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 (https://www.ctek.com/products)

[FrenchAudi]

Get yourself a Cteck trickle charger Products (https://www.ctek.com/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 :mad:

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!? :confused:

[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.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48727752787_7783de41d8_k.jpg[/url]

[UMEL]

Get yourself a Cteck trickle charger Products (https://www.ctek.com/products)

Since my retirement and this C19 the car sits more than runs so you prompted me to buy a CTek MX5 for my B7 and it arrived this morning.

I have also plumbed in an external all weather 13 amp socket as well to connect it to.

My first impressions are its a nice looking charger and seems to be rejuvenating the AGM battery.

https://i.imgur.com/lTGTD9j.jpg

[jmurray01]

Thanks VAG for replacing good old cables with overly complicated and expensive "improvements" :aargh4:

don’t blame VAG, apparently it is what “people” (read that as car magazines) want. Even the Pug vans ECP delivers with have them now, French electric brakes....:bigeyes: made by Valeo... :scared:

[jmurray01]

don’t blame VAG, apparently it is what “people” (read that as car magazines) want. Even the Pug vans ECP delivers with have them now, French electric brakes....:bigeyes: made by Valeo... :scared:


I think something is wrong with the system, looks like you wrote my post and I did your reply...

[jmurray01]

Well my question has been answered - parked the Passat up last Sunday, went in this afternoon to go shopping and got the typical really slow crank and then "click click click" :aargh4:

I'm not being funny but 6 days really is pathetic unless there is something draining the battery, which I'm going to have to investigate. Got it on charge now, should hopefully be charged enough to start in an hour or two given it isn't totally dead but that has thrown my schedule off completely.

[Crasher]

How old is the battery and do you have any accessories on the car?

[Crasher]

Something odd there with those replies, I can’t have been drunk, it was too early :alcoholic

[jmurray01]

How old is the battery and do you have any accessories on the car?
The battery was fitted in January last year due to the old one displaying the same problems (only it would go flat overnight as opposed to over a week!) and it failed a load test. Problem is that since the new battery was fitted I've never left the car more than a few days so I can't say if this would have been the case when it was brand new or a recent thing...

The only accessories I have is a dash cam which is plugged into one of the outlets that only gets power with ignition on (so rules that out) and a Parrot hands free system which I had mentioned before to someome and they said it was unlikely that would cause a drain.

[Crasher]

Get hold of a plug in fuse current tester, there are dozens ont tinterweb for about £15. Then establish which fuse the Parrot is on and plug the tester in, remember there are two fuse sizes so find out which size first or buy both. Then run the tester outside of the car, shut the door and arm the alarm. After about 10 minutes see what the drain is, anything over 0.05 will suck even a 096 size battery to below useable level in about a week.

[jmurray01]

Get hold of a plug in fuse current tester, there are dozens ont tinterweb for about £15. Then establish which fuse the Parrot is on and plug the tester in, remember there are two fuse sizes so find out which size first or buy both. Then run the tester outside of the car, shut the door and arm the alarm. After about 10 minutes see what the drain is, anything over 0.05 will suck even a 096 size battery to below useable level in about a week.


There is an additional wire coming off the positive battery cable which has a holder with 2 normal size car fuses in it. Is that a VW wire or could that be the Parrot wiring? If so then I could in theory just remove those fuses and see if that rectifies the problem... Obviously then the Parrot would stop working but I can live without that if it means my battery holds a charge!

It isn't that I'm too parsimonious to spend £15 but at this moment that car has peeved me off to the point where if I have to spend another penny on fixing a problem I'll just get rid of it!

[Crasher]

There should be no additional cables on the battery so disconnect them and see what happens. If the Parrot is powered from these I would be surprised, it is easier to get the power under the dash.

[jmurray01]

There should be no additional cables on the battery so disconnect them and see what happens. If the Parrot is powered from these I would be surprised, it is easier to get the power under the dash.

Right I'll disconnect that and see what happens, or indeed what doesn't happen! There are no other accessories on the car so I'll be damned if I know what it's for if it isn't the Parrot...

[jmurray01]

36958

Well I've taken those two fuses out, but the Parrot still works! So I'm at a loss as to what that's for. Going to take it for a quick drive to make sure everything else still functions...

[Crasher]

Has it got an aftermarket tow bar? That additional wiring is NOT OE! As I would have expected, the Parrot is wired up under the dash, taking it direct to the battery would have been daft.

[jmurray01]

Has it got an aftermarket tow bar? That additional wiring is NOT OE! As I would have expected, the Parrot is wired up under the dash, taking it direct to the battery would have been daft.

Indeed it does, and I realised that shortly after posting on here!! It has dual electrics hence 2 fuses so that's what that is for, but there have been stories of incorrectly wired tow bar electrics draining a battery so I'll leave the fuses out and see if it makes a difference. I tow so rarely that it isn't a problem and I can put them back in when I do need the electrics.

[UMEL]

Ref the AM tow electrics. Does your vehicle have a light on your dash to indicate a trailer/van plug is connected to the socket(s). Many moons back I had a Vitara with AM tow gear fitted by the dealer. The dash light decided to stay on even without a plug in the tow socket. I looked everywhere to find the fault but ended up taking the vehicle back to the dealer. They eventually traced the fault (and it took them a while) inside the tow socket was a plunger switch and it had jammed in (live). Even if you don't have an internal light the sockets may still have a switch which could be jammed and sending power somewhere.

[jmurray01]

Ref the AM tow electrics. Does your vehicle have a light on your dash to indicate a trailer/van plug is connected to the socket(s). Many moons back I had a Vitara with AM tow gear fitted by the dealer. The dash light decided to stay on even without a plug in the tow socket. I looked everywhere to find the fault but ended up taking the vehicle back to the dealer. They eventually traced the fault (and it took them a while) inside the tow socket was a plunger switch and it had jammed in (live). Even if you don't have an internal light the sockets may still have a switch which could be jammed and sending power somewhere.

No it doesn't so it wouldn't make sense how it can draw power without anything physically being plugged in, as I don't know much about electrics but as far as I know it has to "go" somewhere not just into thin air... Although I did have connection issues last time I towed (I think corrosion on the socket/trailer plug) so could corrosion cause a parasitic drain?

I'm purely stabbing in the dark here and that probably isn't my issue, but best rule it out first then go after the Parrot fuse, as if I unplug both now then I'll never know which was the culprit.

[UMEL]

No it doesn't so it wouldn't make sense how it can draw power without anything physically being plugged in, as I don't know much about electrics but as far as I know it has to "go" somewhere not just into thin air... Although I did have connection issues last time I towed (I think corrosion on the socket/trailer plug) so could corrosion cause a parasitic drain?

I'm purely stabbing in the dark here and that probably isn't my issue, but best rule it out first then go after the Parrot fuse, as if I unplug both now then I'll never know which was the culprit.

Yes true but one never knows with electricity. All I know is you can't see it and it f'in well hurts when you touch it...the higher volts that is.

Towing sockets are not in the best of positions so water and dirt does get in regardless of the cap. I too have to regularly spray both socket and plug with electrical contact spray before connection. Sometimes also using wet and dry.

[UMEL]

Further to my post above, CTEK charger.

They do eventually (after 5 or 6 days) get to Position 8.

CTEK CS told me 10 days.

https://i.imgur.com/VbL782m.jpg