Charging problem - pump more noisy + red light flicks on

[mshep]

I suppose I have done well, over 8000 miles on my Blingo in a year and a only a gear selector cable gotchanged last Easter.

Now the gentle hum of (I assume) a pump motor during recharge starts normally but after 30 ish minutes becomes louder. A bit as if some wasps have moved in.

Then 3 nights ago recharging on cold night close to zero temp there was not only the noise but intermittent flickers from the red light next to the green charging indicator.

I discontinued the charging on noticing this, it was 100% but the balence unfinished.

For the next recharge last night it was warmer and i moved the vehicle into my garage.

Still the increased noise after 30/ 50 mins but no sign of any red warning light this time. Also the charge completed & cut out OK.

My fear is that the pump may be heading towards retirement age....??

thats more guess than diagnosis - also when i cleared the fault light about 3 weeks back I got the codes EO and QO but this may be irrelevant ... any suggestions most welcome !............

Michael Sheppard

[ChrisB]

Could be a pump, remember theres two pumps

Only real way would be to hook the pumps out and run them on a test bed pumping some water round and see which ones moaning, you might be able to tell if you get under the van and rest something like a screwdriver on each pump and then stick the handle in your ear, sounds mad but you should be able to quickly hear the difference of each pump.

Not sure why the 12v aux lamp was flickering......unless its seeing the fact a pumps taking more current than it should dunno if the control side is clever enough to show that sort of fault

ChrisB

[cianof]

how is the coolant level?

[mshep]

Many thanks to ChrisB and to 'cainof' for their advice.

Thinking about the suggestion you made Chris I will book the van in for a mechanical service check with my friendly local small garage - they would normally just look at brakes & steering. As a customer of 20 years standing shouldn't be a problem beeing around when they do it & giving it a few minutes charge when its on the lift. Should be easy then to both listen to pumps & examine the wiring connection to them............ as I am wondering if the red light flicker could be due to an electrical short either internal or external either to or in the pump/s.

'cianof' - I must admit that I have not checked the coolant level since doing a maintenance charge 6 weeks ago. I will do it tomorrow and post back what I find

Thanks again............michael s

POSTSCRIPT - Having put in almost 1litre of water , most of this into the right hand side of partition the pump sounds much better. I should have thought of this myself. I had assumed , wrongly that coolant evaporation is very slow in winter

[ChrisB]

Of course the Aux battery warning light "could" be down to the infamous failing of the 12v Aux battery, do you know how old the 12v is on the van, as these die they can cause a host of issues, although I dont think its likely to make the pumps whine

Worth checking the 12v aux battery just incase, dont forget if you change it to disconnect the traction pack via one of the pack fuses BEFORE disconnecting the 12v and then reverse the proceedure when refiting the 12v. You can damage the DC/DC convertor if you disconnect the 12v if you havent disconnected the traction pack first.

ChrisB

[mshep]

Of course the Aux battery warning light "could" be down to the infamous failing of the 12v Aux battery, do you know how old the 12v is on the van, as these die they can cause a host of issues, although I dont think its likely to make the pumps whine

Worth checking the 12v aux battery just incase, dont forget if you change it to disconnect the traction pack via one of the pack fuses BEFORE disconnecting the 12v and then reverse the proceedure when refiting the 12v. You can damage the DC/DC convertor if you disconnect the 12v if you havent disconnected the traction pack first.

ChrisB

[mshep]

how is the coolant level?

for completeness cianoff you were correct, turns out that the problem arises from a damaged rad cooling fan.

Below is an extract from I message that I have just sent to a friend and BVS memeber about this

all went more or less to plan at the garage today, but no good news unfortunately.

They said the split in the cooling fan casing was so bad that the fan blade could not turn freely....it was very stiff. They were not sure whether or not the casinng & fan were integtral - but they thought it possible that the fan motor could have burnt out because of this.

So I assume this now gives an explanatiion as to why it needs more water about once a week. ( I put in another litre on Tuesday.) It also seems to run on for extreemly long overcharge periods......all day last Sunday....& similar today.

I assume that as the weather warms up the lack of fan will become more and more serious. So do people think its worth trying to buy a second hand fan on the forum or would it be safer to talk to the Citroen dealer here in MK ?

As a temporary measure I am considering running an electric fan infront of the rad while it is charging. ..... I guess doing a maintenance charge is now out of the question ??

On the plus side the van seems to be running well and the brakes are now 100% sorted..... my hope is that it can tolerate the current situation until late April when my job ends..... ........all the best......... michael sheppard

[ChrisB]

Ah the old seized fan issue, have seen/heard this before.

This can happen from memory due to failure of the dropping resistor in front/at the side or the rad, cant remember off hand, this stops the fan from running and can then mean the fan just seizes up

You might find if you strip the fan out and check that its free to turn on it bearings give it some lube and away you go. Check that resistor out too (for some bizzare reason I always thought this resistor was a temp sensor but it isnt )

Personally I'd try and get the fan up and running again ASAP as it keeps everything cool even during driving ( batteries and controller), certainly I would NOT do a maint charge without it working.

ChrisB

[Grumpy-b]

Damage to the fan housing is a problem as it is specific to the electrique. So if the housing can be salvaged all is not lost. They use a 200watt fan unit and a lot of
PSA vehicles use fans of the same diameter, however most are 400w power and are a bit deeper so the fan protrudes out the`front. Lesser engine size vehicles do use 200 or a bit larger fans so they could be used.I have a pair of 306 fans that can be made to fit, but are a bit deeper.
When they get hit in the front they push the armature into the endcase and physically distort the casing, it then wont turn. It may be possible to sort this but it wont be easy.
The whole unit is a s*d to get out an is easier with the lower battery out, the bumper off, or the controller out (the latter wont work on its own).
PSA only sell this as a complete unit part number 1233 80.

Grumpy-b

[cianof]

You could try contacting that scrapyard near southamton for a spare fan.