Battery completely dead

[Glenn Blundell]

Hi, can anyone please give some advice?
Stupidly, I have not driven our T6.1 Cali for a couple of months. I just noticed the rear number plate lights flashing and went to investigate. The key fobs will not open the doors and I have tried to open the drivers door manually and it won't open too. I assume it must need some small amount of power to open the doors manually?
I'm a bit stuck, as I can't get in the van, to access anything.
I really would appreciate any advice.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Efficacious]

Hi, can anyone please give some advice?
Stupidly, I have not driven our T6.1 Cali for a couple of months. I just noticed the rear number plate lights flashing and went to investigate. The key fobs will not open the doors and I have tried to open the drivers door manually and it won't open too. I assume it must need some small amount of power to open the doors manually?
I'm a bit stuck, as I can't get in the van, to access anything.
I really would appreciate any advice.
Thanks in advance.

Can you get an electic hook up lead to it? I believe that would charge the engine battery once the leisure batteries are topped up. Once the engine battery has acheived a reasonable voltage then you ought to be able to get in.

 

[Glenn Blundell]

Thanks very much, I will definitely give it a try and let you know if that works.
Really appreciate your help.

 

[dspuk]

Plug your EHU cable in - it will trickle charge your starter and after a few hours you should be able to at least gain access to pop the hood and get some jump leads on it. Or call the RAC/AA - they carry a giant jumper to help do this for you.

 

[Betsycalifornia]

One door should open manually with the key in the door. I wonder if that door is the passenger door. It’s often only one door and this vehicle being originally LHD? just a thought.

 

[Glenn Blundell]

One door should open manually with the key in the door. I wonder if that door is the passenger door. It’s often only one door and this vehicle being originally LHD? just a thought.

Thanks, I will try the passenger door too.

 

[Glenn Blundell]

Can you get an electic hook up lead to it? I believe that would charge the engine battery once the leisure batteries are topped up. Once the engine battery has acheived a reasonable voltage then you ought to be able to get in.

Thanks again for your advice. I have just managed to get in the van. I think I will call the AA Tomorrow and see if they can get it started.
I've had it on charge for about 8 hours so far. Everything is completely dead, so I hope I haven't done any lasting damage? I don't suppose I will know until I can get it out on the road. Thanks again for getting in touch.

 

[Glenn Blundell]

Thanks, I will try the passenger door too.

Thanks again, I have managed to open the drivers door.

 

[Glenn Blundell]

Plug your EHU cable in - it will trickle charge your starter and after a few hours you should be able to at least gain access to pop the hood and get some jump leads on it. Or call the RAC/AA - they carry a giant jumper to help do this for you.

Thank you, I have managed to get inside now, so will get the AA out Tomorrow.
Nothing is working, so I'm hoping that I haven't done any lasting damage to the leisure batteries? Don't suppose I will know until I can get the van started and running.

 

[dspuk]

Thank you, I have managed to get inside now, so will get the AA out Tomorrow.
Nothing is working, so I'm hoping that I haven't done any lasting damage to the leisure batteries? Don't suppose I will know until I can get the van started and running.

I assume you cant plug your EHU in for 24h as that is both the best way to recharge and check for damage. To start the van a simple set of jumpers may do it although mine was so flat the AA fella had to use his on truck power supply to kick it into life.

Edit - just read up and saw you had on charge. Odd that it is totally dead tbh.

 

[Foggy51]

Your starter battery might have to be replaced if it’s been totally flat.
It’s odd that nothing else is working. Can you see the status of the leisure batteries on the control panel? If you’re on EHU then you should see something?

 

[Glenn Blundell]

Thanks for your help. I managed to get a jump start and the first thing that happened was the alarm and hazard lights went off because it was technically still locked. I had to drive it until I had enough charge,so I could turn it off and we-start the engine. I am going to take it to the garage and get the starter battery health checked out. The leisure batteries appear to be okay but I will monitor this.

 

[Thirteencharacters]

Be careful charging the leisure batteries with a conventional charger. They can be damaged.

They are constructed differently, and require a specific charging regime that the on board charger provides.

I had this exact scenario after a long trip out of the country, with the van off charge.

Having started the van with a charge to the engine battery, (passenger door key opener) I took the Ocean out for a long drive and that brought the leisures back up to life on the control panel.
After that, the EHU cable brought it back to full charge.

No problems since.

 

[Glenn Blundell]

Be careful charging the leisure batteries with a conventional charger. They can be damaged.

They are constructed differently, and require a specific charging regime that the on board charger provides.

I had this exact scenario after a long trip out of the country, with the van off charge.

Having started the van with a charge to the engine battery, (passenger door key opener) I took the Ocean out for a long drive and that brought the leisures back up to life on the control panel.
After that, the EHU cable brought it back to full charge.

No problems since.

Thanks for the advice, really appreciate it.

 

[NickiandDoraCandyCopper]

See also my.thread “leisure batteries through winter”. It happened to us too and we had to get the AA out and start trickle charging. All good now so don’t worry about!

 

[Glenn Blundell]

See also my.thread “leisure batteries through winter”. It happened to us too and we had to get the AA out and start trickle charging. All good now so don’t worry about!

Thanks very much. I got the normal van battery checked out Yesterday and lucky it's okay, so I've just got to make sure I keep running it regularly.
Cheers again.