2.0l Golf electrical question

[xr4racer]

My brother in law has a 2000 Golf that will kill the battery if not driven for a few days so since I was visiting we looked into it. The car has a high draw on the battery when the key is not even near the car. The odd thing is that when the battery negative cable is hooked up the fuel pump runs to pressure up the fuel rail, agian the key is not in the car. I am thinking something like a stuck relay or bad ECU. Any ideas

 

[Wreckerboy]

The traditional solution to such "dark current" problems is to hook up an ammeter and start pulling fuses, one at a time, until the current draw stops. Although I'm not familiar with a Golf like yours, the pressurization of the fuel rail while the key is off sounds to me like an invitation to start investigating that circuit.

Could be a stuck relay as you think, or perhaps whatever switched source is triggering that relay is inop. or providing a false ground or signal.