PCSB

Good question! I'm hoping it is just a bad unit ... but as the engine is under warranty I have made sure that the builder is involved, it is now with Engines Plus awaiting their response. All being well I will receive an update later today. As mentioned earlier by @jpcdriver Engines Plus add the relay as a mod to the engine to aid cold starting/voltage drop issues. Whether they will send an engineer or just authorise the builder to swap it out I'll wait and see.

The engineer from the builders is sorting a replacement. They use a 70Amp relay. To be clear, I did switch to the glow plug position and there was no change in voltage. As it is still warranted I'll let the engineer deal with it now, but it is a very simple job to swap over.

I've just put the meter on the brown feed (conn. 30) and it shows 13.1v. Also checked the earth on connection 86 and that is good. When switching to glow plug there is a very, very faint click and it should be a good thunk as it engages. Have spoken with the builder (it is still under warranty) and he agrees that the relay is shot. He has a spare in the office and is not too far away but we may get one locally. We are in Ellesmere at the moment so there are far worse places to be "stuck" - not that we really are but ...

All useful info, ta. I have a dc clamp meter (does ac too). Just checked voltage drop and there is none. Clamped onto various points onto +ve feed and saw a very small current appx 1.8A, when ignition in the ON position, when switching to glow plug, no change. Tested voltage at the battery, 13.2v rested, tested voltage at the first glow plug terminal and it was 0. Traced the feed wire back and found a relay, a 12v 70A job. Getting o volts from the output from the relay when switched to glow plug position. Tested the input +ve and that was showing 12.8v when in the glow plug position. I think this means the relay is shot, but happy to be corrected. If so I will swap it out.

Thanks Brian I will try that too.

Manually select them by turning the key

I have a suspicion that the glow plugs in my engine are not working so I will be trying to test them tomorrow. I will not be going too far with the testing as the engine is still under warranty, but I want to know there is an issue before calling the builder out. The engine is a canaline 42 and the glow plugs are E6301-65512 type (cannot find that using google). My understanding is that they should be pulling a fair amperage when active (i.e. the glowplug light showing on the control panel), somewhere in the mid tens of amps, e.g. 40 ish. Is this correct? I have had a quick look and cannot see an inline fuse on the circuit, the generic wiring diagrams I have seen don't show one either. Should there be one? If so I'll take a better look tomorrow as the weather will be a whole lot better than today. Anything else I should be aware of to easily and quickly test? Like I say I don't want to remove them and test individually as the engine is still under warranty. The reason I'm asking is the engine is getting harder to start, today it took three spins before firing and that was followed by a large cloud of white smoke which went after a few moments. Ran a bit rough initially too which I seem to recall is another indication the glow plugs may not be working. I will also check the starter battery resting voltage tomorrow too, I know the starter battery alternator is working (or it was a week or two back) as I have checked that with a meter (only for voltage which was 14.6v). TIA, Paul.

I doubt it will sand out but you may be lucky that it is just the varnish discoloured. Either way you will have to get through the varnish back to bare wood, but be very careful not to sand through the veneer, assuming that is what it is. A wash with a mild bleach solution may work, if not try using some oxalic acid. Again take care not to soak the wood especially if it is mdf or ply and follow the destructions on the oxalic acid.

Cheers Nick, much appreciated.

Hi Nick, how it is wired now is there is a 50mm2 cable from the battery bank to a common ground point on the engine mount runner, with the same sized cable connecting to the engine. Hope that makes sense! Would you change this? Also the -ve from the starter battery is connected to the first battery in domestic bank -ve, so commoned up, which from what I've seen seems to be the way it is done, is that ok?

Thanks all, I emailed Victron (wasn't expecting a response) and they have confirmed my understanding. I have wired the shunt correctly, except that the chasis ground should be wired to the system minus side of the shunt.

When wiring up a Victron SmartShunt (or any shunt I guess) does the earth lead connect to the system minus lug on the shunt? The destructions say all dc loads, inverters etc should be connected "after" the shunt so I'd guess that includes the neg to earth. Reason for asking is the shunt is measuring outgoings but no charging is being measured, so suspect the earth should go via it. I've checked where the inverter goes and where the neg to battery goes and they are correctly done. I need to move an MPPT connection but that doesn't account for the lack of charge being registered. I've checked output from the domestic alternator (175Amps) and the battery voltages and all seems ok, the alt is outputting 14.5+ volts. I've no reason to suspect that the batteries are not being charged as I'm out cruising at the moment and the volatges are good first thing (12.68 this morning). The domestic batteries are the only load on theis alternator. TIA Paul.