Re: Fridge not working on hook up or leisure battery
Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2014 9:56 am
Hang on I just re-read that and I don't actually have to start the engine so I will try to look at that today. Thanks
Even though you tested the LB with a meter and it showed 13volts, that was probably with the ignition on, or shortly after.
The black box with all the wires coming out of it is your split charging relay – this allows the LB to be charged by the Starter Battery (SB) when the engine is running. That “should” be triggered via the alternator (i.e. ONLY when the engine is actually running). I suspect it’s been wired up to be triggered by the ignition instead (a lazy way of doing it). Whoever wired it up was also naughty with the colours. He’s run a red wire back to the negative terminal, and he’s used black wires to the two fuses where he should have used red wires! That doesn’t affect performance but it’s confusing.
When you pulled one of the orange fuses and then the fridge stopped working, you proved that the fridge is connected to the Leisure battery directly, through that fuse.
This means the fridge should work ALL the time, as it is connected to the LB. As it doesn’t work all the time it proves the LB is dead.
When you turn the ignition on, you are triggering the black relay, which connects your starter battery to your LB – that’s why your fridge works with the ignition on – the SB is powering it through the link. As soon as you turn off the ignition the link is disconnected and the dead LB can’t cope on it’s own. To test this, get the fridge running with the ignition on, then put your volt meter across the LB terminals. Then turn off the ignition, whilst the fridge is on, and watch the LB voltage plummet….
I’ll copy this onto the forum so it helps others.
(p.s. Vicki is going to get help later to listen to the relay for a click when the ignition is turned on, without engine starting, which I suspect will be the case)
Excellent.