Battery drain issue on 1.4SC Ibiza

[RUM4MO]

Well good things don't last long! Car ended back to draining the battery - typically 110>180milli amps over an extended period after which time the controllers should have been shut down by the BCM! So I went to talk to my next SEAT dealer, who was willing to believe that it might just need a software update or patch. The car was in today and unfortunately there is not updated J519 software available for that car!! The worksheet records a battery drain of 0.25Amps after 20 minutes - but no clue as to if they consider this to be excessive though it is a lot different to the 0.005Amps to recorded when the systems were asleep or the 0.117Amps I recorded when the systems are awake. Strange that my recorded asleep and awake drain currents agreed with what the now closed SEAT dealer found, it was just that they never recorded the systems staying awake which I did and was probably the reason for the battery getting drained over a few days of not being used. This latest SEAT dealer has sent SEAT a technical inquiry and hopes to have a reply in 48 hours or so - I hope that something good comes out of that, as that enquiry is meant to be fed into a common "pot" of knowledge world wide!

Edit:- I can force the car to go to sleep by removing the heavy red lead from the battery top fuse links area, then refitting it a few minutes later, every time that I've done that I have managed to drop the drain current down to roughly 5milli amps - for some time, I've yet to actually record how long, over a couple of hours once, ie I monitored it over 2 hours and it was still roughly 5milli amps.

 

[G.P]

I gave up long ago trying to find the battery drain issue, and resorted to a ctek charger every other weekend in winter months and once a month in summer.

Out of interest, how do you connect the solar charger to the battery, as if via the internal 12 volt cigar lighter, surely as this is not live when the ignition is off the batter would not receive any charge?

 

[RUM4MO]

I gave up long ago trying to find the battery drain issue, and resorted to a ctek charger every other weekend in winter months and once a month in summer.

Out of interest, how do you connect the solar charger to the battery, as if via the internal 12 volt cigar lighter, surely as this is not live when the ignition is off the batter would not receive any charge?

No, the solar charger I bought has an OBD2 plug, so it connects into the diagnostic port, which crazily, is always live - I say crazily, as car thieves use that fact to plug into through the broken window and start the car, in the case of Audi A4 and A6 ect, as well as Range Rover and others, it means that the car can then be started without the alarm being triggered as the diagnostic ports in these cars are in a blind spot near the driver's door, and driven away!!

The battery drain in the Ibiza means that the car can survive maybe 5 days winter or summer without being used. My Audi S4 tends to sleep in the garage and it is supported with a CTEK charger/tester and its AGM battery is still as good as new!

Edit:- I don't know exactly about SEATs, but a lot of newer VWs and Audis can be reprog'd to have the cigar socket live at all times, Skodas seem to have it live by default.

Another Edit:- if a car is used daily you would never suspect that there was a battery drain issue, I think mainly, that is the case with this late 2009 Ibiza.

 

[G.P]

Another Edit:- if a car is used daily you would never suspect that there was a battery drain issue, I think mainly, that is the case with this late 2009 Ibiza.

True, we found out the hard way the first winter we owned it as my wife travels 5 miles to work and then 5 miles back each day, so the battery due to the drain does not quite receive enough charge, especially if then not used over the weekend, Monday morning arrives with a dead battery hence the Ctek every other weekend, just in case.

In ours, when you get in, before you put the ignition key in, turn the radio on and it will either come on as normal or display low Battery..

1st Edit:- I've gone back in time and to basics with this car, when I get out, fan blower off, all internal lights off, radio off, I even don't alarm it on the drive so as first thing in the morning there is minimal drain on the battery..

2nd Edit:- Not thought of one yet, no doubt I will just after clicking on save..

 

[RUM4MO]

I'd think that 5 mile journeys in winter with lights and fan on would be asking a bit much on that car even if it did not have excessive background drain when not being used, but sometimes needs must, roll on when we can buy cheap electric cars which are made for this sort of use!

 

[dm222]

My car has been used once a week and only 3kms each time for the last month without problems.
I'm away from the car and someone is using just so it won't be much time stopped. Feels good to be away from the car clearing my mind from the problems it has BTW...

But I remember that when I lived near work, like 1,5kms, if I would do only work <-> home with AC and lights for more than one week the car would struggle to start, 5 miles seems reasonable though.

 

[RUM4MO]

I was meaning that at low ambient temperatures the battery at best would have become "lazy" as after all it is just a chemical "factory" add into that the extra demand to start a cold engine and support all the electrics that winter demands and you end up with a system that might like more than 5 mile journeys to fully recover the battery charge level.

In my case, it has become more "man V machine" - but so far the machine is winning!

This Ibiza is ideal for me running about in and for my daughter if/when she returns to work in UK, but in its present state I can't see me selling it and hoping to run away from its problems, now if that daughter does come back to UK this summer for good, then I'd be suggesting that she trade it in against a new or newer car - I'd think that it would then be sent to a car auction and everyone except the next owner would be happy!

Edit:- at this moment that daughter will be waiting for her flight home for Christmas from KL airport, so hopefully by tomorrow midday, that car will be busy connecting her with some of her friends back in UK - annoying and frustrating poking about trying to dream up how to pin down what is going on with it will continue after New Year - unless my next SEAT main dealer gets back to me this week with some good news in response to them sending a "Technical Inquiry" to SEAT - I am not holding my breath!

 

[RUM4MO]

Well, the plan was that Arnold Clark SEAT would get back to me after SEAT had responded to the Technical Inquiry they made about J519 Software Update for that late 2009 Ibiza SC, I waited long enough and no contact from A-C SEAT, I phoned them and a message was taken and I was assured that they would reply as soon as the service receptionist was free, they do know my mobile phone number, home land line number and email address - the first and last contact has been used by them already to contact me biding for extra work that might need doing to that car. So, today I phoned them 10 times, "my" service receptionist's phone is always busy, so I drive down to them, looks like my service receptionist is now on holiday and no one is answering her phone, a sales guy got the original service guy I dealt with to come out and deal with me, SEAT has provided details of a relevant Software Update for this car - "just book the car back in" - why do these places not operate in a way that works for the customers? So, here I go again, another £99 needs to be paid as A-C SEAT's trained techs are not completely up to date with all relevant Software Updates, something wrong there I think, licence to print money - or is this just another bit of misinformation, being a sucker to get this problem sorted, I'll probably just pay the extra £99, a bit annoying as their mission statement board blabs about Professionalism etc etc .

 

[dm222]

finally they do mention the software update!!

 

[RUM4MO]

As long as the next visit to this dealer ends up with a software update being applied to the J519 (BCM) I'll be quite happy, now if it sorts out this draining battery issue I'll be very happy!! My plan will be to look ahead weather wise and hopefully pick a period of no snow or ice to book this car in for this update as I don't fancy driving around in a car with wide summer tyres in winter in poor conditions, especially as our other cars are wearing their Michelin Alpin winter tyres!

 

[IbizaNI]

Do any of you have a CTEK battery charger? I picked up one for a good price on black friday and used it for the 1st time today as I haven't driven the car since Saturday (24/12/16) and don't have plans to drive it until Thursday (29/12/16) so I had the solar charger plugged in but I decided to give the CTEK a go today.

Plugged it in at 1200 and straight away it was at stage 3 and checked it at around 1730 and it was at stage 7 meaning it's 100% charged, I've stuck the solar charger back in but does anyone know how many days it would last for if I didn't have anything plugged it in at all?
Would it be worth using the battery "recond" next time?

 

[RUM4MO]

I've forgotten, but have you checked that car's "sleeping" current drain yet, if like mine it is roughly 0.1Amp, then using a solar cell, at least the AA sized one, to maintain that battery just will not work. Even in summer time, the charging current from them is very low unless it is in direct sunlight, out of direct sunlight and in grey skies and winter exposure to sun will provide very little maintenance support for that battery - sorry, but I tried that in summer and failed!

CTEK charger, if that battery is over a year old, maybe try the conditioning program, but I think it would only need that once a year.

My CTEK CHARGER/TESTER is connected to my Audi S4 which tends to sleep a lot in the garage, waiting for its turn of the action!

I'm just about to visit my local SEAT dealer to book the car into formally apply the updated software that SEAT has now advised that available for that late 2009 Ibiza 1.4 SC - well to its J519 module which is the BCM, in response to the Technical Inquiry that they placed with SEAT earlier this month.

 

[IbizaNI]

I've forgotten, but have you checked that car's "sleeping" current drain yet, if like mine it is roughly 0.1Amp, then using a solar cell, at least the AA sized one, to maintain that battery just will not work. Even in summer time, the charging current from them is very low unless it is in direct sunlight, out of direct sunlight and in grey skies and winter exposure to sun will provide very little maintenance support for that battery - sorry, but I tried that in summer and failed!

CTEK charger, if that battery is over a year old, maybe try the conditioning program, but I think it would only need that once a year.

I don't have a clue how to check the current drain, don't have a voltmeter, I got a new battery fitted before Christmas last year so it's just over a year old so I find that the solar charger has helped me so I'm guessing the drain is less than what you are experiencing.

The conditioning once a year sounds ideal, I'll give it a go sometime within the next few months, is it possible for the CTEK charger to overcharge the battery and damage it?

 

[RUM4MO]

No, these CTEK chargers should all be safe enough to use for re-charging or in my case, being left connected to the battery for long periods to act as a battery maintenance charger.

If it detects any problems it will stop charging, I have left mine on my S4's battery for a month at a time and it eventually goes into a "no charge monitoring" mode I think, only starting to recharge when it detects a certain drop in voltage - that is the final stage in my CTEK anyway.

 

[RUM4MO]

Well the software update or patch that relates to J519 update "30eb" has been applied to that late 2009 Ibiza, time again to start logging battery voltage daily via a remote long monitoring lead.

Edit:- only time charged this time was the actual time taken to apply this change.

 

[dm222]

RUM4NO sorry if this was already covered.
In a portuguese forum someone had the same problem and went to SEAT and they made an update to what I believe it was Body Control Module (BCM). I don't know if it solved anything though... His car is a 1.9TDI 2008

Before: 6R09372287-0011
After: 6R09372287-0013

Can you check if it is this one?

good luck, maybe now its fixed finally.

 

[RUM4MO]

I did think about checking for any visible changes, from what I've read, mainly in Spanish forums, is "30EB" after the original ????????????A number, now should be ???????????A 30EB.

Once I had been given the "phrase" 30eb or 30EB, if you use that in a Google search, maybe "VAG software update 30eb" you start to find a couple of threads, which I translated using Google, leading to battery draining and how to solve it. What I can't quite understand is, this looks like it is only a SEAT problem, Polo 6R was also launched at this time and both use that same BCM 6R??????! Although, when I originally went into this later SEAT main dealer, a service person said that they had a similar problem with a 2010 Polo, which would be a 6R Polo, and eventually VW did provide them with a software update or patch, but I've never ever read anything about this battery draining problems on VW Polo forums, which I am on!

 

[RUM4MO]

To, summarise, the only cars that could need this 30EB action are listed as being 6J_AR000108 > 6J_AR079317 - this info was taken from one of the threads I found.

My daughter's car is 6J_AR062??? - which, interestingly, fits into that range!

 

[dm222]

where did you got your AR id?

 

[RUM4MO]

where did you got your AR id?

That is the last part of the car's VIN, if you work backwards on the VIN plate from the 6(?) digit serial number, the AR part comes next.

As this was from maybe a Spanish, or French SEAT owners forum posting, I'd expect that your car would be numbered in the same way - as is mine in UK. I think that sometimes, VAG use different ways of identifying cars in some markets - but it looks like Europe or at least EU countries are all numbered the same way.

What is the last part of your vin - for security do as I did and leave out the last three numbers, ie is it AR-------- ?

Edit:- dm222, I will run a scan of all that car's controllers after I has satisfied myself that the battery drain, and be certain that I will be looking for any changes in the central electronics (BCM) descriptions, but I think that you said some time ago, that changes might not be visible using VCDS, and I'll report back.