Passat B6 battery life?

[jmurray01]

Hi all,

Hope everybody is safe and well.

Just a quick question that some of you may or may not be able to give me an answer to... Given the present situation nobody is driving much and I myself have no reason to drive regularly now at all (working from home): so plan not to.

Firstly, I parked the Passat (in an enclosed driveway) with the EPB off and in gear, as that is a disaster waiting to happen at the best of times, let alone when potentially left on for weeks on end. Secondly, when I got it the battery was a bit iffy so I replaced it in January 2019 and have had no problems since, however I never leave it parked for more than 2-3 days so haven't really tested its longevity, and I know that these newer cars draw power when parked and locked, unlike the old/classic cars I'm used to owning!

So, is there a general rule of how long a B6 Passat can remain parked (in a locked state with presumably the alarm and immobiliser active) before the battery is too low to start it again? As I said the battery is just over a year old, has never gone flat and always got long runs (20+ miles in one go) on a daily basis so it should be in tip-top condition.

If it goes flat I can put it on charge easily, but I'm concerned about letting it get low in the first place which is obviously damaging to the battery. Of course a lot of people would say to disconnect it, but I don't like doing that on my main car as if there's an emergency then I need to be able to get in the car and go immediately at anytime of the day or night.

[Crasher]

Get yourself a Cteck trickle charger Products

[FrenchAudi]

Get yourself a Cteck trickle charger Products

Seconded! I have mine, an XS 0.8, permanently connected to the battery, and plug it in whenever the car is in the garage.

[jmurray01]

That's fine although it would be wasted on me since I never leave the car more than a couple of days (unless there's a COVID-19 pandemic!) and I don't have a garage so it would mean running a power lead out the front door and to the car.

Just wanted to know if the B6s are generally heavy on battery draw when parked so if it would last say 2 weeks between driving, but I'll probably try to make a Government approved grocery trip every 10 days just to be safe.

[frank-59]

After parking mine up, with intentions of leaving it for a number of weeks, I read your original post, jmurray01, and realised I have left it for 3 weeks with EPB still ON. So after reading your post, I went out and checked if it would start, and it did. I live on a steep street, so was wary about taking EPB OFF, Anyway I did, and left in 1st gear with car pointing up street, I also found some large bricks, and jammed them behind back wheels. So after 5 weeks of being parked-up, I decided last week to give it a run-out, to do some essential shopping, and it started up 1st time and no problems after an hours drive. So I feel I need to thank you jmurray01, for pointing it out about the EPB, which never crossed my mind, as there's never been a situation which needed it. Thank you.

[jmurray01]

After parking mine up, with intentions of leaving it for a number of weeks, I read your original post, jmurray01, and realised I have left it for 3 weeks with EPB still ON. So after reading your post, I went out and checked if it would start, and it did. I live on a steep street, so was wary about taking EPB OFF, Anyway I did, and left in 1st gear with car pointing up street, I also found some large bricks, and jammed them behind back wheels. So after 5 weeks of being parked-up, I decided last week to give it a run-out, to do some essential shopping, and it started up 1st time and no problems after an hours drive. So I feel I need to thank you jmurray01, for pointing it out about the EPB, which never crossed my mind, as there's never been a situation which needed it. Thank you.

Well for me whilst leaving it off ensured I could always get the car moving, it didn't prevent it from developing an issue as proved when I did put it on a couple of weeks ago to test it and got the "parking brake failure" dashboard notice, combined with the permanently lit (P) symbol with a line through it

Whilst it was parked up (a few days before driving and then getting this failure) I had the audacity to clean the car and I can only imagine some water from the pressure washer got into the poorly designed rear caliper(s). The only saving grace is that whilst it has the failure warning it still released again, so henceforth I'll be leaving it off all the time until I either get it diagnosed and fixed, or wait for something else to break then say "bye bye Passat". The latter is more likely to tell you the truth. I've owned quite a few cars in my driving career and none have been so unreliable as this car, nor as expensive to repair.

The only reason I've kept it this long is the practicality of a large estate with towing capabilities and the fact that (when running well) it is great to drive. Why couldn't VW have just made them slightly more reliable!?

[Crasher]

The 2006>2008 calipers can fail for any or no reason whenever, whatever. I did a pair two weeks ago where one was a 2 year old recon that had died... they are bloody useless, not fit for purpose. I always keep two sets of genuine brand new TRW units on the shelf and even now they don’t gather dust. By the way, I only fit in pairs, the ECU can get very upset about different current drains left and right.

[Gazwould]

Devil EPB , first Passat now Korean..

[jmurray01]

The 2006>2008 calipers can fail for any or no reason whenever, whatever. I did a pair two weeks ago where one was a 2 year old recon that had died... they are bloody useless, not fit for purpose. I always keep two sets of genuine brand new TRW units on the shelf and even now they don’t gather dust. By the way, I only fit in pairs, the ECU can get very upset about different current drains left and right.

That's my worry, when/if I do get it fixed I'll need to get two new calipers and quite frankly is it worth it for a 150k 14 year old car that has a list of other things ready to go wrong in B6 Passat tradition? I think not...

Out of curiosity, how much would I expect to pay for 2 of the calipers you would recommend?

[Crasher]

Typically £300 each, there will be a surcharge but they tend to come as new units rather than recon. The one I did a couple of weeks ago also had a full rear powercoated axle rebuild and floor rust treatment two years ago, he has put a lot of money into looking after it.

[/url]