Wire plugged into radio fuse

[jna203]

Hello,

First time poster here.

I've got a 1999 bongo bought last august.

Its had a long running problem where it has struggled to start in the cold and the wet but you could get it going with a bit of determination. Garages have suggested this could be the glow plugs and i've booked it into a specialised bongo garage for service etc in a couple of weeks. Recently the glow plug light has been flashing even when the car has been running and this has coincided with a lack of power to the radio and cigarette lighter so I needed to take to a local garage to have a look at it the mean time. They found that a red wire had been jammed into the fuse slot for the radio/cigarette lighter- they removed this and put a fuse back in and now the radio/cigarette lighter is working and also the glow plug light is no longer flashing (they haven't replaced the glow plugs because they didnt have a diagnostic tool on hand that they are going to bring when i next take it after the weekend).

They said to keep an eye for things that might not be working anymore to see what the red wire might have been doing. I've tried all the basic things that all seem to be working, lights, emergency lights, indicators, electric windows, central locking, electric blinds, roof, electric wind mirrors, but everything seems to be working. The fridge has been dodgey since we've had it and I think the leisure battery is dead (it was pretty dead when we got it and i've got a replacement but havent installed it yet - were going to get the bongo specialists to do that) so its difficult to know if its effected the fridge.

Any other ideas of what it could be - are there any common reasons that bongo owners plug wires into fuse slots? Just to say i'm not mechanically or electrically minded at all!

thanks,

jna203

[g8dhe]

Welcome aboard!

You may find that you have a Leisure battery (LB) installed under the bonnet, in front of the passenger seat, its common to fit what is termed a "Swap Loom" that transfers some of the circuits from the Starter Battery across to the LB so that they are powered when the ignition switch is off whilst camping. Its quite possible that the LB is flat and hence the problems, the flashing glow plug light is an error indicator that the ECU has a problem which is one of the devices swapped over to the LB. You will need to find out how the LB is charged - often a Split Charge Relay is used to charge the battery when driving, it automatically switches on when the engine is running then releases and separates the two batters when static.
A common problem is if the LB goes flat then when the relay operates the two fuses (one close to each battery) will blow due to the sudden high current to charge the flat battery, so check each fuse and if one has blown then replace BOTH fuses as the second one will also be damaged! Then before testing it charge the LB or replace it if its rather old and then there won't be the sudden current rush!

[Bob]

Welcome aboard, great info from Geoff.

[jna203]

Welcome aboard!

You may find that you have a Leisure battery (LB) installed under the bonnet, in front of the passenger seat, its common to fit what is termed a "Swap Loom" that transfers some of the circuits from the Starter Battery across to the LB so that they are powered when the ignition switch is off whilst camping. Its quite possible that the LB is flat and hence the problems, the flashing glow plug light is an error indicator that the ECU has a problem which is one of the devices swapped over to the LB. You will need to find out how the LB is charged - often a Split Charge Relay is used to charge the battery when driving, it automatically switches on when the engine is running then releases and separates the two batters when static.
A common problem is if the LB goes flat then when the relay operates the two fuses (one close to each battery) will blow due to the sudden high current to charge the flat battery, so check each fuse and if one has blown then replace BOTH fuses as the second one will also be damaged! Then before testing it charge the LB or replace it if its rather old and then there won't be the sudden current rush!

Thanks Geoff that makes a lot of sense!

Yes there were two fuses installed into a cable that was coming off the leisure battery and they were both blown. The leisure battery was definitely already dying when we first got it as I did a voltameter(?) test on it and the number was lower than what it should have been - but now maybe the battery has completely died hence the problem.

I now just need to work out which fuse slots the wire ends were in in the fuse board, I think because the fuses that the garage put in are slightly different I can work it out. I used Google translate (with the camera function) to translate the Japanese and looks like one was in "cigarette lighter" and one was in "room" (?) - would that make sense? I guess room could mean the back cabin?

Thanks again for the help!

[g8dhe]

Yes the are 4 circuits that might be transferred across;

Willingtonkitfusepanel.jpg (24.67 KiB) Viewed 118 times

Normally the old fuses are placed into the additional fuse box under the bonnet that is fed from the LB, if you do have problems in the future, all you need do is move the fuses back inside and remove the wires to place the circuits back on the S.