I've had my 2011 Octavia VRS wagon (petrol) for over 2 years now with no issues. A couple weeks ago the car would not start due to a dead battery. Initially thought the battery was on its way out as it was a few years old so purchased a new battery. A couple days later, same issue, the car would not start and the battery was dead.

 

After fully charging the battery up, the car lasts between 2-3 days without being driven before its completely dead (not even enough power to remote unlock the doors). 

 

I've had a multi meter hooked up in series to check for a parasitic battery drain and the results were strange. After waiting around 20 minutes with the doors locked and the bonnet open, i can see the car goes to 'sleep' with a reading of about 20mA (good). It does this for 2 1/2 minutes, then spikes to almost 4A for 30 seconds! Then back down to 20mA for another 2 1/2 minutes before spiking up to 4A again for another 30 seconds and so on. My understanding is something must be having issues talking to something else correctly and every 2 1/2 minutes it checks again to see if it can talk, if not, tries again in a loop? 

 

Anyone experienced anything similar? I know I should be checking which circuit is the culprit but the issue is it only occurs for 30 seconds at a time, so will need to be quick in checking each fuse and then moving on. Any suggestions on another approach?

 

Appreciate any input!

Have you checked the radio is not misbehaving, this normally associated when owners upgrade radios with older gateway so worth pulling out the fuse for the radio to eliminate this even though you had no radio changes.

Did you close the bonnet catch? Leaving it open can cause the car not to go to sleep, The best way is with a screwdriver, then the car thinks the bonnet is closed, then check current drain,

A VCDS scan would be a good thing to get done if you can,  

Same radio/navigation that came with the car and car only started these issues a week ago. Will try removing the radio fuse just in case. 

 

Good call regarding the bonnet catch! In all my tests I have left the bonnet open and locked the rest of the car...Will use a screwdriver to trick the car to thinking it is indeed closed and recheck the current drain.

 

I do actually own a VCDS and have tested this a number of times. After clearing previous faults from dead batteries there are no current faults displaying. I took this car into a auto electrician after I gave up, they cleared the fault codes and said the 'stopped' spiking and charged me $200 and said should be fixed. Next morning car battery was down to <12V's again!

 

Any tip on how to put the battery in series to test for current drain but not D/C the battery so all the fault codes don't come back up? Im worried the fault codes may be causing the computers to be 'overworking' checking for issues that are not really issues.

There's a good thread about how to check the voltage drop of individual fuses below, 

 

 

Edited 6 April, 20188 yr by Cryonut

Update: After performing the voltage drop test (which was difficult as the spike from 20ma to 4A only lasted 15 seconds at a time and then had to wait another couple minutes) fuse 37 was found to be the culprit (~6.5v which converts to bang on 4A). This is the front heated seats circuit. Not sure which front seat is causing the issue - without removing the seats and fiddling with wires I have simply removed the fuse for now. Will be missing my heated seats as winter is coming!

 

Will check the battery level (full charged at 13v now) overnight and see how it goes.

 

Thanks for the assistance

Hi, I've got the exact same problem with the battery draining. I've also removes fuse 37 and now its fine but no heated seats. 

Have you figured out what the cause is?

Thanks

HI all, 

I'm having the same issue with my 06 plate and I don't have heated seats in mine any suggestions on what it could be ?

 

Thanks 

 

steffan