MK5 GTI Alarm on Battery disconnect

[ab11]

Hello

I'm about to garage my 2008 GTI over winter and to avoid battery drain and depletion (like last year) I'm trying to leave the battery disconnected but car locked.
When I remove the negative terminal the alarm sounds, I gave it a minute before I reconnected the neg terminal as neighbours curtains were twitching. Pressing the buttons on the remote had absolutely no effect.

Does anyone know the correct procedure to disconnect the battery without this happening? There is nothing in the handbook of course.

[the-photographer]

It might be the battery in the alarm module, these can fail and randomly sound the alarm, its around £250 to replace.

On the MK6 the alarm battery is only charged when the engine is running

[ab11]

Thanks for the reply, I hope its not that, it doesn't sound randomly when the battery is connected, just when I remove the neg terminal., I've seen comments on threads (which are never backed up) this is an anti theft precaution on the battery.
My dads TT had the alarm module issue a couple of years back and it would just sound randomly until replaced.

I've seen suggestions of having a key in the ignition to position 1 before disconnecting but surely this would then mean disconnecting with a load applied which doesn't make good sense to me.

2008 Mk5 GTI for reference.

[the-photographer]

ab11 said:

Thanks for the reply, I hope its not that, it doesn't sound randomly when the battery is connected, just when I remove the neg terminal., I've seen comments on threads (which are never backed up) this is an anti theft precaution on the battery.
My dads TT had the alarm module issue a couple of years back and it would just sound randomly until replaced.

I've seen suggestions of having a key in the ignition to position 1 before disconnecting but surely this would then mean disconnecting with a load applied which doesn't make good sense to me.

2008 Mk5 GTI for reference.

Does this help?
https://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic...

[ab11]

the-photographer said:

Does this help?
https://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic...

Not really, saw that before and the last message was on: November 09, 2012, 10:58:52 am

"Thanks for all your help.. gonna give this a try today so will let you know how it goes."

So either it worked and he couldn't be arsed to let others know or he died while removing the terminals with the ignition on so not really helpful.

[the-photographer]

The only other solutions I seen are leaving the car unlocked or disconnecting the alarm siren...

[Belle427]

Maybe just hook up a battery charger or trickle charger, you could put it on a plug in timer to operate once a week.
Any reason you need to lock it in the garage, i never do.

[ab11]

No real reason to leave it locked other than force of habit however siren sounds whether it is locked or unlocked so its a moot point.
I have a trickle charger for one of my other cars so no issue to put it on this one a few days a month so will do that, just odd that on a 20+ year old design there doesn't seem to be a documented way to stop this happening - unless something on it is goosed causing this to happen.

Not to worry, other issues to sort out now.

[Tim Cognito]

Aftermarket security feature? I had a mk5 gti and don't recall having this. Not very helpful but might narrow your research if you know it's not standard.