## Greytop (May 24, 2014)

I have a 2002 Hymer  Swing 544. The leisure battery is in good condition and charges up fine when I am on mains hook up. However it will not charge from my engines alternator at all. I have checked and nothing is going in to the battery at all. However if I switch my fridge on 12v then that works fine, when the engine is running. 
Any ideas anyone?


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## sparrks (May 24, 2014)

Does the starter battery charge? if so, the alternator is ok,  check any inline fuses and connections leading to the leisure battery.
I think I'm right in saying that the fridge feed from the relay will be a separate circuit (not 100% sure as I don't have a split charge system)


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## Greytop (May 24, 2014)

Yes the starter battery does charge OK.


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## yorkslass (May 24, 2014)

sparrks said:


> Does the starter battery charge? if so, the alternator is ok,  check any inline fuses and connections leading to the leisure battery.
> I think I'm right in saying that the fridge feed from the relay will be a separate circuit (not 100% sure as I don't have a split charge system)



yes, the fridge does operate on a separate circuit when the engine is running. it might be possible to get an electrical diagram from the convertor so you can locate the fuses.


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## zildjian (May 24, 2014)

Interested to know how this works out as I have the same situation,
 mine is a demountable camper on a hilux pick-up and so  I can track the power reaching the secondary (grey plug) but after that it vanishes,
 like you however the fridge runs properly on the road


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## n brown (May 24, 2014)

most split charge systems do 2 things,and they're separate. they charge the leisure battery from the alternator and power the fridge on 12v,when the engine is running, so you could have one,or two relays ,and one of them doesn't work .so it's find it/them and check it


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## ChrisInNotts (May 25, 2014)

On my later Hymer 544 I had to investigate the wiring due to lack of feed to my 12V fridge and charging with engine running.  On mine there is a single thick feed (brown) to the rear of the Electroblock from the battery terminal and a separate feed from the alternator to trigger the charging and fridge relays.  If your fridge is working when driving then there must be power to Electroblock and the alternator sensing wire must also be working.  Thus, it seems that you have a faulty fuse or relay for that circuit inside the Electroblock.

Keith


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## Ether (May 25, 2014)

I had a  2005 Autotrail Tracker, Fiat 2.0 litre JTD. This had a small fuse box attached to wires close to the alternator. There was a 20 amp fuse in there for the lead to the leisure battery. If the leisure battery was run down, it would blow as the current supplied was too high. I had to charge the leisure battery from the on board charger before replacing it, otherwise it would blow again. I wonder if there is a similar arrangement on your Hymer.


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## Greytop (May 25, 2014)

Thank you for all your helpful suggestions I will try some of them out.


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## Tezza33 (May 25, 2014)

If yours is the Elektroblock EBL99 the same as my 2002 Hymer here is a manual for it, if you look on page 9 it gives 3 reasons for it not charging the leisure battery, 




> Living area battery is not
> charged during mobile
> operation (battery voltage
> below 13.0 V)
> ...



I don't know where D+ input is unfortunately


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## Tezza33 (May 25, 2014)

There is a Block diagram - (for specialist workshop only) on page 11 and it shows that D+input has a 2amp fuse
View attachment 22833 
on mine under the passenger seat where the leisure battery is (LHD) there is a 50 amp fuse and next to it a small 2 amp fuse, I thought that was for the control panel but it might be worth checking

View attachment 22834


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## Greytop (May 25, 2014)

Thank you Tezza that is very helpful, obviously my alternator is not at fault so it must be numbers 2 or 3.

Denis


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## DavieG (May 25, 2014)

*Split Charge relay*

Hi 
I'm a marine electrician and recently bought a Vauxhall Vivaro which has been converted to a Camper van (love it!)
I bought a SPLIT CHARGE RELAY about £35-40. It senses when the alternator doesn't need to charge the starter battery (Full) and switches the power to the van (Leisure battery). so simple and effective. Maybe your split charge relay is not switching over?
Cheers
DavieG


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## Tezza33 (May 25, 2014)

DavieG said:


> Hi
> I'm a marine electrician and recently bought a Vauxhall Vivaro which has been converted to a Camper van (love it!)
> I bought a SPLIT CHARGE RELAY about £35-40. It senses when the alternator doesn't need to charge the starter battery (Full) and switches the power to the van (Leisure battery). so simple and effective. Maybe your split charge relay is not switching over?
> Cheers
> DavieG


A good point but Hymers don't use a Split Charge Relay of the type you mentioned, welcome:by the way) they use one of these although built into it is a split charge relay which is very similar to yours but why would they charge us £35 when they can bump it up to £800
View attachment 22852, @ Greytop the D+ input is the thick brown wire on the second block of wires from the left


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## ChrisInNotts (May 26, 2014)

Greytop said:


> Thank you Tezza that is very helpful, obviously my alternator is not at fault so it must be numbers 2 or 3.
> 
> Denis



Cannot be (2) as your fridge is working on 12V and the Electroblock uses the D+ feed to trigger the fridge relay.  Have you checked all the fuses yet? 

Keith


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## Deleted member 34243 (May 26, 2014)

Similar problem recently.
Charger has a switch on the top to switch between charging the leisure or vehicle battery.
Somehow it had got knocked to vehicle position.
Just a thought


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## Greytop (May 27, 2014)

Just update to this thread and thank you for all the information. 
Firstly I was unable to locate the +D 2 amp fuse, it is obviously not on the Electroblock. I was able to check the feed into the block and was easy to locate the brown cable.
However I went under the bonnet and checked the 50amp fuse from alternator, to I presume the leisure battery and it was found to be blown. I never checked this in the past as I thought if the fridge was working, then that fuse must be OK. Shows how wrong you can be!!!
I have replaced it for the moment with some wire (much less than 50 amp capacity !!!) and will give the Motorhome a run out and see if it is now charging the battery. I did start the engine a while ago but the leisure battery was at about 13v so I presume it would not register any charging from the Hymer meter.
More worrying is how did a 50 amp fuse come to blow in the first place!!!
To test it properly I suppose I should run the leisure battery down a bit and then go out for a run in the vehicle.


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## st3v3 (May 27, 2014)

Has your LB been run down recently? And then you ran the engine?


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## Brucey0705 (Jun 29, 2014)

*Hymer c544 -charging*



Greytop said:


> I have a 2002 Hymer  Swing 544. The leisure battery is in good condition and charges up fine when I am on mains hook up. However it will not charge from my engines alternator at all. I have checked and nothing is going in to the battery at all. However if I switch my fridge on 12v then that works fine, when the engine is running.
> Any ideas anyone?



I had the same problem when I owned the 544, solution was simple. There is a bank of fuses in the engine compartment above the offside wheel arch, they were all dirty so I cleaned with emery, sprayed with wd40 and replaced ( in the proper order) and the problem was solved. You may have the same problem or a blown fuse, if a blown fuse it would be best to get the system checked as this would point to your Electroblok pulling to many amps.
Best of luck


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## maingate (Jun 29, 2014)

Greytop said:


> Just update to this thread and thank you for all the information.
> Firstly I was unable to locate the +D 2 amp fuse, it is obviously not on the Electroblock.



The 2 amp fuse (and another 40 or 50 amp fuse) will be close to the Leisure battery(ies). It is separate from the EBL but it will do no harm to check all the fuses in the EBL, make a list of their ratings and carry a few spares.

BTW Euro Car Parts carry a full range of fuses, including the big ones.


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## zildjian (Jun 29, 2014)

A thought, 
although not  the case here, if user had more than one panel (but of widely mixed wattage) would that cause the same issue


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