Club 80-90 Forums

Hopefully someone can help.My daughter has a Type2 Bay camper. She recently replaced the battery with a new one from Volkspares because the battery kept draining overnight. After fitting the new battery the same thing still happened - she took the battery back and had it replaced but it still keeps draining overnight. It appears to be charging when driven ( no red light ) and is fine but once left overnight flat in the morning. She has ensured nothing is left on. Is there something else she can check ? She has had the van for 7 years without a similar problem - could the leisure battery be draining the main battery as this has never been replaced so could be knackered - is it worth disconnecting this ? could the replacement battery be a dud - stretching the credibility factor but you never know.

As always any advice would be greatly appreciated.


Tony

Doubt they're all dud. Sounds like somethings draining it. Please appreciate that we don't 'do' bay campers on here so any advice may not be applicable to your daughters vehicle.

With the engine off there should be no direct connection between the starter battery and the leisure battery; a 'split charge' system only connects the leisure battery to the starter battery (and by default, the alternator) via a relay when the engine is running which drops out when the engine is turned off.

Working on the assumption this is how your daughters system works the drain must be coming from the vehicle electrics somewhere. Has anything been added (such as in car entertainment system for example) recently? How often is the vehicle started and taken for a run? Presumably you've checked the obvious like cab courtesy lights being left switched on?

You could charge the battery and disconnect it from the vehicle and see if it loses it's charge in which case it will be the battery but as I said, it's doubtful.

After all the above, you're down the finding which circuits doing the draining. How electrically 'au fait' are you?

Thanks for advice - apologies its a question about a type 2 . We'll try leaving the battery out overnight to see if it drains on its own - suspect though as you say this is unlikely.

As regards electrics - is it a case of taking each fuse out and testing if it is still live to establish which circuit is causing a drain?


Tony

tone wrote:As regards electrics - is it a case of taking each fuse out and testing if it is still live to establish which circuit is causing a drain?

Not sure I'm following you; testing if what is still live with the fuse out? Do you have a Haynes Manual for the vehicle and have you a multimeter? Does the van have a split charge relay as I descibed do you know?

Wait and see if the battery's still charged tomorrow anyway, no point faffing about now

Youtube is your friend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF1gijj ... ure=fvwrel

If you don't have a multimeter you can make up a test light using a car bulb and a couple of bits of wire.