Newbie Questions!!

[mwheatley]

Hi All, I have a question regarding my 1991 LHD Westfalia California. The Eber diesel heater: I have looked at past postings that said that you need a full leisure battery to start the heater, otherwise start the engine to get it going. Mine starts when the engine is running and continues when the engine is turned off, but if I go to start it without the engine it won't start & the battery level panel light shows the juice drop one light very quickly even after the battery has been charged on a drive. Not into the idea of having to start the engine every time I want some heat!! Any suggestions?

[Grun]

Hello and welcome,
Not got an eber but......... have a read of

THIS

until someone with more knowledge comes along.

Fitting and wiring a leisure battery is not difficult, or perhaps your main battery is a bit on the small side, or, like me, past its best!!

Mike

[mwheatley]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the reply. From what I can gather the heater is connected via the leisure battery already, not the main vehicle one. What I don't understand is why the battery light on the cooker panel goes down so quickly when the heater is trying to start. If the battery could keep it's strengthlong enough then I'm sure it would start fine.

Matt

[georgeIRL]

the eber requires a low of juice to get going 20A from memory, once its running it only requires 1A

which might explain the drop on startup

[Grun]

Sorry mwheatley,

I misread your original query, but substitute 'leisure battery' for 'main battery' in my attempt to reply, and also have a look at the following excerpt from the link to the wiki in my previous post.

"The number one reason for eber problems is low voltage cutout on startup. The reason for this is that when the eber starts up it needs to use the glow plug to heat the incoming combustion air so it doesn't just condense the petrol vapour on the walls of the combustion chamber causing an explosion risk. Glow plugs use a hell of a lot of power as they're basically little electric heaters. On startup the petrol eber will draw about 12A and the diesel 20A. The idea is that when they get up to temperature the heat in the eber means the glow plug isn't necessary and is shut off so the current consumption drops to just over 1A.

The problem occurs in this startup period when a combination of a battery not fully charged and cable losses cause the voltage AT THE EBER dropping to under 10.5v which causes it to shut down. Another possible cause of this is the thermostat switch that controls the glow plug in the petrol ebers being faulty and keeping the glow plug on even though it should have shut off. This puts a huge drain on the battery which eventually drops under the cutoff voltage stopping the eber. Luckily, if you've just followed the steps above, you've replaced the thermoswitches with new working ones.

The reason for the leisure battery not being fully charged are addressed in another story I wrote that's hidden in the Wiki under "Heavy duty battery charging." I still maintain that in vehicles as old as the ones we drive any long cable run that has to carry more than 10 - 20A should be replaced."

Thanks for the above to 'irish.david'.

Mike

[Stefvan]

Check that the fridge is switched off (ie on the plug symbol) that will drain your battery very quickly if its on 12V
Does the leisure battery hold it's charge overnight ? If not it's off to Halfords...

Stefvan

[mwheatley]

Firstly, thanks to Mike for the reply, it highlights some possibilities. Also thanks Stevan, the fridge is off, I will take a look at the overnight charge tonight. Thanks both. Matt

[badger]

Your "leisure" battery should be behind the drivers seat on a LHD California. You will probably find it's a standard battery rather than a bona fide leisure battery. I think i'm right in saying this is how they were supplied from new. Your "leisure" battery might need fully charging (with a battery charger off the vehicle) or failing that might need renewal; the eber takes a high current on start up, so if the heater won't fire without the engine running, even after being fully charged, it might be that you need a new "leisure" battery. I think there's a section in the Wiki which details the largest capacity battery which will fit in the space behind the seat.