Disconnecting dead battery on A3 causes intermittent beeping, any advice?

[amoxitine]

Hi there,

I was wondering if someone might be able to help. I inadvertently left my dashcam plugged in whilst I was on holiday and I have since returned to find the battery on my A3 is totally dead. I've ordered a replacement and this evening I was looking to remove the old battery and place it on charge just to see if it might take a bit, but as soon as I disconnected any terminal, within seconds the car would start to beep for around 30 seconds, then stop and then repeat beeping (but no lights flashing).

I'm assuming that it's related to the alarm in some way that has it's own battery backup (alarm was active when I left the car last week) but I just can't fathom out how to stop it beeping, so any advice would be welcome. Also once the new battery arrives would I be OK to just swap them over (putting up with the beeping whilst doing so) and then trying to start it up or is it not as straightforward as that?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Cheers,

Dave

 

[LEE69]

You can't stop it has its own backup battery.
Yes just swap them over

 

[prt57]

Hi there,

I was wondering if someone might be able to help. I inadvertently left my dashcam plugged in whilst I was on holiday and I have since returned to find the battery on my A3 is totally dead. I've ordered a replacement and this evening I was looking to remove the old battery and place it on charge just to see if it might take a bit, but as soon as I disconnected any terminal, within seconds the car would start to beep for around 30 seconds, then stop and then repeat beeping (but no lights flashing).

I'm assuming that it's related to the alarm in some way that has it's own battery backup (alarm was active when I left the car last week) but I just can't fathom out how to stop it beeping, so any advice would be welcome. Also once the new battery arrives would I be OK to just swap them over (putting up with the beeping whilst doing so) and then trying to start it up or is it not as straightforward as that?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Cheers,

Dave

After swopping over the battery you will get lights on the dash. Go for a brief drive ensuring you go from steering lock to lock and they will go out. You will all need to reset the one touch facility on the windows.

 

[Abi]

If you disarm/unlock the car then remove the battery terminals the alarm will not go off. You can still lock the drivers door via the key and the passenger door via the lock near the latch.
I removed the terminals when I fitted cruise control.


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[Abi]

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[amoxitine]

Hi everyone,

Many thanks for your replies, really appreciate it!

Just an update on things, the reason why I was trying to take the battery off was due to the fact that I'd tried a jump start yesterday but had no joy (albeit I only tried for a couple of minutes) plus I was too far away from my flat to be able to charge it whilst attached, hence why I thought I might be able to just whip it off and do a main charge indoors. In the past I've flattened the battery by leaving the dashcam plugged in overnight during cold periods but normally I could open the car with the key fob, the ignition lights would come on, but just get the flickering when you try to fire up the engine cold, but this time I had none of that.

Good news is that I was able to do a prolonged jump start this morning (i.e leaving it charging for about 10 minutes) and although I had disconnected and reconnected the battery a few times last night, apart from the date and time, nothing else had visibly reset (e.g radio) so I'm back in business.

Interestingly what I did notice is that initially when I realised I'd drained the battery, I had zero response from the car (had to unlock drivers door manually, no dash display or interior light and completely dead when ignition key turned) which made me think the battery was knackered this time, especially when having tried a quick jump start yesterday it was still fully unresponsive. This morning however, as soon as I reconnected to the battery terminals with a 2nd jump start attempt, the alarm immediately went off (this time with flashing indicators), so disabled that via the key fob and when I re-open the drivers door to my surprise the mileage and time was now showing on the dash plus the interior light came on and I could turn on the radio, none of which was possible when I did the jump start yesterday (so behaving like it has done in the past when the battery was flat from leaving the dashcam plugged in overnight)

It's almost as though it had provisionally gone into some kind of power hibernation that it only was woken out of after I'd done the multiple disconnect / reconnect last night that had triggered the alarm, then jumped it for a second time this morning (the only way I can describe it!)

Very confusing, but at least I'm all good now and also learned that getting zero response from a flat battery doesn't necessarily mean it's completely knackered!

Now it's time to get the new battery sent back that arrived this morning :') !

Cheers,

Dave

 

[amoxitine]

After swopping over the battery you will get lights on the dash. Go for a brief drive ensuring you go from steering lock to lock and they will go out. You will all need to reset the one touch facility on the windows.

If you disarm/unlock the car then remove the battery terminals the alarm will not go off. You can still lock the drivers door via the key and the passenger door via the lock near the latch.
I removed the terminals when I fitted cruise control.

Cheers for the extra info, I've been able to reset the windows (funny enough one of the rear windows had lost one touch a while back but now it's working after a full reset so that's a nice Brucey bonus!) and also I wondered how I could lock a passenger door manually after it had been opened so now I know how to do that as well, although hopefully I won't have to in future!

 

[samisnake]

Have you looked into hardwiring your dashcam to the fuse box?

 

[Abi]

Have you looked into hardwiring your dashcam to the fuse box?

It’s easy, get a piggy back fuse connector, hard wire usb unit, about £6 eBay and hide the wires, did mine that way and you can just forget about it!!!


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[amoxitine]

Have you looked into hardwiring your dashcam to the fuse box?

It’s easy, get a piggy back fuse connector, hard wire usb unit, about £6 eBay and hide the wires, did mine that way and you can just forget about it!!!

Well I was initially thinking about if there was some way to install a rocker switch to be able to toggle the ciggy lighter port between power on ignition only and without ignition so that I could leave it in the former mode mostly and then revert to its normal state if I wanted, but it never got past that! Probably makes sense and easier to do as you both suggest rather than trying to wire in some elaborate ciggy lighter port power switching system!

 

[aqibi2000]

Well I was initially thinking about if there was some way to install a rocker switch to be able to toggle the ciggy lighter port between power on ignition only and without ignition so that I could leave it in the former mode mostly and then revert to its normal state if I wanted, but it never got past that! Probably makes sense and easier to do as you both suggest rather than trying to wire in some elaborate ciggy lighter port power switching system!

You just needs. SPDT Switch mounted somewhere, and x2 piggy back fuses (one for ignition feed and one for battery constant - KL15 & KL30) then wire it up 10 min job

 

[amoxitine]

You just needs. SPDT Switch mounted somewhere, and x2 piggy back fuses (one for ignition feed and one for battery constant - KL15 & KL30) then wire it up 10 min job

Ah thank you for that, definitely something I can manage to hook up that isn't going to tax the brain too much to install!

Cheers