Another Battery Flat Question

[Ronniebiggs]

Hi everyone I have a few issues which I don't know if they are linked but to help find the fault I will list everything.

i have a 1.8T 2002 AVJ engine code and when we started to get the bad weather my battery went flat and kept going flat. So I bought a Boshh silver battery and it still kept going flat. To make matters worse i have an engine management fault which I don't know what it is all I know is when I start my car first thing in the morning the radiator fans come on for a few minutes and then go off.

i know this wont help as the car only gets driven a few miles in the morning and doesn't have much chance to charge especially with the fans on and then the same in the evening but several hours after the morning so the same issue persists.

i have tried jumping the car and letting it tick over for about an hr and as long as the car is started daily and left to tick over for about 30 mins every day then it is ok. However if you leave it for just 1 day the battery is completely flat.

i have put a very crude battery tester on And it says the battery is charging ok.

i have done some research and have read about the convinience module on the passenger footwell getting wet due to blocked drain holes and that caused the battery drain.

other issues which may be in related are that the temp gauge isn't working correctly even though I have changed the sensor on the back of the engine 2 times.

Any advise would be most welcome as I need to sort this problem by tomorrow evening.

regards
andy

 

[stu_m]

first of all I would do a full scan to see what faults you have and fix that

you could have a short somewhere that is draining the battery it sounds like you have some sort of drain somewhere

 

[ex911driver]

As above scan it with vcds ,and change your Thermostat for a genuine one too.

 

[Ronniebiggs]

The thermostat is a genuine one. The first I used was an aftermarket and when that didn't work I changed to genuine. The fault codes I was told by the garage that they would not be able to pin point a fault without checking timing and then working through a set procedure which if I'm honest annoyed me as usually I have plugged them in and then it gives you a fault code. Ok sometimes a fault throws up an incorrect code but you can usually sort it. I must say though that at present with the battery charged and as the battery has been disconnected for so long the Ecu light is not on.

I may have sorted the fault as I had a coil pack which was weak that eventually packed in just as the battery started to play up so the Ecu light been on may have been due to a stored code. As I said the light is now off and the fans don't cut it at present. That's not to say the Ecu light won't come back on as I haven't had long enough to run it for to check.

 

[Alan H]

I had an issue with my battery going flat. IT turned out to be the brake light switch. It was fubar'd and was putting the brake lights on when the car was parked up at night draining the battery in the process. I'm not saying that's what it is, but it may be something to look at. The only reason I found that this was my problem was that I fell asleep on the settee one night, woke up in the early hours, looked out of the living room window and saw a red glow. Then saw the reflection of my brake lights in the window of the house opposite.... Changed the brake switch and no problems after that.

 

[Ronniebiggs]

Thanks Alan but I'm sure it's not the brake light. It's also not the boot light as I climbed in the boot and had my wife shut it to check to see if it was that.

 

[Alan H]

Thanks Alan but I'm sure it's not the brake light. It's also not the boot light as I climbed in the boot and had my wife shut it to check to see if it was that.

No problem. Anything is worth a look when you can't find the issue...