Pushinit

Our Q7 is primarily my wife's car. We always park it in the garage and she has gotten into the habit of leaving her purse in the front seat with her dongle in there when she comes into the house. My question is what happens with the computer when she does that? The car seems to be completely shut off when she comes back to it but I'm wondering if that is completely true. Does anyone know of any downside to doing this (other than making it easy to seal if someone found a way into the garage)?

Thanks

BOASTY

Before switching to the SQ7, I had a Cayenne and was instructed by the dealership to always lock the car in order to preserve the battery. I would assume the same applies to Audi.

Pushinit

I assume they are referring to the dongle battery? That makes sense for sure. But I'm hunting for what happens in the car and the car PCM. While all power seems off when she returns, is it completely? Do the USB charging ports remain active, as an example? We've seen some odd behavior and I'm wondering if the dongle remaining in the car might be the reason.

retom

It doesn't really matter whether you leave the key in the car or not. Most car modules go to sleep after a while anyway. They wake up when the start / stop button is pressed. The key also does not drain its battery more because it is ready all the time, even outside the car. The Audi key does not have an accelerometer that turns off the power when stationary.
The only risk is that it is easier to steal a car with the key left inside as well as without it.

keg97

We've left keys in the car in our locked garage for years with no issues.

As for theft, I'd rather a thief take my vehicle(s) then attempt to enter my home. Then again maybe they'd like to meet my German Shepherd at the door

GeoJoe

Pics of dog?

superswiss

As some have said already, nothing happens. There are some myths around this about draining the car battery and perhaps it comes from some cars that had bugs and actually drained the battery. Otherwise all the modules in the car that are not needed will go to sleep after about 10 minutes. The door modules which are responsible for the communication with the key fob stay awake either way, so that they can respond if a fob comes in close proximity. They do go to sleep if the car battery becomes critical and have to be woken up first by pulling the handle. You may drain the key fob battery quicker as it detects the beacon from the car's door module and will respond to it. There is probably a periodic are-you-still-there handshake. Otherwise, the fob won't actually send out a signal if it doesn't detect a familiar beacon. Newer key fobs have a motion sensor in them as a defense against the relay attacks that have become widespread, so those fobs go to sleep if they don't detect any motion for a certain amount of time. My Mercedes key fob for example has this feature and goes to sleep after 2 minutes. Not sure which generation Audi key fobs have this. Audi was kinda late to this game from what I remember.

SVJ

I noticed that if I don't use a car for about 5-7 days proximity sensors don't work and I have to physically press the "unlock" button on a key fob.

Pushinit

Thanks for the info. I had noticed some issues with a wireless CarPlay dongle that uses the USB outlet which seemed to not completely disconnect, in spite of the car being turned off. I was suspecting that because the fob was left in the car that it was still alive. I guess I need to look elsewhere for the reason.

richsurf

I do t go anywhere without my “dongle”