Battery issue.

[GREATscotman88]

Hello all, can anyone help me?

Went and got a 2004 audi a3 last week. Car has been running great. Went out the other day tried to start it, nothing. Completely dead, no lights nothing. Ended up having to jump start it, this happened on Friday it has happened twice since then.

I've Googled it and a lot of people seem to have this issue but I have seen no fixes. Could it be the alternator?. I just don't want to be forking out hundreds on trying to find the problem and not fixing it. Has anyone had this issue on here?.

I'm taking it back to the garage is bought it from but by the looks of things(they put a new battery is it a day before I collected the car) they knew of this issue, so I doubt they will be of any help.

Cheers guys.

 

[Boydie]

I replaced my battery on both my A3 and S3 so I would start there. Even check the reading on the battery with a multimeter

 

[SmithyAG]

If it responds to a jump start like you have said, then it almost definitely will be the battery. If the alternator wasn't charging it you wouldn't be driving very far on a flat battery!

The reason it has happened more than once is probably because old batteries that are on their last legs hold their charge for less and less time. Yours sounds like it is past the point of saving, so put a new one in an take it from there.

 

[ninjakid]

Hi mate, I had the same issue recently. It turned out to be a dodgy battery, wasn't holding charge so I brought one of these
Varta Car Battery New Powerframe 067 / 096 / E44 / (577400078) Low Cost Batteries Online

Now it works perfectly, starts on first turn.

 

[leeds2592]

They can't have put a brand new battery in it because as said, sounds like this is the problem.

When you jumped it, did you leave it running for a while to charge it back up? If not, do that and see if it holds charge. And if it doesn't hold charge, get a new battery.

 

[GREATscotman88]

Went to get my battery checked today, everything is fine they said. Alternator and battery.

I did just notice that the hazard light in the centre of the console stays on aswell as another button next to the lights(don't know what's its called lol). I'm assuming that they're meant to be off after i have locked the car. Could the hazard light be draining my battery?.

Does anyone know if i could remove a fuse to turn the light off, if so which?.

Its so frustrating lol.

 

[SmithyAG]

No the hazard switch won't be draining your battery, it's normal.

Where did you get your battery tested and how did they do it?

If you do have something draining your battery it will be something bigger than your hazard light switch.

I'd just take it back to where you got it from and tell them to take a look at it.

 

[GREATscotman88]

After getting jump started late last week the car ran fine for a few days, just went out to go food shopping and its dead again, this time i heard clicking come from where the lights turn on.

No other lights are working.

 

[ninjakid]

Yes I was getting the clicking too. Think it happens when there isn't enough current in the system. As I said before I bought a new battery and everything is fine. Get a voltmeter and check your voltages, anything under 12v is bad news. Then check again with the engine running, hopefully you should be getting 14.4v or around that mark. If so your altimeter is fine and is a battery or other problem.

 

[GREATscotman88]

The struggle is real.

Tried swapping the hazard light and disconnecting the welcome home button.

I took the car to an auto electrician, he hooked some thing up to the battery to see what the it was outputting when the car was off. Its outputting about 01.5.

He worked on it for a couple of hours pulling the fuses one by one and could not find the issue. Im at a loss, he just handed me the car back saying he couldn't find the fault. I pulled a few fuses when he had it hooked up as he was seeing to another customer, i pulled one fuse (f26) and it dropped to 0.1 - 0.2 i told him but he dismissed it for some reason.

I believe this fuse is the ECU, how bad is this?. When i have enough time im going to take it somewhere else or to an audi garage. But im concerned over giving them hundreds just to look at it and not come up with a solution.

like ive said ive only had the car a month or two.

 

[RustyBucket]

Spend £70 on a battery (see the link above) and all will be sorted,stop wasting your hard earned dosh on auto electricians

 

[leeds2592]

Spend £70 on a battery (see the link above) and all will be sorted,stop wasting your hard earned dosh on auto electricians

This.

Get a new battery and keep an eye on it with a multi meter to see if it starts to drain.