Hi all,today the family and i went to the coast for the day in our EB ans upun our return home there was a terrible eggy smell and my battery was bubbling like a good un (bit scary) . . . i'm a bit of a numpty when it comes to electrics but me thinks its over charging. Now i have a split charge relay system in the van but a while ago i nicked the 'leisure' battery (it's not a leisure battery just a normal battery that sits on the left in the split charge set up) for my panel van and haven't replaced it.Would this cause overcharging issues?? i'm gona check the charging system tomorrow as a matter of course but was just wondering whether or not having the '2nd' battery may have f***** something some how (both battery terminal clamps that are for the 2nd battery are insulated) i'm guessing the main battery is fubar,so should i buy 1 or 2 batteries tomorrow? when checking charging voltage is it a case of just putting the multimeter on the + &- of the battery? and what constitutes overcharging? over 14volts? like i said i'm a bit of a numpty when it comes to electrics. thanks in advance. Rich
sounds like your voltage regulator is shagged Battery should be at 12 volt engine off and 13.6 volts engine running
If the system is running to capacity and doing what it should there should be no more than 14.4volts going to the battery. The leisure battery should also receive the same as what the main battery is. Anymore ad it's over charging and causes all sorts of problems (and a frantic call to Coolair for vital ignition parts to be sent to the next campsite ) It's possible it has killed the batteries but you'll need to test those properly and find out what their outputs and percentages and everything in between are. You maybe lucky and just need to top up the fluids. Come to think of it, the water in the batteries is at the correct levels?? As for the cause the easiest thing to do is replace the regulator. This isn't fall proof though. I fitted a new one and for about 15 mins of moving it around the yard it was fine. It then started to play tricks and it turned out my issue was the new alternator. So run it for a bit to check the regulator is working. Were there any other problems??
