where is the leisure battery in my T4 Trident

Hi All, can anybody help, please?

Our leisure battery does not appear to be charging up after it ran right down in the autumn. Usually it would be ok after a drive of about 50 miles or so. Now 200 miles has no effect.

We decided it was probably time for a replacement anyway, since we have had the 'van for around 6 years and have no idea if the battery had ever been replaced.

Only thing is, we can't find it!

We've looked under the passenger seat, in the boot, under the food store, behind the gas bottles (!), under the sink and under the bonnet. There is only a large van battery under the bonnet.

The vehicle is a VW T4 Trident, J registration.

Could it be that there is only one battery for the van and for the leisure function with some sort of limitor on it? We have had no trouble starting the vehicle.

Any help appreciated.

Hi there

We are owners of a T4 Trident, only for 6months though, so early days experience wise. Our leisure battery is situated beneath the drivers seat. From memory on first exploring the van, there is a lever on outside edge of seat frame which allows you to slide the seat fully forward thereby revealing the battery.

Hope this helps you, enjoy the van, we love ours!

Chris & Sylvia.

Hi there
It's probably next to the main vehicle battery on a J plate. Open the bonnet, there should be a battery tray on the passenger side, housing both batteries.
Regards
John

Thank you very much for your reply. we have just been out in the cold and the dark and had a look. Sadly, its not there.

himself decided to do another search in the said dark (not even any lights on inside the van )

Looks like we have only one battery.

thanks again.

On our previous 2001 Trident as Hoopman says it was beneath the starter battery on the left side of the engine bay, real pain to get at I'm afraid... If its not there then it could have been relocated somewhere in else in the vehicle.

Your first post suggests that you have a battery level meter that used to register a charge and now does not. This implies that you must have a separate leisure battery - what else could the meter have been showing?

So... what is under the drivers seat? Are there any other cavities? For example in some vehicles the battery is secured next to the Carver water heater, under one of the rear seats.

wandering wrote:Our leisure battery does not appear to be charging up after it ran right down in the autumn. Usually it would be ok after a drive of about 50 miles or so. Now 200 miles has no effect.

Hi again
As Mojo says your first post suggests you know you have a Leisure battery, what indicator have you got that suggests it's not charging?

On some vans there wasn't a leisure battery, so its possible you only have one.
Regards
John

Hi there not sure if you have located your leisure battery yet, but just to let you know that the one in our X reg trident is in the back by the gas bottle box and it is nicely disguised in a carpet covered box. Also if you are replacing it, then its worth having a look on the Tayna battery website as I have found them very reasonable on price and they have a very prompt delivery service.


All the best
Tony

Well, thanks everybody for the suggestions. We have checked out every inch of the van now and have not found another battery, so we have to conclude that there is only one.

We thought we had a flat battery because we used a lot of power during the long evenings and the power stopped working and left us in the dark. But the vehicle still started the following morning with no problem. And the habitation power still did not work after miles of driving. Just a flicker from the light or pump before it died again.

Must be somewhere in the connection between the battery and the habitation circuits? We are now looking for a servicing/repairer in the Chester/Merseyside/North Wales area to check it out for us. Any suggestions welcome...

Resolved. There is only the vehicle battery.
I resorted to more web searching and eventually found an operation and maintenance manual for our van (the one we were given with it was not appropriate). It had instructions and a wiring diagram indicating circuits either with or without a leisure battery. The fuse location was given as being next to the vehicle battery. Having looked in every posssible location we are sure that there is only the vehicle battery.
And then we looked and found that the fuseholder was melted! It has cost just a few pounds to replace the fuseholder and fuse and the 12v is now working. We don't know why it melted so we will be keeping an eye on it. It may just be that the fuseholder itself has been shaken rattled and rolled for 22 years as its not fixed in place.
Again, many thanks for those suggestions, we would not have got this far without them.