Flat Battery

[john250666]

Hi folks, was cleaning the car on sunday, had the radio playing with i phone plugged in, and the car battery went flat! had to jump start the poor rocc! do you think this is normal? or have i got a dodgy battery? never had this happen to me with any of the cars and vans i have had! Radio was on for about an hor and half BTW..... Cheers John

[aesmidz]

Yes I've had the same problem, had it all checked out, but it seems to be normal, if u visit the vw dealers showroom , u will notice their cars are hooked up to battery charges, as their new cars draw a low current !

[RW1]

Snap, since delivery day. If you do a lot of short runs, the battery runs on the low charged side all the time. Seems a characteristic of curret VW batteries (mines Exide) but I had one on the Mk2 Scirocco before it went and that was the same. A characteristic on sealed low maintnence batteries if your journey times between engine starts is below 1 hour. Mine are typically 20 minutes..

Battery starts off after charging at 75% charged. After 3 days and 2 x 20 minute journeys per day with one engine start each time, the battery is 35% - 40% charge level.

Its not the Scirocco discharging it while parked as following a battery charge to 75%, its still 75% a week later if the Scirocco isn't driven.

I'm currently looking at a VARTA D15 Silver 63Ahr battery with 5 year guarentee for £70 (for a 1.4TSI) as VW don't cover it in the extended warranty (which I knew about). Already have smaller ones in the Bosch Silver/VARTA Calcium Silver, both identical batteries on the other cars. They still going strong. Both 6 years old. VW want £140 for a replacement and its the same Exide battery.

C.

[john250666]

Cheers RW1 you really are a fountain of knowledge ! That makes sense ,the car does tend to do fairly short journeys during the week, will be careful in future
thanks again John

[RW1]

Thanks,

I've just flatten mine this afternoon fitting a new little gadget. Battery down to 11.8 volts (=flat) and its now on the charger to recover. Started at 12.2 volts (50% charged) at lunch time. All I have done open the boot and doors frequently.

This may be helpful Flat Battery

Hook mine up for 12 hours to the maintenance charger every weekend in winter. Summer is much better, never do a maintenance charge. The Exide battery just doesn't seem to like it below 5'C to 10'C. And a bigger battery won't solve it.

C.

[john250666]

Hi all
Had the car at the dealers , as the Battery problem was getting worse , had to go out and jump start the car a couple of times at my wife's work .... not good
they say they have had the battery on charge all day and its still not full... and they have found a fault on the ECU.... they are keeping it all weekend,
will let you know what the outcome is! thank gawd its still in warranty ....
J

[RW1]

Glad they've found something. Can you ask them when you collect which controller number please as there are several "ECU's".

C.

[john250666]

Yes i will do that, Chris

[GeoffCapes]

Ur have to keep us informed of the outcome as I seem to have a similar problem with my 09 rocco :-(

[ZephyR]

My son is running my previous car an MG ZR which is 9 and half years old and still on the original battery. I kept the car before that, an Astra SRi for 9 years and that was still on the original battery when I sold it.
My driving regime hasn't changed that much. So why if the VW battery / alternator / electrics so crap.
Bong! Bong! Bong! again this morning cos I haven't used if for 2 day

[john250666]

Hi Guys...
Just got my car back, been in for 5 days (if you count Saturday and Sunday) They have replaced the battery i now have a 61ah Varta , and they have replaced the main power relay, It seems the Battery was not holding its charge...
The relay was the fault that showed up on the Engine control unit, they said on Friday the fault was on an ECU .... maybe i misunderstood what they meant...
Quite impressed with the dealers (Guilders, Sheffield)
just hope all this cures the problem, gonna keep check on the Battery voltage for the next couple of days.....
`fingers crossed!!!

j

[RW1]

Good news John. Sounds like they replaced Relay J271, the relay marked "100" in the back right corner of the engine bay fuse box (4 relay version fuse box.) [on some its slightly forward of cente, marked "100" when only two relays are fitted.]. Varta

Guilders of Sheffield have a good reputation from what I've heard from others visiting. Big place!

Mine is not a discharge like this, as last week it maintained full charge - 12.6 volts for 4 days between use. Maybe the Varta is coming sooner than I thought, it fluffed an engine start on Monday despite running earlier in the day.

C.

[john250666]

Feel a lot happier having read your positive reply!.. like i say will keep a note of the battery voltages, Think i'm gonna take the car to Guilders when its due its 3 year service and MOT in july ...
Thanks for all the help and advice

J

[Peacock8]

Interesting, when I play music and the car isn´t on, it terminates the power to the soundsystem after apron 30min, then I have to turn the key to get it to start again. Yeah and my battery is working fine in cold weather down to -10-15 here in Norway. Stock battery!

Ørjan.

[Cuprabob]

Sound system has a timer so you can't leave it on all night by forgetting to switch it off, if you have switched it on manually.

[Mark V]

The dreaded 'headlights always on' hack probably does not help the battery situation either.....

[ZephyR]

Sound system has a timer so you can't leave it on all night by forgetting to switch it off, if you have switched it on manually.

But if the battery does fall low then you also get a message on the radio screen telling you that it has been turned off to save the battery, accompanied by a bonging sound from the speakers. It also turns off other non-essential things light the courtesy, boot and glove box lights.

[Cuprabob]

That's good to know, thanks.