Do I need a New Battery?

[neovw]

Hi

I have the following issue with my 03 Passat.

The car fails to start every few days, if i charge the battery for say 10 mins and try again it will be fine and fail to start again a few days later.

I am making mainly very short journeys, the symptoms of it failing to start are the lights on the dash are a lot dimmer and its like the battery has no life at all.

I took it to a battery guy and he said the charge was full but the battery was faulty. he checked with the engine switched off etc.

Is this a case of just needing a new battery or Parasitic battery drain, where something is draining the battery when idle.

Thanks

[godfried]

I would get a new battery.

[neovw]

Cool , however i was thinking if there is another issue , but then again my battery seems gone so if there is another issue it will still need a new battery

[Teflon]

If your battery has been tested and diagnosed as duff, then unless he is a bit of a charlatan you need a new one. Often, the battery will test as okay even if it is about to expire.

You shouldn't have any parasitic discharging, unless you have added extras wrongly. A new radio is a favourite for this. It is easy to check for, just disconnect the battery and check for a current drain of anything more than a few milliamps between the battery terminal and the disconnected lead. Make sure that you have tripped the bonnet lock when doing this, otherwise the car will think the bonnet is open and the current draw will be higher.

[DSG4ME]

Try this before spending * btw you're in the wrong Sat section, you need the B5.5 forum* charge it fully with a charger, don't reconnect it and leave it for a day, then charge it again, if the charger needle flies over the other side of it's scale the battery is done for and you should get a new one, but I suspect the alternator pulley is going south and you aren't getting the proper means to keep the battery full, you can do 2 things, 1 get a new alternator, recon is about £150, new is £400, comes in 2 varieties, Valeo and Bosch, Valeo one is generally cheaper, or you can get a new pulley fitted for about £80, are you getting any lights on the dash?

The other favorite is a non oem radio unit, the canbus can't talk to say a Sony mp3 CD/radio so it continues to act like the unit is switched on hence the drain, you can get a loom to sort this at Dynamic Sounds, it's a connects2 one that provides pulse,illumination and on off function, about £35 iirc, other places sell them so look around, I only gave you DS because I've shopped with them and the experience was a good one.

[neovw]

The pulley has already gone on this car about 18-24 months ago i got a re-con bosch alternator fitted , so not sure it could be that again.

There is nothing non standard on the car fitted at all.

Id love to leave the battery disconnected for day but alas i need the car all the time, with my wife expecting (not soon though) this needs to get fixed as u never know when something may go wrong