Battery draining issue - 2014 Passat TDI

[LabanM]

Hey all, first time here. I purchased a 2014 Passat TDI SEL Premium back in April right after all the shutdowns, love the car but have only put 4k miles on it. Needless to say it sits a lot now with working from home and barely driving anywhere. So the reason I mention all that is back in roughly July or August my battery started draining after what seemed like 3-4 days after driving it. Though maybe I have a bad battery and had it swapped a few weeks ago. The battery was fine after replacing and not driving at all until after 10 days it was drained too low to start the car. I'm positive if I was driving the car I never would have had any issues but, something is draining the battery very slowly.
Tonight I went through TSB 27 15 03 to check for parasitic power draw and found one 5 amp fuse that's pulling 3.0 mV which equates to 198 mA which is over the 40 mA max after waiting 2 hours for full sleep.

I'm needing help finding a diagram that shows what fuse this is and what's on that circuit. If someone could point me to a diagram I would be very grateful!

Also, has anyone else experience battery issues after a lengthy time of not driving? How long does/should the battery last when not being driven?


TSB 27 15 03

TSB_27_15_03.pdf

drive.google.com

 

[LabanM]

I found the list of what each fuse is but no image legend that shows what each fuse number is so I can correlate to the appropriate description.

Here's an image of my fuse box. The closest I could find by googling is one for a Jetta, but not sure if it's the same.

Photo 20-12-28 21-52-45 3150.jpg

• LabanM
• Dec 29, 2020

 

[LabanM]

Finally figured this out (Sort of) the fuse is for the bluetooth transceiver. When the fuse is connected the battery will drain in about 5-7 days if sitting idle. I have yet to figure out if the bluetooth receiver is part of the radio or a separate part. I have a bad feeling it's part of the radio. Either way, pulling the fuse out when the car is not being driven for several days prevents a dead battery.

 

[pedroYUL]

It is a module that lives inside your arm rest. Open up there, see the big MDI connector? The BT module is integrated to it, you can get it out and just unplug it from the other end.

 

[VernK]

The telephone transceiver should be the box under the passenger seat.

Yours
Vern

 

[VernK]

Or not.

Yours
Vern

 

[06bluebeetletdi]

I have a 14 tdi sel premium as well, mine was driven once a month for a mile almost 4 years ago (summer of 2017, car turned 4 in October ‘17). No issues started fine every time. Are you leaving the car locked at all times? I’ve had issues with my beetle tdi, it ended up being a parasitic draw caused by the addition of fog lights using vw’s wiring harness and the fuse diagram not actually matching my car leading to the j519 module not going to sleep. It took awhile to drop the battery low enough to notice (7-8 months) and another 12 months to finally find the issue and rewire the fog lights into the fuse block.

 

[Fixmy59bug]

The telephone transceiver should be the box under the passenger seat.

Yours
Vern

On models with the MDI in the center armrest, it is built into the MDI unit.

Otherwise you are correct, it would be under the passenger seat.

 

[turbodiesellover]

If the car is not locked and the fob is left in the vehicle I heard the Kessy module draws some juice. Heard it is best to lock the car and make sure the fob is not close to the car.

 

[06bluebeetletdi]

Definitely true, I knew someone who left their key in a 2015 kessy jetta. The car battery only lasted 9 months, unlocked car with key removed was about 18 months, locked car in our climate 4-5 years.

 

[LabanM]

Finally an update after a ton of troubleshooting and even had the dealer look at it. The issue is with the Bluetooth module that is inside the arm rest. I purchased a used one and swapped it out which worked great without the need to reprogram. However, the issue persists. I still get 3.2 millivolts when the car is shut off for 2 hours. I'm a bit surprise that the replacement module gives the exact same symptom. Makes me think something else is going on.
Any ideas? Do I need to go the VCDS tool route and see what's going on? Will that tool even help identify the issue?
The dealer told me the bluetooth module was the issue and that it would be $1200 to replace.

 

[LabanM]

The telephone transceiver should be the box under the passenger seat.

Yours
Vern

This is correct. I actually unplugged it as well.

 

[LabanM]

If the car is not locked and the fob is left in the vehicle I heard the Kessy module draws some juice. Heard it is best to lock the car and make sure the fob is not close to the car.

How close is too close?