Technical 2004 2.8 jtd (Campervan) Major electrical fault.

[Old-Boy racer]

Currently on hols in France, van suddenly stooped when entering a small town. Nearly all the electrics dead except oil and ignition light. The engine turns over but doesn't run of course. Small lcd screen in the dash shows nothing and no other warning lights come on to do the normal check. The battery nis clearly ok as it turns over quite happily. There appears to be no volts getting to the two internal fuse boxes to operate anything else. Have checked all the big fuses in the fuse box under the bonnet. Recovery guy tried a jump connection between the battery earth and the engine so it's not the engine earth wire. Currently lying in the south of France waiting to be taken to a Fiat main agent at vast expense. Its 2004 but never missed a beat and only has 56k on the clock anyway.
Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[lancepar]

Do you have an electric step? I had a similar fault, started then cut out 30secs later, would'nt fire up.
Operated the step out an in, MoHo started up and has never done it again I did spray the micro switch later with wd40.

 

[Old-Boy racer]

Thanks for the thought. The conversion was done by me and all the domestic electrics are entirely separate operating off "leisure" batteries. The only link is through a battery to battery charger fed via a circuit breaker from the main battery/alternator. This is currently open just to ensure there is no funny business going on although it confused the breakdown man who insisted it was the main breaker for everything until he proved himself wrong.

 

[Crossingkeeper]

Does your van have the 'maxi' fuses on the battery positive terminal plate?

If so it possible that one of these has blown (of course this will just shift the issue!)

 

[Old-Boy racer]

Thanks for the reply. It does have the maxi fuses on a battery plate but I checked those first and they are all ok. I am thinking that it might be earth from battery to the chassis. The breakdown guy jumped between battery earth and the engine to try it but he didn't try battery earth to chassis now I think about it. Having had a chance to download and study the circuit diagrams from the forum, earthing seems the most likely cause with the amount of electrics that appear to be not working. I may be able to get back and look in the next couple of days or I'll have to bite the bullet and it will end up going to the nearest Fiat main agent.. The penalty of being on holiday with limited facilities.

 

[Crossingkeeper]

You have my sympathies; you are obviously conversant with vehicle electrics but, as you say, lack of facilities and time are against rational diagnosis.

The only consolation is that, with such a catastrophic failure it is likely to be an easy fix. I can only suggest that if it is not the earths and you can borrow or buy a multimeter, you pick a 'simple' accessible circuit such as sidelights and work your way through it to find the issue.

 

[Old-Boy racer]

Thanks again for the reply. I do have a multimeter in the van anyway but now we are not in it at the moment as living in it for the weekend in a dusty dirty recovery yard wasn't very appealing. Luckily (?) my wife is French so we are in a family house about 80 miles away. After a number of phone calls this morning, we are planning to go down tomorrow and have a better look if the breakdown guy will let me, otherwise it's 300 euros worth of transport to a Fiat main agent. We spoke to the nearest one who kindly said he couldn't do it until the middle of next week! I'm afraid I've always been spoilt by our local UK main agent who will always do things immediately for me in case of trouble even if it's just a quick looksee (we have had various Fiats from them over the years though as well as the original base van).

 

[Old-Boy racer]

Just following up. Having recovered the van which was actually working when we got back to it having been towed across the recovery yard. My conclusion is that it was the earth contact to the chassis. It was not corroded in any obvious way but it is all bolted together on top of the paint. I did a bit of tweaking of the bolt but also put in a second earth strap to the bodywork as a backup. It has now driven about 75 miles and been started and stopped several times and all been well.