Thread: engel fridge causing trouble

Originally Posted by hagus

G,day all.
Has anyone got any ideas on what might be going on here.

I have a 2002 130 def with a dual battery set up and a battery isolator switch in it. I run our engel fridge off the deep cycle battery. If we leave the fridge on for more than late afternoon till early morning the truck will not start. It carrys on as if it has a flat battery.

We just did a trip up the Dampier peninsular and this happend. I checked the starting battery with a multi meter and it was reading 14V. The deep cycle battery was reading 10V.
The truck will roll start OK but this is unsatisfactory in the middle of nowhere here in the Kimberleys on your own.

Could the fridge be interfering with the computer somehow?

Any thoughts

Does the cranking battery work okay/keep charge without the engle on it.

On mine I have a 'gizmo' that isolates the two batteries when the voltage in the cranking battery drops to below 12v (approx). Which I thought that was how that they are meant to work.

Maybe the 'computer' is faulty. and not isolating when the volts drop, or it's measuring the voltage of the wrong battery

Or the dual battery set up is wired incorrectly

The cranking battery does not loose any charge at all overnight.

I have on another occasion replaced the cranking battery to no avail. This is what makes me think it might be messing with the comp.

I have one of those gizmos you speak of and will get it checked out by an auto elec when i get to Kunnunura. Tey are a bit thin on the ground in Halls Creek.

The ECU dosn't have any control over the starter motor. Everything else but the starter is control through the ign switch & a relay. The ECU gets a signal from the starter circuit but that's about it AFAIK.

Originally Posted by hagus

I have on another occasion replaced the cranking battery to no avail.

I was going to say that perhaps the cranking battery is buggered. If the battery isolator was a simple solenoid design then it might bring both batteries together to start. Therefore you wouldn't notice the buggered cranking battery until the second battery was flattery.

However since you said you replaced the crank battery to no avail then I guess it isn't that

Unless the same system I described above is what you have and you have a dodgy cranking battery earth? Don't know if this could cause your problems but it is easy to check all your earths all the same.

Utemad
Wouldn't a crappy earth show up all the time. This situation has happened on three occassions all when the fridge runs a bit longer than overnight. I have tried jumper leads on one occasion and had no success. I might try turning the isolator switch on/off (whichever) as the fridge still runs but the truck wont start and see if that works. A bit of a pain though because if it dosent work I have to be towed.

Im wondreing if the flat deep cycle is drawing too much power from the main battery whilst cranking and not alowing the starter motor to crank.
Are you able to isolate the second battery during the start proceedure????
Andrew

Whew, for a moment there I thought someone had actually had trouble with an Engel less than 20 years old, and all the Waeco apologists would see it as justification for all their woes>LOL.
BUT its nothing to do with the fridge, its the batteries or the isolator.
I think the fridge is connected to the wrong battery.
regards Philip A

I am just guessing when I answer but a dodgy earth might only show up sometimes. I'd of thought that a high current dodgy earth would show up more often then not though.
The fact it only happens when your 2nd battery is drawn down from your fridge more than usual fits with what I posted before (in my head at least).

It is pretty weird that jumper cables didn't help though. Did you let the engine of the donor vehicle run to charge your battery for a little bit. Instead of just attaching the jumpers and hitting your key?

As LandyAndy suggested I'd be disconnecting the 2nd battery and seeing how the vehicle performs with only the cranking battery. At the very least you'd quickly find out if your second battery is helping start your car.