Hi All,
2004, MKVI T280 here.
I'll try give a summary of history of this, then ask some particular questions:
1. About two years ago van starts cutting out randomly while driving
2. Increasingly, I've had to jump start it, after shorter periods of inactivity
3. Two weeks ago, came to start it, it was COMPLETELY dead, no lights nothing on the dash, central locking not working etc.
4. It has two batteries, the one nearest the bulkhead, I'm informed is the starter battery.
5. Tried to jump start it, no joy, just clicks not turning the engine over.
6. Thought to myself "you know what i think this is the original battery, I'll get a new one"
7. Put new battery in, worked first time.
8. Had to take the stereo out to get the unlock code - While in there I noticed what appeared to be a small multicore cable that's clearly just been cut and stuffed back in. (Van used to be a National Grid van, so I wonder if there were some dashboard attachments etc that may have been removed prior to selling it). Thought nothing of if - taped the cable up as a whole and put it back in.
9. After three days of no use, I tried starting it last night with brand new battery - COMPLETELY DEAD again.
10. Something is clearly draining the battery.
11. Tried starting with the recently re-charged older battery no joy -(A multimeter across the terminals gave a 12.5 volt reading, is this high enough? )
So my questions:
1. It's been suggested to me that the leisure battery might be draining the starter battery and to disconnect it - I can't really think what purpose the leisure battery is serving for me, so assume it's OK to do this? (They appear to be wired in parallel, with some sort of 'thing' in between them - Apologies, I know nothing of car electronics!)
2. Do you think the small severed 'multicore' cable behind the stereo might be 'shorting out' some how and draining the battery? (Tonight, while it's dead I'm going to strip the cable and separate each individual core and tape them up, so they cannot make any sort of connection anywhere or with each other just in case, but i have no idea what this cable is. (You'll see I'm guessing at this here!!)
3. Of course doing these two things at the same time might not help me figure out which one is causing the problem, but I need to use the van tomorrow!!
So tonight I'm going to try re-charging the new battery and topping up the old one again, then I'll try again tomorrow! If that works I will try recharge the leisure battery too, just in case.
Of course, I'll need (Or get somebody else) to figure out what's draining the battery..... Mucho FUN!
Cheers All!!
SOLOman!