10 minutes ago, Mikerp said:

Hi, Thanks for that, the problem is I will be leaving the car at one of the hotels at Heathrow. I cannot afford to leave it unlocked so disconnecting the battery is out.

By the way have had no problems with the car since it was at the dealership.

I'm glad you put about both, I thought you were leaving it at an airport (did you post elsewhere) ETA: found it) that is why I didn't reply as I couldn't remember if you could lock the car and disconnect the battery.

 

I'm not sure how you'd cheat the bonnet opening and alarm and then you'd have to be sure to be able to get at the hidden front door lock on your return, I have a feeling some of this might have been covered in other threads but I can't remember and it's too cold to go outside and test out on my wife's car.

 

Edited 28 January, 20224 yr by nta16
ETA:

I have emailed the dealership to see what they say. If I have to leave it connected and it discharges while we are away I will just call the RAC as we are members.

 

Mike

If the battery is well charged before and it's a good run to Heathrow I think you might be fine but I'm not sure, I should be able to do the maths (with the help of a calculator) but with my memory and the evil VW programming I've no idea what sleeps when and for how long.

 

I could leave my car literally months over winter as no electric will be running unless there's a fault so just normal battery discharge, all locks are mechanical only, my previous version of the model didn't even have a boot or interior light.

 

One thing I noticed in the Driver's Handbook was the alarm siren is only good for 5 years!  Its own battery I suppose but don't know I must ask if this is true and what you're supposed to do about it if it is true, personally I'd do without all car alarms.

 

If you have a "battery" concern, maybe fork out on a small jump pack as that will be cheaper than a compact capacitor based one, you can lock the car up without any battery being fitted, the drivers door - or maybe in some cases, the passenger door will have a mechanical lock barrel so the key blade will fit and lock that one, all others should have a small softish rubber cover on the rear face of the door at door handle level, if you remove them you can insert the key blade and flick the locking mechanism, replace the cover and close the doors, they will then be locked but without the deadlock being "on". Unlocking is just unlock the door that has a key lock and open the others from the inside using the handle.

 

Personally, if you really have a "battery" concern I'd just buy a small jump pack and leave it in the car, if everything is okay car wise and battery wise, 3 weeks is not a long time to leave a car unused.

 

Edit:- I had a "battery draining potentially" situation once when needing to leave a car at the airport for only one week, I charged my old small cheap jump pack and left it in the car, that car did let me down, it turned over once and once only, so the jump pack was hauled out and that worked very well, saved what would be an annoying wait for the AA if they are allowed to get into controlled carparks - maybe these car park controllers have their own "helpers at a cost".

Edited 28 January, 20224 yr by rum4mo
folk = fork!

34 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

you can lock the car up without any battery being fitted, the drivers door - or maybe in some cases, the passenger door will have a mechanical lock barrel so the key blade will fit and lock that one, all others should have a small softish rubber cover on the rear face of the door at door handle level, if you remove them you can insert the key blade and flick the locking mechanism, replace the cover and close the doors, they will then be locked but without the deadlock being "on". Unlocking is just unlock the door that has a key lock and open the others from the inside using the handle.

I knew there was something I forgot!

 

And it was rum4mo that told me, I checked at least one door and found the small softish rubber cover, I think it had a symbol on it too.

 

 

35 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

Unlocking is just unlock the door that has a key lock and open the others from the inside using the handle.

@Mikerp this is something that needs to be taken into account, I thought I'd left a post about this but must have decided not to, you need to find if it's your driver's or passenger's door that has the hidden door lock where you remove the cover to expose it and open the door with the keyblade (that might terrify the youngsters), all details in the Driver' s Handbook.  The thing is you need to be able to get to this door when you return so if it's the passenger side it's no good parking that side hard against a wall and you also need to allow for another vehicle parking and not leaving enough space.

 

And you need to check and perhaps practice getting the bonnet release handle to operate if you can't open the passenger door, apparently it is possible but remember the handle is plastic.  I would make sure the cable and bonnet catch are clean and lubricated so they operate as easily as possible without extra resistance.

 

On 28/01/2022 at 21:22, rum4mo said:

you can lock the car up without any battery being fitted, the drivers door - or maybe in some cases, the passenger door will have a mechanical lock barrel so the key blade will fit and lock that one, all others should have a small softish rubber cover on the rear face of the door at door handle level, if you remove them you can insert the key blade and flick the locking mechanism, replace the cover and close the doors, they will then be locked but without the deadlock being "on". Unlocking is just unlock the door that has a key lock and open the others from the inside using the handle.

 

@Mikerp whilst I was checking my wife's 2015 just now I actually remembered to check.  Each of the four doors has the black rubber grommets, they have a partial indent slot in them and if you look hard enough a lock symbol on them. 

 

I have previously checked the rear doors when rum4mo previously pointed this out but I didn't bother on the front doors.  Just now I didn't expect there would be one on the driver's door as that has the hidden barrel lock on the outside but I didn't remove the grommet so don't know if there's the same behind there as with the other three doors.

 

IIRC behind the grommet is a white-ish bit of plastic with a slotted indent that the keybblade goes into.