Warwick XL electrics

Hi
I am new to the forum and am struggling to find my way around it (my fault). We are having problems with the electrics/batteries in our 2017 Warwick XL and I wondered if anyone knew of a good auto electrician in west Devon or East Cornwall. Apologies if this isn’t the right way of going about things. Thank you

Hi Molly &Jake
Welcome to the forum from sunny Bridington, fortunately we have lots of XL owners on the forum, only to willing to help.
Boaby

JakeandMolly wrote:Hi
I am new to the forum and am struggling to find my way around it (my fault). We are having problems with the electrics/batteries in our 2017 Warwick XL and I wondered if anyone knew of a good auto electrician in west Devon or East Cornwall. Apologies if this isn’t the right way of going about things. Thank you

Hi there - if you explain exactly what problems you’re experiencing, with as much detail as possible, it’s almost certain that someone on here will be able to give you some potential solutions to try before you think of getting an auto electrician.

Good luck
Sally

Hello and welcome to this most friendly and indeed informative forum. 

Hello again and thank you for your friendly welcome!

Our problem is that when we haven’t used the van for a while (varying amounts of time) something seems to be draining the vehicle battery. I’m sure it’s my ineptitude but I’m not quite sure how to learn where I’m going wrong hence the post about finding an electrician.
The deal between my husband and myself is that he drives the van and looks after the stuff under the bonnet, and I know how everything else works and do the cooking! Where things are going wrong is that my lack of electrical knowledge is affecting what is going on under the bonnet !
Could anyone guide me through some first easy steps to see what I’m doing wrong?  Thank you

I have had good service from Devon Motorhomes in Kingskerswell - between Newton Abbot and Torquay.

Family concern who have a good workshop.

Thank you. I will get in touch with them.

I think you may find that your problem involves the well documented issues regarding the Sargent (I would guess EC500 in your van) and the automatic charging of the batteries.
I haven’t time tonight to go into detail but my vehicle battery would discharge to a level where it needed manually charging after about 10 days if not used. I always thought it was the tracker but never got to the bottom of the exact reason.

Dbvwt wrote:
I haven’t time tonight to go into detail but my vehicle battery would discharge to a level where it needed manually charging after about 10 days if not used. I always thought it was the tracker but never got to the bottom of the exact reason.

I agree with this.  The tracker on my 2017 Warwick draws fair current 24*7 and from the vehicle battery.  Does the 10 day approx figure resonate with your issue?

Thank you very much Dvbwt and AutoSleepy Don for this suggestion. Yes, the timing does seem to fit. Will do some investigating today.

We have a similar problem to this, something is drawing power from the vehicle battery when we are parked up. Sergeant say the EC700 should send the solar power to the vehicle battery when the unit is switched off thereby maintaining a good charge. After spending weeks doing long-term tests of various types I can now confirm, without any doubt, that this is NOT the case. when the EC700 CP is off, the solar power goes nowhere, its just wasted.
We are now fitting a Battery Master from Vanbitz to overcome this problem. I will also be upgrading the solar controller for a decent one as the standard unit Sergeant fit is not very efficient.

I suspect trackers may account for the vehicle battery rapid voltage drop.My van doesnt have one and both batteries hold steady above 12.8v all the time.In bad weather i turn off the Sarjent on the black isolation button so any charge goes to the leisure battery but i get no rapid voltage drop on the other one.Something must work right as the van has not been on EHU since December.I do have Fiat Selected not Peugeot in the sub menu as suggested on a previous post

OldWomble wrote:without any doubt, that this is NOT the case. when the EC700 CP is off, the solar power goes nowhere, its just wasted.

I'm not sure it helps you, as I guess your van is out of warranty, but surely this just means that you have a fault in the system somewhere? If Sargent tell you that, by design, the solar panel defaults to the vehicle battery but in your case it does not - it must be faulty?

Roopert wrote:

OldWomble wrote:without any doubt, that this is NOT the case. when the EC700 CP is off, the solar power goes nowhere, its just wasted.

I'm not sure it helps you, as I guess your van is out of warranty, but surely this just means that you have a fault in the system somewhere? If Sargent tell you that, by design, the solar panel defaults to the vehicle battery but in your case it does not - it must be faulty?

When shutdown the EC500 defaults solar to Leisure and from memory I think the EC700 defaults to Vehicle.  (I haven't confirmed the EC700 behaviour)
My 2017 PVC has a EC500, todays vans use EC700, I'm not sure when the changeover happened.

Roopert wrote:

OldWomble wrote:without any doubt, that this is NOT the case. when the EC700 CP is off, the solar power goes nowhere, its just wasted.

I'm not sure it helps you, as I guess your van is out of warranty, but surely this just means that you have a fault in the system somewhere? If Sargent tell you that, by design, the solar panel defaults to the vehicle battery but in your case it does not - it must be faulty?

I've given up with them. Its much easier to just sort these things myself - at least that way I know its done right!

OldWomble wrote:

Roopert wrote:

OldWomble wrote:without any doubt, that this is NOT the case. when the EC700 CP is off, the solar power goes nowhere, its just wasted.

I'm not sure it helps you, as I guess your van is out of warranty, but surely this just means that you have a fault in the system somewhere? If Sargent tell you that, by design, the solar panel defaults to the vehicle battery but in your case it does not - it must be faulty?

I've given up with them. Its much easier to just sort these things myself - at least that way I know its done right!

Surely it’s still covered by Autosleepers 3 year warranty isn’t it?

Yes, I’m sure it is. But when you hear stories about AS dealers having people’s ‘vans for weeks, if not months on end, what would you do. I’ve been waiting since last December for them to send me a simple light fitting that failed so, if they can’t even do that in a reasonable time, would you trust them with your ‘van?  No. I’d sooner sort it myself and know it’s going to work!

OldWomble wrote:Yes, I’m sure it is. But when you hear stories about AS dealers having people’s ‘vans for weeks, if not months on end, what would you do. I’ve been waiting since last December for them to send me a simple light fitting that failed so, if they can’t even do that in a reasonable time, would you trust them with your ‘van?  No. I’d sooner sort it myself and know it’s going to work!

Fair point, well made.