RIncewindwiz

OK for anyone who might be interested: 1. To free the bonnet get one person to pull on the opening handle while another jumps on the front of the bonnet. (Bang with palm of hand; short hard push down). If there is only 1 of you, holding the handle pulled tight with a piece of rope through the door pillar worked for me. 2. Before working on the catch at the bottom, check that the clip on the top of the bonnet moves freely from side to side. If you dont get a click when you pull the opening lever it is likely that the top clip is jammed. Clean it up with a stiff brush and liberal application of WD40 3. And of course while you are there, clean and WD40 the bottom catch.

Unusual. The bonnet is slightly open - not far enough to get fingers underneath to the release catch but certainly enough to get a screwdriver under and lever the black plastic catch. But it wont budge and the bonnet wont open. - Pulling the release lever does nothing - Pushing down on the bonnet does not move the bonnet at all - Pushing down on the bonnet while pulling the leaver does nothing - Pulling up on the bonnet does nothing - Levering up the black plastic release catch under the badge does nothing and it was only 2 months ago when I gave it a good working over with WD40 Any suggestions as to what is stuck and how I might free it?

Weird indeed. Started the car this morning and all windows work fine. Good news . but worrying though in case it happens again

My electric windows went doo-lally today. Sadly I wont get the sequence exactly right because it was all a bit random but essentially . . First a back n/s window went down by itself so I put it up again Then O/S windows (front and back) would go down but not come back up. (n/s OK) However, holding down the lock button makde all the windows shut correctly (but after it shut the drivers window had a couple of hiccups like it wasn't sure it was fully shut) Now all windows are shut and only the rear N/S opens. 4 hours later I tried again and now all windows (except the drivers window) operate correctly! I thought I'd disconnect the battery tomorrow to see if that resets things. Any other suggestions?

I did ask yuasa in my discussion with them about the state of my battery. They said "With regards to charging, our normal suggestion would be 1/10th of the label rating for general recharging. If the voltage is sufficient, you will charge a battery even if the current is lower, it would just take longer to do so. To much current is not recommended as this can cause thermal issues inside the battery if used too frequently. " So it seems that 7A not that critical and 8A, if not used too often, will be fine

So I see you guys have been having fun with my thread 🙂 - good interesting stuff I decided my battery was effectively dead (in that it would not drive start/stop and gave up the ghost after parking for short period swith the lights on) biught a new one , adapted it and start/stop works fine again. Thanks to all that contributed.

Charger on car for < 2 hours (I looked after 2 hours and it was fully charged) Plugged into 12v - Only a GPS watch FYI I sent Yuasa the charging readings and they replied 12.58v would not be a reading we would see for a fully charged battery. If it is dropping to 12.18v after a short period of time, that would suggest that the “surface charge” is dissipating leaving a voltage figure of less than 50% state of charge. This could suggest that the battery is deeply discharged and very likely sulphated.( Which would explain why the battery is not reaching a full charge- the ability to store charge is reduced by the build-up of sulphur on the battery plates) The lifetime of any battery would be reduced if it subjected to frequent use at a low state of charge. Testing the CCA reading using an appropriate tester would confirm if the battery were indeed sulphated. On the basis of comments here (thanks to all that have contributed) and from Yuasa, I am inclined to give up and get a new battery.

So it looks like a ropey battery?

So the following readings (multimemter between battery terminals) Before charging 12.3 (back 30 mins previosuly from 10 mile drive) Charger finished 12.6 10 mins later 12.25 (time taken to put everything away) 2 hours later 12.18

Interesting stuff and thank you (I've an engineering degree and so the sort of odd mind that finds this stuff interesting!) Cant do this until tomorrow as I am about and about for the rest of the day. Will do Thu morning and report back

Multimeter readings at battery terminals All off (no lights no ignition no engine etc) 12.29 Headlights (dipped) on all else off 11.63 Engine running tickover all else off 14.6 - 14.7 fluctuating Readings taken at chassis earth differ by 0.01V from those at battery terminal Internal readings (taken earlier) at the cigarette lighter appear to be 0.2 volt lower

My Mk3 Octavia Owners manual only has 264 pages 😞 Any chance you could add fig 336

Incorrectly to the two battery terminals. Can anyone give me a clue as to where to find the chassis terminal? If it s only at the other end of the battery lead I dont see the point (as battery lead connected to battery) CANCEL THIS Found it Charger can be found here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Matthew00Felix-FOXSUR-Repair-Charger-Motorcycle/dp/B07W6HGMXW Start Stop didn't work yesterday after what should have been 30 mins on a motorway and turned out to be an hour on back roads!!! I happened to notice at one stage the battery charger said it was putting out 1.8A but its a 70Ah battery so up to 7A is OK? Will finish coffee and go measure voltages (no load, under load [lights] , engine runnning) with a multimeter across the battery terminals?. Anything else I could usefully to measure. I will get a measurement from cigarette lighter socket gadget as well

HI and thanks for the interest I'll answer as many as I can; rest tomorrow Battery Charger Charging: Battery behaving as usual. Connected charger to battery in car (so 'on car') and left it. Came back 4 or so hours later and the charger had turned itself off 'cos battery was 'full' Charger is a FOXSUR model FBCX122308D 12v 8A / 24v 4A charger Charging figures from only 1 instrument (connected to cigarette lighter socket) Can do again with multimeter directly to battery terminals VCDS does not report voltages other than terminal 30 (wherever that might be) which was reported during the scan as different values 11.4 (near the start) and 12.0v (at the end) Off for a 30 minute M-way drive this evening (and 30 min back) so will check after that and test tomorrow

No lights on. It used to work fine. Then I started having problems starting on cold mornings and if I left the lights on so I changed the battery Every since changing the battery Auto Stop/Start has not worked - except for a short while after long journeys