Dead Battery.

[Scotty12]

Hi,
I would just like to ask for some advice. Went to the car this morning to find it absolutely dead. Not a thing. I had been having trouble with the alarm keep going off due to a leaky rear washer pipe and the water entering the boot latch.

I put the car in my garage on Saturday and kept it unlocked so the alarm wouldn't keep going, but now it is dead this morning.

Is it just a case of taking the battery off and charging it, or are there things I need to be aware of in the case of a flat battery?

The car is a 2004 A3 2.0TDi.

Many thanks....

[PetrolDave]

The car is a 2004 A3 2.0TDi.

Is it the original battery? If so it's over 5 years old and may be "past it's best" (i.e. knackered) and worth replacing.

[Mr Man]

Hi,
I would just like to ask for some advice. Went to the car this morning to find it absolutely dead. Not a thing. I had been having trouble with the alarm keep going off due to a leaky rear washer pipe and the water entering the boot latch.

I put the car in my garage on Saturday and kept it unlocked so the alarm wouldn't keep going, but now it is dead this morning.

Is it just a case of taking the battery off and charging it, or are there things I need to be aware of in the case of a flat battery?

The car is a 2004 A3 2.0TDi.

Many thanks....

I may be talking s**t...but if you remove the battery will that not mean recoding the sound system or sat nav;alarm etc....Why not try a trickle charger with out removing the battery....I know your meant to remove it but I`v been trickle charging motorbike and jet-ski batteries during the winter months for years and I`v never had a problem....but as the above post suggest the battery might just be past it`s best.

[Scotty12]

Thanks for the answers..

Petrol Dave. Not sure if it is the original battery. I will have a look in the daylight. Unfortunatley go to work in the dark come home in the dark!

Mr Man. I cannot trickle charge the battery in place as I have no power to the garage. The garage is across the street. Also read in the manual that if you do remove the battery the Keys have to be recoded, as well as the stereo & windows and sometimes the Engine Management System may not work properly afterwards!.

I am going to try and jump start it and then take it for a nice long run on Friday to see if that works...

Thanks again!

[cabby]

Also read in the manual that if you do remove the battery the Keys have to be recoded, as well as the stereo & windows and sometimes the Engine Management System may not work properly afterwards!.
Thanks again!

That's pretty crap if correct. May be worth getting a garage/dealer to do this to check if they have a way of doing this without recoding. The cost of the recoding will probably be 3x the cost of battery.

[PetrolDave]

Also read in the manual that if you do remove the battery the Keys have to be recoded, as well as the stereo & windows and sometimes the Engine Management System may not work properly afterwards!

No recoding is necessary after removing/replacing the battery - however, some sensors usually need resetting using VAG-COM (I'm thiking of ones like G85 steering yaw sensor, etc.)

I've never heard of the keys having to be recoded when changing the battery.

The engine management system MAY (but usually doesn't) revert to basic settings, all that means is it will have to re-learn your driving style, but it WILL work properly.

[cruiser647]

I think these things have a limited life 'memory'/power back-up for when the battery is disconnected.
The 10 mins the battery is disconnected as you change it shouldn't do anything. Reconnect the new one and the key fobs, radio stuff should be fine. Electric windows might need the one touch/two touch thing re-learning (maybe)

If it was out for days, then maybe.

[DukeDesmo]

The original battery on my A3 died after a couple of years, the replacement died a couple of months ago - it had felt a little low for a while and I had charged it once but it worked OK for a week or so then one day I went to the shop and 5 mins later it was totally dead.

Had to reset the one touch electric windows and I had a few warning lights when I first started up that went out after a few mins.

I've never had a car that ate batteries at this rate before.

[Scotty12]

Well, got it started in the end by jump starting from my wives car. A few warning lights came up (Power Steering, ESP). So I thought I'd give it a quick run round the block and all the warning lights went off and everything is OK!!.

To get to the root of the alarm problem, I took the boot latch off and the sensor socket was full of water and gunk. The plug looks a bit corroded but not too bad. Put it all back together and fingers crossed it seems to be OK now. No boot open warning.

I had a new latch on order from Camberley Audi, so I think I will just keep that as a spare.

Thanks for the help....

Simon.