More Broadway teething problems

Here we go again, Used Omnistar awning for first time this weekend and was quite pleased with it until I was ready to take it down and on removing the centre strengthening pole the clip attached to the awning fell off. It is held on by a minute screw which surely is not long enough to get a grip.

I went wild camping this weekend and used the Thetford fridge for the first time which I ran on gas.
It worked well for 24hours then shut down leaving the display flashing showing error 1.

I have plenty of gas in the tank so thats not the problem. When I got home I tried it on mains electric and it still doesnt work so its back to the dealer once more.

Surely my contract is with the dealer to sort out the fridge although the handbook advises us to phone Thetford direct with problems.
Has anyone had similar problems ? I would be most grateful for your comments please

Raybow

Raybow
Sorry to hear you are having problems
You'll find details of your fridge error code here :-
http://www.swift-owners-club.com/support/oem_handbooks/thetford/troubleshooting_fridges.pdf

Your contract is with the dealer to sort these kind of problems out.

Regards
John

I hope you have some better luck - I thought that Thetford products are normally very reliable..........

hoopman wrote:Raybow
Sorry to hear you are having problems
You'll find details of your fridge error code here :-
http://www.swift-owners-club.com/support/oem_handbooks/thetford/troubleshooting_fridges.pdf

Your contract is with the dealer to sort these kind of problems out.

Regards
John

Many thanks John for the link I have been on Autosleeper who passed me back to Thetford Uk who were hopeless.
I got back to my dealer in Newark who said this is a common problem and said they would order a new control board for me, but rather than travel all the way up to Newark I have been in touch with Sudbury caravans who has sent my case off to Thetford under warranty and will do the work for me hopefully.
It seems very wrong that Autosleeper are putting these fridges in their motorhomes when they are clearly not up to scratch. There are so many threads on here with problems with Thetford fridges

Same problem with the awning pole this W/E clip fell off when taking it in

The flying pig wrote:Same problem with the awning pole this W/E clip fell off when taking it in

Hi Flying pig
If you look at the screw they put in it is too short to get a good grip. With just a little bit more attention to detail these problems would not occur.

Raybow

Raybow
Glad you have managed to get the repair arranged and locally too. I really don't understand why these fridges are so unreliable. Personally I've never owned a van with a Thetford fridge but I do wonder if they really should be fitted into motorhomes. I've owned many vans, the vast majority of which have been fitted with the standard 3 way electrolux and never had a single problem running of with any power source. I have even parked at steep angles in van conversions with no issues. Fingers crossed for your repair.

Regards
John

Raybow
Glad you have managed to get the repair arranged and locally too. I really don't understand why these fridges are so unreliable. Personally I've never owned a van with a Thetford fridge but I do wonder if they really should be fitted into motorhomes. I've owned many vans, the vast majority of which have been fitted with the standard 3 way electrolux and never had a single problem running of with any power source. I have even parked at steep angles in van conversions with no issues. Fingers crossed for your repair.

Regards
John[/quote]

I spoke to two dealers today and they seem to have a queue of thetford fridges waiting for new parts due to faulty panels. It can take sometime to get approval from Thetford to authorise the work and supply the parts. So I live in hope as the summer is passing us by and I cant enjoy my purchase. Come on Thetford get your act in gear!

Raybow

I have had this issue twice now when running on gas. The cure I found was to shut down the 12volt electrics completely on the panel under the seat. Then switch it back on an the fridge worked. Looked up error code 1 and it refers to A/C main voltage being low what that's got to do with gas operation I do not know.

The flying pig wrote:I have had this issue twice now when running on gas. The cure I found was to shut down the 12volt electrics completely on the panel under the seat. Then switch it back on an the fridge worked. Looked up error code 1 and it refers to A/C main voltage being low what that's got to do with gas operation I do not know.

Hi flying pig

Thanks for your comments and I have tried this without success.
I am taking the van in tomorrow to have the control panels replaced, Lets hope that will be the end of it.

Raybow

Hi raybow, how did you get on with your fridge repair, I have  the same fault code 1 on our first outing with our 7 day owned Broadway EB.

Thanks,
John.

I had this problem and spoke to Thetford at the NEC last year they told me there was a mod kit for it. As I left  he came after me and gave me a mod kit. It was a piece of cable with a plug each end which goes in line with an existing cable.
You take. Off the bottom vent unplug the cable and put this mod kit in line and plug it up again . Took about two mins to do.
The kit was a piece of multicore ca ble with a plug one end and socket the other about six inches long, dead easy to fit.

Thank you the flying pig, could you help with other teething problems we have.
The pump runs continuous and we have to turn it off at display every time we use water, I've read you can adjust the pressure switch, but it says something about different voltages can upset this so do you have to adjust the pressure switch regularly.
The leisure amp % display only read 42% when we picked our van up from dealers, so I put it on hook up and after 3 days it read only 66% shouldn't it read 100%. We ran into the red zone with the leisure battery on first day of a two day trip with no hook up.
 We drove 120 miles home and the display only read 40%, so I'm thinking charging system not set up right or faulty leisure battery.

John.

It is usual for a lot of the dealer handover information to go straight over one's head and for the pdi to miss faults.

As you've just had the vehicle and before looking for problems I would suggest returning to the dealer just to run over the operation of the systems you are now unsure about.

Peter

In addition to my previous post, I've now read your handbook and all the signs are to the main power supply unit being switched off and your Leisure battery voltage low. Depending on the PSU you have fitted there is either a Charger on/off switch or a Power Button.

To charge the battery from the engine would require a good 8hr drive. Connecting to a hook up (and switching the psu on) would raise the voltage immediately and allow things like the pump to work properly but would still take at least 8 hrs to charge the battery. If you have a solar panel fitted then that is why you are seeing a small increase in charge.

Peter

Peter

Thanks Peter, just been on to motorhome and magically it seems to have righted itself, now reading 99% after overnight charge on hook up, so perhaps the pump will have righted itself also.
Like I said before, after 3 days on hook up only 62% charge.

John.

Hi John

I wouldn't suggest attempting to adjust the water pressure switch unless you are certain your water system is full and bled of air and that your battery is fully charged.  If then the pump still runs all the time and you don't want to go back to your dealer follow the instructions in the handbook for pressure adjustment meticulously.

The power indications you mention suggest you have an EC 480 control panel and thus an EC 500 PSU.  If that is the case then that system will be new to many on the forum.

There are several differences/improvements over previous Sargent PSU's but I think the most significant is that the charger is not part of the PSU but is an external unit (PX-300).  It will be interesting to hear where your PX-300 is located:

http://sargentshop.co.uk/epages/eshop328964.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/eshop328964/Products/WB2050

You see what it looks like at the link above.  The charger (according to the Sargent data sheet) has a charge indicator light on it, red for Boost, green for Float and off for OFF.  The on/off switch for the charger is not on it but in the right hand switch bank at the top of the EC500 (it lights green when pushed in and the charger on).  

At the left hand of the EC500 switch bank is a system shutdown switch to protect the battery during storage.  I would be interested to know if the charging is inhibited when the system is shutdown - its not clear to me from the Sargent data.

Many will find the Dealer Technical Document at the link below of interest, although it refers to the Peugeot X250 I'm sure it will be installed in the Mercedes as well.

http://sargentshop.co.uk/epages/eshop328964.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/eshop328964/Categories/Self_Help/EC500_Power_Control_System

Peter

Thanks again Peter, you're spot on with everything, the charger unit is fitted under the seat base housing the heating system and battery, it is screwed to the rear wall.

Also I've got my fridge working by pulling the fridge fuse which is also under the seat base, fired it up on auto and it lit up on gas, started engine and it switched over to 12 volt with no problems, but I'm still going to get in touch with Thetford on Monday in case there are any issues that need sorting before we go on our 6 week Benidorm trip in just over 2 weeks.

John.

John, would you let me know how you get on talking with Thetford as if there is a mod kit I would be interested as will be in Iceland for a month later this year and def don't  want the fridge to have a whoopsie  
The 'ice' bit in Iceland won't help  

Jaytee wrote:John, would you let me know how you get on talking with Thetford as if there is a mod kit I would be interested as will be in Iceland for a month later this year and def don't  want the fridge to have a whoopsie  
The 'ice' bit in Iceland won't help  

Jaytee, sorry to "hijack" this thread, but we are very interested in taking van to Iceland. Would you mind saying how you are getting there?

Jaytee wrote:John, would you let me know how you get on talking with Thetford as if there is a mod kit I would be interested as will be in Iceland for a month later this year and def don't  want the fridge to have a whoopsie  
The 'ice' bit in Iceland won't help  

Will do jaytee no probs.

John.

Hi Jaytee, Its a poor show on these faults with new vans.
i sympathize with you owners.
However for Iceland trip, i think the 12v when running and a cool box would get you through.No certainty this fault will not occur!
best regards

Mike

Hi Mike. Am getting much more confident with everything now it (and I) are settling down and getting more use  And so far the fridge has been faultless, touch wood again. Sadly, due to my mechanical/electrical paranoia probably based on nigh on 50 years of maintaining aircraft I don't trust anything I cannot hit with a hammer   And if I can catch it before it catches me or if I have the spare part needed tucked away ready then it always makes me feel a lot happier. Who else would carry a spare cylinder head for their old Landrover on overseas jaunts    

Hi Jaytee, Well not that far behind.I did 22 years RAF (engineering).

regards
Mike

Jaytee wrote:John, would you let me know how you get on talking with Thetford as if there is a mod kit I would be interested as will be in Iceland for a month later this year and def don't  want the fridge to have a whoopsie  
The 'ice' bit in Iceland won't help  

Hello jaytee, I've been on to thetford this morning about my fault code, spanner1, they said that it needed a part fitting
They've told me to get the serial no from behind the swing out salad drawer and vehicle chassis no. Send these to my dealer the dealer has to order the part and fit it.

John.