Battery issues???

[KfabR8]

Went to the garage this morning, tried to pop open the trunk with the key fob and there was no reaction from the car. Hmmm....

Opened the door and the LED footwell lighting came on, but nothing else.

Put the key in the ignition, turned it and there was some flashing of the head unit, but nothing else.

After standing on my head and doing circus tricks I was able to find the emergency trunk release cord up above the glove box. There's a pull ring on the end of a cable. Pull the ring (very hard) and pop go the trunk latches.

The battery is dead. There's just enough juice to make the trunk light glow a nice orange color.

I drove it yesterday morning and parked it after coming home like usual. Didn't leave anything on or change anything, just parked, turned it off and walked on inside.

So, I guess the question is:
Has anyone else experienced a dead OEM battery after 16 months?

I didn't do anything different than normal - didn't turn on the radio and walk away, didn't leave a door ajar so the lighting stayed on. Doesn't the car automatically turn everything off after 5 min if one of the doors has been opened or not latched completely?

Next question:
Is there an Odyssey or Optima style battery that's a direct replacement for OEM? Those are some seriously tough, stable, long lasting units (I've run them in my off road racer cars for a long time - never had a failure.).

Not looking forward to replacing the battery - that's going to require full trunk removal. Oh boy!

[Davey_Dee]

Question - My cars haven't been touched in over a year so will the batteries be dead? Lol

And if your going to change your battery I want pics of you car without the front on

[StuM]

I keep dealer supplied trickle chargers on my other, little used cars and they work great.
I have not added one to the R8 due to the fact that the 12V sockets are dead when this car is turned off. Thus would need to hard wire in a connection directly to the battery, with leads passed to a reasonable tie-in spot for the charger to be hooked up. (front fascia?)
Has anyone performed this type of arrangement and can provide details/pictures?

[smoothy]

Davey, they probably will be dead. Whenever you get on ground in the US, go to the local car shop (Pep Boys, NAPA or one of those type) get a battery charger, some have a setting that will put out enough amps to allow the engine to turn over so you don't even have to wait overnight for it to charge up. Rather than the battey, I'd be more worried that the gas in the tank has gone stale and you will get some nasty pinging until fresh gas is put in.

StuM, the trickle charger I use has alligator clamps that I attach right to the battery. I end up having to leave the hood part way up, which isnt too bad, it reminds me to disconnect the charger before I drive off )

[KfabR8]

I think I may have a dying or dead battery.

It's been on charge for about 6 hours now - started out on a 10A charge for about 2 hours and then dropped it down to 2.

The ammeter's still pretty much pegged. The battery will take all that the charger wants to give.

That, unfortunately says dead to me. Usually means a cell's gone bad.

The car did start fairly easily about three hours ago.

What makes me nervous is that the volt meter in the car was running below 12V. I let the car run for about 5 minutes and it didn't seem to rise - which means dead alternator (or charging/regulating system) - maybe.

The car's heading in for it's next service this week, so I'll talk to Audi about it.

Side note - has anyone ever noticed the maintenance warning on the dash?
"Oil change in 500 miles or 308 days."

Really? 308 days? I put 500 miles on my car a week!

LOL!

[Davey_Dee]

308 days for 500 miles...wonder where it got that number from

[KfabR8]

I think it's sort of like the warranty: 36K or 36 months, which ever comes first type of thing.

There's an R8 owner here in town that purchased the first one that came to one of our dealerships, so he's owned it just over two years. The last I heard, he'd not put 700 miles on it, but has had the oil changed twice. Guess he was told by the car "put the new stuff in me!"

Does oil go old??? I always was sort of under the assumption that it was all about 100 million (give or take a few) years old already. Another few years and it goes bad? <rhetorical question>

It just makes me laugh - 308 days or 500 miles. What a totally off statement it's making.

You'd think that the Audi electrical engineers would have a bit of fun and make an algorithm that took into account mileage versus time and would give a number that's more realistic. Heck, I'm a Mechanical Engineer and I can see that would be an easy thing for an electron chaser/programmer to do. (Not knocking our Beloved Electrical Engineers. They make our mechanical things work even cooler than we think it will.)

[willyjp]

Doesn't the car automatically turn everything off after 5 min if one of the doors has been opened or not latched completely?

I haven't got my new car figured out totally, and maybe I'm leaving some thing "ON"? But it bothers me greatly that when I shut down my car and lock it (and all the lights that were on have gone out, the 6 changer is still sitting there with about 8 glowing LED's (one over each cd channel and a couple more). If I come back out and look HOURS later, it's still glowing there.

Doesn't the 6 changer ever SHUT OFF? (yes, I have held down the on off button until the sound/nav system goes off)

Seems like there's enough draw there to drain your battery in a couple of days is that's the case!

PS: "real" oil is very old, but the synthetic stuff? who knows? maybe 6-12 months? probably made out of the recycled dinosaurs they used to make the "Jurassic Park" movies!

[Davey_Dee]

Oil has spent millions of years underground so if it goes bad it will be because it's spent time reacting with oxygen or w/e other gases.

[London Lad]

I think I may have a dying or dead battery.

It's been on charge for about 6 hours now - started out on a 10A charge for about 2 hours and then dropped it down to 2.

The ammeter's still pretty much pegged. The battery will take all that the charger wants to give.

That, unfortunately says dead to me. Usually means a cell's gone bad.

The car did start fairly easily about three hours ago.

What makes me nervous is that the volt meter in the car was running below 12V. I let the car run for about 5 minutes and it didn't seem to rise - which means dead alternator (or charging/regulating system) - maybe.

The car's heading in for it's next service this week, so I'll talk to Audi about it.

Side note - has anyone ever noticed the maintenance warning on the dash?
"Oil change in 500 miles or 308 days."

Really? 308 days? I put 500 miles on my car a week!

LOL!

That's not necessarily bad. 10 amp draw at first and down to 2 amps in 6 hours is OK especially if you have the battery on the car. You really need to take it off and charge it for 14 hours and then do a drop test (heavy discharge)

The volt meter reading is a bit concerning but I wouldn't take it as gospel until you have run it for 30 mins + at more than idle.

My guess is, if there is any problem, its a duff cell in the battery.