Battery Drain

[jonm]

Well I got back last night from a weekend away... tried to move the car but found my battery was dead... the battery it less than 6 months old...

Similar thing happened a few months ago, went away for a week, came back to find the thing dead...

Everything was turned off in the car, the stereo front was removed after being powered down...



Anyone have any info?

[vRS_Pagey]

I've just had to change the battery on my vRS, been on less than a year.  I had it tested for free at Halfords, they printed off a report showing that one of the cells was knackered.  I sent this to the original seller and a new battery arrived the next day F.O.C under the 4 year warranty. 

[jonm]

battery tested today and has no faults...

[vRS_Pagey]

Crapola, could be the alternator then.....

[icenutter]

I've had this sort of thing on a few older cars.  Essentially if the battery goes completely flat, the alternator alone can't really recover it fully.  I tried charging the battery with a mains charger and never had the problem again.

Worth a punt, particularly if you could borrow a charger.

[danishmkvgti]

After we bought a second car, the Golf won't last 5 days without the battery going flat, i have to look into this 

[skard]

Are there any electrics you've added like a sub or amp? Perhaps the remote wire isn't doing its job.
Have you got an ignition live to your headunit?

Have heard about bootlights causing this on non-Golfs, take out your parcel shelf, lock up and see if any lights stay on.

Earlier this year my alarm siren was failing, it would somehow wake up my headunit (Zenec with CAN interface) when it was parked up and started killing the battery. My alarm was going off at all hours eventually, worth scanning it if you can access VCDS as it might throw up a clue.

[LouCyffer]

After we bought a second car, the Golf won't last 5 days without the battery going flat, i have to look into this 

Danish, when I used to 'rest' my Impreza for a while, I hooked it up to an Optimate motorcycle battery charger. I have two for my bikes, & thought it would be worth a go. Stick the croc clips on the terminals, plug it in & go. Worked a treat when I was away for a month. They are about £40 and come with a little bracket so you can wall mount them. Indicator LEDs show whether you have a fault, fully charged battery, or charging in progress. Incidentally one of these kept my last bike alive for 2 years between engine starts. Pretty good.