Battery Problem

mnadeem1984

mnadeem1984

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I have just had my battery changed (New battery is a Bosch Silver 60Ah 360/640) since it was not holding charge. However I still have a problem.

If i drive my car during the week, i.e the car is started every day and driven, then it is fine. However, when i park my car on friday, and then start it again on monday, the battery is flat. I went back to eurocarparts to get the battery checked since it had 5 yrs guarantee. They checked it and said it was fine. Have i got a power leak somewhere? The cars got ice etc, but it all turns off when ignition turns off?

The car is an audi a3 1.8T 2000X reg.

Cheers
 
Get your alternator checked. If you have a multmeter, measure the battry voltage with the engine running- just above idle is best. You should see about 13.5-14 volts. If it's much less you have a alternator fault. Or dodgy connection.
 
done that too mate. That was ok. The battery was showing 12.94Volts.

Then i started the car, turned everything on and it showed the same 12.94.

At idle its about 14V
 
Something in your car is pulling current when the ignition is off.

You need to remove the positive battery terminal and attach an ammeter between the battery and terminal to measure load when everything is switched off and doors closed etc. There will most likely be a small current draw. Enough to flatten the battery over a weekend so it seems.
Start removing fuses until the gauge reads zero (alarm will pull a few milliamps which is fine).

A garage sould easily be able to do this for you if you don't fancy having a go.

But check the obvious things like interior/boot/glovebox lights first.
 
as HTC said, if it's not a visible bulb try the boot, as since the weather has been cold mine has started to play up (luckly it thinks it's shut). The main interior light will drain the battery in 7 hours on my car if it's cold!
 
If you have aftermarket ICE in your car, then it's most probably a poor earth with one of the amps, I've seen this problem myself with a couple of cars, everything switches off with the ignition, but a poor earth seems to drain the battery?!
 
Using a multimeter, i found the battery was drawing 0.57A steady, after doors were locked etc. This seemed kind of high so i removed one fuse at a time. It stayed 0.57 until i removed the radio/stereo one. It dropped to 0.07. This seemed right.

So what was drawing the current. I tried removing the tape, used the pins etc and had no luck to remove it. But since i was moving the tape around slightly, i rechecked the multimeter by luck and found it had dropped to 0.07 itself. This was weird. It obviously was to do with a loose wire or something. I turned ignition off and turned stereo on. It was working as normal. But then after pushing the tape again, the reading was 0.57 again. This time i turned the tape on, and it sed TELEFON??

I aint sure what this means, but i cannot get out of it. If i put ignition on, it goes away. Since i couldnt get the tape out, i removed the glovebox and pulled the wires abit. TELEFON had now gone and current was 0.07. Seems like this is the problem.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Using a multimeter, i found the battery was drawing 0.57A steady, after doors were locked etc. This seemed kind of high so i removed one fuse at a time. It stayed 0.57 until i removed the radio/stereo one. It dropped to 0.07. This seemed right.

So what was drawing the current. I tried removing the tape, used the pins etc and had no luck to remove it. But since i was moving the tape around slightly, i rechecked the multimeter by luck and found it had dropped to 0.07 itself. This was weird. It obviously was to do with a loose wire or something. I turned ignition off and turned stereo on. It was working as normal. But then after pushing the tape again, the reading was 0.57 again. This time i turned the tape on, and it sed TELEFON??

I aint sure what this means, but i cannot get out of it. If i put ignition on, it goes away. Since i couldnt get the tape out, i removed the glovebox and pulled the wires abit. TELEFON had now gone and current was 0.07. Seems like this is the problem.

[/ QUOTE ]
Without seeing the loom or any adapters attached to the end of it, it's difficult to say exactly, but I'm willing to guess that you've got a split-insulator on a wire shorting somewhere (or something similar - especially if a bit of movement changes the symptoms). If it's showing "TELEFON" on the display I'd say it's probably a safe bet that somewhere around the same short-problem you're managing to push voltage to the pin on the back of the head unit which makes it mute itself while you have a telephone call in progress.

Is your head unit a standard Audi model, perhaps a Concert? You're probably going to need to remove it to make absolutely certain that the fault does or doesn't lie there, because it'll be even harder to diagnose when trying to access from another angle...

Regards,

Rob.
 
i cant take the unit out. Bought the tools. Tried everything i could. Might have damaged the clips, ne advice?
 
It is very fiddly. I actually gave up with the audi items and used some old kenwood keys which I sharpened off a bit with some snips.

I ended up kind of going in at an angle out wards, then levering the release mech before pulling out. I released one side at a time.

Hopefully that makes a bit of sense!
 
This picture may help illustrate what HTC is saying...

You can see a little lug at the top end of the red line (indicating the most effective direction of travel for the keys (or random off-cut of aluminium computer chassis as I used)), when you push upwads and left (as in pic) on that, the clip bends inwards with it.

It is a really fiddly job, but with perseverance you can remove it, you might need therapy afterwards though!

...And who would've thought the hardest part of getting a picture together for you would be finding some camera-batteries my Dad hasn't stolen!

Hope this is of some use...

Regards,

Rob.

concert_remove.jpg
 
Thanks alot guys. Thats really useful. As for the telefon thing, it hasnt showed up and so my battery hasnt died out. I think, pulling the wires has sorted it out. Maybe when i upgrade my ice, i will remove the headunit. As for now its fine. Lets wait til the weekend.

Thanks alot guys. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Did you sort this in the end?

As mine has started doing the same, but I haven't checked to see what is drawing current yet.
 
yeah its all done mate. If you wanna pop down, i can give u a hand. Else, mines was due to the radio drawing current. something to do with telefon?
 
[ QUOTE ]
yeah its all done mate. If you wanna pop down, i can give u a hand. Else, mines was due to the radio drawing current. something to do with telefon?

[/ QUOTE ]

Hadn't noticed that you were from Birmingham, so I may well take you up on that offer when I get my car back from the bodyshop /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif

Will drop you a PM when I get my car back.
 
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