99 Battery going dead Please Help!

[C.Hotchkiss]

The battery on my new beetle (Only 2 years old) will hold a charge fine, but if the vehicle sits there the next day it is dead. I have read around a couple of sites and have heard this could be a door lock or window module. Does anyone else know anything about this problem? I am at about my wits end with it. Thanks

[pencilneck]

One needs to hook up a DMM and see how much draw is on the battery when the alarm is armed. It should be about 20mA, give or take a few.

If there is a large draw, then start pulling fuses out one at at a time and see what fuse makes the draw go down, trace that fuse to whatever circuit.

Note that some cars will take upwards of 20 minutes to fully go to sleep once the alarm is armed. I learned this the hard way and went chasing a steering angle sensor down the wrong rabbit hole.

Also, if the car has a CD changer installed, when checking for a draw that is too high, unplug the CD changer first and see if that doesn't resolve the issue, not all that rare.