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[Andy663]

I do a lot of local short runs, the car is used on a Thursday evening and at the weekends only. Do I need to take it out for a longer run each week to keep the battery topped up? I drove this morning 2 miles at 9.00am, 2 at 10.00am and 2 at 11.00am, left it 3 hours only to find the battery flat. The only electricals I had on were the rear window heater and the main blower on ECO.  Any suggestions would be helpful?

[I_want_an_Omega]

You need to drive it a lot more than this. Apart from the battery the engine really not like such short trips - the vast majority of wear happens on a cold start and that's really all you are doing.

The heated rear window takes lots of power so I'm not surprised this has happened - especially if the battery is getting to the end of its life.

IMHO, those trips really need to be about 10 miles on average to keep the battery healthy .....

Good luck with that