My wife's vRS has an intermittent current drain that flattens the battery whenever it is stood for more than about 5 days.

Whilst under warranty I took it into the local main dealer who changed 3 batteries before admitting it was something else.

They diagnosed the alternator occasionally causing a huge power drain at random - and changed it under warranty.

Everything was fine until the next school holidays (wife's a teacher) when the problem started up again (and the car was out of warranty).

It's now a year later and I am having to trickle charge the car whenever it is going to be stood.

Can anyone shed any light? No warning lights on the dash or any other odd behaviour...car is a 54 plate.

On an intermittent drain, no. My best idea is to take note that the dealer had no idea either ("the alternator's causing a drain with the engine off" is clutching at straws), go to a local garage, and ask them "Who would you take an electrical problem that's got everyone beaten to?" The answer will probably give you the name of the best auto electrician in your area.

Check glovebox light goes out when lid shut, same for boot light, check brake lights are not always on, and don't leave it in reverse gear when parked. After that, it's off to a decent auto sparky.

There was a thread a while ago with a similar problem. The poster finally traced it to (I think) an MP3 player attached to the radio, but hidden from sight. With a multimeter you could check whether the drain is actually intermittent or a slow drain which only shows after a critical period.

If you know your volts, amps etc and have a multimeter you can sort it yourself, Briskoda forum will help you of course. Failing that ask Dad, and after that seek out an auto electrican.

Could be something silly like a can signal waking up, although the Fabia uses a fairly basic can network.

"can signal":confused:

"can signal":confused:

Controller?area network - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Haven't heard of this before, didn't know Fabias have this technology. Here is a thread on similar lines Battery drain problem - SEAT Cupra.net - SEAT Forum may or may not help.

You could put a low range digital DC current reading clamp meter on its low range (say 5 Amps max)around the heavy wire that runs from the chassis to the battery negative terminal ,and monitor the reading over a period. There are two snags doing this :-

1. The meter (probably a FLUKE) is really expensive.

2. You might miss when a current is flowing if for a short period.

so ideally the meter should be able to store data ,or have an output for a laptop.

You have nothing to lose by puting a normal digital meter on current in the battery negative to ground circuit. The only danger is ,not to open the doors ,or switch anything on ,this could damage the meter (OK if its a £3 throw away one from Ebay!).