Battery died AGAIN!

Johann

Member
Well I think on battery number two I should now start to suspect the A2 itself? But where to start?

The story so far. Beginning of this year I got to the car after it had not been used for about 2 weeks and it was completely dead. The central locking did not even work. So call the AA out who jumped the car from the starter motor at the front just long enough for me to unlock the doors so we could get to the battery in the boot to jump it. Fine. It lasted a week and then the same thing again. After that he suggested I buy a new battery.

Which I did in February. All went swimmingly until a month ago. I had driven the car the weekend previously and a week after that I got in (the doors did unlock this time) but it did not want to turn the engine and the battery light was on permanently. So get the AA out again. They jumped it and I then drove it for over 2 hours in one go and then about an hour after a 45 minute stop.

A week later I try it again and nothing. The doors don't even want to unlock so it is totally, totally dead again. Now I have only 2 more home starts left with the AA and I really don't want to waste them further.

So I got one of these battery booster things from a friend. You charge it up and then it supposedly boosts the battery enough for you to start the car. But when I plug it into the cigarette socket it beeps constantly. The manual states this means the charge is not going through and you need to turn the ignition to the first position. This did nothing. So I guess this booster thing only works if there is still a tiny bit of charge left in the battery?

Said friend also has a full battery charger like the AA man brings but I did not take this from him as it weighs a ton. So I will have to get to the boot from inside and get the spare wheel out and jump it from there to take it to the battery place I bought the battery from. It is still under its year guarantee.

BUT: getting another battery I suspect won't solve my problem. The car will just over time eat another £95 battery to nothing. Any ideas of what the problem could be? What on earth has started to use so much power all of a sudden when the car is parked? Or is the alternator duff and just never charging the battery whilst I'm driving? Anyone else experienced this before?
 
is there an alarm?
is there something else that's on that shouldn't be?
If you've discharged the battery completely once, it may be completely screwed and will never be the same again.

the first battery was the original one, no? So after 5 years it dies - I think this is OK - but the second one - there's either something wrong in the battery, there's something eating power, or it's not charging correctly.

Bret
 
It is the second one in this saga. The original factory battery was replaced two years ago when in desperation I was trying to solve another problem. So now this has been two batteries in two years.

Nothing weird in the car. Standard alarm and only thing added (that is hardwired in and has been for the last 5 years) is my Bluetooth car kit.

The friend that lent me the booster said there is perhaps not enough charge in the car at the moment to kick over the ignition relay which connects the charger to the battery. Hence the booster machine (via cigarette lighter) is not working.

So I will go and get the big jump thing this week and hope that works. Then I can at least get the car to an auto-electrician.
 
I have a hunch your alternator is faulty- I remember this happened on my mum's car a few years ago where it started eating batteries and even with a new battery on full charge would completely die within 24hours - something about a diode blowing which meant current drained out instead of being charged in to the battery.
 
For a quick and free test of both your battery and alternator try Halfords, yes I did say Halfords! :eek: I popped in my local branch and they tested (using a Bosch hand held computer, very fancy!) both the battery capacity and voltage, and the alternator current on tick over and fast idle. Very comprehensive, took about 10mins, and was free! They said nothing was wrong with either, which saved me buying a new battery! The guy I dealt with was very helpful, which came as a pleasant surprise aswell!

David
 
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you can buy alternator testers and they are only 8-10 pounds and work a treat. i have used them many times to check batterys and alternators on cars. it tell you if the battery is ok and if the alternator is putting too much or too little current out.
a faulty alternator or a short in the wiring can drain your battery too. ...
 
Well battery it was not. Or maybe it was. Who knows. This morning I used my friend's jump starter pack. Nothing but a VERY slow churn of the starter without it even getting close to turning the car over. So I had to call the AA. Grrr. AA man came out and instead of using his jump pack he plugged the auxiliary battery in the back of his T5 straight onto the A2's battery. Same result. Nothing but a slow churn. Well at least the lights came on and the central locking worked... but no starting of the car. His prognosis? It ain't the battery and he has no idea what it is. All he can suggest is to take it to a mechanic. But how without it driving? Well this is the result:

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Had to wait 90 minutes for the flatbed but at least A2 is now at Audi. I could not take it to my local independent as he works from a railway arch and has no parking outside and does not work on Saturdays. So Audi it was... The same dealer where I bought it.

So come Monday they will start looking at it. Big, BIG bill waiting for me I'm sure. But somehow I also feel they will know better where to look and be faster than the independent that is more a VW man than Audi (though I have once before seen an A2 on his ramps). But an A2 service is different from an A2 electrical problem... I'll keep you posted as to outcome.
 
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Audi decided that regardless of what the AA man said the fault is with the battery. But because this was still under warranty I refused their offer of "replacing the No-name battery with an Audi one". Last time they quoted me £220. But how to get the battery from them to the auto electricians with a dead car?

Well in the end I had to rent a Streetcar Golf for 3 hours. (www.streetcar.co.uk). They had tried to recharge the battery so at least it unlocked and I could take it out. Remembered to lock the car just before disconnecting the battery thankfully. Of course the alarm went off. Took the battery out and the alarm was still beeping. I guess it has its own battery then? Walk five steps from the car and you can't hear it anyway... Useless.

At the battery place he noticed corrosion on the terminals. He said that is from water. So my previous suspicion about a water leak seams to be correct. I got a new battery under warranty regardless and left this now with Audi to fit. Could not get into the boot so I left it at the drivers feet for them to sort.

Not sure they will find the leak as it is probably the bumper off job (as I read in the Water in my boot threads) to get to the vents behind. My question re this: does this vent only leak when you drive in the rain? My car has now been standing for about 7 weeks with lots of rain yet the boot as the driest it has been for ages. This leads me to think that it only leaks when the car is moving. That correct? If not then the leak is elsewhere or it is just a blocked drain point...

The saga continues.
 
The farce just continues. After dropping the battery off at Audi last week Thursday they only decide to touch my car this morning. Low and behold the battery does not fit. Phone battery man and he maintains they are the same... Phone Audi to tell them to try again. They phone back saying it definitely does not fit. Phone battery man and he decides maybe he should check his computer with my registration number. THEN he discovers there are in fact THREE different sizes of 100A battery and he gave me the biggest one instead of the mid sizes one!!! (Does anyone know if that is correct?)

So I have to AGAIN take a half day off, rent a car and swap batteries. And only then can Audi start to do their checking...

Is it noticeable that I am getting agitated?!! Ah well. Such is life I guess.

Over the weekend I was walking in Hackney with a friend when he saw a Morris Minor he wanted to test drive from a specialist mechanic shop. Ended speaking to the owner and they do from servicing to body work. So asked him how much he’d charge to take the rear bumper off the A2 and seal those vents: £50 he said. So at least that will be cheap when I finally get my car back some time in 2010 and something I can just do regardless of establishing that as the leak or not...
 
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Dropped the correctly sized battery this morning. They just phoned me to say all is checking out fine with the altenator and all electrics. But they did notice damp in the boot and it is the vents behind the bumper. That will be £149-23 to have them resealed... Hmmm. I think not.

I'll go to the machanic I mentioned above and have him do it for £50...

Will go and get my car in a bit! Yihay!!!!!!! Total bill for their checking: £123-00. Grrr.
 
Question: Audi's £149 quote includes for two new vents behind the bumper. What is the best to do here? Just seal the existing ones or get new ones? Where does it leak exactly?
 
Ah yes thanks for answering all my questions guys... hmmm...

Oh well.

I just picked the A2 up from the bodyshop up the road. They took bumper off, dried out the sponges around the vents and resealed the whole shebang for £50 all in! I'm well impressed as that is a third of what Audi wanted (though admittedly their price included for two new vents which I presume I did not need as no one bothered to answer my question about it).

So I'm happy again as A2 is all sorted again. Now for the MOT, service, brake pads and new disks next week... it never seems to end!
 
Fingers crossed that your problems are now well and truly behind you Johann.

Hope you aren't too aggrieved that your question wasn't answered - I am sure that it was inadvertently overlooked by those in the know.

Unless you have experience of this fault, I guess you are not able to offer anything greater than an opinion - which is as valued as your own.

Cheers,

Darren

Ah yes thanks for answering all my questions guys... hmmm...

Oh well.

I just picked the A2 up from the bodyshop up the road. They took bumper off, dried out the sponges around the vents and resealed the whole shebang for £50 all in! I'm well impressed as that is a third of what Audi wanted (though admittedly their price included for two new vents which I presume I did not need as no one bothered to answer my question about it).

So I'm happy again as A2 is all sorted again. Now for the MOT, service, brake pads and new disks next week... it never seems to end!
 
You're right Darren - I overlooked this!

In the end though Johann, you did the right thing and simply re-sealed the existing vents.

As long as the garage has done a proper job and removed the old sealant, you'll have no trouble for a while, but if they left it on, you'll have a puddle in the boot very soon!

I'll bring a vent to the curry social to show people what one looks like - I got a new one a while back for when the inevitable happens!

Cheers,

Mike
 
Thanks guys... They said they did clean it before putting them back in. I trust that means they took the sealent off! I'll know in due course.
 
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