Why is my car beeping at me??

[Umai Naa!!]

Isn't there a setting in the radio that does this?

It's for traffic monitoring, which isn't supported here, I believe.

[AALocksmiths]

Low battery voltage warning??

[themarvel2004]

I guess it could be low voltage warning. How do I confirm that?
The bong was back this morning again...

[LukePolo]

Hi themarvel2004,

This is definitely a low battery warning - my RCD510 does it in my polo if i leave the radio on and door open when cleaning the car.

Do you have any devices drawing power while the car is off? ie. Dash cam, anything plugged into cigarette lighter, iPod plugged into MDI? (these devices will continue to use a little bit of battery when the car is off, i know my MDI still charges the iPod when car is off and locked) if you have retro fitted an RCD510 or similar, you may have a CANBUS battery drain issue.

Hope this helps
Luke.

[AALocksmiths]

I guess it could be low voltage warning. How do I confirm that?
The bong was back this morning again...

A multi meter will let you know the voltage of the battery but doens't give you a real indication of the batteries health, as it needs to be tested under load. Go to someone that can do a battery health check, it's normally free.

I thought that a lot of VAG cars had battery draining issues due to the CAN BUS controller... I think Transporter has mentioned something about this and that it can be upgraded to fix this?

[Umai Naa!!]

Also look at alternator charge rate.

The alternator has a one-way clutch built into the pulley. Sometimes this can fail, meaning the pulley spins freely of the internals resulting in no charge output from the alternator.

You can test it by removing the belt and using a screwdriver (disconnect the battery, first!) to lock the internals through one of the cooling slots, and try turning the pulley in both directions. If it turns one way, but impossible to turn the other, it's fine. If it spins freely in both directions, naturally it's stuffed. You can buy the pulleys on their own from various suppliers, but you'll also need to buy the correct spline socket and Torx bit to undo it. It may also need pressing off the shaft, too.

[Idle]

A multi meter will let you know the voltage of the battery but doens't give you a real indication of the batteries health, as it needs to be tested under load. Go to someone that can do a battery health check, it's normally free.

I thought that a lot of VAG cars had battery draining issues due to the CAN BUS controller... I think Transporter has mentioned something about this and that it can be upgraded to fix this?

It's also not a good idea to leave the car unlocked for a long period (like over the weekend) as there are more things running when it's not locked.

[themarvel2004]

Thanks all. I'll try locking it tonight & see...

[themarvel2004]

So I was able to get a scan done this morning - thanks Milos!!
Seems there is a battery drain issue going on related to the radio. The warning must be a low voltage issue as I measured it and it was down to 11.2V before starting it up this morning. So - now to figure out why... probably need the canbus replaced is going to be my guess.

[Mattlock]

It's also not a good idea to leave the car unlocked for a long period (like over the weekend) as there are more things running when it's not locked.

That's interesting. I never lock the car in the house so it does it overnight like that. In addition, I haven't driven my Golf for nearly 10 days straight (in the last 2 weeks) and it was unlocked the whole time. It started perfectly on Friday.

But now that you've mentioned that, I could be putting the battery through a bit of strain.