Daytime running lights stay on.

[Dephie]

I wonder if anybody else has experienced this.
Today I used our 2014 beach as an office (no electricity used) just in and out, when I had finished I couldn't lock the doors with the key fob.
So I discovered a flat starter battery is the culprit, now the interesting bit when I go to check the battery I discovery that the DRL's are on although very dim. So my question is: Do I have an electrical problem with the DLR's causing a drain or are the DLR's on because of the low voltage of the battery messing with the Canbus?
Original battery Moll EFB+, also has a solar panel connected to the leisure battery.
I have connected EHU to see If this charges the Starter Battery which currently measures 6.06V.
I last started the beach about 3 weeks ago and haven't noticed the DRL's on before.
Any help from your wealth of experience would be appreciated.
Steve

 

[WelshGas]

I wonder if anybody else has experienced this.
Today I used our 2014 beach as an office (no electricity used) just in and out, when I had finished I couldn't lock the doors with the key fob.
So I discovered a flat starter battery is the culprit, now the interesting bit when I go to check the battery I discovery that the DRL's are on although very dim. So my question is: Do I have an electrical problem with the DLR's causing a drain or are the DLR's on because of the low voltage of the battery messing with the Canbus?
Original battery Moll EFB+, also has a solar panel connected to the leisure battery.
I have connected EHU to see If this charges the Starter Battery which currently measures 6.06V.
I last started the beach about 3 weeks ago and haven't noticed the DRL's on before.
Any help from your wealth of experience would be appreciated.
Steve

The DRL’s are Ignition controlled and should only come on with Ignition On.
1. Are you sure it is the DRLs or Parking Lights? Both Parking lights would be on if the Lighting switch is in Parking mode and just one side if the Indicator switch is in L or R position.

2. Plugging into EHU is unlikely to recharge a flat engine battery, You need to charge it directly.

3. If the DRLs are on then the low engine battery voltage might be responsible for the ECU playing up.

Check Parking lights are Off and re-charge engine battery.

 

[AlanC]

The Daylight Running Lights should only come on when the ignition switch is on and the headlights are off. It is possible a very flat battery will cause some spurious electrical things to happen. Do you have an electric-driven sliding door? This uses a lot of power and can drain the engine battery as can the van's radio if used a lot when parked up.

If your started battery is sitting at 6.06 volts, it is probably dead now and will need replacing.

In addition, there is a known issue with Moll batteries that VW fitted for a short while. They have now discontinued supplying Moll batteries, reverting to the original Varta ones.

EHU will not supply a full charge to the engine battery only a trickle charge of around 13.6volts. This will not charge any flat lead-acid battery sufficiently however long you keep it plugged in.
A flat lead-acid battery, as fitted to your Beach, must be charged with a full 14.6volts charge initially, which will eventually drop to the 13.6volt trickle charge. You have to use a separate vehicle battery charger for this.
Having said that I doubt your engine battery can be revived now.

The solar panel will be connected directly to your leisure battery and not interface with the mains charging system that is supplied by the EHU. So it will not supply any charge to the engine battery.

Hope that helps.

Sorry WG beat me to it!

Alan

 

[Dephie]

I don't have anything electrical like sliding doors or roof etc, not used the radio for a while and the lights are all in the off mode etc. so shouldn't be powering DRL's.
I have managed to get the lights turned off now by disconnecting the plug on the back of the headlight unit. I couldn't find the appropriate fuses for the lights, none of the specified locations on the VW information that I got from on this site were correct.
I did think that the battery would be shot now so was expecting to have to replace it.
I am going to bite the bullet and replace the battery and hope that the DRL issue was caused by the low voltage of the battery. I will let you know how I get on.
Thanks for the assistance so far.
Steve

 

[TripleBee]

Maybe you have a broken ignition switch (electrical part of the steering lock/ignition)? You think your ignition is off, but in fact it's still on, keeping the car awake, keeping the DRL's on, because the van thinks the ignition is put on?

 

[Dephie]

Update on battery / DRL's situation.
Firstly thanks for the advice from you all.

So I disconnected the plug on left headlamp, this killed power to both DRL's.
Measured Battery 5.64V at this point down from 6.06V.
Left on EHU all night about 16hrs roughly.
Opened doors with the key and went to measure battery. alarm sounding quickly disabled it.
Measured battery 13.22V so I tried starting up engine (started up first time)
Checked voltage on battery with engine running 14.48V.
Just to confirm EHU does charge the battery sufficiently to start it.
After reconnecting the plug on the left headlight no DLR's were on so I think that they probably came on when the battery was so low possibly due to the Canbus.
Next step I will monitor the battery voltage to check its condition.
I will probably still need to replace the battery as i don't think it will hold its charge,
Thanks again and I hope this all makes sense.
Steve

 

[AlanC]

Update on battery / DRL's situation.
Firstly thanks for the advice from you all.

So I disconnected the plug on left headlamp, this killed power to both DRL's.
Measured Battery 5.64V at this point down from 6.06V.
Left on EHU all night about 16hrs roughly.
Opened doors with the key and went to measure battery. alarm sounding quickly disabled it.
Measured battery 13.22V so I tried starting up engine (started up first time)
Checked voltage on battery with engine running 14.48V.
Just to confirm EHU does charge the battery sufficiently to start it.
After reconnecting the plug on the left headlight no DLR's were on so I think that they probably came on when the battery was so low possibly due to the Canbus.
Next step I will monitor the battery voltage to check its condition.
I will probably still need to replace the battery as i don't think it will hold its charge,
Thanks again and I hope this all makes sense.
Steve

I am surprised that the trickle charge to the engine battery from the EHU was sufficient to bring it up so far, but pleased to know this.

Glad you are potentially mobile again.

Alan