nta16

Already done so in my last post - The green, er, box, over his member name is a shout out that might bring him to the thread when he has a chance. I think you can do the same, you just put the @ sign at the very start, e.g. @nta16 = @nta16. HTH.

Hi, welcome. You might be better off looking in and/or asking in the Octavia forum (Mk2 if you have a 2012?). Or @pab567 may be able to help and advise you. HTH.

Hi, welcome. So many things to check that might throw this up, proper diagnostics required, and being intermittent is a PITA so you might have to throw in wiggle, hot, cold, water/damp tests. Certainly start at the battery and main power and earth connections and leads, then you might test fuses, relays, ignition/start buttons, modules, wires, connections, etc.. Then the computer systems are complex and intertwined so if there is a second or more contributing problems it could be back loading from lots of sources. The CAN bus can be off from the starting point and/or or points playing it up. You've not put which (part)year your car is or if it's DSG and or KESSY (light or to me full nuisance), IIRC the CJZD is the 1.2 TSI with extra turbo(?). Intermittent or not for electrical stuff on a car I don't know I'd (not that I know or can do much) always start at the very basics, that are often missed by even the knowledgeable and experienced, from battery posts on, are the terminal posts clean, and terminal post clamps clean (inside and out) and securely fitted, then main battery leads and their connections, check battery state of charge and condition - then plug in the scan tool to see what it has. Let us know how you get on if you're lucky you might get someone good at diagnostics and find it's something quite straightforward and easy fix despite it looking so dramatic. See this chap who gets similar with other cars/vans and how he solves them. - https://www.youtube.com/@mrautoservices7354

It may depend on what was happening with the car, battery alternator between the two lots of 12 hours 5-amp charging but it's inevitable that a used 6.5 year old battery won't be as good as new but it all seems very reasonable, plenty of useful life left in the battery. Don't get too bogged down with figures and percentages the battery wear, tear and useful life isn't a straight line, bit like tyre tread wear and fuel range left, depends on how the car is used in the future (that not even the great gods of VW computers and their programming can know exactly). Generally, historically at least for other models possibly including a 2019 VW product the stop/start will at least at periods stop functioning when it should be functioning, way, way(, way) before the battery is on its last legs and unable to start the car. Based on the experience of others you can flog the battery to death over months of driving and have a good selection of warning lights and messages and unseen error codes greet you with greater repletion over shorter intervals or staying on and possibly finally joining the statistics of number one reason for breakdown call-outs (totally the battery's fault of course 😄). My wife's then 3-year old AGM 60Ah battery took IIRC 15 hours to fully recharge on a cold winter's night using a Ring 4-amp charger maintainer and this was a preventative charge the battery wasn't 'low' by any VW (product) standards. It was just that the car was doing lots of very short journeys at the time and must be fully functioning for the boss - ignoring the loud underside clonk(s) and squeak(s) the cold exasperates (me not the boss she just turns the radio up to la-la to) - and I certainly don't want to be farting about with it when it's very cold (!"£$%^& short-lived VW remote key).

I'd not think it a good idea to have anything permanently plugged into the OBD port anyway it risks off-board computer programs buggering up the onboard ones and they already have enough potential to do that for themselves - as well as the possibly battery drain. Unless things have improved recently there's also the possibility of incorrect information being collected by the insurance information the car industries don't always use the best hard or software available, VW certainly have had a few ups and downs.

Might be the batteries themselves rather than their size (see also my post here 16 February 2024 for size explanation). The CR2025 size may not last as long with use as the CR2032. Best is to change batteries before the car gives (genuine) warnings or reminders, it was part of the service with my wife's previous car (not a VW product). I always synch after changing batteries or if there is an issues as it's so quick and easy clean-hands work which isn't often with the ancient technologies on "modern" cars. Though personally I'd not want the proximity type stuff like KESSY, I prefer a keyblade to a remote. Some people find some batteries better than others and even if good state of charge is shown (3v is a rounded down nominal figure like the 12v car battery) personally I've used cheap £1 a strip button batteries and had no issues at all but I change them before they show the need. When the VWŠkoda remote packed up working on my wife's car and attending a "distress" (well pi$$ed-off) phone call from her (she'd forgotten the car alarm goes off when you use the "emergency" only hidden door lock barrel) I tried £2.50 (each) Duracell to be sure of remote failure (on the coldest day of that year having walked 2-miles to get to the car (and 2-miles back) thank you "German engineering" for the £180 premature remote replacement and 'coding'.

Fair enough. Can you not trust the Shell petrol stations and use Shell V-Power? - https://www.coralenergy.hr/en/services/shell-retail-stations/ Twice a year is better than nothing but if you may be getting rough petrol and even if not you may need or want to use it more frequently. In the UK where generally the petrol is always good I suggest for modern cars that usually run on 95 (E10) petrol and don't do a higher mileage that at least 2 tankfuls of the higher octane (E5) petrol with the higher cleaning additives packages are used and a, or a few good blow-out Italian-tune-up runs are done to get as much of the fuel and air through the engine and exhaust before, at time of and after servicing and MoT. When you've added your Liqui Moly 5153 if you don't already do so I suggest you all use the Liqui Moly 5153 on a few blow-out Italian tune-up runs particularly before, at and after the engine air filter has ben replaced and its airbox and tubing cleaned inside and change of spark plugs, same for engine oil & filter changes.

Those fixings look like the ones on Japanese cars going back decades, best to always have a few of them spare as they fatigue with age and use and being dropped and lost/forgotten. Problem is when you come to order them there are so many that look the same but are slightly different and often cheaper to get a 100 than 10 or so These are used by sensible car manufacturers where they are clearly visible and easy to operate - there might be some on the underside of the VWŠkodas but I can't remember as I fart about with the VWŠkoda or any car the least I possibly can particularly anything on the underside. Must be a number of decimal places of a cent less for VW to purchase these than other types or the ones they previously(?) used.

Could you not take it to a good (VW) independent where that should be easily possible if they've not already detailed the work or told you about it at collection, Dealerships are more interested in tick(lie)sheets and the staff looking for more chargeable work on your car to increase their revenue and profits. Investigation might just be plugging in the scan tool, if available, then firing off the parts cannon rather than proper diagnostics which the staff may not be allowed to do for various reasons even if they want to and able. I see some good Dealerships might exist from what other members write but generally that's not my experience, then independent garages are often a let down. I've finally found an honest garage fairly local to us, they close for lunch and full weekends, that was a good sign to me, look after the staff to look after the customers, also recommended by reliable people we know. Good luck to you, let us know how you get on.

The parameters in computer programs aren't always the best and VW certainly have an up and down history with their computer programs, one member posted that a professional auto-electrician put 7ah instead of 70ah when 'coding' in a new battery and the VW computer system allowed this, irony was the member could have 'coded' the battery himself but was too busy and left it to a professional.

You don't want to be mixing too many additives together. Note the application of the product you linked to - "Applic­a­tion To be added directly into the fuel tank. As a preventive measure, add during each inspection, after repairs on the fuel system and after each JetClean cleaning operation. The product mixes with fuel automatically. Contents of can are sufficient for max. 70 l of fuel.mm" So it is doing the same sort of thing as the additional cleaning additive packages in the higher octane lower ethanol petrols (in UK at least), if you can only buy petrol without the additional cleaning additive packages already in the petrol it could be a substitute for that. There are lots of different products about for different tasks offering different levels of success depending on what you are aiming to achieve, just two examples more. Cleaner and octane booster (not ethanol protection) - Millers Oils Petrol Power ECOMAX Fuel Treatment. - https://www.millersoils-shop.co.uk/petrol-power-ecomax For ethanol protection, but as far as I know it won't remove or deal with existing moisture in the tank or perhaps carb bowl - Classic Etha-Guard Plus. - https://www.classicoils.co.uk/additives

Sounds like 'hidden' fixings then possibly/probably screws, I can't make anything out from the photo other than clips-thingies.

Also helps if the engine air filter and airbox and tubing are clean to get as much petrol and air through and out of the engine to take any muck with it - although if it's a diesel and not very regularly run on "cleaner" diesel fuel and maintained well you would not want to be behind it, or in the general area (especially a VAG product, the cheating, lying . . .).

@Exkiwi you may be interested, you may not, you can save virtual post and page space by not having the search stream on an eBay item, you can delete all after the end of the item (itm) number, e.g. - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/387754420845 @Peter7705 Lidl were selling a similar (green) Parkside set of 14 for £7.99 or you can get a set of four plastic orange ones elsewhere. example only - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/277283535042 4-piece orange, example only - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305504503698

ETA: is your scanner fully up to date with program for your car and the car battery (and scanner) in a reasonable state of charge when checking? Have you checked with another scanner? Could it be the car's computer programs, or it's brain-fart.

As previous post and perhaps synchronise the keys after changing batteries (if you've not already done so). With these KESSY things keep the second/third key(s) (never have a "spare" key use both or three) in a tin so there's no competition and/or key(s) looking for car.

Other way round. For you and perhaps others maybe. You're shutting the gate after the horse has bolted and blaming the horse. You can obviously afford the costs and not worried about a bit of waste, you do what you want to do no-one is stopping you, but why not let others offer alternatives, these can easily be ignored or taken up. By the time a modern car has engine starting problems the battery is very low indeed, one of the last things to go, either the battery has been well drained in which case it might be easily recharged with the very simple method mentioned countless times or if the battery has been flogged far too often and far too long the chance of reviving the battery by recharging get significantly less and if the user is the type to keep repeating this behaviour then yes probably best to replace the battery - or if someone would just sooner replace the battery that's their choice but you'd hope they'd not moan about it. Loas test, as with any other test, should be repeated, first test might show reasonable, but if first test is very bad then the rare thing 'common sense' could be introduced. When are we getting off this roundabout, don't you ever get dizzy . . .

'They say' the stop/start batteries are for such use. Based on the evidence of the many threads and posts here and my 'logic' the batteries don't last as long as they could but as I put different people use different amounts of electric and the modern the car the more 'blessed' they are with gadgetry. With the newer models some owners have posted here about getting only 3 or 4 years out of the (expensive replacement) batteries. Most car batteries now I think are properly sealed, not like the former pretend ones where you could peel back the labels and take the cell caps off. Some have that floating ball 'magic eye' thing which I used to find unreliable but it get extra battery sales. The old and current battery testers could also be used to get extra sales, sometimes a bit like saying there's not much fuel left in the tank so the car will stop soon so you need to buy a new car. 😄 "Yeah, I've tested your battery and it's no good but we can fit you a new one" some RAC recovery men seem to do that, they must be on commission for their very expensive battery fitting service. The 12v batteries that VW fit to the VWŠkodas, I've seen mentioned here anyway, aren't that different at all to 50 years ago, bigger and heavier certainly but VW like that in their wide overweight cars. There seems to be all sorts of things 'they say' about what you can't do with these batteries or er, I don't know, you'll kill 'em, the car will be destroyed, you're taking the souls of others to hell, I've no idea. a long time back I put I always charge check and battery charger(maintainer) charge a new 12v battery to 100% full before I fit it to the car and some treated that as if I'd insulted their wives so I got a quote from the supplier of the battery (a well known supplier here) who put that was fine, but still that wasn't good enough so I gave up on that then. You can honestly get away with murdering the 12v battery on a modern car, keeping it below or well below a reasonable state of charge for the computers and other systems for months on end - then the battery fails so it must be a duff battery. 😄 A few times on here I've seen Dealerships (and garages) get a s/h car in and it's battery might be low, the car may sit unsold for a while then is sold and the buyer finds problems with the battery and the seller argues the battery is fine. They usually have far too much standing stock to worry about charging batteries. You'll be fine with your battery, as Ootofhere put you know the scores on the doors from your decades of experience and you seem to have read up about these "new" battery types. As I put before 3k-miles a year is high mileage to some of my neighbours, one has a 9 year old car with just turned past 9k-miles recently and the majority of the mileage was on the car when they bought it a number of years ago, they had a new large expensive battery fitted last year or year before, not part of the monthly paid servicing contract, no stop/start or VW product but (old-style) automatic.

Yes you don't want to break any of the wunderbar fantastic-plastic, particularly on the very fiddly wire connectors or bits in the engine bay (how "Simply Clever") but if you get something plastic like a kitchen spatula or buy the plastic interior trim tools set you can ease the plastic parts up, you'll soon get the feel of what will lift and what wont. I've just had a quick look at the rear door on a MK3 and it has screws - behind that door pull as Exkiwi put up for you, at the speaker cover at top rail area - and some other fastenings. Unless you can get some images it's one of those jobs you learn as you go along and forget how to later when you need to remove the door panel as the rear door seals has gone and lets water into the rear floor (another job I've got to fart about doing before the colder and wetter weather arrives, thank you 'German engineering'). Once you have done the job if you wanted to you could put up a thread on how to do it for others in the 'Skoda Fabia Guides' section - or perhaps you could look there for some guidance on previous models. For YouTube videos 'HatBoyHarvey' has good videos on the Mk1 and 'CarSpyTV' has good videos showing the use of those small interior trim tools in use on various cars and Fabia Mk3. 'Skoda Fabia Guides' - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/forum/167-skoda-fabia-guides/ 'CarSpyTV' - https://www.youtube.com/@CarSpyTV/videos 'HatBoyHarvey' - https://www.youtube.com/@HatBoyHarvey/videos HTH.

Have you taken that armrest panel off to see if any are hidden by it.

For you. Others get a lot longer - but there are many variables, including the person with the car and battery. Plus you might be somewhere very hot in Australia, the UK is only at the start(-ish) of that.

😄 You wanna get yourself a marketing job with VW or Ctek and at least get some money. I've been charging a 4-year old AGM battery with a 2023 (so-called) "smart" charger so the furthest my uniformed opinion goes back for practical and actual charging of a VW(Škoda) is to 2023. When the battery fails because of my uniformed opinion I'll let you know. 😉 VWŠkoda would have my wife change the battery on her 2015 model next year at 5 years old - if I've not killed it before then. 😄

Sounds like your short trips are longer then many other owners trips and you use less electric than some other owners (and probably less wasteful about the use). A 2019 Polo would (probably) have less comfort features and possibly less driver "aids" and "assists" than later years (thank gawd in my tastes) with perhaps the computers going into rest sooner after you park and lock up and you probably have less gadgets running with the car in use or parked up. In the VWŠkoda 'Owner's manuals' (well the ones I've looked at) it has to disconnect the battery if the car isn't used for 4-weeks and later 3-weeks (IiRC) this will be over cautious for some and perhaps good advice for others but they will generally be the ones to ignore it and the car will generally open and engine will generally start so reinforcing that things like this can be dismissed, which often they can - but of course the number one reason for breakdown call-outs is . . . Very few owners read the 'Owner's manual' (for anything if it's a Billy-big-*******s macho man, or many engineers or tradesmen) other than perhaps very rare occasional glances and of course now many they consult the internet for everything where they may well find the correct info, or near enough (or not). Some take great exception to me charging my wife's 2015 car 12v battery to 100%, seem to take it as a personal assault on them, and rightly point out the car's system will soon have it back to it's ay 80% charge but total missing or ignoring why I charge the battery to 100%. An occasional preventative recharge using my Ring 4-amp charger maintainer has taken up to 15 hours (IIRC) which also seems to upset some but my attendance in this is about 5-minutes including getting the charger out of the shed and hooking it up an, putting away again and very occasional glances from inside a warm, dry building. It's clean-hands, very easy, quick and comfortable 'work' which is very unusual when farting about with cars and I can be away from the car doing something more interesting than farting about with cars which for me is most things.

@Johngerard these VW stop/start cars will first not operate the stop/start system when the battery is too low for the computer system then if the battery isn't charged enough, by driving the car enough with enough net input to the battery, or using an appropriate battery charger maintainer following the instructions in the 'Owner's Manual' and for charger maintainer, then unexpected various issues, warnings and unseen error codes can follow. There are lots of threads and posts on Briskoda about this for the various models. It confuses some owners as they think the battery is fine because the headlights seem bright enough and the engine starts easily on key turn / button press, but this is the last thing to go and by then obviously the battery is very low (but possibly can still be recovered for more reliable use but that depends on how much and how long it's been flogged). Modern cars are not like the older cars as the engine still starts even when the battery is far to low for the liking of the computer systems. Until 3 years ago, and for the previous 16 years, my one and only everyday (and all else) car was a 1973 MG Midget which was a basic car even when new had it been a few months older it would have had a dynamo rather than an alternator, four fuses in the box plus a factory inline. Previous to the MG Midget going back 15-20+ years from it I had various British 60s and 70s cars as everyday, commute, work, holidays and club events use so I've always known the importance of having a good battery in good condition as generally if the engine starts you could at least get home in the car. I was bought a battery charger by my neighbour in the 90s but only once had to use it in our old, or new, cars and that was totally my fault for flattening the battery trying to start it when I'd messed something up on the car - then my wife bought a VW stop/start product . . . Well done on getting 6.5 years out of the battery so far, VW want you to change the battery at 4(?) or 5 years (have a look in your 'Owner's Manual' and many owners don't get that far. Also one person's definition of a short journey is a reasonable length journey to another, I'm use to neighbours' car doing less than 1,000 miles or less a year some hardly into hundreds, two at the moment have been months without being driven.

A very common thing for criminals to do, unlicensed pool cars, or even through a "company" for other scams. "Law abiding citizens" who only buy knocked-off or counterfeit goods, or recreational drugs help promote such activity, often middle-class people, perhaps VW owners, or those that bang-on about law and order (for others not like themselves). Those that put up a photo of their car with the registration showing on t'web or social media also help makes things easier for criminals cloning regs. I'm not sure what the Police can do about it as the cars and registrations are often only used short term until they're hassle or no use. You could check with your insurer to see if they can offer advice as the clone car can get into a lot more than put parking violations. You number plate and car details could be sourced from so many sources and places (very much expected in the main cities too). Most people wouldn't believe the number of different scams and cons knock about and how easy they are to pull off but there's no point in being paranoid about it, if they're going to do it they will just don't make assumptions on what's safe or fully protected and what can or can't happen or will or won't happen. Also never underestimate the incompetence of companies and organisations, always check your paperwork and digital forms sometimes if a mistake gets in the system it can be awkward to get it out and if you didn't originally check the info you probably signed (in some way) to say you did. Then of course there's the in-house fiddling . . . contractors not checked, staff, ex-staff and on and on. - or it might just be a one-off incident now.