Normal current drain when parked up?

[richandhazel]

Hi All,

I had to park the cab in the drive whilst my new boiler was fitted in the garage. Car was left outside (under a cover) for about 2 weeks.
I went to put the car back in the garage yesterday afternoon and the battery was flat (VDO battery meter showed around 8 Volts)! Now this battery has only just been transferred from the Polo and that has been left standing for many weeks at a time and we've never had a problem..........even during the last winter!

My thoughts were that there is something draining the battery so, having charged it, I disconnected the battery and measured the current draw: 30mA. Doesn't seem a lot to me, probably the alarm/immobiliser and LCD clock. To put that into perspective I switched on the interior light: 750mA, sidelights: 1.9A

Unless the battery has suddenly failed the only other thing I can think is that maybe something was left on when I parked up and I didn't notice when I went to start up, but I would have noticed subsequently

Surely a draw of 30mA wouldn't have dropped the battery down that much in just 2 weeks...........would it

Any other ideas?

[SoundillusioN]

no i dont think thats enough to kill it... batteries are funny when it comes to irregular use... if its spent a lot of time being out of use, then used then not and sitting in the winter, now its in car that has had quite a bit of use recently has proably finished it off!... is it a maintenance free battery, can you check the level inside?... does it need topping up?

[raferackstraw]

as it is an oldish batt i would say that is about right for an alarm to drain it, espeicially if the batt was not fully charged prior to being left, just check alternator is charging at 14.1v and all earths are good but 30ma is nothing really

[gibby]

Rich, you didn't leave the indicator on did you so that the parking light was left on and not notice while it was under the cover ?

[richandhazel]

No I don't think so, that was one thing that I did check as it's so easy to knock the indicator stalk and not realise.

Battery is now fully charged (fizzing away nicely) so I'll leave it off charge for a while now and see what happens.
I've leant my multimeter to a mate and am waiting for its return to check the alternator output. From looking at the VDO gauge I would say that it may well be that the alternator is not fully charging. Maybe time for a new voltage regulator/brush pack. It's an 80Amp one so should be more than capable!

It's not a maintenance free battery and I have checked the levels.......they were below the marker but well above the plates. I have topped it up now just to rule that out.

The battery itself isn't that old and has been used with out fail in the Polo. It made sense to swap it over to the cab at the beginning of summer when the Polo came off the road. It may well be slightly lower capacity, having been bought for the Polo, even though it's physically the same size as the Golf's which may well be adding to the problem. Having written that I have just gone and checked, it's a 63AH, I would have thought would be enough

I'll do some more checks when I get the multimeter back.

[richandhazel]

Just an update.........

Following a full recharge the car has sat in the garage for 3 weeks. Went to start it yesterday to drive into work.......12.7 volts indicated before starting and started fine. Voltage jumped to 14 volts once the alternator kicked in

I guess I must have accidently left something on

[SoundillusioN]

Just an update.........

Following a full recharge the car has sat in the garage for 3 weeks. Went to start it yesterday to drive into work.......12.7 volts indicated before starting and started fine. Voltage jumped to 14 volts once the alternator kicked in

I guess I must have accidently left something on

Strange!... ah well, at least you havent had to shell out for anything then!