Club 80-90 Forums

This has been an ongoing problem for 18 months now! I have had two new batteries (one of which I definitely did NOT need but that's a long story...), and I have a 3rd Auto Electrician coming out on Friday. I thought I would just flag it up on here to see if anyone else has had the same issue and what fixed it?
The latest electrician thought that the charge/water indicator panel was draining the battery for some undisclosed reason, but, I kept it switched off while we were wild camping at Glastonbury, and it's been fine. Three days after getting back and parking the van up, there is no charge again. There shouldn't be anything wrong with the battery itself as it is brand new and charges fine whilst running. Any ideas guys?

The latest electrician thought that the charge/water indicator panel was draining the battery

Well sack him !!!!!! = "thought" If he is any sort of electrician he would know within a minute or two if it was the problem, not "think" it was

All someone needs to do is get a multimeter out and find out how much current drain there is from the battery. Depending on the results of that simple test one can then look for the culprit, again using the meter. Any decent auto electrician, or even anyone competent with using a multimeter set to read Amps, should be able to complete those tests and find the reason for sure, in a matter on minutes.

Problem is that unless you personally are confident in the use of a multimeter to read current (Amps), you may make mistakes and not find the problem, or worse damage the meter.

18 months ongoing, Oh dear. I hate reading about issues like this where folk are getting very poor service, and likely paying for it too, on something that could be sorted in minutes if only I was there If you are ever over my way (SY14 post code) pm me and I guarantee to be able to sort it.





Also note, it is very bad for any battery of this type to be run flat, though the bad effects can be mitigated somewhat if you get it on charge asap, like in less than a few hours from when it went flat. There are devices you can connect to prevent it happening, but you do need a bit of knowledge about 12 Volt electrics to fit them. Link HERE to some.

thanks for that Ghost123. I have a new guy coming Friday so I will pass on all comments to him and we will see how we get on from there. I have now had TWO new batteries and at least one of these was not required, simply the caravan place being lazy and not really wanting to do the job when they actually got the van. Stupidly, I did not ask them for the old battery back. If this guy doesn't sort it, I shall take you up on your offer for sure.

I am with Ghost - if you are down this way I will sort it quick. These vans aren't difficult unlike modern cars with all their electronics that can sap the power. I wonder if the leccy didn't want to do the job for some reason?

Miss Syd wrote:If this guy doesn't sort it, I shall take you up on your offer for sure.

Meter at he ready

Thinking about it, W. Yorkshire isn't that far from S. Cheshire and we have some nice rural campsites around here

Far better down here!

ha ha! Thanks for fighting over me guys but I know it's only my battery you're interested in! I know Malpas and if it's not sorted, I will contact you. Where is Eastern Angle....?

Felixstowe. Remember the Angles, Jutes and Saxons from your school history lessons - this was their territory.

Here's the update; the new auto electrician seemed to know what he was doing and tracked the battery drain down to (wait for it...) the TV/DVD combo that I had "professionally" fitted by Car Audio Point in Leeds about 18 months ago. So how two previous auto electricians had missed it, I really don't know. Apparently the TV is always on stand by, hence the drain. I wasn't impressed by the tv fitting in the first place and did complain at the time. Anyway, the TV is now isolated with a switch as an easy way round it. Hopefully, this is the end of the tale.