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rajsahota
04-12-2007, 02:00 PM
Hi Guys,

I was wondering if anyone of you guys could help me. I am having a problem with my battery being completely drained in the mornings when i come to start the car. There are no interior light on and also the radio is off. The way i am getting around the problem at the moment is that i am having to connect/disconnect my battery every morning/night.

Here comes the interesting part....

This all started to happen since I went away for holiday and parked the car in a airport carpark, when i came back the batery was completely drained and the keyfob for the central locking has not been working since either - reprogramming is needed, I think. But if i use my key in the driver door, the central locking is slightly tempermental and on most occasions does not seem to be working either. It does work sometimes, so this must be loose connection.

Could this be related?

This is the same problem my close friend has had with his passat, the central locking went and the battery seemed to be getting drained every day. VW supposedly could not find the fault and he had to sell it.

I have tried to search on the internet for similar problems with solutions but have been unsuccessful. Is this a common fault with vw/audis? Can anybody steer me in the right direction to getting this problem solved, it will be much appriciated.

cheer,

AutoTDI
04-12-2007, 10:13 PM
You haven't said anything about the age of the battery. Is it outside warranty? Is it a quality make? Batteries can fail surprisingly quickly, once they lose their ability to hold charge. It could be that your battery was on its last legs before you went on holiday and two weeks of powering the alarm was the last straw. Have you checked the electrolyte levels and specific gravity of each cell? You only need one duff cell to render the battery useless. Are you doing sufficient mileage to keep the battery charged? Is a lot of your driving done in the dark with headlights on and possibly at this time of the year, with heater, including windscreen heater working hard? This is the time of year when iffy batteries will finally give up.

RickT
05-12-2007, 12:51 AM
If the car battery went flat after 2 weeks i would suggest changing that first of all..

I think this will be your issue..

Your best bet is to start the car, get a meter on the battery to ensure on idle the power is around 13v-14v (the altenater charges it at this when running..)
(you best bet is to check the power after you have been driving it for at least 15 min to ensure is get topped up)

THEN...

Turn the car off and check... it should be now around 12v

Check it again after 15 mins, an hour... it should still be 12v..

If its dropped the car is draining it or the battery is not holding the charge..

At this stage.. you have 2 options..

Go out and buy another battery to see if this solves the issue..

OR...

Once the battery has been topped up again after 15 mins - 30 mins driving, REMOVE it from the car... and check the voltage, 15mins after, an hour etc and comapre volotage to when it was on the car...

If it drops you know you have an issue with the battery.... if it stays the same... leave it off over night and check in the morning...

if still 12v we will re-assess...

Rick

rajsahota
05-12-2007, 04:19 PM
Cheers for the replies guys,

the battery is new but i am still gettind the same problem, i will probably have to get the volt meter onto it and run some tests.

i will keep you updated.

thanks again.

RickT
05-12-2007, 06:27 PM
Cheers for the replies guys,

the battery is new but i am still gettind the same problem, i will probably have to get the volt meter onto it and run some tests.

i will keep you updated.

thanks again.


No worries..

as above.. do some testing on and off the car..

What year A4 is it??

Also... just to make sure... you lock the car on an evening?? (sometimes people have big garages and just left them unlocked which keeps the car "live"

Rick

viodiesel
08-12-2007, 10:40 PM
Just to cry on your shoulder....
I have the same problem. Sometimes in the morning battery is dead.But I have 2 batteries of good quality both. One is ready charged at any time..Voltage meter fitted shows good charging.
They say that something remains connected. Sometimes, when car is stopped and locked, radio off, I can hear the tape player ticking...Unplugged, let like that for few minutes, reconnect and still ticking. After few tries will go normal.But I'm not checking always, so...
Please let us know what you found, if you fixed it.

jonbaker
03-01-2008, 01:57 PM
I've just posted a similar thread. The past month my battery has died on 2 occassions. On both occassions it was freezing cold, i'd done short journeys in the dark in the morning, with heater full blast, radio on, rear heater on! doh!

Even so i thought there must be a bit more to it. The rac came out on both occassions and tested my battery which was fine. The second time they came out the guy tested my radio while off and found it was draining the battery more than it should. Not by much but enough to make a difference in current conditions. I can't be ***** to pay a fortune in getting it sorted so i simply take the fuse out. A pain, but it's been fine since.