Peugeot Boxer Ignition barrel red button

Hi Will. I don’t think it can be your re-starting technique but it may be that you have something turned on - possibly in the habitation area. If the hab area panel is left on, the hab battery could lose charge and then the hab area supply would seek, change to, and drain the van battery and would bypass the red button system but I wouldn’t expect a Peugeot garage to identify a cause in the hab unit.

I suggest you turn off the van hab electrics at the main control/fuse panel and try again. This may help to isolate the cause of the problem.

A faulty solar panel controller may cause a similar fault and a call to the system maker, eg Sargent, may throw some light on the matter (no pun intended!) if the issue is in the hab area.

Other than that, I’m at a loss. However, sometimes the red button system does how wrong.

Good luck.

 Hello SChisholm,

I hope you can offer some guidance based on your experience with your Citroen !!!

The problem you describe is exactly the same as my own issue which happens to be on my Bailey which is based on a Peugeot Boxer Motorcab. The functionality of the 'Red Button' (Battery Saving System) is the same on all vehicles (Peugeot Boxer/Fiat Ducato/Citroen). My vehicle currently has the battery relay (on earth terminal) bypassed to allow the vehicle to start. I am currently in dialogue with my local Peugeot dealer who has replaced the relay and still no successful resolution. Peugeot Technical UK have also not been very helpful saying they have not heard of this problem before. They did however offer some further checks / actions but were not precise about the 'Root Cause' of the issue (ie) once Battery Saving System correctly activated, why can one not start the vehicle after without the need to bypass the installed relay. I see you took your vehicle to the Citroen dealer to sort - in your case can you please share the 'Root Cause' for your problem and what the dealer did to rectify your situation? Assuming they were able to correctly identify it. I Look forward to hearing back so I hope you do pick up this message to you. 

Regards,

Will

Wow, still not sorted, WMH!

Incidentally our 2020 Fiat Ducato does not have the red button to isolate the battery.

I was told by Peugeot technician that from research he has made when investigating the issue for me that the 'Battery Saving System' has been discontinued. This was 2 days ago.

TW - did you ever have any issues with the functionality of yours on your previous vehicle? If yes, what was the fix please?

Will

Our red button was only used a few times, Will, and worked OK but I have heard of others having problems.

I'd suggest not using the button and/or getting the relay bypassed and trying to keep the battery charged. A small solar panel that sits inside the windscreen and plugs into a dashboard socket (if one is available) may work if the socket is not controlled by the ignition switch.

You might want to consider buying a boost starter battery pack to carry with you, that is what we do to give peace of mind in case of a flat battery whilst on site. They are relatively cheap, easy to carry, can be used on any vehicle and can also be used as a portable 12v power source.

Perhaps the discontinued fitting of the red button system speaks volumes.

Good luck.

Hi, just picked this thread up. Bought a 2017 Auto-Sleeper Broadway in December on a Peugeot that logs show was built in 2016. It has the red button and there is nothing in the Peugeot manual. At handover it was skimmed over as I don’t think the chap really knew about it.

Just had major battery problems (steep learning curve in my first month) and trying to get my head around it and sort out so it doesn’t happen again. Realised the red button battery kill switch might help, but absolutely no info from either AS or Peugeot, totally bizarre to me.

However slowly picked threads up from blogs, some quite conflicting. This thread is the best I have found.

I have been fiddling with mine and can’t quite get the button to stay in, so you’ve answered what I need to do that.

I’ve learnt from Sargent to now shut the master switch off on the habitation (I’ve yet to find if that battery is totally shot). The vehicle battery might be salvageable as I managed to get it charged and running, and restart the next day. However again there might be long term damage on that.

I’ll get back to it tomorrow and try shut the vehicle battery down by the red button. However I’m still confused about whether or if the solar panel still charges it if a) the Sargent master switch is off b) if the red button is used.

Again nothing is clear about the action of the solar panel in any blurb.

I am awaiting selling my 2011 Bentley Indigo and as I have never had this battery issue with that, it’s tempting to keep that and sell the AS, I can’t believe a 6 year younger van appears to have gone backwards on technology.

Hi 14.

The batteries probably do not discharge completely.

As far as I remember, the vehicle electrics cut out when the battery voltage drops to about 10 volts. This is to protect the battery against serious discharge and that is the reason a shortish run will recharge it.

The hab battery also has a cut out that can be set to operate at about 10 or 13 volts from the advanced settings on the Sargent control panel. The advanced settings allow several parameters to be set, eg battery type & capacity. The dealer should set these on the PDI but many seem to be unaware of them. If I remember correctly, the cut out settings are marked as Fiat (about 10v), or Peugeot (about 13v). Setting instructions for the Sargent unit should be in the paperwork.

I am afraid I am unable to add anything further.

Our new van had an update to the ECU before we took delivery of it to prevent the vehicle battery discharging.

During your browsing, have you come across the AutoSleepers Owners Forum? There are some very knowledgeable people posting on there.

https://www.autosleeper-ownersforum.com

I have a Wildax Aurora Leisure, recently acquired 2018 model (Citroen Relay). I was at Newcastleton Folk Festival a couple of weekends ago, and because there is no Mobile cover there, thought I would listen to the radio. To get the radio to come on with the ignition off, I pressed the red button and turned the key. Lo the radio came on, but then I realised, too late, the battery was draining rapidly.

Had to get a friend to help me jump start the van.

In retrospect I wonder if, by engaging the red button, the fridge thought I was driving and switched over from gas to the battery? Consequently flattening it. From now on, I'm leaving the red button well alone.

I sought advice from her (the C and MH club technical queries), and got no help at all, likewise from Wildax, who told me to contact Citroen - who are impossible to get information from.

Pushing the red button enables the ignition key to turn to another position which then isolates the battery. Read through this thread with my earlier explanations. It should help. 

We currently have a problem with our Accordo. After we do all of the above we find that the passenger door isn’t locking. We also have a problem discussed in another thread .