Ford Transit Battery

[laneside]

Had to jump start my trannie the other morning as its battery was flat.
Its done this trick on odd occasions before and I suspect a system fault rather than a defunct battery, but not dismissing the latter.

As far as I know the leisure battery and cab battery are both supplied under the seat by Ford to the converters (Autosleeper pollensa in this case) and there is a relay between the two. What is the purpose of this and could it be responsible for the sudden drain, or does anyone else know why there should be a sudden drain on not every occasion---Thanks Alan

 

[rainbow chasers]

Had to jump start my trannie the other morning as its battery was flat.
Its done this trick on odd occasions before and I suspect a system fault rather than a defunct battery, but not dismissing the latter.

As far as I know the leisure battery and cab battery are both supplied under the seat by Ford to the converters (Autosleeper pollensa in this case) and there is a relay between the two. What is the purpose of this and could it be responsible for the sudden drain, or does anyone else know why there should be a sudden drain on not every occasion---Thanks Alan

If it is intermittent, I would run a meter across the relay and see what the relay is doing. Assuming you have the space, you can pop the cover off the relay (don't touch!) and watch what it is doing. It may be sticking possibly.

Firstly, check voltage on engine and hab batteries. Note the result.

While you have the tester out, run the vehicle and check for charging to both batteries (relay should alternate between one and other every x minutes/max charge) and make sure both are recieving the charge from the alternator. Some split chargers will alternate 14.5v to the batteries, others will split that between the two on a constant.

It may be a sticky relay is charging just the hab battery and not the cab. You will always have drains on modern vehicles with alarms/immobilisers/trackers etc so a poorly or undercharged cab batt with go flat over time.

I would hazard a guess at this rather than a drain. Check this first!:thumb:

 

[Scotties]

Hi Alan, one of mine does this too. I think the idea of the relay is that one runs the radio alarm relay etc and the other is left full for the starter. That way, should one fail totally the relay allows the other to start the motor.

However, the auxiliary bat only charges off the alternator ( NOT hook ) up so prolonged stays on a site will flatten a older bat and it will need topping up (with charger or a run out in the van)

If your van is under 3yrs old the battery is still under the Ford warranty.

The system does has advantages but the above foiblesoh:

Regards Richard

 

[laneside]

Done a bit more investigating and yes you are right cab battery does not charge when on hook up, but I have also found that my Oyster system is fed off cab battery not off the leisure battery, this may well be the drain on the battery.
Have re-wired Oyster sat. system to leisure battery and charged cab battery with nothing connected so will see if it loses any charge over next few days, certainly not setting off to France for a couple of months or more with an iffy battery.

 

[jonandshell]

It sounds as if Autosleepers don't understand the original ford set up and haven't wired it as Ford intended!
Our Chausson uses the Ford auxillary battery in parallel with the leisure battery.
Everything works fine. Ours charges no probs on hookup.
The relay to which you refer is basically a splitter and works in the same way as a conventional slit-charge relay.

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[Terry]

Bite the bullet Alan :thumb: I recently bought a Bosch 95 amp hr with 750 cold cranking for a mates truck for £80 with a 4 yr gtee (anything wrong= a new battery- not like some who knock off age/price )from our local spares shop:thumb:
terry

 

[Arthur01]

I have had a number of Transits and it seems to be a common thing that sometimes it just decides that it is not going to play and requires a jump start. Generally in colder weather the problem is a little more prevalent.
Several of my friends have also had the same experience and the only answer is to replace the battery which resolves the problem.
I have 4 Transits at the moment & they have all suffered the same problem, their predecessors were also affected in the same way too, electrical check outs have never revealed a fault.

Regards

Arthur.

 

[Squire]

Done a bit more investigating and yes you are right cab battery does not charge when on hook up, but I have also found that my Oyster system is fed off cab battery not off the leisure battery, this may well be the drain on the battery.
Have re-wired Oyster sat. system to leisure battery and charged cab battery with nothing connected so will see if it loses any charge over next few days, certainly not setting off to France for a couple of months or more with an iffy battery.

When my motorhome dealer workshop fitted an Oyster 85 to my van, they also fitted an isolating switch in the TV and Digibox feed as they said the drain whilst on standby is almost as much as if I was actually using the system. For this reason they recommended that when not on hook-up I always switched off the system when not actually viewing, especially overnight. And, of course, everything is fed off the leisure battery, as yours should have been. Even the cab radio has been rewired to the leisure battery. Personally I would prefer the alarm to be powered by the leisure battery too, but I haven't got round to having that done yet so I could still live to regret it !!

 

[K9Brian]

Don't think you've got a fault Alan. Your neighbour (Munchie) has just been plugged into your leccy for the last two days.oh:

 

[Munchie]

Don't think you've got a fault Alan. Your neighbour (Munchie) has just been plugged into your leccy for the last two days.oh:

Oi!!! :Angry:

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[laneside]

Don't think you've got a fault Alan. Your neighbour (Munchie) has just been plugged into your leccy for the last two days.oh:

Seems fair enough as we ate his ham and pease pudding :thumb::thumb: