Rojie

4 minutes ago, Hillclimber said:

Having spoken with a very helpful engineer at Portable Power, the conclusion was that the vehicle battery had discharged enough, through not being used, but not to the point that the engine wouldn't start. This was enough to trigger the relay into action. Engine start and run for 5 minutes and relay is silent. One thing to put on the list during winter is to either disconnect the +ve lead to the relay, and/or keep the vehicle battery on a trickle charge.

As winter approaches, all (non-hybrid) Alphie owners need to ensure their starter batteries are in tip top condition and remain fully charged.

Jump leads are cheap enough; I always carry mine just in case.

1 hour ago, james tovey said:

i am disabled and looking to fit an electric wheel chair lift to a 2004 Toyota Alphard not purchased yet the height of the lift is 1.4mtrs,would any one be able to tell me the height from the floor to top of the door opening thank you  James  S, Wales, 

Hello James,

Welcome to the Forum.

Just a word of caution, on the Gen 1 models the rear door does not open beyond 90 degrees.

In fact, slightly less than 890 degrees.

Probably wouldn't be an issue but.

Also, some Alphies have an electric tailgate, which, I humbly assume, would be of interest to you.

Do you have a photo of the lift ?

7 hours ago, Bluespanner said:

Thanks for the replies, I will investigate further. Worst case scenario may have go through the toyota dealer and take the financial hit

Unfortunately, you may find your local Toyota dealer will not help.

They often will not assist with grey imports.

3 hours ago, Hillclimber said:

Just come across an interesting electrical issue on my 10 series Alphie. It's fitted with a solar panel on the roof and there is a Portable Power Technology split charge relay between the main and leisure batteries. The solar panel is off according to the 3-way switch on the auxiliary panel at the rear.

This morning I heard a regular clicking noise coming from the front of the Alphie and found it was from the relay. Presumably it is sensing a full charge in one battery and switching to the other. Sensing that is also fully charged, it switches back, ad infinitum.

Not heard it before, so wondering if I have a fault, and also will this switching slowly discharge one or both of the batteries until the next time it is driven.

Have you tried disconnecting the leisure battery, and/or the solar feed ?

3 hours ago, Eric symonds said:

Hello Eric,

Welcome to the Forum.

4 hours ago, Bluespanner said:

Hi, I have a 2003 2.4 petrol Alphard that came with one 2 button key fob, would like to get a spare for programming. There seems to be plenty of 2 button remotes for sale online apparently ready to be reprogrammed. None of them look identical to mine, some are close, but no exact match. However having read some threads on here it appears its having the right chip inside that is more important. The chip number for the post face lift (2007 ?) is mentioned but i can't find any chip number for the pre 2007. Does anyone know the chip no. for the pre 2007 face lift ?Also any reliable sources for purchasing one. Thanks in advance. 

I think it is 4D66 (not 4D67) but check before purchasing.

New ones are not expensive (on ebay) but programming can be.

I am sure you will receive other, more informative, replies.

20 hours ago, glarhzilla said:

Hiya rojie. When you say driving lights do you mean the ambient strip lighting in the roof liner at the back? P switch being the parking aid could make sense. As I've got the full camera set up around the car.  Regarding the parking aid, does that mean the car will self park or am I being too ambitious? Thanks 

Driving lights are additional front lights that (normally) are always on with the ignition.

Nothing to do with roof liner (which is probably your mood lighting).

If it is a parking aid, as opposed to cameras, I have no idea how it operates.

23 minutes ago, glarhzilla said:

Hi all. I've got some non standard buttons on my velfire and was curious if you know what they mean or what they're for? The little light switch lookingone. Also what do the other buttons mean. Also where my media unit is I have the airbagthat says passenger. Is this supposed to be illuminated? Thank you.

I have an earlier model; so I am just guessing.

Do you have driving lights fitted ?

Not an unusual accessory.

The P switch could be a parking aid !

Power doors disables/enables the rear doors, to prevent 'little fingers' at play.

1 hour ago, Soran said:

Hi all, finally found the right Vellfire for me after a few months of looking, and loving it so far. Being the largest vehicle I have ever owned, I am slowly getting used to the size of it! Now, where did I put the stepladder to clean the roof. 😂

Most of the roof can be cleaned if you open the moonroof and work from inside the van.

4 hours ago, Picasso said:

Its ok tony its now correct on your profile thank you 

Hi Lee, you didn't change it, but I have !

Do you need a PM on how to do it ?

Tony, you click on your 'rosette' Tony X and then edit profile.

5 hours ago, Alpha Hydrae said:

I might be using the wrong terminology, but mine is a voltage sensitive relay that only allows current inbound from the main battery. I'm quite happy with it that way. You're correct that it means I can't use the leisure battery to provide backup if I get flat main battery. But that's a risk I'm willing to take as it's about 15 years since I last needed a jump start and that was a camping trip in the days before I had a dedicated leisure battery to be used for charging phones etc. This recent incident was an actual battery failure, and again I'm willing to accept the risk as it's very low likelihood it'll fail suddenly while I'm away from home.

I carry jump leads, they are not expensive.

10 hours ago, Alpha Hydrae said:

Hi, I took out the old battery and it was exactly as you say, shot ! I've seen this before when one of the 6 cells dies and only gives about 10.6V max. I put a new battery in, engine started immediately, problem solved.

 

When I got home I checked everything with my CTEK MX5 and alternator is fine.

 

I meant to say there is an isolation switch between the 2 batteries, and I'd already used this to cut-off the feed to the leisure battery.

 

I realise now why the leisure battery kept going flat, I'd forgotten the split relay is a 'smart' version that isolates if the supply voltage drops below about 12V. So my leisure battery would probably have only been getting some charge when the engine was running, and I'd not been using the car much throughout summer. I don't know exactly what voltage it would have been receiving when the engine was running. It takes its feed directly from the main battery (not the alternator) so the supply voltage might have been getting dragged down to near the split relay cut-off threshold.

 

As for why one of the cells failed on the main battery, I'll never know. It's at the local recycling centre now.

Interesting that you have a smart split relay set-up. Why ?

If you have certain types of voltage sensitive units they are designed to allow your leisure battery to pass charge to your starter battery.

Good idea ? Sometimes !

If your starter battery fails, as yours did, your leisure battery will try to assist it, as you suspect.

The problem is that leisure batteries are not designed to start vehicles, most have low CCA specifications.

Furthermore, the cabling from the leisure battery will not be designed to take starting current.

The voltage drop will, most likely, be excessive thereby not providing enough voltage or current to be able to crank the engine.

If your leisure battery is at the back of your vehicle, as mine is, the drop will be even more.

I have a CTEK MX5, and can recommend them.

You can even get leads to  'permanently fit to your battery which lowers the risk of accidents when connecting / disconnecting.

Your alternator should output close to 14v.

I use a cheap voltmeter in the cigarette socket to monitor voltages when on the move; effectively checks the alternator output and the battery becoming fully charged.

I move it to the rear leisure battery sockets when parked up.

Glad you sorted it.

If you do not use the vehicle much in winter, you must keep that starter battery fully charged.

23 hours ago, glarhzilla said:

Hi all. Been reading through plenty of threads on here relating to adding carplay or equivalent to the velfire/alphard unit. I saw a chap called Ben hau being mentioned as the go to guy on here. However I can't find anything that he's done recently, if he's still active that is. Has anyone had any luck with him in the past or have any contact info? My van/car has the premium audio with 5 million speakers 🤣 which I hear is more tricky and less user friendly to change if I was to DIY.

 

Thanks in advance.

Ben keeps a low profile, is probably very busy, and usually very difficult to contact.

Importantly, he is virtually totally inactive on this forum; but he is a member.

48 minutes ago, Terry R said:

Is there a way to check if the transmission oil needs topping - if so how is it done. Or is it a sealed unit that requires an oil change?

Terry

Hello Terry,

Welcome to the Forum.

2 hours ago, pavlic said:

Thank you for all the information.

 

> beam correctors

Are those stickers? I'm not sure they would pass the vehicle test.

I can't remember if my car has an AFS button - and I've been driving it for 8 years now. But I'll contact the mechanic to take a look. What does it do? 

 

I didn't know these Alphards might have screws to adjust the light positioning. I'll try to see with the mechanic if this is the case.

Might be that it's dependent on the projector type used, i.e. model specific.

 

I've consider also looking in Russia. I din't know that they sold the series 10 already modified for LHD.

That's good to know. I'll try to look into this, and if it's possible to source one.

 

In the meantime I've told the mechanic to try to open the projector and adjust the cutoff plate.

Crossing my fingers...

 

 

Yes stickers.

The AFS button will be marked AFS, you do not need a mechanic for that.

My Alphard certainly has manual adjustment, and I have AFS.

AFS automatically adjusts beam direction when turning.

3 hours ago, Tony X said:

It is a Toyota Alphard

Hi Tony,

I was only teasing.

Can you please change your vehicle type in your profile.

Otherwise you will not receive any, or relevant, answers to any of your queries.

It is important the membership knows which vehicle you have.

6 hours ago, Rojie said:

 

Hello Paulo,

 

Welcome to the Forum.

I assume in Switzerland older vehicles need an annual test, at least for emissions.

If you already have the vehicle you could try to purchase some beam correctors and have the test station try and achieve the corrected beam.

Also they could try the manual adjustments to assess whether they could achieve correct alignment.

To do this you really need the mirror set-up they have in garages.

Trying to do it yourself with a white wall is not that easy. 

Does your model have an AFS button in the dash ?

13 hours ago, Alpha Hydrae said:

My 2002 2.4 Alphard's engine wouldn't turn over yesterday, which was odd as I'd used it a few times this week. There was some clicking, and all electrical items such as lights/radio/central locking are working fine. I managed to jump start it using a big heavy duty charger/booster - this was following about 5 minutes charge on the 'High' setting, and I drove about 5 miles away and parked it. It ran as smooth as ever when driving. A hour later it wouldn't start again. Tried jump starting from a friend's Aygo but either it was too small, or his jump leads weren't up to it, but I could hardly even get my engine to turn over.

 

I've purchased a new battery and planning to head over to where the car is and replace it. However, I've remembered something else. For the past couple of months I've noticed my interior leisure battery had been dying quicker than normal (the 12-240V convertor beeps when its 12V source is too low). I assumed it was just my kids plugging in phone chargers more than usual, and I also thought maybe the split-charge relay was failing, but I'm now wondering it was an early sign that my alternator was failing. And perhaps now the alternator isn't giving enough charge to the main battery. As I said, the engine started and ran fine using the booster.

 

I suspect if I fit the new battery it'll start OK, but in a couple of days I might be back where I started and have wasted money on a battery I didn't need.

 

Hence I'm wondering if I need to also buy an alternator and replace that in-situ (I should point out I don't have a breakdown recovery subscription, which I know is silly, but there's a valid reason which is another story entirely !).

 

Any thoughts on this? Advice for alternator model ? I'd obviously prefer a Denso, but can't keep everything original all the time.

Hello Ben,

The clicking indicates, to me, that your battery needs charging.

What happens with all the dash lights when trying to start.

It is essential on these vehicles to maintain a full charge; vital in winter

I would disconnect the inverter, and the leisure battery, and try again after a full charge.

I would remove the leisure battery for charging, just to isolate the two batteries

I doubt your split charger is failing.

I have a smart charger, a CTEK, which will charge the battery, indicate the level of charge, and test the alternator.

Check your mood lighting is off in the dark, not during the day.

IF you do buy another battery, keep the old one (unless it is totally shot) in your garage on charge; it will give you a back-up.

Measure the old battery, off load, and ensure the voltage is around 12v; anything around 10,5 and it is shot.

The battery should be 12.6 or so.

10 hours ago, Tony X said:

Hello Rojie,
My correct model should be the 2011 Alfa Romeo 2.4L.
The battery seems charged—home recovery service confirmed it's fully charged (though I'm skeptical since the car has been idle for half a year). However, I can hear the alarm and activate hazard lights. I haven’t checked the fuses and don’t know their locations. How should I inspect them, and what precautions are needed? Thanks for your advice.

Sorry, but we don't provide advice on Alpha Romeos !

1 hour ago, Picasso said:

Please check this link Dave always use the correct oil in cvt boxes 

Hi Lee,

No link !

15 hours ago, pavlic said:

Hi everyone,

In the context of a series 10 Alphard from 2007, does anyone happen to know if there are any options to convert the headlights permanently from Right Hand Drive (RHD) to Left Hand Drive (LHD)?

 

I'm considering everything from finding compatible the headlight assembly (unlikely), to modifying the cut-off shield inside the projector of the low beams, or even use another projector from an equivalent Toyota sold in the EU, e.g. Previa, etc.

 

Let's assume a one-off test with the proper authorities is an option. 

 

Has anyone disassembled the xenon headlight projectors of any Alphard?

 

Thank you!

 

Hello Paulo,

Welcome to the Forum.

17 hours ago, Tony X said:

Hi Dave 
What was the problem with your Alphard?

I am having the same issue with it now. 
I jump start it and all alarms goes off. But my car wont start. 
My is a 2011 2.4 patrol 
What do you recon that I can do please?

Regards

 

Hello Tony,

Welcome to the Forum.

Please change your vehicle in your profile to the correct model.

Check your battery is fully charged and check the condition of the battery leads at both ends.

What happens with your dash lighting and warning lights ?

Doi you have an aftermarket alarm, as I thought these models don't have OEM alarms, immobiliser yes, alarm no.

I have a top of the range but no alarm.

Have you checked the main battery fuse ?

9 hours ago, JimmyO said:

Evening all, having some issues with my rear screen/display.

 

Just got my hands on a 2012 Vellfire G Z edition which is fantastic but having issues with DVD's. The DVD will play on the front screen but will not display a picture/mirror onto the rear screen. It will show the chapter and time elapsed but nothing else. I have the 56107 headset and 18 speaker set up. I have the remote for the rear screen but for the life of me cannot find any setting that allows the rear screen to play the video.

 

Thanks in advance.

Hello James,

Welcome to the Forum.

Yes JPNZ worth the investment.

On my earlier model there is a switch to stop mirrors folding .

Are you sure you don't have one too ?

4 hours ago, Just Richard said:

I have had a 3lt Alhard for 4 years and has been insured with Aviva all that time - last year was £365, which is for 68 year old male, 15 years NCB, living in a very quiet area (often referred to as God's Waiting Room!)

I was with Aviva until mine had a had a conversion.

I am with them on other vehicles.

I insure a Ford and a Jaguar XJR little more than your quote.

Worth a call but unlikely to insure a camper.