Volkswagen ID.3 Forum

With a battery test meter, there’s nothing built into the car

Well
After being away a month
Needless to say flat as a pancake
Would not engage D or R
Lots of fault codes one after another
IMO this vehicle is not fit for purpose
So if you go away for a few days
Come back to the car
Call VW assist AA turn up charge the car
Off you go every time
Yeah right

Keys are kept in an RFID protection box
So unable to communicate with the car
So eliminates that theory

I’ve now had to call out roadside assistance twice to jump start my ID.3, since October. It is now back at the VW dealership for the third time, just to resolve the 12 volt battery drain problem.

In my case either a faraday pouch for the key fob, nor the 0570 software patch have resolved the problem.

The only mitigation I’ve found, is regularly starting the car (driving the car, or just turning the heating on). This re-charges the 12 volt battery. The ‘We connect ID’ app can gives some advanced warning (see link), allowing you to start the car and re-charge the 12 volt battery, before it’s totally dead.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjJQsT2-WhfEg_9XiB7q8oj1_qilmQ

Stephen how long have you left it before the battery has died? I am pretty much in my ID everyday - not some Sunday’s) so probably won’t have the issue however it would be nice to know your experience

Stephen wrote: ↑Mon Nov 30, 2020 8:49 pm I’ve now had to call out roadside assistance twice to jump start my ID.3, since October. It is now back at the VW dealership for the third time, just to resolve the 12 volt battery drain problem.

In my case either a faraday pouch for the key fob, nor the 0570 software patch have resolved the problem.

The only mitigation I’ve found, is regularly starting the car (driving the car, or just turning the heating on). This re-charges the 12 volt battery. The ‘We connect ID’ app can gives some advanced warning (see link), allowing you to start the car and re-charge the 12 volt battery, before it’s totally dead.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjJQsT2-WhfEg_9XiB7q8oj1_qilmQ

called roadside assistance a few hours ago, the - quite pleasant actually - guy left about 3 hours ago. I was expecting him say " let's jump start it" but he didn't, he said that the car needs diagnosis in a garage. Immediately after I had a number of different faults appearing, so car is going to the dealership tomorrow

I am obviously considering returning it as faulty and ask for a refund or replacement, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt

NorwichComputersAndy wrote: ↑Mon Nov 30, 2020 9:18 pm Stephen how long have you left it before the battery has died? I am pretty much in my ID everyday - not some Sunday’s) so probably won’t have the issue however it would be nice to know your experience

Andy,

In my case the 12 volt battery doesn’t have sufficient charge to re-start the car, after five days of inactivity.

However, it may be less than this; as the ‘We connect ID’ app appears to give some advanced warning after one or two days of inactivity - with the message “not enough power in low voltage battery”. The 12 volt battery drain fault only becomes apparent when you are not driving the car every day (or every other day). This is a problem for me because I drive long distances but then leave the car parked for up to 10 days.

This morning I was contacted by VW, to tell me that they would be installing the latest 2.0 software update. And that this software update should resolve the 12 volt battery discharge problem. They will be also replacing the original 12 volt battery, which has now developed a fault (presumably it has been damaged by being totally drained – as it was tested by the garage when I originally had the initial problem). The software version I had was 0570, this was upgraded from 0564. I was told that the 2.0 software version isn't the major software released promised for Q1 2021.

I shall be picking up the car tomorrow, and will be keeping my fingers crossed that this does resolve the problem.

I'm getting fed up with calling out VW roadside assist, and visits to the VW dealership.

Hello all from Canada, watching with envy as it looks like we will not be getting the ID3 anytime soon (ID4 only, coming sometime in '21).

Anyhow, regards the thread topic, apart from the immediate battery drainage issue, I wonder why the 12V battery cannot be topped off by the main. As well, why is a separate (12V) battery required in the first place?

Wishing you all luck in contributing to a green future!

I understand that all EVs have a 12V battery for lighting, alarm, and other circuitry and devices also found in ICE cars.

The rechargeable battery packs are for the motor, but they will also send a charge to the 12V battery when active - the same principle as an ICE vehicle when you have the engine running.

For those that have had this issue - what has been the outcome? Has VW accepted that there is an issue and updated your software or fixed the hardware?

Our brand new ID3 (less than two weeks old) had this problem this morning. My wife went to drive it to work and the car was just completely dead. I had to call out VW Assistance / The AA - who confirmed that the 12V battery needed charging. He also confirmed that there was nothing left on in the car by us that would have drained the 12V battery - although in fairness I thought this was impossible as everything switches off when you get out of the car and lock it.

What surprised me was that the car had not been left parked up for weeks. My wife drove it the evening before to return from work without any issue.

The AA then advised me to drive the car for ~30 mins to charge the 12 - which I did, although to start with the car had loads of errors and wouldn't go into D, B or R until I had restarted it.

After 10 mins all the errors apart from the 12V (I've posted an image) went away and after 30 mins this disappeared too.

I'd really like to hear from other owners that have been through this.

I had my first 12V warning yesterday morning, I needed to drive the car for an hour or so anyway and it went away and hasn’t re-appeared. My car was still driveable and there were no other warnings, just the 12V.

Needless to say I’m keeping a close eye on it now!

What software version does your car have? You have sufficient justification to have the 2.0 / 0783 update installed, this has a fix where the car will use the main battery if the 12V runs down.

Thanks Scott - I wasn't aware that the 0783 fixed this issue. I've just nipped out and checked and our car is on 0564. I'll contact our dealership and see of they can do the update.

I spoke too soon, mine is now completely dead - no warnings, no lights, no mirrors dropping - nothing at all.

Now waiting for the AA to come (via VW roadside assistance).

Hi Grafight,

My ID.3 1st edition, needed jumpstarting by VW roadside assist, in less than 2 weeks from purchase. The second time it needed jumpstarting by roadside assist was 1 week after receiving the first software update (0570). I'm now on my second software update (0783) and second 12 volt battery. In total, I've been back to the dealership three times to get this problem resolved. The car has been at my VW dealer’s workshops for 17 days – since purchasing the car a little over 2 months ago.

According to my VW dealer the internal information they have, does indicate that the latest software update (0783) should correct the 12 volt battery drain problem.

I've now had the latest software update (0783) for 1.5 weeks, so it's really too early to say whether the problem is now solved.
However, I'm now getting a new error message 'drive system' error, and the problem of incorrect speed limit warnings continues.

I would recommend a strong complaint letter to VW customer services, plus getting your VW dealer to replace the 12 volt battery and update the software to the latest version (0783).

It's my opinion that all ID.3 models without the latest software bug fix will eventually suffer from the 12 volt battery drain problem; however, the majority of customers aren't yet aware of the joys to come.

Stephen wrote: ↑Tue Dec 22, 2020 8:16 pm It's my opinion that all ID.3 models without the latest software bug fix will eventually suffer from the 12 volt battery drain problem; however, the majority of customers aren't yet aware of the joys to come.

It hasn't happen to my ID.3 yet but I am now carrying one of these in my car just in case:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=car+batter ... r+portable

I collected my ID3 on 18th December and joined the team of dead battery owners yesterday after the car had sat in the garage for a couple of days. VW assist turned up fairly quickly as the AA man was in the area. He had never seen an ID.3 before but was able to get some power into the 12V battery. He couldn't fully charge it and told me that when everything was turned off the battery was discharging at a rate of 3 amps so something was draining the power. Since then I've had my own charger on the car and it seems to have recharged the battery after a full 24 hours. I haven't yet tried to drive it.

The dealer (Inchcape) had assured me the car had the most recent software update but I'm unsure how to check this. Can anyone tell me how I can find out what software update the car is running?

I have rejected the car to both the dealer and VW and I await the reactions. Needless to say they don't seem to be in a hurry to give me my money back.

I am astounded that they can continue to sell a car with such a crucial inherent fault. They are obviously aware of the problem but continue to use us as guinea pigs.

You can find the software version under Settings then System Information.

I wonder how many of the 294 registered members of id3forums.co.uk actually own an ID.3. Doing a search through the forum for the dead 12v battery issue I count eight people that have reported this problem. That's eight too many but I wonder what proportion of all ID.3s have experienced this problem. I note that a few owners have this problem with their car just a matter of days after taking ownership whereas for others it can happen weeks later. This is clearly a worry for those of us that have had their ID.3 for some time and aren't sure whether their car is going to respond when they next try to drive it. My car hasn't had this problem (yet) but is it just a matter of time....

Surely VW must know by now the cause with so many ID.3s having had this problem......

Thanks for the advice Simonrg. I have checked my software update and it is 0783 so I appear to have the most up to date fix. It seems that has not sorted the 12V battery problem.