Charging Battery on a Touareg

Children playing in the car, forgetful spouse... who knows. Flat battery this morning in the beast known as a VW Touareg. Automatic transmission, so no chance of bump starting this 2 tonne monster either.

A quick search of the manuals to find the battery killed off my first thought - whip it out and re-charge it. Alas it's 'very complicated and must be handled by specialist personnel'. Even my engineering prowess baulked at trying to remove it (it's under passenger seat BTW). So gave up for a while and generally pondered life.

However, VW have placed some funky little terminals in the engine bay (nearside) so you can charge it in situ. Red clip goes on the terminal under the little red cover (to left of photo); black clip goes on to the earthing stud (to the right of photo), which has a convenient lightning symbol etched onto it.

Leave it for a few hours with a meaty charger, and life is back to it's fuel-guzzling, carbon-producing self. Would be easier if a nice publisher, such as Haynes, produced a workshop manual for this. Serves us right, I suppose for buying such a large vehicle, but a necessary evil, alas.