Another Electrical Puzzle

[G-RMPS]

Happy New Year everyone. Anyone care to share an opinion on what might be going on here?

We have a 4-year-old Ducato-based Hymer with a starter battery, and two leisure batteries. I assume all are the originals.

With no warning, the starter battery went flat overnight after a 25-mile trip the previous day. The control panel showed just 11 volts, with the leisure batteries indicating 13.5 volts.

I plugged in the 240v cable and left the van overnight. No change. The starter battery was still flat, and indicating 11 volts.

I called out the breakdown folk who jump-started the vehicle and confirmed that the alternator was charging. I then drove to Halfords. They put a tester on the battery which said "battery replacement advised" whatever that means. At my request they installed a new starter battery, and confirmed again that the alternator was charging. The control panel STILL showed 11 volts.

I drove 300 miles to get home, with no problems. And the control panel is still showing 11 volts. The leisure batteries are fine.

I checked both 50 amp fuses which are OK, and indeed I checked all of the fuses on the electronics box with nothing to indicate a problem there.

Any clues???

 

[andy63]

No clue ,cause I don' know your van... but it sounds like the control panel voltage on the starter battery is not working or hasn' updated... it would pay to confirm all your voltages with a multimeter if you have one ..
I would try shutting everything down ...kill the panel and then try reebooting ever hing to see if the start battery voltage is then recognised.
Andy.

 

[G-RMPS]

...more puzzling yet. I plugged in the 240v cable yesterday, and today the control panel is showing 13.5 volts for the starter battery. So I appear to no longer have a problem, but with no plausible explanation of what has been going on...

 

[EX51SSS]

No use me suggesting as I'm still having difficulty with non electrical puzzles

 

[PhilandMena]

No use me suggesting as I'm still having difficulty with non electrical puzzles View attachment 204814

On my Autotrail Excel, I occasionally have to reboot the control panel even though everything appears to be on when hooked up to 240 volts, I sometimes find when I switch my internal habitation lights on after connecting to hook up, nothing happens. I switch off the control panel, switch on again and then everything is working as it should. A little gremlin with the electronics me thinks. I suspect the same sort of error has happened to you and you have now resolved the problem. Just needs keeping an eye on but nothing to worry about. I assume like mine your control panel will show when batteries are charging and how much voltage they are receiving, just keep an eye on this and you should establish if you need to investigate further otr can leave well alone. Bet that flat battery would have been fine after recharging too.

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[G-RMPS]

EX51SSS: You are not alone ;-) Mine went in the bin years ago.

 

[G-RMPS]

Bet that flat battery would have been fine after recharging too.

My thoughts too. After having left the old battery at Halfords...