Mate has a new Audi A2 - 1.4 petrol IIRC. Later this year he will be going
away in his camper van for three months - touring Europe. It will be
parked outside his front door in a private road.
Now I'd guess there's no way the battery will last that long. I could go
round there every couple of weeks and start it I suppose - but what would
happen if we just disconnected/removed the battery? I could keep that here
and make sure it was charged for his return.
Thoughts, please.

--
*Many people quit looking for work when they find a job *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:02:14 -0000, Dave Plowman (News)
wrote:

Mate has a new Audi A2 - 1.4 petrol IIRC. Later this year he will be
going
away in his camper van for three months - touring Europe. It will be
parked outside his front door in a private road.
Now I'd guess there's no way the battery will last that long. I could go
round there every couple of weeks and start it I suppose - but what would
happen if we just disconnected/removed the battery? I could keep that
here
and make sure it was charged for his return.
Thoughts, please.



Well the big difference is it will start when you reconnect it.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
Mate has a new Audi A2 - 1.4 petrol IIRC. Later this year he will be going
away in his camper van for three months - touring Europe. It will be
parked outside his front door in a private road.
Now I'd guess there's no way the battery will last that long. I could go
round there every couple of weeks and start it I suppose - but what would
happen if we just disconnected/removed the battery? I could keep that here
and make sure it was charged for his return.
Thoughts, please.

--
*Many people quit looking for work when they find a job *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

I think that I would be as concerned about the hand brake/shoes seizing on

Starting it every couple of weeks would just discharge the battery more
quickly unless you run it for long enough to replace the used current

I would take off the battery and leave it in gear with the hand brake off
and the wheels chocked

Tony

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Mate has a new Audi A2 - 1.4 petrol IIRC. Later this year he will be
going away in his camper van for three months - touring Europe. It
will be parked outside his front door in a private road.
Now I'd guess there's no way the battery will last that long. I could
go round there every couple of weeks and start it I suppose - but
what would happen if we just disconnected/removed the battery? I
could keep that here and make sure it was charged for his return.
Thoughts, please.

I would just leave it, it will be fine.
But if you want to mess about:
leave the battery on, you don't want to mess about with radios, immobilisers
etc. Get him to leave you the keys and once a month or so go and take it
for a drive of a few miles, 10 would be plenty.

In article , Dave Plowman (News) says...

Mate has a new Audi A2 - 1.4 petrol IIRC. Later this year he will be going
away in his camper van for three months - touring Europe. It will be
parked outside his front door in a private road.
Now I'd guess there's no way the battery will last that long. I could go
round there every couple of weeks and start it I suppose - but what would
happen if we just disconnected/removed the battery? I could keep that here
and make sure it was charged for his return.
Thoughts, please.

Nowt. Just disconnect the battery. I'd make sure there's feck all petrol
in it as well and pop in a couple of gallons of fresh stuff upon return
as it'll start to go off after a couple of months.


--
Conor

I'm not prejudiced. I hate everybody equally.

In article ,
Mrcheerful wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Mate has a new Audi A2 - 1.4 petrol IIRC. Later this year he will be
going away in his camper van for three months - touring Europe. It
will be parked outside his front door in a private road.
Now I'd guess there's no way the battery will last that long. I could
go round there every couple of weeks and start it I suppose - but
what would happen if we just disconnected/removed the battery? I
could keep that here and make sure it was charged for his return.
Thoughts, please.

I would just leave it, it will be fine.

I'm willing to bet it won't. Most new cars have a quiescent draw of around
30 mA for radio memory, remote locking, immobiliser etc. Some a great deal
more. 3 or 4 weeks is about the limit.

But if you want to mess about: leave the battery on, you don't want to
mess about with radios, immobilisers etc. Get him to leave you the
keys and once a month or so go and take it for a drive of a few miles,
10 would be plenty.

I'd probably just run it at a fast idle until the temp comes up to normal
then double that time.

--
*Women like silent men; they think they're listening.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Conor wrote:
Nowt. Just disconnect the battery. I'd make sure there's feck all petrol
in it as well and pop in a couple of gallons of fresh stuff upon return
as it'll start to go off after a couple of months.

Better to fill it up so there's little air in the tank. And petrol won't
go off that quickly anyway, IMHO.

--
*It IS as bad as you think, and they ARE out to get you.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:02:14 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

Mate has a new Audi A2 - 1.4 petrol IIRC. Later this year he will be going
away in his camper van for three months - touring Europe. It will be
parked outside his front door in a private road.
Now I'd guess there's no way the battery will last that long.

Why not? After my daughter wrecked one on my Minis I left it in the back
garden for several months. When I came to move it, having finally
decided to break the car, it started up straightaway!

A good modern battery should last a long time if nothing's taking any
significant current from it.
--
asahartz woz ere

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Mrcheerful wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Mate has a new Audi A2 - 1.4 petrol IIRC. Later this year he will be
going away in his camper van for three months - touring Europe. It
will be parked outside his front door in a private road.
Now I'd guess there's no way the battery will last that long. I could
go round there every couple of weeks and start it I suppose - but
what would happen if we just disconnected/removed the battery? I
could keep that here and make sure it was charged for his return.
Thoughts, please.

I would just leave it, it will be fine.

I'm willing to bet it won't. Most new cars have a quiescent draw of around
30 mA for radio memory, remote locking, immobiliser etc. Some a great deal
more. 3 or 4 weeks is about the limit.

The Battery in my father's Diesel A2 is HUGE! At least twice as big as
it needs to be to just start the engine reliably.

It takes a while to find under the boot floors, but it easily lasted the
6 weeks or so he was on holiday the year before last. The brakes
(especially the rear ones) did not survive, a lining became detatched,
but I suspect they were in an iffy condition beforehand.

As it's a VAG, there is probably a way of disabling the ultrasonic part
of the alarm by keypresses or a button inside somewhere, that might
reduce the amount of current it draws? Dunno.

In answer to your original question, never left a modern car without a
battery for such a length of time, but I'm not sure the doors on an A2
will lock without electricity. The boot catch is electric and there
isn't a keyhole in the passenger door, at least there isn't on my dad's.

Any way you can connect up a wee charger to keep it topped up?

--
Douglas

"Dave Plowman (News)" gurgled happily, sounding
much like they were saying:

Mate has a new Audi A2 - 1.4 petrol IIRC. Later this year he will be
going away in his camper van for three months - touring Europe.

I'd hazard a guess that it'll be fine, since it's clearly been sat around
for five years since production ended.