nta16

Thanks TerFar you reminded me to discuss this with my wife. Does a warning light stay illuminated on the dash? And I'm confused, which doesn't fully charge the battery and what's the benefit of not fully charging the battery? Most of the journeys my wife makes in the Fabia are now very short and very rarely at standstill long enough to give a lot of effect to the engine being off and most times it's in open areas.

Hello, I'm new to the site (altho' I've already posted in Fabia 3 now) but I'm not new to Skodas. My wife has had a (s/h) "beautiful blue" Fabia 3 since 2017, as always her choice of car and colour and Sod's Law at a time when there weren't many about s/h in that colour despite it being a popular colour. Back in the mid to late 80s I had three Skoda Estelle 2 and my wife had a Favorit in the early 90s, so not new to Skodas.

Hi BigEjit, I was talking with my wife's boss's husband who was formerly a BMW technician and he's of the same view, he fitted a very cheap standard battery his his son's VW even though it was stop/start as for whatever reason they wanted the cheapest battery and he didn't do a battery code for it and said it ran fine. I can't recall now if he said he disconnected the battery management plug, it was a "bad line" from handsfree car phone (as they often are, progress?). I will report back on all the results of my actions and inactions.

An ex-VCDS user from this site has kindly offered to help me, he's now on OBD2 so I don't know if that's where this "fleece" comes into it, I read AGM spiral (IIRC) is wrong setting for AGM. I'm waiting for deliver of the AGM battery from Tayna, a Bosch S5 A05. - https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/bosch/s5a05/ I've had a couple of batteries from Tayna before and they're been a good price and quick delivery. I had a new battery in the past that wasn't quite fully charged when I got it (can't remember if that was from Tayna or not) so I always check before fitting. As my wife has just returned with the car I now get the chance to try a longer charge on it to tied us over and I've risked it and disconnected it , I've not even bothered with a plug-in battery back up my neighbour has lent me, I might regret that though if it rains all day tomorrow as we don't have a garage or cover for the cars. And I'll be right in it if it's not running early Monday morning.

inspectorman, thanks a lot, just the type of thing I was hoping for. I've contacted the nearer person as I stand more chance of knowing the area and finding them with my MG SatNavs as photo (revisions not shown). I understand nothing's for certain and can be taken for granted but always worth at least asking. Cheers.

Hi Warrior, thanks. If I could borrow the equipment I could do it myself - but I don't see that happening. I've watched the videos so now I'm an expert! I've also seen on here where the AGM setting is to be fleece rather than AGM spiral (IIRC). In the past I've had the simplest jobs balls'd-up and not always been told about it or had it covered up or bodged to be discovered later when something else has gone wrong, so standing outside near someone from Halfords who's perhaps more open than a can't be told or bothered mechanic or technician might be best if it can be arranged. I don't know any auto-electricians so have no idea who can be reliable and trusted and I've yet to ask around but will if required. My wife has asked her boss to ask her husband but I'm not sure how well that'll work out as I've not heard back yet.

Your skills are well beyond mine, I only do the work now because I have to, but nothing too mechanical or technical. And your adventures a bit more exotic than mine. I remember Reliant being the third(?) biggest British car manufacturer at one time but must admit I had to look up the Kitten to remind myself which model that was. I live in the county of motor racing and engineering (formerly) yet unless you're in the know, and I'm not, it's very difficult to find places that do more than plug and play (around). Those that live in places like the USA or Australia area often say about nipping into a "shop" and asking for this or the other engineering or other stuff to be done (and for beer money) or to borrow(!) this tool or other, which many of the big car parts stores do in America for free. A chap from Tasmania was suggesting on-the-car wheel balancing and I put that I'd not seen the machines for that for very many years so he suggested an adjustable stud frame (rather than centre hole) and I put I'd not seen these so he looked up on the internet and found a place in Northampton that had such a thing but when I rang them it was for 4x4 vehicles and he wasn't sure if it'd fit the wheel that'd been the topic, but he' did say he'd give it a try if the wheel was brought in. The problem is that the internal combustion engine is very old technology, A-series from 1948 (IIRC), but all engines like the Skoda/VW aren't really that far advanced from that, though better built, it's all the very complicated interconnected electronics and computer programming that gets the extra efficiency out of the engine and all these are really add-ons to each other rather a complete system designed from scratch. Not that we ever get problems from computers and their programming ...

HI TerFar, thanks for your reply. Unfortunately I'd already ordered the battery before I remembered, or thought about, these modern things like the battery needing coding. I'm old, grumpy and forgetful, plus obviously in a complete panic at my wife not being able to use her car to for fill her very busy work and more importantly social life. The current battery is I assume (but don't know) the original as it has all the marking as such and is a EFB type but a AGM is replacing it as my wife often only has very short journeys but needs the car for them. Having a British (made) classic car for myself my metal and physical health can't take another car that needs too much attention. It's annoying as the coding really is little more than keying in data entries but it does need to be exact and generally mechanics aren't known for their attention to detail as far as admin goes so I'd sooner be looking over their shoulder, difficult now, or have a print out of their input to reassure myself as unfortunately I have lots of experience with our cars of things not being done well, or as well as they should have, and even very badly.

Hi, I've just joined, generally I like to give and not just take from sites and forums but I only know a bit about old cars not modern, though I have lots of car 'experiences' - and I need help please. I've ordered a new (AGM) battery for my wife's Fabia totally forgetting about all the coding required for modern cars, I'm old and my own car is old (1973 MG Midget). Is there anyone in Northampton that could code the new battery for me please?

Hi, I've just joined today altho' my wife has had her Fabia (s/h) since April 2017. We're not new to the marque having had 4 Skodas in the mid-80s to early-90s and remember that quality actually dropped when VW first took over Skoda back then. At the time Skoda jokes were all the rage and I must have heard most if not all of them, some I might remember, most were good as jokes. :) Just recently I've actually started to do minor jobs on the car even though I loathe working on cars as I'm not mechanical or technical and have to work outside but with 30 years of ownership of various "classics" (overpriced and valued old cars) I've run out of money to pay someone else to bugger up the work and am forced to do that for myself.