Club 80-90 Forums

Hi I have removed my old leisure battery set up as it was a right mess, only problem now is I have these 2 loose wires spare . They are connected to the fuse board under the dash and the brown one gives me a reading of 12.5 on my multimeter. I will be fitting a new leisure battery under the bed with some sort of split charge relay, will these wires be needed to connect to new leisure battery.

Another photo

Is it 12.5v when ignition is on? If so it will be a trigger for relay, that's what mine has rather than one from the alternator. Other is maybe just earth?

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

I think its 12.5 with ignition off.will try and post some pictures up of the mess that was there before I removed it all. Those wires were connected to a blue 5 pin Lucas relay on the leisure battery side. Was told it had a separate cut out for the fridge on the relay.

If I put my meter on the thick brown wire with ignition off it reads 12.65 but when I then switch ignition on it gradually drops down ,switch back off goes up again. It's like if it's still live .What's the cause of this and do it all depend on what type of split charge relay I fit if I need to keep this wiring connected.

I have a new Hella split charge kit for sale if you need it.

What were they connected to at the battery end ??

It’s non standard wiring ( and brown is always negative in a VW ) so it will be very easy to spot at the fuse box end , you will need to go find it .

The two wires were connected to the blue lucas relay and then connected to the leisure battery

More pictures

More pictures

The brown wire has exactly the same reading as my starter battery with the ignition off 12.65. You say it should be negative but I am sure it was connected to the positive terminal on my leisure battery , as you can see it has a short length of brown wire with the battery terminal going to the blue relay.

Yes, it what I actually said was it should be neg as all vw wiring is brown for neg

If it’s a split charge then the trigger should come from the alternator, and the neg should be chassis earth .

So if the brown wire should be negative why was it connected to the positive terminal on the leisure battery via a relay. Or was it not correctly installed or wrong colour wire used ,should it have been red for live.

Thought new wiring colours says brown is the live which would explain why I am still getting voltage through it and that is why it was connected to the positive terminal on the old leisure battery. Do I need to keep these wires if I go for a different split charge relay set up with my new leisure battery under the bed.

Ok, forget I said anything about the colours

It’s a vw not a house .

There is ample split charge wiring information available both on the wiki and elsewhere online