Hi all, I’m new here so you might have to bear with! My dads van has been sat for a couple of months, my mum went to start her up the other day and nothing, key wouldn’t even unlock it. I bought a battery charger and a neighbour tried to jump start and still nothing. I’ve since bought a better charger as the first was throwing an error after a while ( I don’t think it had quite enough umph). The new charger seems to be doing its thing but doesn’t seem to be going beyond the first bar of charging and it’s been nearly 8 hours. Is my best bet a new battery or is it likely to be worse and more expensive?
Flat battery and doesn’t seem to be charging
- Thread starter Emlee
- Start date
Running a battery dead flat and leaving like that for a couple weeks or more is a death sentence, the battery will never recover and never hold a charge like it used to
You may be able to get some charge into it but its future will be very limited, if it were me i would just bite the bullet and get a new battery installed and go from there, with uncertainty over the battery health you cant be sure whats going on with the alternator/charger etc so once a new one is installed you have a base line to work from
For future reference its not advisable to leave the van for more than a few weeks without some kind of charging regime or small dash solar panel to trickle charge the battery or you could end up in the same situation again !!
You may be able to get some charge into it but its future will be very limited, if it were me i would just bite the bullet and get a new battery installed and go from there, with uncertainty over the battery health you cant be sure whats going on with the alternator/charger etc so once a new one is installed you have a base line to work from
For future reference its not advisable to leave the van for more than a few weeks without some kind of charging regime or small dash solar panel to trickle charge the battery or you could end up in the same situation again !!
Thanks for the reply, I literally just need to get her going so I can sell her, so that’s why I didn’t really want to fork out for a new battery. She’s had no starting issues so I’m 100% confident it’s the battery, my dad was hot on maintenance and would get things like that fixed asap!
As above,
Sounds like it needs a new starter battery.
You should be able to start it with a jump pack or jump leads.
Sounds like it needs a new starter battery.
You should be able to start it with a jump pack or jump leads.
Both been tried unfortunately, my dad had been working from home since 2020 but still made sure to take her out once or twice a week, and had done some long trips (400 miles to see family there and back) but sounds like it was probably going to happen anyway. I’m about to check on her now to see if I’ve had any luck overnight charging, but I’m not holding my breath!
I think the VW gods are looking down on me (or my dad) as she has started up!! Would you lovely folks still recommend a new battery or will a decent run do the trick, I’m not looking to sell privately as I don’t have the time, will be selling back to VW or part exchanging her along with my car for a newer car in the next couple of weeks and plan on using her until that happen to keep her ticking over (my car is a petrol so I’m not worried about it sitting for a bit as they’re not quite so temperamental with that sort of thing as diesels are!)
If the battery has been flat for a time then it's damaged and will have limited capacity and cranking ability. If you want to use it then seriously consider a new battery as otherwise it's almost certainly going to strand you and probably beyond the help of jump packs.
I had the same happen to the XC70 that sat on the drive most of lockdown; even with being constantly on a CTEK maintenance charger and regular runs it would refuse to start out of the blue literally after coming off charger and driving to the supermarket. And flat to the point where it wouldn't crank and the ECUs were all resetting. Only got it started by jump leads to my other XC70 and 15 minutes of high idle charging across. Ended up having to put a new battery in 2 days before I part exchanged it for the Caravelle as I didn't trust it to get me to the garage.
Even if you take all the care you can batteries wear out and often dramatically quickly.
I had the same happen to the XC70 that sat on the drive most of lockdown; even with being constantly on a CTEK maintenance charger and regular runs it would refuse to start out of the blue literally after coming off charger and driving to the supermarket. And flat to the point where it wouldn't crank and the ECUs were all resetting. Only got it started by jump leads to my other XC70 and 15 minutes of high idle charging across. Ended up having to put a new battery in 2 days before I part exchanged it for the Caravelle as I didn't trust it to get me to the garage.
Even if you take all the care you can batteries wear out and often dramatically quickly.
Trying to sell a van to a trader with an obvious defect is only going to get yourself a poor valuation.
Some experienced members have given you the same sound advice regarding battery replacement. The £ lost in selling to a dealer will make the new battery cost seem negligible.
Some experienced members have given you the same sound advice regarding battery replacement. The £ lost in selling to a dealer will make the new battery cost seem negligible.
