Radio Backlighting on and Flat Battery in cold weather on 03 A6 Avant TDI 130

[wydths]

I arrived home from work tonight to find that the radio backlighting on my A6 was on and the battery was almost flat even though the car was locked and the key was inside the house. I last used the car on Friday night after it had sat under a few feet of snow for around 8 days and it started first time no problem and didn't even sound lazy tunring over.

The battery was replaced 18 months ago and the car is normally used several times a week.

When I turned on the ignition the word "fuse" appeared in the odomoter and there was a lot of clicking although I suspect this might have been the alarm trying to go off as I had to open the door via the key.

Does anyone know why this might have happened? Is it the colder than normal weather we have been having over the last 2 weeks - its been round -5 most nights and normally 0 during the day.

[Greengrocer]

I arrived home from work tonight to find that the radio backlighting on my A6 was on and the battery was almost flat even though the car was locked and the key was inside the house. I last used the car on Friday night after it had sat under a few feet of snow for around 8 days and it started first time no problem and didn't even sound lazy tunring over.

The battery was replaced 18 months ago and the car is normally used several times a week.

When I turned on the ignition the word "fuse" appeared in the odomoter and there was a lot of clicking although I suspect this might have been the alarm trying to go off as I had to open the door via the key.

Does anyone know why this might have happened? Is it the colder than normal weather we have been having over the last 2 weeks - its been round -5 most nights and normally 0 during the day.

I had a similar problem some 4 years ago shortly after buying my A6 1.9tdi as an approved used car (1 year warranty). Had to get the dealer out to fix it. Apparently it has something to do with the radio fuse which needs to be pulled and replaced. This happened twice to me after which it has (touch wood) been Ok ever since. The 2nd time I did the job myself as it was out of warranty.

[MFGF]

Is it by any chance a Symphony radio? I experienced problems with the Symphony locking up (no functions available and backlight on constantly) several times on my 2002 C5 - it's possible this may have happened with yours and drained the battery if left unnoticed.

The only way I found to reset the radio was to open the fuse panel cover on the right-hand end of the dashboard and pop out the fuse for the radio (bottom fuse, if memory serves, although it's been a while.)

Good luck!

MF.