No power ?

[davelou]

Hi guys,help needed
Can anyone point me in the right direction?I've been away for a week not in my bongo.Came to start it this morning and nothing,no ignition lights interior lights ect.Leisure battery fitted only works one side of blinds no radio?Tried charging main battery only to cook my charger? disconected leisure battery and tried again,still smokes charger.
awaiting your ideas? many thanks in advance Dave

[bigdaddycain]

Your main battery could have simply failed... Each cell in the battery has a plate either side, under excessive load, the plates can "bow" or even break or collapse,causing internal arcing,or even a short circuit...No amount of charging would work in such a case,as simply put, the battery is knackered.

Remove the battery and whip it round to your local auto electrician to test it, he'll advice you for the best, if the battery does need to be replaced, ensure you have a folllow up check of the charging system,not just to ensure that the new battery is receiving enough charge,but to make sure that the battery isn't receiving TOO MUCH charge, this can frazzle a battery too... The main starter battery on a diesel vehicle really does need to be in A1 condition, once it starts to fail,replacement sooner,rather than later is preferable.

[davelou]

Many thanks bigdaddy,
i'm charging the battery up to try out.The batteries were replaced when i bought the bongo about 18 months ago?I've never had any issues with the bongo at all.I'm curious as to why its failled today?I was going to the bash this morning, ah well!
dave

[bigdaddycain]

That's if it is the battery, its a long distance guess.

As an aside, i had to replace the battery in my car yesterday, (replaced with slightly wrong type two months ago) It suddenly completely failed, with a warm engine,i was in the middle of a series of journeys, and the engine had started seconds before with no problem at all.

The battery was toast, it woud have been pointless to attempt a recharge. The car wouldn't start with jump leads to another vehicle with the knackered battery in situ, (but did start via jumpleads with my battery removed) The short circuit in the battery was draining the available power form the donor vehicle battery, i'd suggest the same scenario would have occured if i'd attempted to charge the battery.

I don't mean to worry you, but charging it may not be a good idea,if the plates have collapsed inside,you could be cooking a potentially lethal bomb there my friend!

Remember to remove the caps from the top of the cells, that the cells are full of de-ionised water,and to leave the battery to stand for an hour or so after charging before attempting to move it, or fit it to the bongo...

Please remember to switch off the charger at the wall before removing the croc clips to the battery terminals, the resulting spark could ignite the vapours that eminate from the open cells. (always look on the bright side of life eh? )

[davelou]

Thanks for the advice,
I charged the battery up and all is well.When there was some power in the battery my passenger door was found to be open rushing to get away i had left it slightly open with the interior light on for the week As a point of interest, with two batteries are you best to charge the main battery only? I disconected the leisure battery to be on the safe side and it eventually charged.I think I was too impatient to give the battery time to charge After 5 hours it started up and all was well
I missed the bash as I wanted to get ideas for a full conversion I'm starting in a few weeks time and to see if anybody was interested in my part rear conversion that i'll be selling soon.
Thanks again bigdaddy
Dave

[bigdaddycain]

Glad its sorted dave! I don't suppose it would do any harm to top up the l/b... In fact, i think it's supposed to be trickle charged every few months or so anyway, although if truth be told, i have never bothered...