I’ll cut a long story short. My girlfriend has had cause to be sat in her car waiting for a few hours today. She messaged me saying she’d got her Kindle but the battery was flat.

Charge it off the car, I suggested. She said she doesn’t want to sit there with the engine running for four hours, I told her just to plug it in as there’s no way a Kindle is going to empty a car battery.

She’s just messaged me again and I’m sure you’re all a step ahead of me here but I’m now going to have to dig out my jump leads.

Was this just a monumental miscalculation on my part or would it suggest a faulty battery? It’s only a small car (VW Up!) but that seems crazy to me.

if she had the internal USB powered up – she probably had the radio powered up to do it , ignition was probably on for that to happen beyong the 30minute grace period.

Thats much more drain than just a kindle.

now that shouldn’t really drain a healthy good capacity battery but it could kill a dying battery , It could also kill the capacity of battery fitted to that sort of shopping trolly to keep the weight down.

If it’s the same as the citigo there isn’t an accessory position on the key so it’s all or nothing. That could mean the lights on, fans on, probably others. A decent battery should manage that but if it’s already on the way out then it may take it to the limit

Ah, cock. I didn’t think of everything else being on, I just assumed position 1 on the ignition / switched off completely even.

… and with that comes the revelation that this might be my fault.

I drove it last night. She always switches off headlights at the switch, I never bother in my car as they’re auto-sensing (and in any case there’s no harm in just leaving them on when driving during the day). I bet I’ve left the lights on – they go off when you remove the key – and she hasn’t noticed.

It already was your fault 🙂

Was this just a monumental miscalculation on my part

Regardless of the technical intricacies of the situation ?

Then yes.

It’s gonna be your fault no matter which way you attempt to spin it.

Just own it and start making amends ASAP otherwise your girlfriend might end up being more familiar with the capabilities of batteries than you might like.

🤣

Nah, she’s not like that.

As above. In my VW you have to have the ignition actually on for the 12V socket to work. Then the whole car is on, which draws quite a lot of current.

Ooh snap, I completely mullered my already half mullered battery yesterday running an electric coolbox. That was an expensive trip to Halfords.

Cars are sometimes too clever for me. I wanted to charge my GPS overnight on a campsite with no mains power. Plug it in to the car? Have to have the ignition on, but I don’t want to leave it unlocked. Tried locking it with my spare key; won’t lock if it has a key in the ignition… give up.

wanted to charge my GPS overnight on a campsite

This and

I completely mullered my already half mullered battery yesterday running an electric coolbox.

Is why Mrs gd insists on an electric hookup for camping. 😂

I might wager a tired battery, I’ve done two batteries in last 6 weeks on our two very similarly aged cars. They just go without warning now.

I wrecked mine by not moving it for a few weeks at the start of lockdown, gave it a smart charge but that only goes so far. Last year I ran the fridge for a couple of days (on and off) at a time in a similar fashion and it was fine. Might see about getting a small battery just for it and remove the anxiety.

In my VW you have to have the ignition actually on for the 12V socket to work. Then the whole car is on, which draws quite a lot of current.

pretty basic design flaw! In my Fords (car & van) 12v is always on, dead handy 😎

pretty basic design flaw! In my Fords (car & van) 12v is always on, dead handy

yes and no ….. the great unwashed are not that smart – it just leads to many deeply discharged batteries when folk leave stuff plugged in by accident……

but yes it would be nice to have it manually switchable….

the peugeot has a 30min timer on its usb from the last time the car was started.

would it suggest a faulty battery?

This is obviously what you should be insisting. Alternative is a faulty boyfriend. Which do you prefer to see replaced?

I wanted to charge my GPS overnight on a campsite with no mains power.

Yeah everyone needs a USB battery pack these days. They are good and not that expensive, which is cool IMO.

This is obviously what you should be insisting. Alternative is a faulty boyfriend. Which do you prefer to see replaced?

🤣 Good point, well made.

Is it still under warranty? VW seem to have had some battery issues with certain cars around 2017.

It definitely affected Polos as we got a new battery under warranty in March, think there were other models too.

Keep an eye on it in case it does it again. Ours died after it sat for 4 days and then got cleaned, seemed the central locking and interior light being used a few times was enough to finish it off.

Handy to know. I’d have thought there’d be some sort of recall notice?

It’s a lease vehicle, well, PCP, so it should indeed be in warranty.

Modern cars seem to warn about running the electrics with the battery off almost the minute you switch the engine off, when I’d expect the battery to last ages just powering a dew dashboard backlit LEDs – but maybe not!

Handy to know. I’d have thought there’d be some sort of recall notice?

It’s a lease vehicle, well, PCP, so it should indeed be in warranty.

I guess because it’s not deemed a safety issue.
There was a certain brand of battery they put in some vehicles that caused the problem.

The stop/start didn’t work properly when the battery was dying either which was another sign of it being low.