New car battery required? When batteries are cream crackered they usually expire on the first bad cold sanp.

Have you tried starting whilst the battery connected to another car using jump leads (careful with polarity). If it starts OK then I would suggest battery on its way out. (i.e. it will fail again)

Hi, cheers for replying.

What do you exactly mean by cream crackered? I wanted to try this out with jump leads, but as I am a Liverpool guy in Hamburg, Germany, lingo is a bit of a problem, but will ask around at work tomorrow(trouble started on weekend as usual ;).

How much do you think the butchers bill will be for a new battery?

Cheers

Hi,cheers, i will check it out.

But,could it still be the battery,even if the dashboard and radio did start,and worked with no problem,didnt leave it on long thou. Again,im sorry if I ask dead obvious questions,im a total noob :-)

If anyone had simillar issues,would be good to hear from you...

Thanks again!Much appriciated...

As you are admittedly new to this do not try jump starting it yourself unsupervised from another battery, getting the connections wrong could cause far worse damage than a simple battery failure.

Agree with the others it sounds like a simple flat battery jobbie, as its weekend use only it might not be getting enough charge between starts to keep the battery charged.

Where you park the car all week, is there access to a power point?, if so it might be an idea for you to get a smart battery charger and leave it connected up during the week.

edit...hmm car is 03 and is probably on original battery so ten to one battery kaput, if it were mine i'd buy a good quality battery such as Bosch, Varta etc with a 4 year gurantee, shop around as prices vary.

Edited by gordonbennet on 10/12/2012 at 08:46

Hi

Thanks for your reply guys, much appreciated!

Unfortunately, its just parked on the street, so no electric outlet. I think I will have to bite the bullet and get someone from the garage to jump start it (as I dont know anyone in the area, we just moved in) with me, and I will drive with them to the garage. Hope this will not cost a lot extra.

Would it be cheaper if I buy the battery my self, or let the garage guys do it?

Also, I have a quick look at the batteries, and not sure which one to get, cross checking with car manual now, but maybe you guys know.

Link to the ATU shop.

http://www.atu.de/online-shop/kategorie/Batterien-w5722/Auto-Batterien_w5723/

Also, what exactly is start help unit and is this cheap?

The garage I plan to take the car is this:

They seem to be a chain, so kind of feel the chances to get ripped off are little bit less then normal, any one has some recommendations for hamburg, germany?

Again, I must say, sorry for my vary basic questions.

Thanks for the tremendous help!

Thanks again guys...

Interesting what happened.I asked a mechanic to come out,and we setteled for meeting at the car.And,their diagnose was the engine is dead, a new one is needed. As apparently the engine :14l,16v vw engine has a common problem with the oil pump on freezing temperatures. ,as we had this problem before,it seemed possible,but last year when the oil played up,i could pure oil and drive it to the service.this didnt even start now.

Anyway,to cut a long story short,the battery stil was the problem,but the guys before tied it,and no success.so,a bit strange why the guys didnt notice this,even after i told them originally that the battery is dead.

Anyway,thanks again for the answers,it helped me :-)

Best