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I've been a loyal VW customer for years having owned 3 Audis and 2 Passats. I love VW. I bought my current Passat at Fox Valley VW in Schaumburg and their service has been awesome! On the other hand, Mike Haggerty VW in Oak Lawn, closer to where I live, is a disaster! They're incompetent.

After experiencing a parasitic power drain which caused a dead battery, I bought a new battery but, after several days, I was still having the problem. I then took my car to Haggerty VW to have the power drain problem fixed. After a whole week of fumbling around and grasping at straws, they were "finished" with my car and charged me $1,092.45, claiming that the problem was a $540 steering angle sensor. My battery was dead when they returned the car. They claimed that the new battery I had bought when I began to experience a dead battery was defective.

So the next day I took the battery back to where I bought it and they recharged it saying that the battery was not the problem. Thinking that was the end of the problem, I went back to Haggerty VW and complained about having to pay over $1,000 and still having a dead battery, and they agreed to give me a $142.50 discount.

I thought that was the end of it but I began to have a dead battery again on several occasions over the next several weeks. Finally, I went online and found a thread on PassatWorld which discussed parasitic power drain, and I found the following quote: "If you have heated mirrors that's a place to start because a lot of people have problems when they leave the mirror *** in the defrost position". I immediately went out to my car and, sure enough, the heated mirror was in the defrost position. I turned the *** and the problem has now gone away completely. I have had no recurrence of a dead battery for over three weeks.

I took this information to Haggerty VW and to the service manager, and he said that his technicians knew about this problem. My issue is if they had known about it, they should have turned the switch from the heated position. If they had, it would have saved almost $1,000 and an enormous amount of inconvenience including not having my car for an entire week. I'm convinced that the $540 steering angle sensor did not have to be replaced. The proof is that replacing it didn't fix the problem. Merely turning the *** which is free, fixed the problem.

VW of America is going to hear about this.

Monetary Loss: $1099.

Location: Morton Grove, Illinois

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Caedon Wza

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Guest

Interesting. I too am having a battery drain issue on my VW Golf GTI (2015).

I am on my second battery as a dealer replaced it within 8 months of owning the car, first denying a problem until I kept getting stranded.

They replaced it with "a bigger, better battery." Last year no problem, but this year, with severely cold temps for 3 weeks in Maine, this is twice in a week my car won't start and needs to be charged. I just shut off the heated mirror button...just in case that was it!

Guest

Thank you very much for sharing this enlightening fact. I had a dead battery today.

Fortunately AAA came out and got me started.

I checked the Beetle manual and sure enough, the center position on the side view mirror adjustment is for heating the mirrors, it is not an off position. Again, thanks very much.

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