What is happening to battery and electrics? (1 Viewer)

[grumfy]

Just went to start van (Concorde Credo on Iveco 3.0) not been on hook up for less than 5 days - starter battery flat, dead even. Van is just over 2 years old and had its second service at the end of November.
Luckily at home so put it back on hook up so on board charger would top up though hab batteries are all ok. Then went back to control panel (CBE PC380-SK) and that is now unresponsive with display just showing illuminated numerals 1121. That seems to suggest there is power there so not a blown fuse I think.

So is there a reset system, button etc. Have looked in CBE booklet but that reveals nothing.

Finally, does anyone know of a good roadside battery replacement service? Not going to be easy job to pull battery out as it is well buried. Why do they do that.

 

[vin0114]

Halfords will fit - did ours for £5 a couple of years ago if you can get there?

 

[funflair]

Holding in the power button should switch the panel off and then same again to switch it on to see if it resets.

Martin

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[grumfy]

Hi Martin
Holding the button in does nothing. It wont switch off or respond in any way.

 

[pappajohn]

Your breakdown service SHOULD supply and fit a battery but you'll pay a premium price for a 'run of the mill' battery.

 

[walburga]

I bought an engine battery from a local autospares then decided to ring my breakdown people (Britannia Rescue) and get them to fit it while the van was still up my drive..they didn't have any issues with my request.
Allen

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[DavidG58]

I have had to reset my electrics a few times, just by switching off the mains controller (Reich in our case) count to 10 and back on, has cured some odd things similar to how you describe

No idea why but original owner told me he had to do it occasionally seems he was right, cheaper than a repair I guess

 

[grumfy]

I have had to reset my electrics a few times, just by switching off the mains controller (Reich in our case) count to 10 and back on

Thanks I will give that a try and see what happens.

 

[PhilandMena]

I would advise against replacing the cab battery until you establish what has gone wrong.
if you always do what you've always done you will always get what you've always got.

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[grumfy]

So I tried DavidG58's suggestion and turned everything off, mains, battery, mastervolt combis etc. And success the CBE panel reset and I am now able to see what is going on. The engine battery is getting a healthy charge from the Mastervolt and hopefully it will put enough in for me to start the van tomorrow and take to it to the Iveco dealer to look at the battery.

Thanks for helpful replies and no leg pulling.
Eric

 

[grumfy]

Well the problems persist. Left motorhome on hook up until this morning and when I went to look at the panel it was showing a healthy charge. So disconnected and tried to start it and my mobile then started to ring. It was the Van Bitz non-starter telling me the system had been armed. So went through process of dis-arming that and checking. Felt certain I was now getting closer to being able to start but no joy. Dashboard display told me to check battery voltage but that looked ok still.
First tried Iveco assistance but they said I was not covered. So now in the hands of LV Britannia Rescue and just waiting for someone from Ravenscroft Motors to arrive.
Fingers crossed they can sort it out.

 

[canopus]

When our engine battery failed I checked with the insurance and a nice man from the AA arrived within the hour. He confirmed the battery was buggered and fortunately for me he had half a dozen new batteries on his van. One was a slightly higher Ah rating than the original Mercedes Varta and also a tad physically smaller. Engine fired up first try on new batt and AA man confirmed alternator charging ok. £152 and all I did was turn the key. Brilliant service imo.

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[canopus]

Dont suppose a call to Southdowns might shed any light on your problem, do you?

 

[chaser]

Can't understand what happens to some folks batterys on here , dead in two years why, I have tractors here that have batterys on so old I can't remember when I put them on yet they still work, I have had my second hand ford ranger 5 years and still running on the same battery it came with, had the motor home a similar length of time and that's still running on the batterys it came with although must admit that does have 200w of solar pumping all the time.

 

[jezport]

Can't understand what happens to some folks batterys on here , dead in two years why.

Because the unconverted cab had been stood for months letting the battery go flat before it was sold

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[grumfy]

First let me say I have treated the batteries with great respect and have rarely been away from hook up - I do not wild camp. Also I have about 200w of solar, I know in winter there is not much put in by that. So I agree with @jezport you cannot know what happened before you bought it!

However, breakdown turned up quickly and gave me a jump start. Was then told just drive it around for a while and you will be ok. No checks, 2 year old battery will be fine sir. Well I do not believe that. Booked into Iveco dealer for a check up. Still bet the battery is dead!

 

[Terran]

@grumfy sorry to read of the battery problem. What was the result of your trip to Iveco, was the battery a dud or did they discover some other fault.

 

[grumfy]

Thanks, the Iveco dealers were not much help as they were too busy to fit me in at short notice. So I tried a local commercial vehicle garage who got as far as telling me that the battery seemed ok but wouldn't delve deeper as the motorhome systems were too complex.
The weather has been so awful I have not bothered to get out and look myself but have kept the hook up on and bought a jump start battery set just in case.
I will have to take into Southdowns sooner or later.

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[Terran]

If your control panel works, try pressing the battery button, it will display the current voltage and the amperage being drawn. If you do this with everything (except the panel) off there should be nothing drawing power, if you see 5a DC (or something above 1) being drawn something is draining the battery. Very sorry if I'm teaching Granny to suck eggs, just trying to help

 

[grumfy]

Thanks for your guidance, any help gratefully accepted. The control panel is working now and it shows a small 0.5A drain and the battery voltage looks good but I do have solar panels so even if I switch off the hook up there is still a charge voltage present as the system trickle charges the starter battery. So as I said I need to spend some time disconnecting things and trying to track down the problem. The key issue is the starter battery is virtually unreachable being located sideways with a very small access hatch. The only way to get to the positive terminal is from underneath the van. If it were easy to replace I would have bought a new battery because I am still convinced it is on the way out.

 

[TheBig1]

the all singing, dancing security system eats power when the van is parked and another couple of parasitic drains will soon flatten a battery. let it do that a couple of times or leave it dead and it will ruin even a new battery

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[Terran]

If the battery is that difficult to get to I wonder if the independent garage thought it worth the trouble to properly test it. My Credo is Fiat based so I'm sure it differs, although its all Fiat really. good luck with your investigations, and please let us know how you get on.

 

[Stealaway]

Engine fired up first try on new batt and AA man confirmed alternator charging ok. £152 and all I did was turn the key. Brilliant service imo.

Even if he had replaced it with a genuine Varta battery I think he probably over charged you £100 for that battery - Brilliant service and such a nice man?

 

[hdj42]

A year late but I thought I would add my thoughts on this, although not a Concorde my Burstner 747 had similiar problems just as it came out of warrenty.

I think someone here mention theirs was a Reich Box which is the same as fitted in the Burstner.

Anyway, they wanted over a £1000 to replace the Reich box but I decided to buy a Sterling Marine 4 stage Invester/Charger while still using the 12v fuse bank on the Reich.

Now 3 years in and both engine and Leisure batteries doing well and the overall performance is brillaint.

I had to mount the unitin the off side locker and throw some heavy duty connections through to the near side locker where all the electrics are connected.

I don't rate the Reich stuff

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