2002 Polo Problem

[Keep it stiff]

My 02 Polo has an annoying habit of getting a flat battery a couple of times a week. 5 days out of 7 its starts fine, but once or twice a week flat as a pancake. I was suspicious of the door mounted open door warning lights, so I pulled that fuse. It's not that. I didn't think it was the battery but put I put a new one on anyway, again no difference. I have left it unlocked thinking it might be an alarm fault, yup you guessed it, not that. Not the radio either. Any ideas?

[aka_kerrly]

are you certain that the battery is actually flat, have you checked it with a multimetre?

reason i ask is i had a bad earth on my golf and it was doing similar tricks , start 1st time within 1-2turns of the starter on some occassions other times the starter motor would really struggle to turn and it would seem like a flat battery. Literally i could start it fine, drive 5-10min pull up and then it wouldnt restart showing symptoms of a flat battery. I could flick the key a couple of times on/off give battery a few moments turn key again and it would fire up.

I replaced the earth strap from the negative battery terminal to the gearbox to the starter motor and things improved although it has been suggested that maybe the ignition switch on the steering column is playing up.

dave