J.R.

You could remove the starter and visually check which flywheel is fitted, you might need an angled mirror or USB camera, you would also need to have pictures of reference examples of each flywheel viewed from the side. If someone knows that the difference cannot be seen with the pressure plate in situ please say so!

Yes I have been caught out like that before, in the past leaving sidelights on overnight would flatten the battery although a new one would usually restart the vehicle the next morning, recharging it would bring it back to full health, my brand new Bosch battery was mortally wounded through doing that and not even overnight, it charged but the electronic tester showed it at something like 60% capacity, it had been at 100%, its cell voltage after charging is less than my old standby batteries. It was as you say the high discharge from all the active modules. I'm still using it a couple of years later but can't expect a lot from it now. My car times out the interior lights if I leave a door open, it does the same if I switch off leaving the headlights on, I don't lock the car at home so it takes longer for the modules to go to sleep, the shut off timer does not work on the sidelights though, I guess because you would use them to alert oncoming traffic if you left the car after a breakdown to get fuel or help.

Mine does it on certain downhill sections when like you I am covering the throttle, its always after the suspension has gone slightly light when cresting the previous incline. The weird thing is that it should only happen when you have "got air" as they say, inadvertently taken off or unloaded the suspension to full rebound, it is to stop the wheels spinning and maybe loss of control when the spinning wheels gained traction again, indeed it does do that in extremis but there are also 2 parts of roads that I regularly travel when it does it after the gentlest of crests taken at moderate speed with barely any unloading of the suspension, always when I am on a trailing throttle, it feels like running out of fuel, there is a definite pause before the power comes back in and it does so very slowly, exactly what it should do if I had "got air"! - Thats probably not the phrase the youngsters use. To me its just another feature like the slight transmission wind up through the 4x4 reversing out of a supermarket parking place on full lock.

A very good summary 👍

Is there a way with a cheap Bluetooth OBD dongle or something to be able to see parameters like the above while driving? I appreciate it means taking my eye off the road, given my vision I would more likely use it at a standstill. I can see the oil temo on the maxidot, the water temp is Bravo Sierra as is the fuel level (beneath 3/8 of a tank) and the miles remaining. The 2 parameters I would really like to see the true values of are water temperature when I am towing a heavy load and how many litres in the fuel tank when I am doing my usual pushing the limits of range, I know from VCDS that the fuel tank sensors (dual in my case) are remarkably accurate right down to the last litre whereas the fuel guage has been on zero and Maxidot showing zero miles remaining for the last 60 miles or more. I dont want to carry the laptop to use VCDS and equally dont want to pay out for a second diagnostic tool like OBD11, is there anything cheap out there, maybe even a head unit as they can display vehicle data from the Canbus.

Thanks for the correction, would the same be said for a petrol or diesel tank? Do they generate energy or simply convert it? Is it not the alternator generating the energy? Answering my own question that is actually converting rotational force created by combustion. I agree with the self discharge and made mention of it a few times, 30 years ago it was the only thing affecting how long a car could remain unused and still restart, now it is de minimus compared to the parasitic discharge of the cars electronic systems.

I knew it reminded me of something I had seen before! You would need a pallet truck to extract and fit a spare wheel on that monstrosity.

That can be seen by the huge spark at the battery terminal when you reconnect a battery, its so intense that in the past it would have been a 100% sign of a short circuit from a failed alternator diode, it really goes against the grain for me to maintain the contact against all my common sense. Said alternator diode failure would flatten a battery in hours and when a Canbus module plays up (example aftermarket head unit) stopping the other controllers from going into sleep mode the same occurs.

Battery tech has enabled greater AH and CCA in a given battery size, it might have decreased the self discharge rate on certain chemistrys, longevity is certainly not what it was 10 and 20 years ago even on the factory fitted batteries which are made to a higher standard than the exact same battery on the aftermarket. What has not changed and cannot change is the laws of physics, a battery is an energy store, if parasitic consumption (which is far higher on modern vehicles) drains 25ma over 40 hours then 1 Ampere hour of reserve capacity will be removed from the battery whether it be EFB, AGM Li-ion or whatever, the same today as it was 10, 20 or 100 years ago. @carefree I am not trying to come across as clever, when I see misinformation that could be to the detriment of a contributor seeking advice I challenge it, you of course are free to disagree but the nature in which you do so is not in keeping with the mutual support shared on this forum, Edited, I see the post in question has now been removed so I have deleted my final words requesting a refrain.

I read today that despite the cost of a pint of beer being £8 (really????) it is no more expensive in real terms as a worker on an average wage can buy 4 pints with an hours pay. Rubbish was my instant reaction but I have not earned a wage since 1983 or bought a pint of beer since 2009.

Indeed, its false science! A battery of a given AH rating will lose cell voltage at a given rate for a given discharge, you cannot change the rules of physics to suit your misguided belief. You are the only person to be talking about 70's or 80's batteries (using "fact" twice for emphasis), I spoke of the zero standby current drain which has not existed since those days.

Many remain very close to the concept, I worked on the V705 Mazda MX5 concept car in 1985, the P729 production version debuted in 1989 at the Chicago Motor Show differed only in that it did not have the solid tonneau cover with twin D type fairings behind the driver and passenger heads that we had developed and the hood folded down into the space behind the seats in the traditional manner. The solid version was inspired by the tonneau cover on the Triumph Stag that I had owned 4 years before, I still have the lofted drawings of the prototype produced from the full size clay models from the styling studio, no CAD or laser scanning in those days.

Looking at the photo of the seat with the door open gives you some idea of scale, if you then look at the photo of the whole side view it confirms my thoughts that this thing is more than twice as long as a 2 door coupé needs to be, utterly ridiculous and would overhang any parking space. Other thoughts, what the heck are those things for that are deployed in front of the doors, something for 007? And what is that stupidity running fore and aft between the seats? They must be losing mega money on the existing vehicles if they are going to cease production for 2 years, the workers will certainly strike in protest against the lay offs but what point is withdrawing your labour when the company does not even want to make any cars? The overheads will be crippling during that period and anyone needing spare parts for existing vehicles will be really in the merde, the newer the vehicle the worse the difficulty, any accident damaged ones will be written off even for a windscreen replacement, none of the suppliers will be producing parts on a piecemeal basis.

Welcome, they are all the same common vehicles under the skin. Smart move re buying the car for the move 👍 I left my 7 seater Alhambra in the UK when I moved to France because the Octavia came up at a price I could not refuse 24 hours before, I had to do a load of repacking but was amazed at just how much it swallowed. Anyway I sold it on Autotrader or whatever it was back then, my neighbour handled the viewings so I didn't see the purchaser but was informed it was a Polish (I think) guy who wanted to take his extended family on their first ever trip back to Poland (or wherever) the car and fuel for the trip was a considerable saving over the air fares so was effectively free, I was chuffed that someone would get good use out of it.

You will not need to drive it, leaving it idling for 15 minutes will fully recharge it even if it was discharged, in reality a lot less time than that but you might as well let the engine warm up and the oil circulate properly. There is one elephant in the room regarding how long the battery will last on standby (I remembered the word!), this is a 2023 vehicle, stop-start if I am not mistaken so it will likely have been parked up with only 80% charge and running the engine as I suggest will only achieve the same. Would those who reckon it will start after 4 months because their car does after 4 days still be as confident if they knew it only had 80% state of charge?

I think the facelift was a few years later, mine is 2015 and I believe one of the earlier ones, maybe 2014?

Good point re damp, cold wet conditions are indeed when my tickover sometimes remains high, it could also be the Aircon controller demanding the increase in revs to dehumidify the incoming air or perhaps go through a de-icing cycle for the evaporator. There are probably several systems that can request a higher idle speed in certain conditions, there is probably a VCDS parameter showing what they are similar to the AC shut down codes, I don't like driving looking at a computer so just accept it as a feature despite my inquisitive nature.

The problem is that these modern vehicles start so easily in 1/4 turn that we never get to feel a battery ageing through slower cranking, a battery with very little reserve capacity will start the vehicle as good as when it was new but the autonomy (dont know the correct term in English) can drop from the 2 months of sussamb to 2 days for a car used each and every day without the owner knowing. I know that my battery has years of starting life left for my driving regime, I also know it lost capacity through leaving the sidelights on overnight once as witnessed by my electronic load tester, I doubt that it would last 2 months on standby but its possible (I have a switch to disconnect the voracious towing relay) equally it may not last 2 weeks, the reason I load a spare battery if leaving it unused away from home for a long period, which doesn't really happen these days. The OP is being very wise in his precautions and he should not be influenced by those who probably have stronger batteries and who extrapolate 4 months from 2 months or 4 days. Most of our vehicles have smaller batteries fitted than the battery tray can accommodate, an 027 instead of an 096 for instance, when replacing a battery it costs very little more to go up to the larger size which will gain autonomy and perhaps extend the life.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Modern air filters are massively overspecified, I did 250000 miles on the original filter on my MK1 Octavia and only replaced it when it started falling apart, the mpg continued rising throughout the life of the vehicle. When an air filter does become blocked just like a DPF the restriction is felt at high revs not tickover. I have a couple of times noticed the 1050 rpm remaining a little longer than usual, I think its down to battery SOC and ambient conditions.

In the 70's and 80's there was zero parasitic current draw when a vehicles ignition key was removed and the doors closed, ZERO! You could leave a car as long as a motor factor would leave an unsold battery on the shelf 6 months to a year. A "few" years ago with your A3, (how many years was a few?) things had changed as you said, the radio and instrument panels were drawing current to maintain the time settings, the intruder alarm would have been active all that time also powering the untrasonic sensors, the central locking module would have had the RF recieving module powered up waiting to recieve a signal from the keyfob. Todays vehicles draw 200ma plus for up to 20 minutes with Canbus modules talking to each other before hopefully finally going to sleep, you are lucky if the parasitic drain is less than 40ma, they are getting worse especially the keyless entry ones, even my towing relay draws 15ma a lot less than the 35ma of the previous ones but significant enough to halve the autonomy of my battery. You only have to watch people collecting their cars from airport car parks after a fortnights holiday to see just how many have to be jump started, the operators have multiple jump starting carts moving around the lot 24/7. If I go away for more than a week I keep a spare charged battery in the vehicle, I may not need it for a month but I am not taking any chances, the aftermarket radio alone is capable of keeping the whole Can network and all the controllers awake if it doesn't sign off, indeed any of the controllers could, in that case the battery would be flat in days. Your vehicle restarting after a 4 day shift pattern does not mean you can say that the OP is taking completely unnecessary precautions when his vehicle will be standing unused for 4 months!

Agreed, I'll dig it all out tomorrow. I hope I had the presence of mind to add a jack if there was the space, I'm annoyed I can't recall and will be doubly annoyed if I have been hauling the space saver around instead of the rear seats for no reason. I would have been triply annoyed to have found out with a puncture at the side of the autoroute. No roadside assistance for me, in France its the quickest way to say goodbye to your vehicle or bucketloads of money. What I have saved over 20 years of not having it would pay for someone to recover my vehicle 1000km to my home rather than be held to ransom by the local garage in cahoots with the breakdown insurer.

I think that Pikpilot has hit the nail on the head. There is another way you can diagnose it, wait for the weather to be cold enough for it to have the cranking problems every start, that weather is probably already with us. Take the battery off the car, take inside in the warm and charge overnight, or just charge enough for the charging current to drop then disconnect and leave it in the warm. Fit the warm charged battery to the car the next morning and start it, if it starts instantly then you know the problem is the daft cold start algorithm. Resolving the issue requires you to further test the battery, the connections and the starter wiring, do you buy a new battery or replace the starter? 3rd option is to have someone reflash the ECU to remove the nonsense lines of code, one of the great things about the PD engines is their ability to start in 1/4 turn even when the battery can barely turn the engine over,. I need to rethink the above, the problem is when warm, maybe the jump leads are the best way.

Like an old school proper 4x4 without a central differential, I think the Quattro had a central diff, my Sierra XR4x4's all did. You are describing transmission wind up and then the snatch when the Haldex clutch releases, I feel it driving away from a car parking space on full lock, I understand what it is and it doesn't concern me. TBH the majority of drivers would be completely unaware, if you have mechanical sympathy and are in touch with your vehicle then the sensation is disturbing. If you are feeling it during normal driving at small steering inputs then something is amiss, you can view the commanded Haldex engagement in real time using the datalogging function, if it feels like there is more engagement than is commanded then you need to start looking at the hydraulic pressures, I think they can also be viewed, if it is snatching when the live date shows the clutch pack being released and the pressure dropping then its probably mechanical/contamination, maybe the wrong preload. The action of the multi-plate wet clutch should be very smooth, I have never known a fierce wet clutch but as I said my car does exhibit the symptom but in conditions when I know there will be considerable transmission wind up, the Guibo coupling will be acting as an energy store.

Oil temperature, the properties of oil don't change dependant on what engine is being lubricated. It was stated that oil temp should remain below 110°c, I disagreed citing my real world experience of oil temperatures, so did Occy245, I notice that you did not award him a WTF regarding his stripped 718 whatever that may be. The engine was a Honda CBR1100XX, the oil was full synthetic