Electrical problem HELP!!!!

IanP

Guest
Hi, I have a 2000 Mirage 6000 Auto Aire. I've had her for 10 years (bought when 3 months old) Over the first few years she boiled batteries at a great rate of knots which turned out to be a faulty charger. The vendor was not prepared to replace the charger/control unit as the van was 4 years old by then and a direct replacement was over £600 . On advice from the dealer mechanic, I cut the wires from the old charger/controller and fitted a CTEK. Unfortunately, I fitted too small a charger and to make matters worse, fitted a second leisure battery, both of which boiled dry. Ok, so thats a bit about the history, now to my problem: Yesterday I fitted a CTEK Multi XS 7000 battery charger, an Elecsol 110ah battery and a voltmeter. Everything works as it should ie the battery charges when on HU or with my onboard generator but when I turn on the 12volt water pump, all the led lights on the inside control panel go out and even the solar panel light dimms. It seemed to me that the pump was shorting so I tried turning on some of the interior lights (7) and the same thing happened.The voltmeter showed that the battery was still charged after the pump/lights test but when I turned on the CTEK it took 2 hours to be at the fully charged state. It seems to me as if there is a bad earth but I have no idea where to start or how to check it? I'm not much good with electrical problems so I hope someone here can help me as we are going away at the weekend to a site with no hookup.
Ian
 
Check your fuses first, it's possible you have blown one during the works.

LEDs use a very small amount of power to illuminate so can give rise to strange issues.

I presume your charger is wired directly to the battery, independently of other electrical loads so will show that there is power in the battery. The fact it took 2 hrs to charge is probably because the batt wasn't fully charged. It can only charge at 7A max.

Check you've made good connections to the batts, did you smear a small amount of petroleum jelly on the terminals? (Vaselene)
 
Hi Pete,
thanks for the quick reply.
All fuses are OK.
Charger wired directly to battery. Battery was fully charged before the "under load" problem showed.
I did Vaseline the terminals on the battery.
There are 4 led light for the leisure battery and the same for the engine battery. When I turn on the water pump, all the leisure leds go out, 2 of the engine leds go out and the solar panel light dims.
I've checked all my wireing (soldered and taped most) all seems OK.

Even when on HU, 2 of the leisure leds go out when under load of water pump (The pump was replaced 6 months ago) but any load seems to have the same effect, that's why I think it's an earth problem?

Ian
 
Calling earth.

Make sure there is a VERY good earth to the leisure battery.This is often just a light wire with a self tapper into the seat frame!!. If its easy just add a new heavy cable earth to the chassis (clean off paint and protect with vaseline or copper grease etc).
Good luck
 
Could be the leisure battery is not holding charge and breaking down when under load. Can you try a different battery?
 
I had a similar thing when on EHU running the pump would dim the lights. The fault was that I had forgotten to fit the battery. Had taken it out to charge it in the garage then forgot to refit it. So the only 12v power was being supplied by the charger which was not man enough to run the pump and the lights. If you are on EHU when this happens you should check to see if the battery is indeed connected.
 
Poss as mike says batt could be prob, but as the leds showing engine power also dim, I agree, it could be an earth.

If you have a meter, digital or analogue you can try a few tests (you can get one for about a fiver)

Connect the positive lead to the leisure battery negative, the other lead to the vehicle earth on the engine battery, may need a length of cable, bit of old mains flex will do to extend.

Put the meter on the 20 volt scale, it should read zero, then switch the lights on in the habitation area, it should still show zero or certainly a VERY low voltage.

If there's zero, try running the pump to put a bigger load to see what happens.

If you get a voltage reading, it shows there is an earth problem. Presuming the engine starts OK, at this point we can assume that the earth connection to the body is OK from the starter batt.

Using your length of flex (everyone should have one!) Connect one end to the starter batt negative and the other one to the leisure batt negative.

Now try to run the lights pump etc.

If they work even if a little dim or slower, it indicates a poor earth connection from the leisure batt.

This has possibly been pulled when changing the batt.

When doing this operation, a couple of helpers are usefull!!

You can use a jump lead if long enough, join together to make one long lead to connect the two negatives.

NOTE: Make sure you do not short out the positive terminals to earth when doing this, BIG Bang, Lots of smoke etc.

If you run a lead from the starter batt to the leisure bat, make sure it's negative to negative

If it is the earth connection, as a previous mention, put in a decent cable from the negative to earth, even if it means drilling a hole in the steel of the bodywork, cleaning the paint away and connecting using petroleum jelly.

If you haven't got a meter, just connect the two negatives with your piece of flex!!
 
Thanks again Pete

I'll try that tomorrow as it's hissing down here AGAIN!

I do have a multimeter.

The engine battery is about 15 ft from the leisure batttery but I have a reel of cable so hopefully I should be able to do as you suggest.
 
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