2007 Audi Q7 with 110K miles not sleeping while ignition not on

[lej1447]

Hello @Uwe and members here,


2007 Q7 has 110K miles and on Saturday night, I took family to dinner. While the parking on Sunday night, I peaked through the window and found Q7 never went to sleep, thus draining voltage down to 4.5V.

The image shows some lights on dash board remaining on although the ignition not on as I was taking picture with iPhone from outside of SUV and with locked door. I haven't run VCDS because the car doesn't have enough juice to start dashboard. Battery was replaced in December 2024.

May I ask what can be done to run VCDS?

1) Buy a new batter to swap to run VCDS or do you recommend something else...?

I tried to jump start with booster; it didn't work. I used the jumper cable with my son's car, and it still didn't work after 10' of charging. The battery is so low that it often locks my key if I don't use the Start Engine button. When I tried to use the Battery Tender 4.5 Amp Battery Charger for trickle charge, the amber charging indicator stops lighting up after couple minute while the 12V green light flashes continuously. Thank you for reading.



do your

 

[nugentp]

You should be able to recharge the battery ok though that will take some time (overnight maybe) with a smaller charger capped at 5A.
If something is "awake" on the car consuming large current you would be best to disconnect the battery so it's faster to charge. Once you have battery back to good health you can run a full scan and expect to see a bunch of low voltage fault codes - treat that as noise for now and see what other faults occurred around the time of this bad behaviour.

Nobody here can help you without sharing that Auto-Scan anyway !

 

[Uwe]

You should be able to recharge the battery ok though that will take some time (overnight maybe) with a smaller charger capped at 5A.

Depending on what's not powering down, the parasitic draw may well exceed 5A, meaning that charger will never charge the battery while it is still connected to the car.

If it was mine, I'd disconnect the battery, charge it stand-alone, and once full, let it sit for at least 12 hours to check its condition. If it's been down to 4.5V, it's entirely possible that battery is shot.

-Uwe-

 

[Ziddywerks]

Disconnect the battery to charge. Yes its a pain in the ass under the seat but thats your best bet. Next question is how much water is in this vehicle and how much coffee was spilled over the mmi buttons?

 

[lej1447]

Disconnect the battery to charge. Yes its a pain in the ass under the seat but thats your best bet. Next question is how much water is in this vehicle and how much coffee was spilled over the mmi buttons?

Thank you everyone. I have never spilled any water on to the MMI buttons, but it's nearly 20 year old, so I can start using the key from now on. Is that a good viable option as an alternative?

Meanwhile, I'll disconnect the battery to see if it can be recharged given the last checked voltage was 4.5V. I'll get a new battery from Costco. I'll keep us posted.

Thank you all for your valuable inputs with great wisdom. :-)

 

[Ziddywerks]

Thank you everyone. I have never spilled any water on to the MMI buttons, but it's nearly 20 year old, so I can start using the key from now on. Is that a good viable option as an alternative?

Meanwhile, I'll disconnect the battery to see if it can be recharged given the last checked voltage was 4.5V. I'll get a new battery from Costco. I'll keep us posted.

Thank you all for your valuable inputs with great wisdom. :-)

How much water is in the car? 20year old vehicle I can garantee sunroof hoses are leaking.

 

[lej1447]

How much water is in the car? 20year old vehicle I can garantee sunroof hoses are leaking.

Because I live in SoCal with little rain, Bose amp went out 10 years later, so I had such unit repaired in 2017. Before I reinstalled such, I plugged the drains on the left- and right-hand side in the back. The radio still works earier this week. When I took out the Bose Amp in 2017, saw some calcified chlorine, so that was then. What and where should I look for water drainage now? Thank you for guiding me in the right direction.

 

[nugentp]

You plugged the water drains up 10yrs ago ?
So where does any water go since then ?
Maybe I misunderstood what you mean.

 

[lej1447]

I only plugged the drain near the rear sunroof.

For the front passenger foot well, I cleared it once and it hasn't clogged again. As far as the AC drain near the wheel well, I have never done and may need to do soon.



Update: I replaced an 18-month-old H9 battery with a new one, and all is good and operational normally again. I got 50% credit from Costco that confirmed a bad battery with its own meter test. Thank you very much @nugentp , @Ziddywerks & @Uwe.

 

[nugentp]

You should keep a close eye on that - don't want another dead battery in a short time.

 

[Ziddywerks]

Plugging drains is probably what started this issue and continues to be an issue. There's a reason why there is 4 drains. I can't believe anyone would think this is acceptable.

what you should look for if water overflowing over the sides of the rear of the sunroof with 2 rear drains plugged. I can't believe I even have to say this. Common sense stuff.