Lets talk battery chargers

[ainarssems]

1/2 hour and then going on a 15 minute drive as well

That's not going to put much energy in battery. In the best case scenario if there is say 20A going in the battery with 90% efficiency 45 minutes it will only put 13.5Ah which will be 13.5% on the 100Ah battery.

To charge battery from totally flat you are looking at 10hrs with powerful 10A+ charger to get it to 80% or 20hrs with 5A charger. Last 20 % need to be charged at lower rate with 2A or less and most smart chargers limit current to 0.8A and efficiency is lower when battery gets fuller so to go from 80% to full will be another 25-30 hrs but you can leave it 80%, no need to get it to 100%

Battery might have suffered as well if it has run nearly empty several times or remained nearly empty for long periods of time.

[mannyo]

Yes, I think you're right. Its been 6 weeks now since the car did any meaningful mileage, on Friday I am doing a 4 hour drive in the D3 and even that may not be enough, and the following weekend I am driving from Stevenage to Boston, Lincs and from Lincolnshire back to Dorset.

I'll stick VCDS on it when I get to work, assuming it starts as its been sat all night with the battery low, I did check yesterday and according to the BCM the charging current was around 10A and alternator output was 15V.

I have always had a battery drain problem anyway, where from fully charged it would go down to 15% if left for a week without being touched possibly due to faulty keyless door handles which show an intermittent fault.

I'll try and get a charger today, but being in a rural town options are limited, the local Homebase has one but thats about all I can get locally today. I really want to get the battery into a good state ASAP so what about this one.

http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebas...charger-141975

[mannyo]

This is a scan from the car this morning, after I reset the codes yesterday morning.

Car started fine this morning, keyless entry was dead as was the alarm. The door light had stopped flashing by 10PM last night. Battery meter had 2 bars showing

This morning I checked the measuring blocks, and when the engine is switched off and everything else off but the car still "Awake" it was taking 8A from the battery, so it obviously does this until it goes to sleep. At some point I'll need to check the sleep current.

Address 61: Battery Regul. Labels: 4E0-910-181.lbl
Control Module Part Number: 4E0 910 181 A HW: 4E0 915 181
Component and/or Version: ENERGIEMANAGER H02 0230
Software Coding:
Work Shop Code: WSC 00217 217 52026
Additional Info: 000915105AK von VA0 1308220489
Additional Info: Geraet 52026
VCID: 1E37DA4BB027
4 Faults Found:

02273 - Quiescent Current Stage 2
000 - - - Intermittent
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00100000
Fault Priority: 7
Fault Frequency: 2
Mileage: 235641 km
Time Indication: 0
Date: 2015.10.04
Time: 12:36:55

02276 - Quiescent Current Stage 5
000 - - - Intermittent
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00100000
Fault Priority: 7
Fault Frequency: 2
Mileage: 235641 km
Time Indication: 0
Date: 2015.10.04
Time: 12:37:05

02274 - Quiescent Current Stage 3
000 - - - Intermittent
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00100000
Fault Priority: 7
Fault Frequency: 2
Mileage: 235641 km
Time Indication: 0
Date: 2015.10.04
Time: 12:37:15

02277 - Quiescent Current Stage 6
000 - - - Intermittent
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00100000
Fault Priority: 7
Fault Frequency: 2
Mileage: 235641 km
Time Indication: 0
Date: 2015.10.04
Time: 12:37:25

[tc4332]

Here is mine, hope this helps.

Address 61: Battery Regul. Labels: 4E0-910-181.lbl
Part No SW: 4E0 910 181 HW: 4E0 915 181
Component: ENERGIEMANAGER H02 0160
Revision: 00000000 Serial number: 00000000010676
Shop #: WSC 00000 000 00000
VCID: 5DB1B54184D4E3D61D-8008

Subsystem 1 - Part No: 000 915 105 AK
Component: von VA0 301008802E
Coding: 303030393135313035414B56413033303130303838303245
Shop #: WSC 73430 210 01865

No fault code found.

[ainarssems]

http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebas...charger-141975

It's better than nothing but I would not be prepared to pay £50 for it. It's older design transformer type so bigger, heavier, less efficient and not fully automatic like new SMPS smart chargers. On the plus side it has fairly high current at 8A so will charge battery quicker but I would not leave it unattended to the battery for long periods of time as it may be charging battery with too much current when it gets near full state and causing it to loose water.

You can do a search on ebay by putting in your postcode and selecting distance, you might find one nearby. Or if you have Lidl not far away you can check if they still have the one I linked before, it's excellent value for £13.99 but will be a bit slow at 3.8A

This morning I checked the measuring blocks, and when the engine is switched off and everything else off but the car still "Awake" it was taking 8A from the battery

That's a lot of current with everything off.

[47p2]

It takes between 20-30 minutes for the system to 'go to sleep' after everything is switched off. Opening a door awakens the system again, turning on certain switches awakens the system again, opening the boot awakens the system again if you see where I'm coming from. If you require the door to be open to check the drainage then you need to open it and leave it open for half an hour before checking... Hope this helps

[mannyo]

I've just popped into Lidl next to the Halfords I intended to visit some 25mins from work, so I've got the one linked to earlier in the thread. Its a 4.8A charger, but its intelligent unlike the RAC one. So as another plus the car had a 1 hour run, so lets see how long that lasts.

[mannyo]

Poor car is currently sitting outside with no power and the battery is hooked up to the Lidl charger in situ but with the cables disconnected.

Could not work out how to lock the drivers door with no power, and there is a mains cable protected by RCD running into the boot where the charger is located. its raining but the socket and charger are right in the back of the boot and the boot itself is closed as much as I can.

The weather forecast overnight is not good, so just before going to bed I'll disconnect the charger and give the car some well earned power so I can lock it and I don't fancy leaving the power lead through an open kitchen window either.

So it would have had 6 hours on the charger this evening, in addition to the longish run earlier.

I also discovered earlier, you can connect to the BCM with VCDS even with the ignition fully off.

[Burnzybubbles]

Originally Posted by mannyo

Poor car is currently sitting outside with no power and the battery is hooked up to the Lidl charger in situ but with the cables disconnected.

Could not work out how to lock the drivers door with no power, and there is a mains cable protected by RCD running into the boot where the charger is located. its raining but the socket and charger are right in the back of the boot and the boot itself is closed as much as I can.

The weather forecast overnight is not good, so just before going to bed I'll disconnect the charger and give the car some well earned power so I can lock it and I don't fancy leaving the power lead through an open kitchen window either.

So it would have had 6 hours on the charger this evening, in addition to the longish run earlier.

I also discovered earlier, you can connect to the BCM with VCDS even with the ignition fully off.

Put the battery back onto the car lock all the doors then open just the boot with the fob, disconnect the battery again then get the battery charger on something solid like a piece of wood or a molded plastic tool box put the extension lead in the boot as well, hold the cable at the join between the rear lights, it should fully close then and be water tight, that's how I did mine when it was parked up for near 3 months and had to keep the battery charged

[Burnzybubbles]

Ps, extension leads will differ in diameter so don't slam it **** but if it's just a DIY extension then it should go gently, opening the boot you will have to do by the lock in the trim above the number plate light, it can be stiff but it should unlock the boot without power

PPS sorry didn't read the kitchen window bit, but some windows have the slightly ajar latch that still keeps the window closed but with an air gap and probably enough to leave the cable coming through.