Westy Leisure Battery Drain

[chris&nicky]

Hi
I’m having trouble with my Leisure battery draining, after searching on here i’ve done some tests but not really sure what i’m doing, so if anyone can help?
Tested main battery seems fine, measured at 12.6V, holds charge and goes up to 14.4V with engine running,
I’ve took leisure battery out and charged overnight, then tested 24 hrs later and the battery holds it’s charge pretty much goes from 13.5V to around 13V, not sure if that is an ok rate for voltage to drop over 24 hrs? Leisure battery was fitted in June so fairly new.

However after 24 hrs in van drops to about 4-5V! with engine running i’m getting a reading across the leisure battery of about 12V, is this ok or should it be around 14V as starter battery with engine running?

So the next thing i’m going to do is test for current drain however still not quite sure what i should be doing, should i disconnect from the negative terminal and put the meter between the battery and the disconnected lead and should current be measured in DC?

Also I’ve read stereo can be a source of current drain, tried taking the fuses out but radio still worked, does the stereo bypass the fuses?

[pocolow]

What kind of Van and leisure battery set up do you have?

[chris&nicky]

Van is air cooled westy vanagon, 2.0 petrol,
not sure what you mean by battery set up - starter battery is under passenger seat, leisure is behind driver seat. Leisure was fitted recently but not by me

[pocolow]

Van is air cooled westy vanagon, 2.0 petrol,
not sure what you mean by battery set up - starter battery is under passenger seat, leisure is behind driver seat. Leisure was fitted recently but not by me

First you need to find out what runs off the leisure battery ,ie interior lights ,fridge , radio ect .Easiest way is to pull the fuses from the auxiliary fuse box until things stop working. I take it your leisure battery set up is an aftermarket set up up rather than one installed originally with a Zig control unit.
Mark

[R0B]

thats correct.although i use a bulb with two wires soldered to it.a meter will do the job just as well..

should i disconnect from the negative terminal and put the meter between the battery and the disconnected lead and should current be measured in DC?

[1664]

should i disconnect from the negative terminal and put the meter between the battery and the disconnected lead and should current be measured in DC?

Yes, that's the theory BUT most multimeter DC current ranges are only set up to handle small amounts of current (milliamps as opposed to amps) and if the leisure battery runs flat in just 24 hours I'd say you were looking at amps rather than milliamps. If you set the meter to DC volts it will indicate a voltage if there's a drain, just won't tell you how big the drain is....... As it retains it's charge when not connected to the vehicle I think you can rule out an internal battery fault.

Also I’ve read stereo can be a source of current drain, tried taking the fuses out but radio still worked, does the stereo bypass the fuses?

The stereo usually gets it's feed from the starter battery (fuse No 3 on later vans with blade style fuses). Were the fuses you removed the actual vehicle fuses?

I would E D I T the title of the thread to read 'Westy Leisure Battery Drain' which might get the attention of other westy owners who may be able to shed some more light on your problem

[chris&nicky]

Thanks for the replies,
From what i can see the Leisure set up runs fridge & water pump and then a separate circuit for Propex heater,
Interior lights are not on the leisure setup.

Current measurement from circuit to fridge etc is 9.7mA and for heater is between 150 to 190mA although when i took the reading it was dropping as i measured it, starting at about 190 then falling fairly quickly to around 150 but when the fuse was out there was no reading.

I've disconnected the heater and will see if it holds its charge as this seems to be the main drain, but is a drain of 9.7mA enough to drain the battery?

[1664]

9.7mA is just under 0.01A which would drain a battery eventually, but it'd take weeks I'd have thought. The thing is, none of these items should read anything when they're switched off; any chance you can disconnect them totally leaving the ends isolated and 'safe', then take the readings again at the battery end? If you are still drawing current, no matter how small, there is a problem with the actual wiring as opposed to the various bits of equipment.

I'm not absolutely sure about this, but I believe that internal lighting in a westy comes off the starter battery for some odd reason - but I might be wrong which is why you could do with a westy owner on the case......

[Red Westie]

Interior lights and the radio were wired to the 'starter battery' for some reason beyond my comprehension. There is a simple Westy mod that re-routes radio/interior lights to the leisure (do a search)
As for the leisure going flat.....Westies have a habbit of doing this through the Ebber ( propex) ...I bet if you remove the two fuses on the drivers side B post this will fix the issue (try it)
Fitting an isolator switch between those fuses (as I have done) makes the problem go away lol.

Martin