A year ago I reported that my Moll battery, like many other people's batteries, had died. VW Assist replaced it with a new one. Since the coronavirus lockdown I haven't been using the van much. Yesterday I got in it and the battery is dead. It is only five days since I last drove it. What is going on? I think the van is still, just under warranty and has only done 30,000 miles. This shouldn't be happening. I also have a rubbishy and much-maligned Peugeot with 150,000 miles on the clock and that fired up after four weeks of sitting idle.
Starter Battery Discharge
- Thread starter Josh Corps
- Start date
The stater will flat after about 3weeks in T6.
Taking a 30min drive once a week is not enough.
You will to:
Drive the van for longer.
Or
Use a mains charger once a fortnight.
Or
Fit a small solar charger.
Thanks for that reply mate. VW Assist came out and checked everything over. The battery is in good health and, as you advised, they said it needed regular running for 30 mins. When I queried why nobody around us in other vehicles is having that problem, he volunteered that relatively speaking the battery in a T6 wasn’t up to the job it was asked to do. He suggested there are too many systems draining the life out of it. Does seem a bit crazy I have to waste 30 mins of fuel every few days when I can do exactly the same type of driving in a 150k miles peugeot and it starts first time. Thanks again for your reply.
There seem to be big differences in people’s experiences here. Our T6 can easily go 4 weeks without driving, and starts perfectly. The battery is the original (over 3 years old).
i guess without measuring quiescent current draw in each case, we aren’t going to spot any trends.
Pete
i guess without measuring quiescent current draw in each case, we aren’t going to spot any trends.
Pete
agreed . . . .
who knows what impact all the gadgets we add to the van . . . . !!
on mine, BM2`s, dc-dc, solar bits, leds, monitors etc etc etc etc . . . . all can drain tiny mA each - but combined they start to add up.
id have to agree tho . . . . a 70Ah is a bit small.
id much prefer a 100Ah or so.
*******************
so for now we will all need to :
Drive the van for longer.
Or
Use a mains charger once a fortnight.
Or
Fit a small solar charger.
Van stands idle most of time on drive and standing load is depleting battery volts ... falling as low as 11.8V after couple of weeks forcing me to put the mains battery charger on for a day to get volts back up to near 13. There's nothing switched ON in the van so the parasitic load of .. BCM , alarm and general door opening and closing when parked up must cause it. As suggested by Dellmassive got a Bluetooth BCM .. 17.00 off eBay to keep an eye on volts rather than opening van and switching dash fitted voltmeter on to check.
Not wanting the pain of the battery charger every 2 -3 weeks got a 10W solar panel into 12V dash socket as Dellmassive post ..30.00 on Amazon .. put the volts back up into to healthy zone within 2 days ..12.28 to 12.65 approx and no hassle .. just a thought as to why the volts dropping that much after 2 or 3 weeks .. Only worried if they dropped too far the battery is U/S and new one required .. Are all. Vans heavy on the volts when standing .. I have a 5 series as day car and can leave it for weeks on end not used .. although not checked the volts it has no problem starting ... and is 8 years old original battery.. the van is only 2.5 years old !
I haven't checked the battery type on the van so will check tomorrow but it shouldn't be a type issue surely on fairly new van...
Not wanting the pain of the battery charger every 2 -3 weeks got a 10W solar panel into 12V dash socket as Dellmassive post ..30.00 on Amazon .. put the volts back up into to healthy zone within 2 days ..12.28 to 12.65 approx and no hassle .. just a thought as to why the volts dropping that much after 2 or 3 weeks .. Only worried if they dropped too far the battery is U/S and new one required .. Are all. Vans heavy on the volts when standing .. I have a 5 series as day car and can leave it for weeks on end not used .. although not checked the volts it has no problem starting ... and is 8 years old original battery.. the van is only 2.5 years old !
I haven't checked the battery type on the van so will check tomorrow but it shouldn't be a type issue surely on fairly new van...
If it is a Moll battery they are cack
indeed they are!
Moll batterys have caused lots of problems,do a search on here to see. Im sure s lot of people have had them changed under warranty but if you are out of warranty,perhaps something you need to consider doing?
Thought about that ... yes still under warranty ..they,d probably need it for a week to check the discharge rate and log it etc.. confirm back to Wolfsburg battery HQ for permission to change it .. if it was in for service or something then I'd let them look at it but it's more hassle to book it in and arrange warranty work possible free replacement.. main steelers tend to wriggle and turn and get away with it to look to apportion blame elsewhere .. . Stansway Liverpool to be fair aren't too bad .. had it in there before Xmas for squeeky Toothed belt and was replaced .. If it becomes a bigger issue then it will have to go in .. thanks
They’ve done that for me. They were doing something else and I just asked him to check the battery. When he picked up the main part he needed, he grabbed a new battery too.
My battery had never failed to start the van, but was below spec.
8o8
Member
I haven't used the van for a number of weeks and the battery is down to 7.3v I have a charger (Lidl) and it won't go to 12v mode as the voltage is below 7.5v. would there be any issue if I disconnected the battery from the van, then using a donor car, use jump leads to boost the voltage slightly to get past 7.5v??
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