Warwick Duo, habitation electric supply

Good Afternoon everyone

Another trip, another failure!  
Having fixed the water system failures, we thought we were going to have a trouble free trip, for once.  Unfortunately not.

This time it’s the habitation electrics which have failed.  My husband thinks it is the socket into the van which is the problem, rather than the power supply unit.  He needs to open the socket to check the connections, he has removed the screws but our socket looks to have been glued in as well.  Any tips or hints on how to remove this? Hopefully without damaging the paintwork!

Thanks
Gill

I recall a thread on this subject a few months ago. Haven't managed to find it, but seem to recall that the socket is stuck with mastic. But given the youth of your van, and that, by and large, the hook-up external socket is not something which features on the Forum as a part known to fail, I doubt whether that's the cause.

You refer to the "habitation electrics". What do you mean by that? Are you referring to the 12v system? If so, then check master switch for 12v system is on; if so, and nothing works, then either the leisure battery is flat (because either the charger doesn't work or the battery is old - but I doubt that (3 years?)).  The only way in which the mains input socket is relevant is if, when connected to mains, your leisure battery isn't being charged.

But if you mean the 230v mains isn't working, then work from the ECU forward: is the socket (on a bollard or at home) working properly for other mains items e.g. a mains bulb? If so, then check the extension cable - that certainly can suffer if a wire has worked loose from a terminal at either end; If that's OK, connect up the van and check what the Sargent or other panel shows: is there a light on? Are the master or other trip switched off?  ... and so on.

Good luck. And take great care with mains electricity. If you're not confident, take it to a professional.

Cymro

As Cymro says - it will be held in with mastic. He's also right that there is very little to go wrong with the EHU "socket" though it's ~possible~ that a screw-down connector could have worked loose.

His point about a stepwise approach is a good one too. If you're still away, it would be a good time to rule out a problem with the EHU cable as there should be plenty of others on site that you can borrow one from for a few minutes.

Cymro and Mojo, thanks for your replies.
 
We were on site, on hook up, when I noticed the fridge was flashing to say its mains electric supply was down.  Likewise, the microwave controls were dark.
Lights, water pumps, loo flush etc, all still working, so the 12v supply was OK.
We checked the campsite electric supply, swapped cables and borne sockets etc – nothing.  Reconnected the original cable and it all came back again! Panic over. Later that evening, I put the electric kettle on (low wattage one) and the supply dropped out again.  During investigation today, the power would come on for a while, then drop out.  So, an intermittent type of fault.
We spoke with the Sargent Tech Dept earlier, but want to check out the van socket for loose connections etc., before taking out the power unit and returning it to Sargent for investigation/fixing.  That’s when we came up against the mastic fixed external socket.  Trying to release that, without causing paintwork damage is going to be tricky.  We’ve given up for today.
  
It doesn’t help that everything in the Warwick is fitted into a small space and you need to be double jointed to get at and work on the equipment!

If only life were simple.
 

Thanks again.

We had a similar problem a couple of months ago.  It was the plug on the end of the ehu lead that had a suspect connection, ie on then off.
Used my own home made lead and all was well so just replaced both plug and socket with decent types on the AS supplied lead