My engine battery keeps dying overnight even though I have nothing on. I have the house battery which will say its good and charged but still dont use anything electrical and by morning everything is dead. I even bought a brand new battery and same thing keeps happening. I have an invertor box in the rv (Im VERY new to RV's and how all of this works) and I dont think its working. How do I tell if its working? Does anyone have any idea why the battery is dying constantly? Please help. Im on the road alone and dont know much about how to fix this problem so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Engine battery keeps dying overnight
- Thread starter katsmith
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Optimistic Paranoid
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Do you know how old the battery is?
What year is your vehicle? Could it still be the original factory battery?
How far do you drive every day?
There are a number of possibilities. The battery might have died of old age. The vehicle's charging system might be having problems, so that the battery isn't being recharged. Might even be as simple as dirty connections or a loose wire.
Somebody with a volt meter needs to get under the hood and check a few readings in order to figure out whats going on.
What year is your vehicle? Could it still be the original factory battery?
How far do you drive every day?
There are a number of possibilities. The battery might have died of old age. The vehicle's charging system might be having problems, so that the battery isn't being recharged. Might even be as simple as dirty connections or a loose wire.
Somebody with a volt meter needs to get under the hood and check a few readings in order to figure out whats going on.
The RV is a 1988 Toyota Odyssey 22 foot. When I bought it I was told the battery is new and it looks new. I went from Arizona to Oregon and everything was fine except i was told when I drive the house battery would charge and sometimes it did but most of the time it would say it was fair. When i was parked with the engine running it would say good. When I got back to AZ I havent driven it that much bc the engine battery kept dying and I would have to jump it everytime I wanted to drive it.
Optimistic Paranoid
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As far as your Inverter goes, it's purpose is to provide 120 volt ac from your 12 volt DC house battery. Can you run anything that's 120 when you're not plugged in to shore power or running a generator?
There is an inverter in the RV but I can never tell if it is working. No lights come on or anything but like I said when the engine battery was working the house lights would come on for maybe half an hour then go dim. None of the electrical sockets have ever had enough power to work so I have never been able to use them. Since theres not alot of power getting into the RV it confuses me as to why the engine battery keeps dying. I really would like for everything to work but Im having such a hard time figuring out how to make that happen.
MrNoodly
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If it happened with a new battery, then there's probably wiring messed up somewhere. A previous owner or an "expert" probably did some creative wiring changes. Or it could be that 30 years of vibration has worn the insulation off a wire. Or, as Optimistic Paranoid suggested, your alternator could be at the end of its life. A bad alternator is at least easier to diagnose and replace than some mysterious wiring problem.
Yes. If I have the rv running the house battery will charge to good. Then when i turn off the rv i have anywhere between a half an hour to sometimes an hour where the inside lights will work then they dim and i just turn them off. Im thinking maybe th inverter box isnt working correctly?
ArtW
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OK, here's the question, if you jump it off and drive someplace, will it restart if you turn it off?
Does it die while driving?
if the answers are yes and no, that pretty much rules out the alternator
A new battery could be bad, have you tried disconnecting the battery when parking it?
does it start if you do that?
If so, Probable good battery
that leaves, as Mr Noodly said, wiring issues
Somewhere your starting battery is being drained, and it sounds to me like your starting battery is running things your house battery should be running
How is the house battery isolated from the house battery?
Does it die while driving?
if the answers are yes and no, that pretty much rules out the alternator
A new battery could be bad, have you tried disconnecting the battery when parking it?
does it start if you do that?
If so, Probable good battery
that leaves, as Mr Noodly said, wiring issues
Somewhere your starting battery is being drained, and it sounds to me like your starting battery is running things your house battery should be running
How is the house battery isolated from the house battery?
ArtW
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katsmith said:
Your isolator or solenoid is defective, it sounds like
If it is jumped and then turned off sometimes it will start but a majority of the time it will need to be jumped again but it will jump quite fast. If it sits overnight I will have to jump it for about 5 minutes. It has never died while driving or lost energy. I have not tried disconnecting the battery while it is parked. The house battery is in the outside locked box area on the side of the rv. I do not think the invertor is working at all though. No lights come on or anything. Could that have something to do with it?
ArtW
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Sounds like the times it needs jumped again it just didn't run long enought
The converter could have some problem too, I'm not very up to speed on inverters, but it sure sounds like your house and starting batteryb are connected all the time, and they shouldn't be
Somewhere in the wiring is either a battery isolater or a continuous duty solenoid
It's job is to let power from the alternator into both the house battery and the starting battery while the unit is running, and stop the house power from being drawn from the starting battery
It sounds like it's not doing it's job
The converter could have some problem too, I'm not very up to speed on inverters, but it sure sounds like your house and starting batteryb are connected all the time, and they shouldn't be
Somewhere in the wiring is either a battery isolater or a continuous duty solenoid
It's job is to let power from the alternator into both the house battery and the starting battery while the unit is running, and stop the house power from being drawn from the starting battery
It sounds like it's not doing it's job
Optimistic Paranoid
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The lights in RVs are almost always 12 volt lights running directly off the house battery. The inverter has nothing to do with them.
You're house battery and engine battery are supposed to have an isolator between them. This permits the engine to charge the house battery, but separates them when the engine is off so you don't kill your engine starting battery by running lights and stuff off it overnight.
It does sound like your isolator has failed, so that your lights are killing your engine battery. It's also possible your house battery isn't being charged at all when your engine is running.
You're house battery and engine battery are supposed to have an isolator between them. This permits the engine to charge the house battery, but separates them when the engine is off so you don't kill your engine starting battery by running lights and stuff off it overnight.
It does sound like your isolator has failed, so that your lights are killing your engine battery. It's also possible your house battery isn't being charged at all when your engine is running.
ArtW
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^^this
Optimistic Paranoid said:
I was thinking that to but inside the RV there is a display thing that says the house battery is either low, fair, or good. When the RV is running it will be on good and everything works okay. Since I am clearly very confused what exactly is the inverter box for? When I travel I do not go to RV parks so I really need for my lights to work and would love to plug things in. If the house battery were working correctly should that accomplish that or do I need to get the converter hooked up? Does the converter hook up to the house battery?
Optimistic Paranoid
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An INVERTER changes 12 volt dc to 120 volt ac. When properly hooked up, it draws power from your house battery to provide power to your normal household outlets when you are not plugged in at a campground.
A CONVERTER takes 120 volt ac and changes it to 12 volt dc. When you are plugged in at a campground, it provides 12 volt power to your house lights, water pump, and similar 12 volt stuff AND recharges your house battery if it's low.
Sometimes, on RVs, there is no separate CONVERTER, the INVERTER is an INVERTER/CHARGER which combines both functions in one unit.
BTW, that display that says GOOD, FAIR, etc. is a simple voltmeter. It's telling you things are good when the engine is running because it's reading the power coming from the engine alternator.
A CONVERTER takes 120 volt ac and changes it to 12 volt dc. When you are plugged in at a campground, it provides 12 volt power to your house lights, water pump, and similar 12 volt stuff AND recharges your house battery if it's low.
Sometimes, on RVs, there is no separate CONVERTER, the INVERTER is an INVERTER/CHARGER which combines both functions in one unit.
BTW, that display that says GOOD, FAIR, etc. is a simple voltmeter. It's telling you things are good when the engine is running because it's reading the power coming from the engine alternator.
