When not driving the VR daily.....

[Ian_A 0]

Basically its not my daily driver but more of a weekend car. The problem is that the battery seems to die after more than 2 weeks if not driven within that period

Im wandering if this is normal or not? After driving there is a whirring noise that comes from the loom that attaches to the top right hand side of the engine...any ideas if this is normal?

For those that dont drive them everyday, how do you overcome any draining issues?

Thanks, Ian 8)

[Nerih 0]

i've never doen this before, so do it at ur own risk, but i guess to check if its any of the electrial items being left on, take out all the fuses from the fuse box and see what happens in a afew days (of course after putting the fuses back!).

[purple highline monster 0]

what securtity has it got? alarms and immobilisers drain the battery if you dont drive them much,i had the same problem with my last 3 vw`s, lack of use!! make sure you try to run it up for 1/2 an hour at least every 3 days or so just to give it a charge up, it needs to be this long as starting takes quite a bit of power from the battery alone and it gives the alternator a chance to replace what the alarm has drained over the time its standing, if your battery is decent and nothing else is draining it should be ok, dunno about taking all the fuses out? may risk damaging something? its just lack of use normally. get it checked on a volt meter and that will tell you if you have any unwanted drain and if the battery is still good. a decent garage will have the gear to do it.

[blackburnvr6 0]

I used to get this on my vr. its the vw alarm that is doing it mine used to go flat in a week in the end i started disconecting it, But doing this your car might throw some fault codes as mine did think it was the air bag code it kept showing. In the end i changed the alarm and it was better i could get 3 week out it.

[vdubgirl 3]

As most people know mines been off the Road since feb and I've got a brand new Bosch Silver battery on there but that goes flat if i dont start it with in 2 weeks. Sounds like your battery is shagged!

[jayvwvr6 0]

that whirring noise is the auxillary water pump or second water pump as people call it,its placed right next the the engine wiring loom on the right hand side looking at it and yes this is normal,only get worried when its not making that noise.

[badboyV6 4]

yep, as Jay says- this is normal-and is the aux water pump doing its stuff- mine aint making any noise so need to get it sorted asap!

[pete8tch 0]

if you garage your car buy an optimate this will keep ure battery charged all the time without overcharging , i have 1 on my bike and it works well

[Ciaran 4]

what is it pete where from and how much. i work offshore and leave the car for 2 weeks whats the chances of my car draining it's battery and me coming back onshore and it being dead??

[Pittuf 0]

Ai that does sound good Pete.

I'm hopefully gonna get my RS1800 back on the road soon for a daily driver so the VR will be left standing around abit, (probably only for a weekdays max though ) so might be intrested in one of them.

[Ian_A 0]

thanks for the info peeps. The battery was a little low so I topped that up and went for a spin, it seems to of helped as ive started it several times trouble free since then.

Some sort of trickle charger could be safely used then? If I was to unplug the battery when not using the car would this reset the ecu everytime(e.g after 30 mins)? Meaning the ecu would need to re-learn the settings over and over?

[purple highline monster 0]

a trickle charger is ace, if you have permanent power in your garage! you can get one quite cheap, its a simple thing really you just plug it in when you leave the car and if any voltage drop occurs the charger cuts in untill its topped up again, no more flat batterys.