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Owned my RS6 since April last year and not a day of trouble until this morning. Went out to unlock her and no flashing indicators and no interior lights. The little stalks that go up in the doors to signal that they are open also only barely raised their poor little heads and I ended up unlocking with the key to get in.

Everything relating to power is dead on this thing. No interior lights, nothing on the ignition key, no response to they key fob. Nothing at all.

My first thought was battery, so I gave her a few hours of charge until it was showing as being pretty well charged and then still absolutely nothing - no change to anything. Still all dead.

Only things I would say of late are: firstly - had to drive some 8" standing water yesterday for 20 yards and secondly, I have noticed that my electric fan stays on later after I have run the car during the last month. It never did that during the summer or any other time, but has recently started to.

So........as disappointing as this is for my first post here........can anyone help????

Have you checked the battery charge state with a multimeter? Needs to be over 12.2 volts to have a chance of starting. Just because the battery charger says the battery is charged doesn't mean it is. There's a connection somewhere up front where the main lead from the battery goes, someone here posted pictures of it and it was very badly corroded.

Sounds like the battery has died a death. How old is it? Might not hold any charge, even though it's showing the right voltage.

There's a place under the plenum where there is the 200A fuse. Perhaps there is some corrosion in there. Who had a problem like that recently? One of the dutch guys, not Mav.

Dead battery I'd say probably the recent cold snap could have killed it, I reckon a trip to halfords may be in order

Yeah, that's my bet, too.

Personally I wouldn't go getting one of the halfords specials currently (if they even have one of our batteries on the shelf) as 2 people I know haven't been getting on well with them at all in the last year. Calcium jobs I think, they have had to return a couple for dying very prematurely.

When mine died at around this time last year, I didn't mess about, I just bit the bullet and got one from Audi and it has been working perfectly since. Either that or a high end Bosch/Varta (The vast majority of Bosch/Varta higher end units are the same batteries made in the same factory(s) I believe)

I did think about the battery too but I must admit I was wondering about that fan staying on for a couple of mins after I turn off the engine. I wasnt doing it at all over the summer.

One thing I did remember was that at first when I went out there was a bleeping coming from what seemed to be the drivers side rear wheelarch. It seemed to go through a few timed cycles and then stopped.

I wondered about getting a new battery but didnt want to lay out on one only for it to be something else. The current one is a huge beast and I will always be replacing it with a top end decent heavy duty one as I do on all my cars.

Thanks for everything so far chaps. Lovely friendly forum it seems to be.

Quick thing, where are you? If someone was close and was feeling daring enough to risk trying their battery in your car it could be an option for you in the troubleshooting stakes?

What speed did you go through the water at out of curiosity? I wish I could remember what thread that terminal corrosion image was on as I would look at that too for the sheer hell of it.

One mildly long search later and BOOM! - http://forum.rs246.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... 92#p548879

you are the serach king footers!

did i see that euro car parts have a good offer on new batteries?

i'm sure someone here has a discount code as well!

I've had this exact same problem over the last month or so

first thing to check is the battery, if its not holding its charge the cold weather may have killed it, the battery in the rs6 needs to be 'on the button' in terms of performance anything less then you will have trouble starting, get a replacement or uprated battery that is capable of doing the job, i posted an issue where my battery after being jumped showed the right results but every day or so it would not start some kind of internal battery fault , i had the garage check for drain over 1amp they found nothing, turned out to be the battery in the end, even though they were convinced it was working correctly, this includes 3 AA call outs on the drive way some said battery some said battery was fine!

second thing to check is if the connection from the battery in the boot is getting to the starter/engine via the terminal, your drains may be blocked this is normally leaves and crud that builds up around this area, take off the plastic panel underneath the wipers pull the rubber off the top part of the engine and remove the plastic trim, check underneath the coolant bottle and around this area for signs of excessive water!, down there is the battery connection terminal from the boot, along with various 200amp + 100amp fuses iirc, look for a black plastic connection point, my drains were blocked totally and that section was under water, after draining it out with sponge unblocking the drainage holes, i could see the positive lead and snapped off the terminal due to corrosion hense no power at all not even the alarm locking light, full of rust, and lime scale

replaced the terminal point, new fuses and just last week needed a new battery as well problem solved

if you search on here you can find pictures of this area and examples of the build up of corrosion

swannny wrote:you are the serach king footers!

did i see that euro car parts have a good offer on new batteries?

i'm sure someone here has a discount code as well!

Think Euro have 20% off at the moment.

swannny wrote:you are the serach king footers!

Just realised I got overcome with fat fingers and didn't spell search right!

chunky79 wrote:

swannny wrote:you are the serach king footers!

did i see that euro car parts have a good offer on new batteries?

i'm sure someone here has a discount code as well!

Think Euro have 20% off at the moment.

The ECP promo code currently is BATTERY15 for 15% off batteries, not sure if all batteries or not.