Clutha

Update. The new leisure battery is lead acid. Enclosed instructions minimal. The advice given re differences in leisure/engine batteries was from a well known campervan converter near Edinburgh specialising in Alphards who supplied the new one but weren’t up for sorting out Sargent unit. I’ll clarify advice from garage electrician. 8

Seriously, it was back to the early 60’s or more. Toiling away puting sink/hob unit back in realised the old thing hadn’t run for a bit so fired her up, failed! 😳 First time ever! Anyway battery appeared the issue, 11.7v, power pack hooked up, no good, Optimate charger on while I worked inside. At 12.7v tried again, no good, starter not engaging, faint clicks from under bonnet, had a poke around cables, noted clear area round starter solenoid, remembered old school faults and fetched two hammers, one rubber mallet, that didn’t work but standard metal one did the trick. She fired up like her usual self & idled beautifully. Canny beat the old ways!

Suffice to say imho the best advice is in your leisure battery instructions. Having purchased a special charger for my motorbikes (gel batteries) many years ago due to working offshore, & had no issues, I’ll look into its suitability for van. Lead acid appears to be getting superseded. Prior to my ‘incident ’ I happened to be returning to the van at a Halfords & two of their staff were checking an engine battery for someone, they checked mine too, engine battery good, leisure battery less so, thus my attempt to boost it. Lesson learned 🙄

Due to leisure battery not achieving max charge while on campsite hook up or after long runs. I tried the charger via control unit 13amp outlet while hooked up to domestic supply. Almost instant smoke issued from Sargent unit. I took van to garage referred to & their opinion was Sargent unit may have had internal component issue. All wiring was checked out & no issues found, new Sargent ordered, fitted & all seems well. I had replaced leisure battery too. I’ll relay its charging instructions asap. I’m alerting members to electricians advice as the garage specialise in campervan repairs & maintenance. I was not aware of the major differences re starting & leisure batteries.

I was at the garage getting a new Sargent EC155 power unit fitted. The original had overheated & melted a multi connector + cable while trying to charge the leisure battery via van 13amp socket & mains hookup with a bog standard 12v (maybe Halfords) charger. (More to follow, tea’s out!)

As I’m leaving garage where he’d fitted replacement control unit for 240/12v system. DON’T EVER PUT A BATTERY CHARGER ON A LEISURE BATTERY! It’s a long sad saga so I’m sparing you the details. For Glasgow area owners the business is Prolek in Springburn & I’d recommend them 100%. Luckily for me my neighbours son had worked for them on van conversions & said they were very good.

My EC155 is kaput, had it & wiring checked out by highly recommended local installer. They recon there’s an internal fault. It started emitting smoke when I tried boost leisure battery using standard charger fed from 13amp supply with ec155 switched off & its connection to battery off.

Not for a long time Alasdair, Arrochar unmanned is nearest. Londis was cheap too 😢

Having a job finding a place to change trans. oil (Glasgow North) Recommended auto trans. specialist who said no! WTF. Local garage said yes, then not keen & recommended the specialist 🙄 What could be the issue apart from time needed to pump oil in?

£363.24 for our 2002 2.4 AH10, paying monthly.

Yer a brave man Gunga Dinn! Many congratulations, can’t imagine the number of lost sleep hours thinking ‘what do I do next?’

25% on the gauge is going to be my fill up criteria in future 😂 The last time I experienced the squeaky b*m feeling was when the sun shining over my shoulder onto my m/ bike digital gauge hid the fact that it was flashing a low fuel warning. Passing through some shade & noticing it caused major alert. I was halfway between supplies, Inveraray to Arrochar. Press on or turn back? Onward, commanded the steed! Roads normally ridden at enthusiastic speeds became even more scenic. Arrochar reached & all was well. Inverary no longer has fuel station, nearest would be Loch Gilphead.

Great song, but I digress already! Had the new to me experience yesterday of bringing up the low fuel light. I blame the incident on me not having had a decent drive in the old bus due to other issues. Off I went with my £20 voucher for butcher meat from a known good butcher in the wilds of West Stirlingshire. After a few miles I realised tank was rather low but I knew where the only station for miles was so pressed on. Imagine my delight to find it closed for major refurb. I'm 13 miles from my nearest station so a very light footed journey commenced. 10 miles later low fuel light comes on, totally new experience for me in van. So, I make it to station & she takes 61 ltrs, another 1st, but having now found out tank capacity is 70 ltrs I am brimming with knowledge. Not that I’m going to make it a habit but I reckon a 2.4 petrol should give you 40-50 miles after low fuel lamp comes on.

Greetings, I’m a semi local to the area mentioned & I went to Drymen at the east side of Loch Lomond today failing to check my tank before setting out 🙄 Be warned, fuel stations are few and far between, nearest would be Dumbarton or Balloch if you come up the A82, if coming from the east Stirling would do although the village of Buchlyvie has a small garage. Aberfoyle has a community station. I got the low fuel light on and after a sweat got filled up near home, 61ltrs 😳 weat

My 2002 A10 petrol 2.4 is not ULEZ compliant in Glasgow.

Good luck🤞Should be an ‘open & shut’ case.

Have to disagree, on slow (engine)speed motor ships heavy oil could be 3,000 secs redwood spec. Usually burned when at sea clear of port. Fuel would be changed over to lower (< 1500 secs redwood spec) for entering port to make engine manoeuvring reliable, ie starting and stopping for going ahead & astern. No gearboxes or variable pitch propellors, engine motion could be reversed. On old Doxford powered tankers I was on we stayed on 1500 sec Redwood all the time as we did loads of short trips between UK & Scandinavian ports. Happy days 😉 (A pal sailed on LNG carriers which could burn the ‘boil off’ gas from cargo tanks. He said engine internals were spotless, no carbon deposits at all.)

Heavy oil is usually a marine fuel in large motor ships! It looks like crude oil and has to be heated to keep it moving😂 I agree 100%, somebody’s dropped a clanger

Many thanks!

How does this look to the experts? Local garage is going to do oil change for me. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/395621035104?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=PHlmyqLlRQm&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=inFbBs81TL6&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165010260366?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=1g6e52n0RZW&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=inFbBs81TL6&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Try AA for advice?

Anyone use Gendan diagnostic gear. I have old software from them on an old windows laptop bought just for resetting a DPF on our previous motorhome. (known fault on Bosch sensor) When I bought Gendans cables for m/h they advised that with the cable a had for a previous vehicle I’d enough to check anything🤔 I’m curious to know what, if any, gear Alphard folks use for checking faults

£40 for 4? Good price compared to eBay.

All is well! Went out expecting major investigations & the van is back to normal! Did the Alphard fairies pay a visit? Door locking by switches all ok, (after resetting), interior lights working, fired her up, couple of manoeuvres on the drive & all seems ok. Battery connections checked, all good, 12.3v. Self fixing vehicles are great.