Asiparks

Quick history: about 2 months ago, my neighbour tried to jump my car for my wife and reversed the polarity. Radio and ABS fuses blew and VAG COM couldn't locate any of the modules, engine, transmission, anything. Replaced the fuses and plonked in a new Exide battery. The wife has been driving the car since.

Then about 2 weeks ago, after a regular day of driving, it was dead, no power at all. I returned it to the store for checking and it had 0 charge and 0 state of health, so they replaced it. Faulty battery, fair enough.
This morning, I get a call from my wife saying the car will not start, the relay is clicking, all the cabin /dash lights come on, but the engine is not turning over. There's no indication on the dash of charging system faults during start up.
No lights left on, no other loads other than the alarm, but the battery seems to be draining itself.
Any idea of where to start ?
cheers !
.

audinutt

have you checked your alternator output? sounds like the charging system is not charging anymore.

-Richard

Asiparks

how would i go about checking ?
I have a multimeter somewhere at the bottom of a drawer....
I thought that, at least on most cars, the battery symbol would light indicating that the alternator was not working ?
cheers

Jaap

Put multimeter on battery - read voltage.
Start engine - read battery voltage again
Rev to 2000 rpm - read voltage again.

Your looking for an increase in voltage by roughly 2 volts.

A8_Tony

If you've got access to VAG.com, you can check the voltage using that.

A8_Tony

You're looking for a reading of 13.9v through whatever method you choose