Battery Draining

[davidhawkins_78]

Hello  

I've got a stupid problem that's driving me nuts - but I can't solve it !!!

I got a new battery that's only a month old - and once a month i go to start 'her' and that battery's dead! The alternator is working fine, i've tried turning the alarm off in case that was draining it, no luck !

I've got a fair bit of ICE, but it's all running off the remote live on the headunit, and i've checked that ....

Basically I'm running out of things to check for the drain - is there anything Golf specific I'm missing ??

Cheers

[Blue MK2]

Try running your car for the week with the ICE all off.

Someone posted a while ago about their boot switch keeping the boot light on and draining the battery. Have a look?

[S11EPS]

I agree, I would check all pin-switches on doors, boot and bonnet.

My old man had the same thing with his Holden, he had a busted pin-switch on the bonnet and that flattened his battery all the time - took us ages to figure out what was up!

[davidhawkins_78]

Just checked the boot - the bulb is missing so can't be that !!!

I'll try unplugging the power to the ICE, but I have checked to make sure the power lights on the amps come on and off as they should do - I'm happy to be proven wrong though ....

I suppose i'll have to double check the alternator - anyone recommend a good method? It's a '89 digi GTI so not sure if it's a Bosh or Motorola one though ...

[Blue MK2]

A volt meter on the alternator or park up facing a wall with the dipped beam, now rev the car and the lights should brighten. If they brighten then the alternator is working.

I dont turn my audio up to the full anymore and ive noticed the increase of battery life.

If your ICE is draining the battery try a power cap

[davidhawkins_78]

Well it's seems to be only when the car is left standing over night - with apparently nothing running that it happens - so i'm not inclinded to think it's the ICE as the face is never on overnight, and the amps are off as there's no remote feed (I've checked this too).

I've checked the earth strap to the gearbox and seems OK ....

One thing I've just remembered - I've wired the remote and the perm live on the head unit to the live on the car as there was no remote live ( 2 in to 1 )... the amps are fed by a separate remote live from the head unit so do turn on and off - but even though the face is off the head unit and in therory 'off', could it be possible that it's still feeding off the battery ( I hope that makes sense !!).

[R1D3R]

my car is doing exactly the same. i got a new battery when i was trying to start my jetta. put it in my golf. a week later it is dead. Nothing happend atall when i tried starting. I charged it this morning and it is fine.

I was wondering about my ICE aswell. But im sure its wired perfect. Ill have to see if it happens again

[Blue MK2]

Doesnt matter about amp wiring Rider.

Do your lights flicker when the bass kicks in? if it does then its not a big problem but it might weaken the battery life i think.

[VR6_ROB]

my sh!tty ax did that few weeks ago i just took the battery out and charged it in the garage overnight n its fine now sounds like its goin dead sumtimes though on a morning

[tobz.]

Might be worth disconnecting your battery and putting an ammeter in the line to see if the car is drawing any current from the battery in the everything off state. My girlfriends MK2 driver was draining the battery a while back (albeit more severly as it would drain the battery in a few hours). I bunged the ammeter on and the car was drawing about 10 amps with everything off!!! I just started pulling everything out of the fuse box one at a time and eventually found that the main ignition relay was stuck on. ?5 later problem solved!
Might be worth carrying out similar checks.