2000 Passat 30V w/ 4-Mo @ 78k
(I'm posting this in the B5 forum also)
Long-time reader, first-time poster -
I know this is long, but for the love of God, PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME!
So I've read hundreds of old posts, and I just can't seem to put a finger on this issue. Seems there are MANY others with this problem, they post, people offer "you need a new battery" as a solution, and then the post dies off.
Let's put it to rest - I've replaced my battery three times to-date since July of 2008. Why? Every so often you go out to start the car, and the battery's dead for no rhyme or reason. Try to recharge it, and the battery's so fried it won't even accept a charge and it must go back to the auto parts store to get exchanged (again, three times now).
What it isn't: Interior lights staying on, glovebox light staying on, radio (HU) staying on
Until now, I didn't know what to think and figured just selling the thing was the best way out. Ultimately, I like this car and don't really feel like having a car payment again if I don't have to, so ideally I'd like to keep it around.
In the last 24 hours, I've spent a LOT more time on here reading old posts because it happened again- the battery went bad out of nowhere. "Bad" means it won't even work off the vehicle, btw.
I read the Mobile Electronics forum quite a bit, and identified a potential reason for concern- a recent HU upgrade to a Clarion DXZ385USB with a Metra harness, Part # 70-1784. Now if something was done wrong, I'm the one to blame, but I've done plenty of car stereos before, and figured this one was no different. I soldered and shrinkwrapped my connections, and terminated all the wires into the factory harness, powered it up, and everything worked fine. I didn't run any additional wires under the dash anywhere because, well, it worked, so what the hell was the point? Looking back, I put this radio in around July, and that's when the problems started.
What bothers me about this, like I said, is it just comes out of nowhere. I could go outside right now and meter the week-old battery (car hasn't been used in 24 hours) and it would be right around >12 volts. No problem. Fast forward a few weeks, and that's another story. The car will ALWAYS start strong, then all of the sudden out of nowhere, dead, nothing. I know the ECU needs X amount of voltage for the vehicle to start, but I'm saying there's NOTHING, nil, the battery is as dead as a doornail.
Having quoted Dickens, my day now feels complete.
Without a clue as to what could have been the cause, I spent some time the other night searching, and found a few posts about aftermarket HUs and Monsoon amps. One post in particular was similar enough to mine, so I went out to the Passat and tested the theory. Theory was, he had a phantom battery drain somewhere, and an aftermarket radio with a Monsoon amp that even after being parked overnight was still hot in the morning. Upon checking, my Passat which had been parked for eight hours in a dark, cold garage had a Monsoon amp in its interior compartment that was warm to the touch. The radio's off, no output on the front right speaker, so what's keeping the amp on?!
Question is, could this be my CCM? I read somewhere that the amp is controlled by the CCM (?). I removed my carpet to check the floorboards, and all in clear- no water, no damage anywhere that I can see.
As a sidenote, my keyfobs work fine (and when locked, the red LED on the driver's door DOES flash), but SOMETIMES if I try to manually lock the driver's door, the alarm will not enable. HOWEVER, sometimes when I open the driver's door, the interior lights will not illuminate, so, I think all this is is a bad switch in the DD latch assembly (which is tied to the manual door lock) and not relavent to the CCM. In short, I'm turning the key and the car doesn't realize it, then the interior lights come on and the alarm goes crazy.
I know that's a lot to bite off, but I literally tried to pour as much detail in here for the sake of time, and to prove I've done my archival research. If ANYONE can help me out on this, I SURE would appreciate it!
(I'm posting this in the B5 forum also)
Long-time reader, first-time poster -
I know this is long, but for the love of God, PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME!
So I've read hundreds of old posts, and I just can't seem to put a finger on this issue. Seems there are MANY others with this problem, they post, people offer "you need a new battery" as a solution, and then the post dies off.
Let's put it to rest - I've replaced my battery three times to-date since July of 2008. Why? Every so often you go out to start the car, and the battery's dead for no rhyme or reason. Try to recharge it, and the battery's so fried it won't even accept a charge and it must go back to the auto parts store to get exchanged (again, three times now).
What it isn't: Interior lights staying on, glovebox light staying on, radio (HU) staying on
Until now, I didn't know what to think and figured just selling the thing was the best way out. Ultimately, I like this car and don't really feel like having a car payment again if I don't have to, so ideally I'd like to keep it around.
In the last 24 hours, I've spent a LOT more time on here reading old posts because it happened again- the battery went bad out of nowhere. "Bad" means it won't even work off the vehicle, btw.
I read the Mobile Electronics forum quite a bit, and identified a potential reason for concern- a recent HU upgrade to a Clarion DXZ385USB with a Metra harness, Part # 70-1784. Now if something was done wrong, I'm the one to blame, but I've done plenty of car stereos before, and figured this one was no different. I soldered and shrinkwrapped my connections, and terminated all the wires into the factory harness, powered it up, and everything worked fine. I didn't run any additional wires under the dash anywhere because, well, it worked, so what the hell was the point? Looking back, I put this radio in around July, and that's when the problems started.
What bothers me about this, like I said, is it just comes out of nowhere. I could go outside right now and meter the week-old battery (car hasn't been used in 24 hours) and it would be right around >12 volts. No problem. Fast forward a few weeks, and that's another story. The car will ALWAYS start strong, then all of the sudden out of nowhere, dead, nothing. I know the ECU needs X amount of voltage for the vehicle to start, but I'm saying there's NOTHING, nil, the battery is as dead as a doornail.
Having quoted Dickens, my day now feels complete.
Without a clue as to what could have been the cause, I spent some time the other night searching, and found a few posts about aftermarket HUs and Monsoon amps. One post in particular was similar enough to mine, so I went out to the Passat and tested the theory. Theory was, he had a phantom battery drain somewhere, and an aftermarket radio with a Monsoon amp that even after being parked overnight was still hot in the morning. Upon checking, my Passat which had been parked for eight hours in a dark, cold garage had a Monsoon amp in its interior compartment that was warm to the touch. The radio's off, no output on the front right speaker, so what's keeping the amp on?!
Question is, could this be my CCM? I read somewhere that the amp is controlled by the CCM (?). I removed my carpet to check the floorboards, and all in clear- no water, no damage anywhere that I can see.
As a sidenote, my keyfobs work fine (and when locked, the red LED on the driver's door DOES flash), but SOMETIMES if I try to manually lock the driver's door, the alarm will not enable. HOWEVER, sometimes when I open the driver's door, the interior lights will not illuminate, so, I think all this is is a bad switch in the DD latch assembly (which is tied to the manual door lock) and not relavent to the CCM. In short, I'm turning the key and the car doesn't realize it, then the interior lights come on and the alarm goes crazy.
I know that's a lot to bite off, but I literally tried to pour as much detail in here for the sake of time, and to prove I've done my archival research. If ANYONE can help me out on this, I SURE would appreciate it!