Dead battery while driving....

Hey everyone,

I'm borrowing a friend's '01 ALH Golf. After dealing with resealing the IP for the first time a few weeks ago, it seems I'm now dealing with an electrical issue....

Driving on the highway earlier last week, most of the car's electrical seemed to die except for the engine - meaning the dash stopped turning, lights went off, radio went silent - though I could still rev and speed up on the engine. 20 seconds later it all popped back on like nothing was wrong and I was able to get to my office. Going home was fine, with no issues starting or anything.

Today, after not driving for 3 days, I started the car up and it seemed to crank a bit slow, but got chugging. 25 miles later, the radio died, though I was still able to drive a bit, then the dash, and then finally the engine.

There were no warning lights that came on, it all seemed to out slowly while driving. I'm used to seeing a battery light go on with a dead alternator.

What could be the issue? Dead alternator? Voltage regulator? Anyone else ever had this issue?

Thanks,

-glenn

It sure sounds like you have low voltage (typically a charging issue leading to dead battery) but you need a multimeter to see what is really happening. you could have a loose lead somewhere, etc

You're right, the battery light should come on if it isn't charging.

Does it come on when you turn on the key to indicate it works?

ToxicDoc, I have yet to check the fusible links (or really anywhere yet) above the battery, I guess those would be the first place I would look.


KLXD, If I recall, all the lights were working when starting the car, nothing looked out of place. The only thing that stayed on after the initial "outage" happened was that the airbag light stays on now while driving. I would check right now, but the car is stored about 5 miles away from me, and I have a dead battery so I need to charge it up before I can even check.



-glenn

Take a look at the cleanliness of the battery posts or the loops as well as the solidness of the electrical wires running to/from it. You could have corrosion on the posts and the stock wiring is known to wiggle loose from the loop housing giving the appearance of a connection but coming apart at will.

A battery post terminal cleaner and some dielectric grease are your best bets for cheap solution to eliminate that.

You can always get a 4 gauge or 1 gauge wire to replace to the starter motor if that is the one to blame, same goes for the alternator. Check to see if you have corrosion on the starter motor 14mm connection too.

We had a similar issue in our ALH wagon in June, a couple months after I installed a new alternator. Battery was intermittently not being charged but the cluster did not show any alternator warning. I searched the forums and found this post:

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=4339360&postcount=6

I then "inspected" (by wiggling the wires in) that connector under the battery tray and the alternator immediately started charging the battery. Everything has been working perfectly since.