When one goes into Phone settings in the Golf, in order to use a Smartphone linked via Bluetooth, the car's Bluetooth has to be turned on to pair with the phone.
After using the phone for various journeys, is it necessary to turn off the car's BT to avoid unnecessary car battery drain or does it not matter. In my case I might not be pairing the phone with the car for several days or even weeks.
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....bluetooth is extremely low power, so I wouldn't expect it to be an issue.
I never turn mine off, and (though to be fair I haven't tested in the current two cars), I would expect it to turn off with radio/ICE on exit (after any relevant "radio delay"), anyway.
Last edited by: tyrednemotional on Mon 5 Mar 18 at 09:44
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>> ....bluetooth is extremely low power, so I wouldn't expect it to be an issue.
>>
>> I never turn mine off, and (though to be fair I haven't tested in the
>> current two cars), I would expect it to turn off with radio/ICE on exit (after
>> any relevant "radio delay"), anyway.
>>
Thanks. Really i don't use my phone that much but do have now a refurbished 'old' Sony Xperia Smartphone from last year that ceased to function necessitating a new purchase. However out of sheer doggedness I enquired at a certain all Networks High St shop about phone repairs and for £20 they could send it away for a firmware update etc which might get it going again.
Anyway ten days later I went to get the phone and found that I had virtually got a completely refurbished phone for the above price - clearly there had been a clerical error somewhere!
Well, after that diversion, that's the phone I thought I would use in my Golf but having to pair it every time, if I turn the car's Bluetooth off seems a bit of a chore and so was why I asked that question about not turning off the Bluetooth on the car's settings every time.
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...rather than take it for granted, I checked my 'phone against both cars ('asleep' on the drive), and it can see neither, rather confirming that Bluetooth shuts down, even if enabled on the ICE.
However, even in the case where you are manually closing Bluetooth down, I wouldn't expect you to have to re-pair a device at next enabling, unless something else was in play - it should remember pairing unless deleted, or there are other settings ("automatically reconnect", etc. in play or not).
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>> ...rather than take it for granted, I checked my 'phone against both cars ('asleep' on
>> the drive), and it can see neither, rather confirming that Bluetooth shuts down, even if
>> enabled on the ICE.
>>
>> However, even in the case where you are manually closing Bluetooth down, I wouldn't expect
>> you to have to re-pair a device at next enabling, unless something else was in
>> play - it should remember pairing unless deleted, or there are other settings ("automatically reconnect",
>> etc. in play or not).
>>
Yes, again thanks. I have just been outside and done it all again and the phone's pairing was indeed remembered by the ICE and so that's one less thing to do, so turning off BT each time isn't a problem for me now as just a matter of obviously turning on Mobile data and BT on the phone and turning on BT in the car's phone menu.
Thanks again.
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For what it's worth, I rarely turn off bluetooth either on the phone or in either of the two cars that I use it in.
It seems to make little difference to the phone's battery life when it's not actually in use, and if I do turn it off (or it turns itself off when I restart the phone) I forget and it just causes inconvenience later when I get in the car, the phone rings and I discover it isn't connected.
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>> I have just been outside and done it all again and the phone's pairing was indeed remembered
>> by the ICE and so that's one less thing to do, so turning off BT each time isn't a problem for me now
I suspect on the car's ICE you are telling it to disconnect from the connected phone. You are not turning off BT.
If you have the car connected to the phone and then turn off BT on the phone, the next time you start the car and have the phone with BT on it will automatically connect. If you forget to turn on BT on the phone it won't connect until you do turn it on.
The power usage from BT by the car will be tiny. It's not much on the phone either. I'd just leave it on for both if this was me. And actually that's exactly what I do.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Mon 5 Mar 18 at 12:46
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Bluetooth is designed for very low battery requirements, for example in the limited power scenario - the phone.
Turning bluetooth off in the car makes no difference to the cars standing current drain, the underlying systems are still live.
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All i can say in contrast to all the knowledge here is that when I go into my Golf's Phone menu there is a box to tick to turn ON Bluetooth and I naturally assumed that without this ticked no phone would connect despite Bluetooth being turned ON on my phone.
I'm a person who has never had or need to have on my Smartphones turned ON unless I am using that particular facility ie. Bluetooth, WiFi or Mobile Data. I turn these ON or OFF as and when needed and that and turning my phone OFF overnight means I only need to charge my phone every 5 days or 6 days max.
It's a generation thing perhaps?
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I just wouldn't faff about with Bluetooth on the car. Leave it on. Only phones you have permitted to pair will be able to.
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>> I just wouldn't faff about with Bluetooth on the car. Leave it on. Only phones
>> you have permitted to pair will be able to.
Very true. Every car I've had has needed to be put into pairing mode (usually a menu entry that says 'add new device' or similar) before it will pair with a new device. And even having done that, you then need to replicate a PIN code on both the car and the mobile device.
More importantly though, Bluetooth shuts down with the in car entertainment system in every car I've owned, so there is no battery drain when the car is powered down. My car is currently parked within about 6ft of where I am sitting (albeit the other side of an external wall) and my paired phone cannot "see" the car at all. That's been true of every Bluetooth equipped car I've had (BMW, MINI, Audi, VW, Ford). If I go out now and turn the ignition on, the phone will pair automatically, even if I leave it here.
I never turn off Bluetooth on the device or the car. It works fine.
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There a bigger drains on a smartphone battery and Bluetooth. I'd leave it on. But Olggit might prefer not be get incoming calls at all when driving.
He's not said (I think) what phone he has. If it's Android then plenty of ways to turn on/off Bluetooth automatically, not accept calls when driving etc.
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Just one thing to remember with Bluetooth and the phone being paired up to the car.
I had a senior moment a few months ago. I was working on the car, and needed to make a phone call. Whips phone out of pocket, dials person, but couldn't hear anything through the handset. No ring tone, nothing. Checked I had a network signal. Yep. Tried again. Still no audio. Tried for the 3rd time, then it dawned on me the audio was coming out inside the car as the keys were in the ignition and stereo was on.
D'oh!
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I had another quirky think happen with Bluetooth a few years ago. I had a '08 Megane CC that had had the optional Bluetooth module fitted, worked fine. Then one day when starting the car I got a "Battery Low" message from the car, so I assumed it was referring to the keycard battery. I eventually changed it but the error message persisted.
So I next assumed it was the main car battery, so I changed it and lo and behold no message...until the next time I used the car! After a bit of detective work I realised that after replacing the main battery I didn't have my iPhone with me. So I turned off the iPhone and the low battery message disappeared. The battery it was referring to was the phone battery all along. However it even gave the message when the iPhone battery was 100%.
I lived with it until a few years later the message stopped appearing, right after an iOS update. So it seems that the phone battery state was being passed via Bluetooth but due to some software error was being misread.
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>> I've owned, so there is no battery drain when the car is powered down. My
>> car is currently parked within about 6ft of where I am sitting (albeit the other
>> side of an external wall) and my paired phone cannot "see" the car at all.
I can see mine via wifi tho.......(well actually 4g mobile data I guess, the wifi hotspot does not come live till the systems do)
The g31 has various shades of "off" even "Very Off", is not "fully off"
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To be honest, all this is based on an experiment as I would never expect to receive phone calls when on the move in my car and on the odd occasion I have had to make a call I have pulled over so to do.
I was only trying to find a use for my repaired Sony Xperia Z3C this having been superseded by a new Samsung A3, a far better phone and with excellent camera.
The old Xperia has a PAYG SIM from 1pmobile.com where I have accumulated rather a lot of dosh on account owing to 4 monthly top ups necessary to keep the account open.
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Volkswagen - Bluetooth in the car - tyrednemotional
