T3 Flat Battery

[olliehullboy742]

Evening everybody,

I'm after a little advice if you don't mind.

I bought a D Reg T25 1.9 petrol watercooled Autosleeper just over two weeks ago.
The main battery has gone flat for the second time. The current battery is a HB065 which I believe is from Halfords and is not big enough for the camper.

I have spoken to a few friends and they also think we need a new higher powered battery, Can anyone else please point me in the right direction and help me get this issue sorted so we can start to enjoy our van.

Many Thanks
Neil

[Mocki]

Evening.
The battery is infact the correct one for the van , 065 .
However, a 075 or a 085 battery code will also fit.

How old is the battery on there? Do you have a receipt with your paperwork? Halfrauds are surprisingly friendly when it comes to swapping still under warrentry !

Next issue is, is it really the battery at fault?
Or is that stereo memory draining the battery ??

[olliehullboy742]

Many thanks for your fast reply.

The battery I was led to believe by the previous owner was roughly 3-4 years old so knew it would need replacing soon but didn't expect it to be this soon.

I contacted Halfords on Monday gone and was advised by them that this battery is no where near the right size hence my confusion. We recharged the battery last Sunday evening and it has been fine until this morning.

We had a newer stereo fitted last week, one which I was assured would be suitable for the vehicle, could it be this draining the battery? we were told that removing the facia would prevent any power being drawn?

Also I have been told that if the fridge isn't on the correct setting that could also drain the main battery, do you know if this is correct?
We are new owners of the T25 and are learning along the way so as much help and advice offered will be gratefully received.

Cheers
Neil

[Mocki]

Hmmmm!
Ok, one or two variables there!
The HB065 is a Halffrauds Battery 065
065 is the correct battery for a 1.9 petrol transporter .
As I said , a 075 and 085 will directly fit, and a 095 will if you don't have a swivel seat base and or a metal battery cover

That new stereo is a prime suspect ! Taking the front off will on some stop the drain, on most it won't !
If in doubt ( and I would be) pull the memory fuse see if the battery dies?

[Mocki]

Ohhhhhhhh, yes, fridge......
Forgot about that.....
The fridge should be wired to the main battery , via a relay , and never the leisure battery .
The fridge should only operate on 12v with the engine running and the battery charging .
You should have a means of switching the 12v of the fridge off when not needed .

If the fridge was to work when the engine wasn't charging , the battery would last all of 3 hours .

[olliehullboy742]

Brilliant thank you for your advice, I am reluctant to spend money on a new battery only to continue with the stereo draining it if this does happen to be the issue. The previous stereo didn't work hence why we replaced it.
Trial and error I guess.
Can you recommend a decent place to purchase a battery as I'd rather avoid Halfords!

The fridge has an off, mains and leisure switch. As the van was hooked up to the house mains we turned it on, with the voltage selector switch set to mains, to see if it worked correctly and left it for a couple of hours.............all was working well until later that evening when the battery was flat, researched into this and found it could've been our fault as the fridge should've been set to a specific number on the electronic thermostat. hope this is making sense to you? However the thermostat switch is missing awaiting a replacement via ebay! The previous owner said that he had never used the fridge so didn't know how to use it.

Cheers again
Neil

[Oldiebut goodie]

The drain from the radio/cd player in my daughters Punto flattens the battery the battery in just over a week - that's with the face plate removed. I don't believe anyone that says they have minimal drain!

[Mocki]

90% of fridges don't have a thermostatic or temperature control on the 12v side, it's either on or off.
So unless there is a fault somewhere it wouldn't matter what you had the temp setting as, it would affect only the mode it pertains to when running on that mode.

Only thing I can think of of is if you had anything else switched on, lights, ect whilst plugged in that really was running on the battery
Hard to say with out being there to see.... One thing I can say is , take the battery off , or at least disconnect it from the van, charge it with a mains charger until fully charged, and them disconnected the charger , leave it a hour, check the voltage, then leave it for 24 hours, check the voltage again, if it has dropped more than 1.5v it's buggered.. Cold wether will show a weak battery up, where as in the warm it will have been fine.

[horizontal kipper]

I have a stereo fitted that i got from aldi that will flatten the battery in just over a week. I fitted a switch to cut all power off to it when the van is not in use and now no problem.