Flat Battery

[new nige]

pritty sure its the tail gate, but who konws until solved, more worried about damaging the gater to the tailgfate wires whilst inspecting them

[new nige]

found broken wires in the tailgate gater, no obvious short but explains why the boot lock hasnt worked for a while. My current drain is consistantly 110mA which dosnt seem that much has anyone measured this is will anyone? it only takes a few minutes?

 

where is the boot switch that opperates the internal lights as one of these stayed on, knock the boot shut and it turned off so suspect this was my problem.

[acecard]

nige, can't check at the mo but looking at it from another viewpoint - a drain of 110ma at a source voltage between 12 and 14 volts is equivalent to having a 1.3 to 1.5 watt bulb on constantly - and that don't seem much.

[chrispb123456]

Have you considered the constant drain from the radio, clock, alarm/immobiliser just a thought!

[new nige]

50mA seems the rule of thumb but 110mA for alarm imobaliser ecu dosnt seem to excessive, i will try and measure it on another vehical to compare.

[seatkid]

Start the car and after a minutes running or so, turn on the headlights and check the battery voltage whilst still running. It should be around 14.3 volts. If its less than say 13.8 volts, get someone to increase the revs to 1500+ rpm and check again. If youve still got less than 13.8 volts then your alternator may be kaput, or you have a main fusebox problem (burnt terminal on the alternator lead), or you battery is kaput.

 

Other wise just fix the wires in the boot gaitors and buy yourself a new battery.

 

PS the "smart charging" system referred to earlier only applies to some models fitted with Ford engines (Galaxy 2.0 & 2.3L) - all other variants have standard VW specced alternators.

[BigRik13]

I used to have an old renault 5 who's battery used to discharge quickly - I got one of these which was useful (and cost more than I eventually sold the car for). It's essentially a big solenoid that disconnects the positive terminal when the voltage falls below a certain amount, but instantly contacts again when there's a large demand for current (such as starting).

 

It clearly was never a particularly elegant solution but it relegated what was a bloody inconvenient problem of a discharging battery to a minor issue.

[new nige]

looks useful but, would first try and solve the drain problem thanks, measured drain on a friends sharan today and get 0mA so am now more confused, what fun, new battery and a clever charger gives me a little back up for the time being

[new nige]

For those who are interested in doing the wires in the tailgate

 

1) Release both gromets and inspect for broken wires,

2) Remove door card from boot, handel has 2 screws, 2No. other screws behind pannels, 7 clips to pull off. High level trim pulls away.

3) remove rear seat belt high level bolt, pull away pannel, recover clips .

4) make your splices either behind the door card or behind the pannel at the seat belt bolt to avoid strain at hinge and where there is lots of space to accomedate the many wires likely to break. threading wires is fairly easy.

5) consider purchasing multiple core cable for extra armor and so you have a few spair cables to use in the future.

 

nige

[BigRik13]

Coincidently I need to sort out my tailgate wires this weekend. Pulling the boot release activates the central locking and winds all the windows down!

 

I've pulled all window/locking/interior light fuses to make sure there isn't any drain until I can sort it. Got some axle stands and a trolley jack for xmas, but I guess I won't be using those!