8thDay

🙂 Thanks Cliff

Yes absolutely agree. I did not make myself clear, sorry. I decided on a Yuasa and this has more cold cranking amps than the Bosch battery that the AA fitted when I broke down. Tanya did not have the 9000 range one that Stevey Y recommended but I went for the highest spec one listed which seemed good value to me and delivery is tomorrow. All very satisfactory so far but I do feel a bit cheeky just asking what I should do ! I am keen on the solar panel idea though because I just happen to have one that is surplus to requirements and just needs some kind of regulator/charger (something new and interesting to find out about). Paul

Thanks for the replies and as I hoped, the forum has come up with the solution. Yuasa battery (thanks Stevey Y) from Tanya - such a user friendly site (thanks Gareth). Also thanks to Kev & Joe for the solar panel idea - seems perfect. And oh ye of little faith Clifford - Tanya nearly hit my wishful thinking £30 price with an offer of £39.99 which I agree is higher but it is in the thirty pounds range 😉 Seriously though, I really do appreciate everyone's help. Paul

Hello all :) The 2007 Audi Sportback Quattro 2.0TFSI which until 2 years ago was our (fantastic) daily driver has ended up being pushed into retirement due to the arrival of an electric Hyundai Ioniq - another fantastic car imo but about as different as you can get to the A3 (diabolical grip and handling, great torque and power between 0-15mph then nothing). I am not quite sure if the steady discharge that our battery suffers from is an inevitable consequence of the complexity of the electrical system much of which must remains live when the ignition is off or whether we have picked up some leakage to earth over the years. Whatever the cause it just happens and I now need to face up to reality. Reality is that my wife's intention (it is technically her car) to take the car for a run around once week does not happen and I am equally guilty as I fail to keep the battery topped up with our smart charger often enough. There are a couple of pathetic sounding mitigating factors like the car is always trapped behind the Ioniq in the drive and we have also been humming and harring as to whether to even keep it - in short, it has become a problem. Two things have now happened which mean I must to face up to reality and try and find a solution. Firstly we have decided that to sell the car for a few hundred quid would be criminal and secondly the new battery which I had to buy not long ago from an RAC patrolman at a premium price when stranded a mile away has just expired. He kept stressing that the price included a generous warranty which I thought helped but when I considered phoning to make a claim I started to feel that it was more than just a bit cheeky as I have just effectively been involved in it's destruction. That feeling did not last long though as when I told my wife she spoke to her cousin who is married to a patrolman and word came back that in these days of low car use because of C-19 they are red hot in making sure that the car has done the required number of miles to keep the warranty valid. As that mileage in our case is probably less than 10 even I can see that is not really fair :) My MX5 was so low tech and the battery terminals so simple and well greased that I just used to pull off the earth between drives but I now wonder if there is a better way with the A3 ? Also is there any real downside to doing this all the time (other than the alarm being off) ? Lastly, do any owners from the UK have any recommendations as to what are good replacement batteries and where best to buy them ? I was hoping that £20-£30 might get something cheap and cheerful that would suit a car doing a very low mileage but that was cloud cuckoo land I think and a bit of research suggested £80-£120 was more realistic and I suppose it was inevitable to discover that the expensive ones were much better suited to low mileage usage and the cheap end would not last long. Any truth in this ? TIA Paul