Niesmann Bischoff Arto 69E - leisure battery not working ?

[francescox]

Hi there,

I’m starting to think we’re not supposed to have a motor home… Every time we go out there’s a different problem which stops us enjoying our trip.

We had stocked up for a night’s ‘wild camping’, found a beautiful cold, windswept place to park our van, overlooking the sea, and then discovered when we turned off the engine, nothing worked. Couldn’t even put down the steps. No lights, no heating. But the radio still worked, which puzzled me.

I did a bit of investigation when it was light this morning and looked at the fuse box and battery set. When I pressed the power on button on the control panel there was a buzzing noise coming from the fuse box. I pulled out the fuses relating to the lights and heating and they looked okay so I put them back. The circuit breaker hadn’t tripped and the light was on on the charging unit when the engine was running. I’m very confused, and so frustrated…

Any ideas would be very helpful. We live in a very remote area, so it’s quite difficult to access garages to check things out so I’d like to do what checks I can myself first.

You’ve helped me out once, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Frances

 

[Gaston aires]

The radio works from the engine battery. The problem is with the leisure battery. How old is it ? because it sounds knackered or it’s not charging. Need a bit more information from you.

 

[Tombola]

your leisure battery should have had some charge after a good drive.
Near it will be a fuse inline on the pos wire, usually withing about 30cm, and around 50amps, check that isnt blown, loose etc.
have you got a multimeter you can put on the battery to check its voltage

 

[jongood]

How old is your arto? Any idea how old the leisure batteries are?

Its sounding a lot like batteries, in the absence of a multimeter if you could get the panel to come alive you could check the voltages. As a former owner of 2 Artos I can't think of anything else obvious.

Just a further thought, does it have solar? I have heard of panels failing and then draining the batteries.

 

[flatpackchicken]

Te start engine and then see if anything works inside habitation area (not radio) as if batteries are knackered they may still take a charge and put some power out to run things, if this works then your batteries are totally knaand you may need new batteries, also check panel when engine running to see if hab batteries are charging
Good luck

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[francescox]

I love this forum! Thank you all for your responses.

We don’t know how old the leisure battery is, and we don’t have a multimeter but we know someone who probably does so we’ll ask. I have had some of the interior lights flickering when I’m trying stuff but maybe that’s just residual power? flatpackchicken when you say check if it’s charging, do you mean that the numbers should go up while the engine is running? One of the two numbers was 0.0, the other was about 10.

jongood if you’ve had two, you must love your Artos. I assume you’ve had good experiences with them. Have you managed to find intelligible instructions ? I have the original manual but I can barely make head or tail of it…

Thank you again.

 

[francescox]

jongood it’s quite old - 2007.

 

[denisejoe]

2007 is not old ours is 2003

 

[paddymcc]

your leisure battery should have had some charge after a good drive.
Near it will be a fuse inline on the pos wire, usually withing about 30cm, and around 50amps, check that isnt blown, loose etc.
have you got a multimeter you can put on the battery to check its voltage

There will probably be a fuse at the starter battery end on the positive wire too, check that as well.

 

[autorouter]

You need to find out if the problem is the battery, or the wiring/fuses, or the chargers. Or some combination of them.

With a multimeter set to 20V DC, check the voltage on the battery terminals. If it's between 12.0V and 12.8V, then the battery is at least passable, and the problem is elsewhere.

Near the leisure battery there will be a big fuse, as Tombola says. Remove and check this fuse, and feel if it makes good contact as you push it back - not too loose etc. It's best to check a fuse with the meter. As you can imagine, this kind of problem has come up before. For how to check a fuse with a meter, see post #29 of this thread

Auxiliary battery dead?

The question isn't so much, "Is it dead?" as, "Why is it dead?" I thought I had it on charge for the last 24hours, but it seems I had the charger switched off >.< so there's a faint glimmer of hope still but only faint. I could really do with an idiot's guide to camper electrics . . . Don't...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

Next step is to see if the battery is charging when the engine is running. With the engine running, the leisure battery voltage should go up to at least 13.0V, ideally more like 14.5V. That shows that the alternator charging amps is getting to the leisure battery. If it stays at 12.0 to 12.8V, then it's not charging.

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[mitzimad]

as flat pack said start the van and test after 5 minutes if it all works its the batteriers flat

 

[jongood]

I love this forum! Thank you all for your responses.

We don’t know how old the leisure battery is, and we don’t have a multimeter but we know someone who probably does so we’ll ask. I have had some of the interior lights flickering when I’m trying stuff but maybe that’s just residual power? flatpackchicken when you say check if it’s charging, do you mean that the numbers should go up while the engine is running? One of the two numbers was 0.0, the other was about 10.

jongood if you’ve had two, you must love your Artos. I assume you’ve had good experiences with them. Have you managed to find intelligible instructions ? I have the original manual but I can barely make head or tail of it…

Thank you again.

Sorry for the delay. We're travelling up through France. We had a 2004 around for 6 years, then a 2010 for 9 years, loved them both but love our 2003 clou liner even more.

There is a main fuse, I suspect it will be in one of the underfloor compartment but if you don't know how old the leisure batteries are then my money is on them being goosed.

I ve never had a handbook so can't help there sorry.

 

[funflair]

Have you got the panel to come on? I think you might need to hold the button for a few seconds to wake it up, apologies if you know this already.

 

[flatpackchicken]

I love this forum! Thank you all for your responses.

We don’t know how old the leisure battery is, and we don’t have a multimeter but we know someone who probably does so we’ll ask. I have had some of the interior lights flickering when I’m trying stuff but maybe that’s just residual power? flatpackchicken when you say check if it’s charging, do you mean that the numbers should go up while the engine is running? One of the two numbers was 0.0, the other was about 10.

jongood if you’ve had two, you must love your Artos. I assume you’ve had good experiences with them. Have you managed to find intelligible instructions ? I have the original manual but I can barely make head or tail of it…

Thank you again.

Yes the numbers should rise when engine running to show it’s charging so proof the no fuse has gone, should rise to above 14v whilst engine running and stuff should work ie water pump lights etc, and if works and then when you turn engine off and the batteries start to going down again then the battery’s have had it, is so replace both at the same time with same make and amps to stop 1 battety dragging the other down. With your reading off 0 and 10 I would have to say both are knackered!!!