complete battery drain

[skorpionfisch]

Has anyone ever completely drained their battery?
I took the wrong freeway interchange yesterday and it took me a while to realize that I was VERY far from home and the battery had only 15 mi of range left. I drove to closest charging stating that the navigation system directed me to and the place was under construction. I continued the journey and sure enough the car went into "turtle" mode and stopped 0.2 mi from my house. I was towed home by my friend and the car is now charging. But this morning the car had an alarm sound on when I got in, the EPC light was blinking and the car did not recognize my keys ("keys not in range displayed on dashboard'). I cannot disconnect the car from the charger or move it at all because of the key situation. Anyone any advice at all?

 

[JoulesThief]

Has anyone ever completely drained their battery?
I took the wrong freeway interchange yesterday and it took me a while to realize that I was VERY far from home and the battery had only 15 mi of range left. I drove to closest charging stating that the navigation system directed me to and the place was under construction. I continued the journey and sure enough the car went into "turtle" mode and stopped 0.2 mi from my house. I was towed home by my friend and the car is now charging. But this morning the car had an alarm sound on when I got in, the EPC light was blinking and the car did not recognize my keys ("keys not in range displayed on dashboard'). I cannot disconnect the car from the charger or move it at all because of the key situation. Anyone any advice at all?

Never run your battery all the way dead on a german car... never... It's that simple. You should have called your friend a lot sooner.

Plugshare on your smart phone is a far better resource, but charging up fully at home before taking off is even better, you will find that you can't rely on the existing infrastructure to recharge very often, someone else is usually plug hogging when you get there, at least it's that way here in So Cal. Or go to a pay for electricity station like BLINK, where you'll almost always find it vacant.

BTW, it would behoove you to read your owners manual completely, cover to cover, 3 times. Then you wouldn't get yourself into these types of situations. Just being completely honest here, you could have easily avoided all this.

It would also help if you told us the year and model e-Golf you own. If it's a 2015, do a search here on how to unlock the charge handle, there's plenty of advice and posts on how to do so, best to learn how to find it yourself.

 

[f1geek]

Hey - you were only 0.2 mi from home - I think you planned your trip pretty well - it could have been a lot worse! I doubt you did harm as I'm hoping that VW has tested this situation and leaves enough charge in the battery in a situation like this so that even when you are unable to drive, the battery still has a level of charge that prevents long term damage.

Have you tried using the unlock button on the driver or passenger front door to unlock the charge plug? Did you give VW a call using the SOS button in the car? Maybe they can help out? I suspect disconnecting and reconnecting the 12V battery may solve the problem

Good luck and I hope you are back on the road very soon!

 

[skorpionfisch]

Thank you, f1geek, I am feeling really bad today and appreciate your supportive response!
I took my old car to work today and will try the unlocking from the inside and disconnecting 12V battery when I get home, fingers crossed

 

[stevestrange]

Thank you, f1geek, I am feeling really bad today and appreciate your supportive response!
I took my old car to work today and will try the unlocking from the inside and disconnecting 12V battery when I get home, fingers crossed

And make sure the 12V battery is fully charged. A discharged 12V battery is the cause of a majority of weird behaviors on the LEAF, so that's worth checking before you have the car towed to the dealers or what have you.

 

[skorpionfisch]

Good news: when I got home from work, the battery was 3/4 charged and it recognized the key and let me switch off ignition and also unlock the charging handle. I was then able to start ignition again and drive to level 2 charger.... Thanks for the support, really glad it is working fine