battery drain

[Gwynleym10]

My car has been sitting for a couple fo weeks and the battery is dead.

No sign of life, no warning lights come on with the ignition etc etc

The battery is only 3 months old max (some GSF one....)

What are the possibilities for a battery drain? Stereo? Electric fan (probably..) remote central locking (i don't have a alarm though )

Anything else?

Is a drain where a power lead goes directly to ground?

Thanks all.

I have one of the Solar things in the post which i'm going to leave in it for a week or so and see what happens. Its a proper one that VW use.

I always have a big hill the roll it down...

[dazleeds]

i have had probs with the door pins not working right and kleaving window switch lites on and elec sroof switch too shut the door and if there still lit check door pins

also heated rear glass can be a drainer
got same prob with mine had it or months keep fixing things but still drains if not started for more than a day gd luck fella

[Gwynleym10]

Don't have electric windows or sunroof so they are a couple less things to look at.

My Heated seats are also unplugged (hardley need them this time of year...) cause I thought it might be them last time.

Cheers

[Brianmoooore]

Boot light's a favourite candidate.
If that's not it, get the battery charged up, and get a milliamp meter on it, as detailed in many threads before.

[tomstickland]

I had a similar problem recently (on another car).
I solved it by removing the battery and measuring the resistance across the wires. It was very low. So I removed the fuses one by one until I got infinite resistance.
That way I identified the circuit to blame. It then took me about 3 hours of wire tracing etc until I found that it was the boot light staying on all the time. (Well it was my first experience of Mk2 Golf electrics).

[Gwynleym10]

THanks for the info, i may ask some questions on how to use the my multimeter, never really quite got the hang of it. Never know which settings to use.

Anyway i think its going to be a while before i get it started.

In terms of bump starting it, Its parked on a hill, so it would be pretty easy to roll it down, but I kinda need to know how likely it is to start as there may not be a parking space at the bottom, and it will be screwed if it doesn't work!

So the Battery is 3 month or so old (a GSF special!) but there is NO life anywhere, no lights on the ignition etc etc, what do people think my chances are of starting it? Worth a go? or not.

[aauser]

There's probably nothing wrong with the battery as a brand new one would go flat with a drain left on it for long enough.

I think it would be worth trying to bump start it - as long as you are confident enough to do this!

[Brian28]

It won't start on a bump without ignition lights. Any way you could get it charged or jump started from another battery just to get your own charged up a bit?

[aauser]

It will start without ignition lights as long as the key is in the "ignition on" position but it is safer to charge your battery up or get it started with jump leads from another car

[Gwynleym10]

Well I tried rolling it down the hill (in gear...) and it didn't start no sign of life what so ever. Oh and the hill was probably 0.25 of a mile, so nothing that short.

Do poeple think it will take charge at all?

Suppose i could call the RAC, but this is way more fun!

[Gwynleym10]

Well I have plugged it into the sun.... !

Got two of those Solar battrey charger things See how they go! Be sooo cool if they work!

Lets hope for some sun

[Brianmoooore]

Should be just about charged by next August.

[Gwynleym10]

I hope it will be a little quicker than that! There not the usual rubbish one you find on Ebay( black amorphous silicon), they are BLUE polycrystalline type which are subbosidly 3-5 time more efficient.
Well I'm going to have a look on thursday evening, see if there is any life! Then if there is still nothing by Saturday, i'll call the RAC...Don't need my car until next friday so don't really care!

[Gwynleym10]

Well it was obviously not sunny enough!

Ended up buying a new battery as needed the car,

think i have found the culprit though, one or the rear interior lights seams to have a mind of its own, doesn't switch on when it should, but switches on when it shouldn't!

I'm going to banish it!

[tomstickland]

Disconnect the battery terminals.
Connect one probe to the +ve wire and the other to the -ve wire.
Put your multimeter onto resistance measurement mode (Ohms) and you should get infinite resistance accros the probes. If it shows something else (like, say, 235ohms) then that's your problem. Pull fuses out until it shows ---- or whatever it does for infinite resistance.

[Brianmoooore]

Disconnect the battery terminals.
Connect one probe to the +ve wire and the other to the -ve wire.
Put your multimeter onto resistance measurement mode (Ohms) and you should get infinite resistance accros the probes. If it shows something else (like, say, 235ohms) then that's your problem. Pull fuses out until it shows ---- or whatever it does for infinite resistance.

And you'll find the fuse for the clock.

[BigChris]

Maybe it could be you alternator not charging correctly, or could be on the way out, you would have to check the charge coming from the alternator.

Just another thought, think an AA blokie told me that one. 8 out of 10 cars fixed at the roadside lol

[tomstickland]

And you'll find the fuse for the clock.

Disconnect that then and see what's left innit!