Battery keeps dying, 1.9TDi 2005estate

[Harveycat]

Hi there,


Have had the car nearly a year, like it, but whenever it’s left for more that 4 days, the battery dies. Last week did over a thousand miles up to Saturday, by Wednesday, had to use jump pack. Turns and catches first time once on jump leads….

Taken it back to dealer about 7 times, it’s had; new glove box switch, new battery (2 of), and latest, a new radio (stream type, old one wouldn’t take the upload), and had been with them for days for investigation, all without luck.
Very nice people, but not able to find the fault…..AA say battery is charging fine, and no noticeable drain when he looked at it……

And no, I’m not leaving the lights on!

Did have one strange day where the windows opened themselves (and set off alarm, twice) a while after locking up, dunno if that could be part of it?


Any ideas what to change / look for next?

Really wish I’d gone for the Toyota now!



Thanks in advance…

[Tom_vRS]

If the battery has been allowed to drain then it will be weaker for sure, not holding its charge for as long as it perhaps should.

[Harveycat]

ta for that, it's on it's 3rd battery in a year, so must be something else.....

[Ray_Green]

As I run 16 minibuses and given that you have changed the battery, if once started it starts all day and then fails the next day. I would consider changing the starter motor.


The down side of my comment is that the buses are LDV

[Octavia5]

Try having the Brake Light Switch changed - there was a problem with a faulty batch switching the Brake Lights on when the cars internal air pressure changed - mainly when a hot car cools down in the evening/night. I know it sounds odd but it happened to mine and several other people on the forum.

If this is the case then it is also likely that the battery has been damaged as modern gell batteries do not like being fully discharged - they will never fully charge again and may self discharge more quickly, though 3/4 days is a rather fast

[ostberry]

I had this problem with my 2005 1.9tdi elegance hatchback about 8 months after buying it new(june 2005). I had light assist fitted which means my headlights are on continuously so I naturally stormed into Clock Garage (Derby) and demanded that light assist be disabled (under warranty) as this was obviously the cause. They checked out the electrics then said there was a fault with the stream radio which was causing the drain. They replaced and reflashed the radio under warranty and I have had no problems since.(my lights are still on continuously) I would suggest that you ask your dealer to replace the radio again in case they fitted one that was already faulty. Hope this helps.

[Mrki77]

I had a similar problem cca. 6 month ago. The car was left only one day and the next day i turned the key and nothin happened - i tried 3 times and nothing happened unitll i opened the bonnet and instantly i got the electricity back hmm..
Went to my dealer and they checked the battery which appeared to be perfect...but said that somethin was draining more power than its usual... Well after 3 hours of waiting they didnt find anything and i never had that problem again...in fact on my last service got my battery checked and its 100% ok after 75000km...

[justdoit]

Had the same problem on my 4x4 - problem was the cooling fan ecu control unit, it was activating the fans during the night and running them till the battery died. Dealer wasn't able to find fault at 1st until I caught the car doing it 2 days later.

[Harveycat]

quick update...

after having a chat with a mate who had this on a new passat, contacted skoda CS direct...they have "had a chat" with the dealer, and it's going back in again...they recognise the fault with the radio, and are gonna keep it in until fault found....oh joy....

thanks to all replies, will keep ya posted....

[Lummox]

Battery drain issues are all to common these days. Its not really suprising given the ammount of electrics on the vehicle and the fact we are still bound by a 12v system. Most sensors and systems are now going to 5v to lessen the load. All the control units are connected via a bus network (be it canbus, linbus or whatever) all these units stay active even when the ignition is off and the car is locked etc for a set time. It can take 20mins or so for the 'chatter' between these units to quieten down. The main issue seems to be sometimes a control unit (be it a Stream radio, window motor, engine ecu) wont go to sleep (like my daughter some nights..lol). If a unit remains active it keeps the bus system on which can create a drain of around 0.7amps which if left for a few days will kill a battery.

And yes it is a bloody nightmare finding which one is doing it.

[Micky 32]

I know with the mkv golf there were issues with faulty radios draining the batteries.

[wilkopilko]

Could also be the alternator, I had this happen on a mk5 Passat TDI. The alternator was simply not charging the battery enough & as soon as the temperature dropped at night during the winter months it didn't have enough juice to turn the starter motor - diesels take a lot more power to start.

[vRS Ian]

I had this on a Passat. If the car was left for more than 3 days the battery went flat.

VW dealers (x2) were useless, one even told me I shouldn't leave the car for 2 weeks whilst on holiday!

VW UK just told me to get another dealer to look at it, they failed as well but at least they didn't tell me not to park the car for too long.

The dealers would even measure a battery drain that was excessive and say it was OK!

After 4 years of ownership I finally worked out what it was myself, the alarm wouldn't always set when the car was locked so the ECU wouldn't go to sleep.

The whole episode made me very glad to get out of that car into my next one.

[Harveycat]

firstly, thanks to all for the advice and hints.....


the latest is that i'm still waiting on the dealer to have a courtesy car for me, (over a week since Skoda CA said he would) but was awaiting a call to get me sorted this week…..no call, no surprise….will hassle again tomorrow (Sat)…

In the meantime, the RAC( it used to be AA with skoda, he also noticed that they only offer 2 years cover on cars now, instead of 3??? ) came out, as it was so dead i couldn't even use a jump pack on it,.....nice bloke, he lent me another battery while he took mine away and benched for the weekend then tested….result, battery fine; alternator charging well, so not those….

That was Tuesday: he re-fitted my one, so will try and start her up tonight (Friday dreaded 3rd day) and let ya all know…

If low or dead, will stick something through the fan (thanks for the tip guys!) to see if that moves due to “spookyness” !


Again, thanks to all for advice, much appreciated

[Harveycat]

further update....

was left for 3 days, started fine, left for 3 more (after a 20 trip) and dead....managed to use jump pack to start....

going back in to dealer sunday, i get a loan octy, they keep and test...again.....fingers crossed!

[Shonman]

My 2005 2.0TDI Estate has just done the same thing.

After being driven 70 miles daily I woke up to a completely drained battery.

RAC couldn't even run the diagnostics on it due to less than 20% charge.

The car is still with Skoda at the moment, they thought the battery drain would be the radio, but apparently not. (I have an Audience radio not a Stream which I believe was the problem one).

I've been stuck without a car since last Friday, it's Tuesday tomorrow and Skoda still don't know what's causing the drain. They've been disconnecting one thing at a time and still finding a high drain on the battery.

Whilst they were at it I mentioned the slight turbo whistle and now they've had to backorder a new Turbo.

All a bit disappointing for only 33K on the clock.

Let us know how you get on Harveycat.

[Harveycat]

Update,

well, it's been with them a week and half, and is fine....maybe i should park at the dealers!

still in their car, a brand new octy hatch 1.9, and is it me or is the lid really heavy? nearly lost an arm first time i closed it!

so, if no change by next week, get mine back and pray....

[Shonman]

Thanks for the update,

Mine is also still at the dealers.

Still in their car, a new octy estate 2.0TDI DSG, very nice for an auto.

My dealer changed their mind and said it was the radio, but it's going to take 2 weeks to get an update CD sent to them ?! Apparently they can't get the info over web and burn it to disc.

After a few days they did ask me to collect the car while we wait for the CD to turn up, despite the potential problem. When I got there the car was completely dead and they said "We've been waiting days for it to do that."

I'm not feeling confident that they really know that it's the radio to blame for the battery drain.

Though maybe the update improve my radios ability to read the MP3 ID tags when they do fix the drain.

[AR-CoolC]

Originally Posted by Harveycat

Update,

well, it's been with them a week and half, and is fine....maybe i should park at the dealers!

Hmmm.

Looking through the replies to this thread it looks more and more likely that there is some sort of issue with the alarm.

How do you lock/alarm the car at night?

How are the dealers locking/alarming the car at night?

One or two clicks of the remote button? Are they doing something different that means the alarm isn't set in the same way as you do it. Is the car stored at the dealer unlocked (indoors)?

There must be some connection between the locked status of the car draining the battery if it's been ok when parked up there for 10 days, but goes flat within 3 on your drive.

[Harveycat]

UPDATE...

it was with dealers for a month, and they tested everything they could, and it died for them twice...without luck in finding problem

they are now talking to skoda technical to try and identify problem....

got it back last saturday.....drove sunday, went to start last night (wends) and too dead to use a jump pack on....GRRRRR... had to get it back as driving across Europe over Christmas and their car can't be taken out of country


anyone want a skoda cheap?

I've decided sick of it, even if they find and fix will trade in for toyota or mazda in new year......had a year of this now and totally hacked off with the brand.