Club 80-90 Forums

I'm having a strange problem with my 91 2.1L manual van. I've noticed the last few times when going camping, I usually play the stereo a little bit, use some interior lights etc. The next morning when leaving the van keeps loosing power then stalling for the first 10 minutes of driving. I never drain the starter battery, and it cranks fine.

I've also had the battery tested by my mechanic and he said it looks fine. The battery is a few years old. The problem seems pretty consistent to when I've ran some accessories after the van has been turned off.

Has anyone else had this problem? Should I just get a new battery?

Cheers

I would say the battery is ok if it starts the van, thats all the starter battery is supposed to do. Could be a choke problem on the fuel side etc. Someone will be along soon with more specific ideas or first hand knowledge, cheers

Have you got a leisure battery with a split charge relay, might be a faulty or incorrectly wired relay, in turn concentrating the alternater to the leisure battery.

Sent from my F3111 using Tapatalk

What makes you think it is the battery which is causing the van to stall?
CS

NicBeeee wrote:Have you got a leisure battery with a split charge relay, might be a faulty or incorrectly wired relay, in turn concentrating the alternater to the leisure battery.
/quote]

Yes I do, but I've had it installed for over three years now with no issues.

Citizen Smith wrote:What makes you think it is the battery which is causing the van to stall?
CS

I use the van as a daily driver and it runs fine most of the time. It only has this issue when I use something that powers off the battery when the van isn't on.

Could this be a 'vanagon syndrome' issue? Should I try soldering a capacitor to the air flow meter?

ok, back to basics then....
replicate the fault.
flattern the leisure battery down ( when not camping) and then take some voltage readings of both batteries. note these
then drive the van for those 10 mins, see if it does the stalling thing, if it does, take more readings of both readings as it has stalled, and again after 30 mins of everything switched off.

i suspect that maybe the stalling is more to do with dampness, than battery.
are you camped on grass overnight.

I had this problem with my last van - a 2.3 Bedford CF with a carb.
I never really sussed it out. But one of my suspicions was that the alternator may have been loading the engine just enough to kill it on tick over on recharge.
Both my current WBX and Focus have electronic ignition and so compensate for the varying alternator load - crudely 12V times 90A = 1080 Watts = 1080/746 = 1.45HP.
Both vehicles will pull up my slight gradient on tick over as the idle RPM is electronically controlled. I use this in slippery conditions like snow.
Picky but worth a thought.
CS

Could be rotten ignition wiring. (switched supply to coil? Ignition module?) or even a poor coil.
If the starter wiring is good but ignition wiring is bad then it could well be giving enough volts for the starter but not enough for the ignition.

C.S.- I do the same with the ranger, very handy sometimes.

[quote="
C.S.- I do the same with the ranger, very handy sometimes. [/quote]

Yes it is great to see the puzzled looks I get when I drive around the stuck FWD's

CS

[quote="
C.S.- I do the same with the ranger, very handy sometimes. [/quote]

Yes it is great to see the puzzled looks I get when I drive around the stuck FWD's

CS