# Fiat Ducato Battery Draining



## smiddy (Mar 15, 2010)

Recently bought a new 2011 Fiat Auto Trail Apache 700 in August , and since then it has been back at the dealers more than been on any campsite …

Anyhow my next rant is ... :x As the Motorhome has been parked up at the house , within a matter of 5/6 days the battery is totally drained and i have to jump start the van , yet on the display panel above the door the reading is showing "Engine Battery Good" .

Surely a battery should not drain within a week , plus there is not anything on in the Van to cause it to drain so fast .

My biggest worry is when i eventually go anywhere in it for more than 3/4 days i would need to start it up and let it run for to boost the battery , is this a common thing to do , never done this sort of thing in my last old Motorhome .

There has been that many faults with this Bucket i am wishing i had never bought it .

Auto Trail …… Piece of ****

Rant Over


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

We have a 2007 X250 and engine battery drain was an issue from the start. There was a lot of correspondence on MHF at the time as it was a common failing due to the drain on the battery caused by the canbus system.

In our Fiat handbook it recognises that this is going to happen and recommends that the battery is disconnected when the vehicle is left for any length of time. I can't remember the exact length of time they suggest but in our case the battery flattened much more quickly that Fiat said. Fiat even make disconnection of the battery easier than usual. I assume they designed the van for white van man who is going to use it every day anyway so no problem.

The snag is of course that if you do disconnect then you have no alarm on the van. Our van is kept in storage some way away so this is not an option. We keep the battery topped up by the roof-mounted solar panel in summer and a hook up in winter.

G


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## Codfinger (Jan 11, 2008)

Hi bud before you do anything you need to find out how much load is being drawn from your battery while stationary, make sure everything is turned off radios etc I always turn off the habitation circuits while not in use too, do you have an alarm and tracker fitted as these will all pull down the battery, if you do a search on these forums there is lots of info on similar problems and cure.
Chris


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

Here is the link to the 2007 thread:

http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopict-34748-fiat.html+x250+battery+drain

G


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## Rosbotham (May 4, 2008)

It shouldn't drain in 5 to 6 days. Mine's good for 3-4 weeks at least, and that's with an alarm fitted.

The advice to check the actual current draw with a meter is good.

Two potential things, maybe barking up wrong tree but you never know.

Reversing camera. Check how it's wired. AT ones are wired I think rather than wireless, so less likely to be an issue, but it has been known for numpty installers to wire them to permanent 12V rather than ignition switched, meaning they're permanently live/drawing current.

The electrical system's been updated on the latest ATs so this may not be the case any more. However, if the switch in the back of mine is set to vehicle battery, then the hab electrics will draw from the vehicle battery, hence drain it. Apparently the previous owner of mine mullered the vehicle battery by leaving it permanently switched to vehicle instead of hab battery.


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## solaris (Jun 13, 2009)

I had a similar problem to this on my 2007 Hymer and after two trips to the auto electrician it was found to be the Radio/CD player (an Alpline model fitted before I bought the van) that was drawing 300 milliamps out of the battery. Over a couple of weeks it was enough to flatten the battery.

The short term fix was to change to connection so it only works when the ignition is on. This is a bit of a pain as you cant listen to it when you are parked up, eventually I will change it for one that doesnt draw so much power.

Hope this helps.

Stuart


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## steco1958 (Mar 5, 2009)

I have a 2009, AutoTrail with the Fiat Body.

I have Sigma Alarm and Tracker fitted.

I have left mine on occasions on the drive, or on our main holidays when the MH is used more like a caravan so static for over 3 weeks.

I have only once seen the voltage drop once, when I was ill and did not use the MH for over 6 weeks. I pressed the leisure/vehicle battery switch on the control panel, allowed the Vehicle Batt to have some free solar energy for a couple of hours, and started her up all ok.


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## uncleswede (Apr 16, 2010)

solaris said:


> I had a similar problem to this on my 2007 Hymer and after two trips to the auto electrician it was found to be the Radio/CD player (an Alpline model fitted before I bought the van) that was drawing 300 milliamps out of the battery. Over a couple of weeks it was enough to flatten the battery.
> 
> The short term fix was to change to connection so it only works when the ignition is on. This is a bit of a pain as you cant listen to it when you are parked up, eventually I will change it for one that doesnt draw so much power.
> 
> ...


Stuart,

Can I ask if your radio has a removable fascia and still drew 300ma with the fascia removed?

Cheers
CD


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## jud (Aug 15, 2009)

hi smiddy . we have had 3 fiat x250 and have never had a big battery drain like that there is something that is definitely wrong ours will last 2weeks plus and still start but the batterys do loose a certain amount of volts stood still for that reason have put a small 20watt solar panel on the roof just for the vehicle battery and its always 13 volts now . when at home i just plug in on the drive jud


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## Zebedee (Oct 3, 2007)

Off topic I know, but look at Jud's photo.

What a good idea to zip a couple of bits of pipe insulation to the ladder, so it doesn't mark the van. Dead simple - but I hadn't thought of it. :roll: 

Dave


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## jud (Aug 15, 2009)

Zebedee said:


> Off topic I know, but look at Jud's photo.
> 
> What a good idea to zip a couple of bits of pipe insulation to the ladder, so it doesn't mark the van. Dead simple - but I hadn't thought of it. :roll:
> 
> Dave


hi since the forum went down the other day some of my photos are coming through a very bad quality any ideas.jud


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## jud (Aug 15, 2009)

hi smiddy . for got to say we have a tracker fitted on all our m/hs with no problems.jud


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## solaris (Jun 13, 2009)

Uncleswede wrote:


> Stuart,
> 
> Can I ask if your radio has a removable fascia and still drew 300ma with the fascia removed?
> 
> ...


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## Bill_OR (Feb 6, 2010)

When there's no obvious load on our habitation battery there is a constant 0.75 amp drain. Having seen the comments above about removing the radio facia (we have a Blaupunkt) I tried removing the facia and was amazed to see the drain drop to 0.05 amp. I will now be very much more aware of this!
Thanks for the tip!
Bill


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## rogerblack (May 1, 2005)

solaris said:


> I had a similar problem to this on my 2007 Hymer and after two trips to the auto electrician it was found to be the Radio/CD player (an Alpline model fitted before I bought the van) that was drawing 300 milliamps out of the battery. Over a couple of weeks it was enough to flatten the battery.
> 
> The short term fix was to change to connection so it only works when the ignition is on. This is a bit of a pain as you cant listen to it when you are parked up, eventually I will change it for one that doesnt draw so much power.
> 
> ...


Hi

When we had a new radio/CD/SD/USB head mounted in the van with speakers in the hab as well as the cab, I told the installer that we wanted to use it without the ignition being on but were concerned about current drain if we didn't use the 'van for a while. He fitted a small switch under the dash which can be used to isolate it from the 12V supply completely as and when required. It does mean it loses its programme memory when the switch is off, but that's a minor inconvenience compared with a flat battery! And a small switch will cost you a lot less than a new unit.


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## Hydrocell (Jan 29, 2011)

Hi Smiddy

We have had there new Autotrails in the last five years and all there had batteries that would go flat in a matter of four or five days, following lots of trying this and that it simply came down to duff cell in the batteries themselves.

After the batteries replaced we had no problems, it boils down to poor quality batteries being used by Fiat not a problems with the build quality of components used by Autotrail.

So save your self-time and get your battery checked out first.

Regards
Ray


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