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1996 t4 battery issues
Hi there,
I have recently bought a 1996 diesel 1.9 t4. We went for our first overnight camp yesterday and discovered a few problems! She started fine on the driveway, and we drove her about an hour to the campsite. When we went to turn it back on after checking in, there was nothing! Wasn't turning over at all. We then realised we left the radio on, turned that off and it started fine. This morning, having had it plugged into electricity all night, she started up fine. We then let her run for a few
mins and turned off. When we went back to start it up..nothing again. We turn the leisure battery on, and she starts str8 away. Then drove about 5 mins, left her again for an hour, and she wouldn't start until the leisure battery had been on for around 5 mins.
Any ideas?? We are tearing our hair out and quite upset we spent all this money and can't use it without worrying!
We are very new to this so if there is something obvious we are missing please advise us :-)
Thanks
Chloe
Hi,
Thanks for replying, sorry im not very helpful, we are new to this!
The first time it wouldn't work, we noticed that we had left the radio switched on, it was prob on for around 10 mins or so. We wondered whether we had somehow switched it to the leisure battery and therefore it wouldn't work initially. When we turned the radio off, the van started (maybe coincidence).
When we turn the engine on, nothing happens, no ticking, chuggig, silence. The most recent time it happened we turned the leisure battery on for 5 mins, and then it started (again, maybe coincidence).
The dash lights come on, but to be honest I don't know about the front lights etc.
We have a leisure battery, and we believe it is split charge. Aside from that, we know nothing about it!
Any ideas muchly appreciated :-)
Do the dash lights fade when the key is turned to start the engine?
When it hasn't started before, have you got a set of jump leads from another vehicle and put them on the vehicle battery to see if it starts? If not, try it. Don't mess about with the leisure battery, leave it. Just see if it will start ok with a jump from another car. If it starts ok, take the leads off and then switch off, leave for an hour then try and start it again if it doesn't, try jump starting again from the other car, if it starts, I reckon your vehicle battery is F****d.
Hi,
We haven't yet, we have only had it since Thursday and this weekend was our first trip out. It has been starting eventually so we haven't needed to jump start. New battery needed then?
Not neccesarily a new battery. I would only get one once I had carried out the test,....but any garage will put a meter on it if you take it to em and tell you if it's knackered, however avoid going to kwik fit/Halford type places where the muppets will tell you it's knackered even if it's not, just to sell you a new one. Go to a decent grease monkey type garage.(If you know what I mean). But my money is on the reliability of the battery and it's ability to hold any charge....Failing that, If you are a member of a breakdown association, get it started, drive to a layby, if it won't start again after a while, call em out and they will identify the problem.Job done!
We had already planned to do that, we plan to call RAC out tomorrow n see what they say. Thanks for all your help :-))
So today we had the RAC out to have a look, and he diagnosed a faulty ignition switch. He has given us a wire to jump it in the mean time, so overall not too terrible, and apparently a common fault
Thats great, at least you now know what the problem is and can put it right at your leisure. Sounded a silly thing and nothing major.
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I'm not sure what you meant by..."Turned the radio off and it started fine" what immed after the radio was switched off?
Either there is a drain or it's not charging.
When you try to turn the engine over....what happens? Do the lights etc still work ok or not?