Charging voltage

digger58

In the camper (2001 Ducato) I'm getting 14.3V when its idling but when the fridge is running on 12 Volt it occasionally cuts out, I can hear a relay in the distribution board clicking, this happens in traffic when the revs drop, as soon as the revs increase the unit cuts back in again. I thought that was a good voltage,What should it be pumping out? Any ideas? The battery is new btw, the leisure is a bit old but still seems to work OK. Just treated her to all new interior LED's today, that should help with the draw on the leisure battery. Good price in Norauto France, G4s at €6.99.

Aidan_M_M

Check the fuse holders, and earths.

Sounds to me like loose connection; coil side of the fridge relay. The vibration of the engine might have something to do with it.

Check the connections on the 85 and 86 terminals of the fridge relay. The start of the 85 wire (switching positive) could be on the back of the alternator D+, fusebox D+ or spliced from the battery warning light in the dash.

It could also be the fridge switch is on the way out. These are not especially reliable.

If it is wiring or the relay, you can always bypass the relay if you want by joining the 30 and 87 terminals. Then you can just use the switch on the fridge to operate it.

I rarely use the 12V element, works much better from an inverter.

digger58

digger58 wrote: »

In the camper (2001 Ducato) What should it be pumping out?

13.8V - 14.4V depending on load.

digger58

The clicking is coming from the Scheiber control panel, The relay on the fridge (Bosch) itself is new as the old one was corroded badly on one of the spades. All earths should be good as I had to do a complete job on it earlier in the year, from the alternator back to the fridge, it wasn't working on 12 V at all, found another in line fuse behind the fuse box that was blown! It has only started in the last day or so. What is a good charge? I think 14.3 is OK what do you think? Thanks for the replys.

I guess there's more than one relay. I mean check the wiring sometimes the strands are broken in the crimp and it's hanging in there with prayer. If you can pull the crimp apart it needs redoing. Might be a relay in the control panel too. A good charge is about 12 hours at 14.4V.
Fuse holder is a good place to look too.

If it's 14.3V at the living batteries it's very good. If it's 14.3V at the fridge it's top marks.

If it's nothing obvious you'll have to chase the fault from one end with a multimeter. Intermittent faults are a pain for this.

digger58

I'm just over a week away from home so if it behaves till then I will have a good look, I did find the live feed to the control panel was totally corroded when I was at it in the spring, the connection was just crimped and was only connecting by the pressure of it pushing against the terminal, it was even a bit burned so I was lucky. I made up a new soldered wire, it could be there is another such connection there. Can't understand how these aren't soldered first day. The wiring behind the control panel is so hard to get at, it's pushed into a tiny space and only a very small access panel. Thanks for the advice.

digger58

digger58 wrote: »

Can't understand how these aren't soldered first day.

In the hope of not starting a holy war about which is better solder or crimp, solder joints are better than bad crimps and worse than good crimps. Due to their inflexibility they are prone to failure. Vehicle manufacturers do not solder connections just pcbs.
Your fridge troubles are on the control side of the circuit, the relay coils, if it was on the power side you wouldn't hear the relay click. Manual over-ride is an option if you remember to turn the fridge off when the alternator isn't running.