Flat Battery

[new nige]

The wife has left the lights on a few times recently,tricle charging the battery seems not to hold a charge (battery only 1.5 years old but may have been standing for a year or so prior to purchase). I am beginning to think this might be a short as i have short circuit fault code for the sterieo suggesting pillar a wires may be broken, though windows locks etc all work.

 

Looking at haynes, this suggests a sharan fitted with an aux heater have a separate battery. Given i have recently replaced the glow plug i want to check if this battery is draining the main battery? Anyone got any tips? Where is the aux battery and is it likely to drain the main if faulty? Can you check for a short in vcds lite other than the sterieo block?

 

its a 2001 sharan 1.9 tdi any assistance would be most appreciated.

[acecard]

I think you should suspect the battery first as you say it may have been standing a long time before purchase - before you start investigating the more esoteric possibilities. What is battery voltage after charge?

In terms of battery discharge, you can always put an ammeter in series to check.

DO make sure it is on its highest amperage setting - usually separate plug connection on front - and DON'T use any extras on car while in this state - no lights, no alarm, do not open doors etc. You will always have some drain but this would indicate whether it is significant enought to be a fault.

[new nige]

after trickle charge disconnected 13.2 v after leaving connected overnight dropped to 12.0v. quick alternator charge and disconnected and monitored voltage disconnected for 5 hours no drop from 12volts (though note this is effectively discharged it still starts). Looked for aux heater battery under passanger seat but nothing there so dont believe there is one dispite haynes suggestion. scanned for faults and get

 

a) from sterieo (suspect door wire appeared in last month, assume unrelated?)

 

00852 - Loudspeaker(s); Front

36-10 - Open Circuit - Intermittent

00853 - Shareware Version. To Decode all DTCs

36-10 - Please Register/Activate - Intermittent

B) from central electronics (suspect boot lock which has been in opperative for a while except last which was probably mucking about with battery)

 

01135 - Interior Monitoring Sensors

35-10 - - - Intermittent

01142 - Shareware Version. To Decode all DTCs

28-10 - Please Register/Activate - Intermittent

00956 - Shareware Version. To Decode all DTCs

09-10 - Please Register/Activate - Intermittent

00668 - Supply Voltage Terminal 30

07-10 - Signal too Low - Intermittent

 

will probably get a new battery tomorrow, but anyone think the above could contribute, or advise on how to solve?

[acecard]

I don't think the Sharan has an auxiliary battery - and I don't see the connection with the booster heater anyway. I think some VW camper types have aux batteries under the front seat so theres probably some confusion here.

From your voltage readings, I would definitely say battery and I'd be pretty sure a new one would solve the problem.

Edited December 26, 2012 by acecard

[new nige]

yes agree new battery tomorrow, only suspected a second battery as hynes suggested there was one under the passanger seat on models with an aux heater but agree this seemes strange and there isnt one anyway. thanks for response. can anyone shed light on the interriora sensor error code. the boot lock hasnt remotely locked for a while so am suspecting its the actuator rather than wires as the fault code has picked it up rather than open circuit.

[SilverBeast]

If I understand correctly,you only get the second battery if you have a clock/timer by the rear view mirror that can turn on the booster heater and pump to allow the car to be preheated without being started prior to you using it. ie set heating to come on at 5:30 so car is warm when you get in it at 6:00 because you are a bit nesh.

[new nige]

makes sence many thanks

[cyborg]

hi, before you throw money at a battery try ,

 

disconnecting battery then measure volts

 

Then reconnect earth and connect a voltmeter between the battery + and red lead (inline)

 

Then see what your battery drian is...........if its more than 50 milliamp than your original reading chances are you have an electrical problem

 

start unpluging fuses open sut doors etc to find drian.

[acecard]

Then reconnect earth and connect a voltmeter between the battery + and red lead (inline)

 

thats an ammeter though or a multimeter on maximum amps setting - if you connect a voltmeter or multimeter set to volts in series with the battery then you could have one well fried meter !

Edited December 27, 2012 by acecard

[new nige]

thanks all, battery currently charging, just to confirm i want to put my multimeter (fused to 200mA) in series with the positive terminal? presumably if i have a drain greater than 200mA this will blow my ameter fuse, if not i will detect a drain.

ta

[acecardsharp]

d Edited December 27, 2012 by acecardsharp

[acecard]

nige, most multimeters come with a separate socket possibly marked 10ADC or similar where you plug in the positive lead rather than the red socket used for most operations - this will normally be rated at 10 amps -

use this first to check if there is a heavy drain and then if the reading is low enough get a more accurate reading by using the 200ma range

 

if you dont have this and your meter is fused at 200ma, a current significantly higher than this will blow the fuse, as you say

and dont be tempted to use a larger fuse or you will fry your meter

Ensure you are set to amps and not volts

Edited December 27, 2012 by acecard

[new nige]

checked my current drain, i get 120mA drain when car is locked, this seems low to me though cyborg mentioned arround 50mA as normal, is 120mA within a reasonable working range, i suppose it needs to power the ecu, various sensors for locks and the alarm even when asleep.

 

interestingly with a standard 72Ah battery this would flatten the battery in about 25 days if not topped up by the alternater.

[acecard]

I don't know what the normal range is for the galaxy/sharan but that would seem too high to me. I think you need to start pulling fuses!

Its laborious I know but imho you need to find out whether the 120ma is simply an accumulative value for various bits and bobs or whether a particular circuit is drawing too heavily.

As you say, it would completely flatten a battery within a month, but you would have starting problems well before itdrained that low.

 

I expect someone on here will have done the same check and give you an idea of normal parasitic drain.

 

btw - doesn't fully explain your low battery voltage readings so I still suspect you have a battery problem as well

Edited December 27, 2012 by acecard

[richyrich]

If the car is fitted with a calcium type battery then it probably is no good after standing for a long while. These batteries need a special charger (which Fraud have) to get them back to normal - but yours is probably too long. These calcium batteries are used in cars now which use the 'Smart charging' system - fitted since about 2000 I think.

 

Rich

[new nige]

pulled every fuse whatching for a reduction in drain fuse 58 droped the drain to 30mA so suspect this circuit. Reference to the fuse card suggests this is the headlight range control 5amp. if you pull it a you hear a relay disengage however it also seems to effect other circuits i.e the central locking dosnt opperate when fuse removed. Anyone got any pointers of where to go next? the haynes wireing diagram is a little crude, fuse numbers dont seem to match and goes to year 2000 (mine is a 2001) are good diagrams available? i have an old tis for galaxy mk 1 but this is a sharan has much changed?

 

.

[new nige]

sorry i think i read the fuse card upside down i think its fuse55 central electronics, i scaned this and found the faults above

[chrispb123456]

Think I would be checking out the doors and tailgate wiring first as this is a known fault with wiring chaffing and shorting.

[sparky Paul]

If you suspect a short somewhere, I'd go with chris's suggestion above, particularly the tailgate.

 

That said, 12.0v on the battery should be flat. if it's still cranking, you could have a bad cell on the battery.

[new nige]

Thanks all for the help so far!

 

checked wireing diagrams fuse 55 seems to serve the tailgate lock so suspect mechanical damage in the gatered loom first (this all worked fine until 6 months ago), i see this is covered in FAQ but i havent been able to access all of these for a while now i.e. FAQ 4, 13, 44 i.e. splice repairs, tailgate card removal and soldering all seem unavailable ? are these down or can oither access these?

 

Do you need to cut the gater off to do this properly? I tried to peal it back but need more length to acces the cables properly, is slack available if you remove the door card and pull it through?

[acecard]

i see this is covered in FAQ but i havent been able to access all of these for a while now i.e. FAQ 4, 13, 44 i.e. splice repairs, tailgate card removal and soldering all seem unavailable ? are these down or can oither access these?

 

I have tried different internet browsers on these FAQs and there does seem to be a problem with the links. There were some remarks on this back in June about it being broken and then Gregers seems to have checked it a ok.

So if you can still access these links Gregers, can you let us know what browser you're using?

Edited December 29, 2012 by acecard

[new nige]

just checked works in google crome but parts dont in explorer 9, dont know why

[gregers]

you mean this 1,

http://www.fordgalax...4104#entry64104

 

well again its working for me.

im using bog standard firefox.

 

just a thought new nige do your headlight motors work ok,im just wondering if they have a short hence the power drain??long shot.

Edited December 29, 2012 by gregers

[acecard]

Will work in chrome for me but not IE9 or standard firefox - maybe a bad driver lol :38:

[gregers]

bin ie9 for a start,maybe totally remove all elements of firefox and reinstall,then you may have to update it??