Is it dead or just need charging?

[Craigh1983]

Hey guys,

Posted on the forum a week ago as my car alarm keeps going off in the middle of the night. It seems to have started now the cold weather is here. Someone first of all suggested it could be the battery causing it so I just decided to check the voltage.

So right now the voltage is at 11.6v and that is after a 2 hour drive last night. The battery is only about a year old!

The car is hardly driven in the week and if I do it's only a few miles. So does the battery sound like its on its way out or does it just need a really good charge?

Thanks

[LondonGT]

I'm guessing you don't trickle charge during the week? It's not common but yeah if you're not using your car much and it has long gaps between the battery will give up.

I have the same problem and can't always use the cars or keep them on charge. Get a battery with a good warranty if you need to replace it.

[Craigh1983]

Well is a bosch S5 or something like that and it will have a warranty but I can't find the receipt for it :-/ Would they still honour it?

[Andy]

If you payed by credit card you can use that reciept

[dansmith180]

Any chance you've got a drain issue? Or is it just not taking charge at all?

[Craigh1983]

Any chance you've got a drain issue? Or is it just not taking charge at all?

I did have a drain issue some time ago but this was fixed. My battery was dying overnight ever night but this was sorted. My car has no trouble at all starting now but just the alarm seems to go off over night and even sometimes when i get out the car and lock the door it goes off within 5 seconds. So coupled with a low charge on the battery I assumed it might be because of this. However I have emailed someone in my area with VCDS and hopefully they can scan for what is making the alarm go off all the time.

[Craigh1983]

I have to say Euro Car Parts are fantastic! Called them yesterday and they said they will honour the warranty even though I don't have any receipt or proof of purchase!

The battery that I had was the Bosch S5 004. Looking at the spec of this I noticed that it was only 61Ah so I asked the guy if this was the correct battery as that seemed a bit low to me. So he had a look on the system and he said there is another battery here which is the Bosch S5 008 and is 77Ah. I asked if I could upgrade to that and pay extra and he said don't worry about it he will cover it under the warranty. So I didn't pay a penny for a massive upgrade in battery. Very pleased.

Does anyone know what the minimum Ah rating the Golf GTI mk5 battery should be?