I've been away twice in the last few months for a week. Each time I return home the car is dead. Completely flat won't even open the doors! is it the battery dead or something draining it? Please heeeeeeeeeelp! RRS Dynamic

Sheesh....the worst "I've been on a few holidays recently' thread

Seriously....it could be something not shutting down thats draining the battery, I'm sure there are posts on here about the boot release mechanism doing a similar thing (easy fix if thats the case)

Failing that, it could be a sign that your alternator is on the way out/dead as you may not be recharging the car when you drive it

Either way, best get the car on charge and to a garage soonish  ON THE WAY: BMW F21 M140i
MERCEDES GL350 - Metallic Navy Blue w/Grey interior

GOING: BMW F31 335D MSport+ xDrive Touring
GONE: Land Rover Discovery 4 HSE - Stornaway Grey w/Black Interior (wish we'd kept it )
GONE: BMW F10 520D MSport - Carbon Black
GONE:MY12 RRS SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ivory/Grand Black Privacy glass

i had this before mate it was my upper tailgate realse button corroded behind the rubber and was causing a permant live think that was about 80 quid to fix. alos do you have a fridge if your leaving that on when away this can affect things or so lr told me , but you might need a new battery now aswell as mine had been affected by it going dead all the time but since got tailgate done and new battery not had a problem and mine often gets left for a few weeks at a time only the dead truely know peace,
Bootneck its not a job its a way of life!

If you are in the AA/RAC then call them out, they will put their electronic machine on your battery terminals to see if there is a continuous drain on your battery, then i'm sure they will be able to detect where it is. If your not in any breakdown/recovery service, then may i suggest you join one.

dont think aa/rac are going to spend hours trying to detect a drain on your battery pulling fuses and shutting down each ecu check your upper tailgate switch this is normally the cause of a battery brain

The other thing - do you lower it to access mode when you go away? With pre-2010MY cars
lowering them to access height tells the ECU's to go completely to "sleep" instead of stand by mode and shut the car down to save power consumption, although I would expect it to last longer than a week in normal height. I used to leave my RRS's unrun for 4 months at a time and also used to plug a £19.99 Maplin's Solar powered trickle charger into the boot socket and put the panel on the centre cubby box as it only needs daylight rather than sunshine to work. Never had a dead battery on any of my RRS's or FFRR's but this summer I came home to a totally dead Evoque................... with the solar panel plugged in but no indicator LED blinking. Checked it over and found the car hadn't drained the battery the cable for the charger had broken at the joint with the panel and the battery had discharged
because of that. LRE took a Disco4 and a 700v jump starter box thing both connected to the battery terminals to get it back to life. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

baxc wrote:

dont think aa/rac are going to spend hours trying to detect a drain on your battery pulling fuses and shutting down each ecu check your upper tailgate switch this is normally the cause of a battery brain

Oh yes they do, but it doesn't take them hours, they have some clever kit in their vans, otherwise they will have to keep coming out to you everytime your battery goes flat costing the company more money. They have to diagnose and try to fix the problem where possible. Otherwise they can't fill in their report in the actions taken to solve or repair the problem and it goes against the companies action policy

solve problem-battery dead, repair problem-jumpstart dont think they are going to check every system in the car if they have got you going just incase its a battery drain when it could just be a wornout battery i know this because i called the aa out twice for my battery drain, on both occasions they jumpstarted the car and checked output of battery when running and after systems had shut down both were fine because drain was so small it took a week to drain battery with the car not being used the aa/rac dont have that much time to fix a job

I beg to differ, but will leave it at that.

Tim in Scotland wrote:

The other thing - do you lower it to access mode when you go away? With pre-2010MY cars
lowering them to access height tells the ECU's to go completely to "sleep" instead of stand by mode and shut the car down to save power consumption, although I would expect it to last longer than a week in normal height. I used to leave my RRS's unrun for 4 months at a time and also used to plug a £19.99 Maplin's Solar powered trickle charger into the boot socket and put the panel on the centre cubby box as it only needs daylight rather than sunshine to work. Never had a dead battery on any of my RRS's or FFRR's but this summer I came home to a totally dead Evoque................... with the solar panel plugged in but no indicator LED blinking. Checked it over and found the car hadn't drained the battery the cable for the charger had broken at the joint with the panel and the battery had discharged
because of that. LRE took a Disco4 and a 700v jump starter box thing both connected to the battery terminals to get it back to life.

Picked my new one up yesterday & the dealer mentioned similar to me about if i was going to leave it a long time stood then lower the suspension because if you don't the battery will drain  Owner of MY13 RRS Red Edition, Santorini Black, Ebony with Lunar, Privacy Glass & Exterior Design Pack

Cheers for all of your advice guys. It's booked in for tues! RRS Dynamic

Just retuned to the car from 12 days away. Parked (at home fortunately) with the suspension lowered. Dead as a DoDo. Charged the battery for a while then started fine. Everything reset (clock, date, A/C, seats).

Can't be right. Car is 6 months old. 

baxc wrote:

solve problem-battery dead, repair problem-jumpstart dont think they are going to check every system in the car if they have got you going just incase its a battery drain when it could just be a wornout battery i know this because i called the aa out twice for my battery drain, on both occasions they jumpstarted the car and checked output of battery when running and after systems had shut down both were fine because drain was so small it took a week to drain battery with the car not being used the aa/rac dont have that much time to fix a job

mrfixit wrote:

baxc wrote:

solve problem-battery dead, repair problem-jumpstart dont think they are going to check every system in the car if they have got you going just incase its a battery drain when it could just be a wornout battery i know this because i called the aa out twice for my battery drain, on both occasions they jumpstarted the car and checked output of battery when running and after systems had shut down both were fine because drain was so small it took a week to drain battery with the car not being used the aa/rac dont have that much time to fix a job

Exactly my experience with the AA.

Sirwacko - did you get this resolved ? what was the problem/fix  ON THE WAY: BMW F21 M140i
MERCEDES GL350 - Metallic Navy Blue w/Grey interior

GOING: BMW F31 335D MSport+ xDrive Touring
GONE: Land Rover Discovery 4 HSE - Stornaway Grey w/Black Interior (wish we'd kept it )
GONE: BMW F10 520D MSport - Carbon Black
GONE:MY12 RRS SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ivory/Grand Black Privacy glass