Hi guys, new to the forum looking to get some help with my mums polo, I'm a Bora driver my self.

Ok first off let me say I'm the least technical person you'll ever likely to meet, my mum’s car (2003 polo) battery keeps going dead over a period of about three days and I cheaply want to find the cause.

I have a multimeter and want to check the battery and alternator are working as they should, from what I've read I'd need to do something along the follow lines.

Check the standing voltage of the battery

Check the voltage when idling (to check the alternators working correctly)

unplug the battery from the car and see if it loses charge that way to rule out interior electronics/the alternator draining it.

The battery is new as the previous one didn’t gradually die it just failed completely and was replaced; this current battery gradually dies over about two days without use.

My problem is though I have NO idea how to use my multimeter Embarrassed but I need a cheap fault finding solution so I'll have to learn

This is my multimeter from maplins, all £5.99 off it (buy one get one free as well, so I have two)

I have no idea which settings I need to use, and which of the red terminals on the multimeter I need to plug the testing cables into?

If anyone can give me some advice It would be much appreciated.

Your right with what you need to test. Plug the red lead into the middle socket for V, Ohms and MA And then set the dial to 20 on the V with the flat line with 3 dots under it.

Ihad this problem it would start every day but if i left it for over 2 days it went flat it could be the cold crack amps that are to low because that is i found out what went wrong with mine