Graham Butcher

You should without a doubt input the correct info regarding the battery, the important 2 bits of information you need to worry about are the AH rating, is it now 65, 69 or 75AH? And the serial number, the maker's name is not important at all.

Because of all the varying reports/updates you keep posting saying this or that is or was happening and the way that you say the OBD11 is performing or not etc, the battery has been tested a few times and they claim it is OK, nothing seems to be constant. Well that's completely, in almost of screenshot of your OBD11 it shows that you have 1 faulty control units, which control unit is it that it keeps reporting? It seems highly unlikely that the battery is faulty, a battery with a 5-year warranty is not likely to popping its clogs after 1 year and 4 months, so I think you can almost certainly rule that out of the equation. I also think that having a bigger battery is not going to cause you problems. If the battery they fitted was too small, then yes, that could possibly cause you some problems, especially if there was something that was still taking power when the ignition was off and the car was just sitting there overnight etc. Now one thing that you have not made clear, but I take it as being true (as maybe do others) is that this started happening over a year ago and the car was left for sometimes while you were maybe on holiday, you came back to find the battery was flat? Then Halford's fitted the current battery, and then the history repeated itself, and you again came back from a holiday to find a flat battery, is that correct?

True, when I filled mine with diesel the other day £73ish my trip computer was telling me that if I was doing longish trip without stop/start like you get in towns I had a range of 680 miles, when they can replicate that with EVs with a recharge time of just 20-30 minutes we might just have a chance of changing the world.

The answer to that question is yes. Think about how many filling stations there are currently for ICE vehicles, and they can be filled to the brim in 5 to 10 minutes including paying, and then think about how long it would take to do the same with EVs. What about people living locally, they may only use their cars locally, but they should not have to drive far to be able to fill up if they can't charge at home.

You say you saw him doing coding, did he actually code or did he just plug it in and check something out? If he coded something, did he remember to tell the tool to "do it" or "save it" and then more importantly, did he then switch off and switch on again and check the coding was correct? I still have no faith that simply swapping the battery for what he claims is the "right one" is going to cure your issues with the battery going flat. You have other underlying problems with your electrics, and it desperately needs an expert to thoroughly go through the system and find the real problem.

Just maybe you need to read and understand what I've written. I've never said that I was a bus mechanic, I said I did my apprenticeship at the local bus depot. I was employed as an auto electrician but as there was no specific formal training for auto electricians I had to go and do at local colleges 8 years of electrical engineering and also learning to be a trainer. Furthermore, I could have become an electrical engineering consultant with the qualifications I gained during those 8 years. I never said "short circuit" anyway, and as I said for the record, the wire in my own car was glowing red-hot and smoke was coming from it, and it burnt the leather on the car seat BUT it did not blow the fuse protecting the circuit. The voltage on the power lead was 5V as it was powering a mobile phone, just as the dashcam also only requires 5V. Very few plugin items these days actually work on 12V, if they did then the chances of the protective fuse actually blowing are far greater, but with a converter in the circuit, as far as the fuse is concerned, it is still operating within its design parameters. The converters should be better designed to shut down the output circuit if there is excessive current flowing in the output or secondary circuit, but they don't and even if they did have such protection, electronics themselves are also known to fail as well. But for the sake of explanation, if the equipment being plugged into the socket is a mobile phone, or a dash cam that uses as its means of connection to the phone/dashcam/portable satnav/ tablet etc then yes the wires in that cable are very small (good luck trying to get normal car wiring cable sizes terminated into such mini, micro or even type "C" plugs) and add a lot of resistance into the circuit when heavy currents are flowing through that cable. That resistance is going to restrict the overall current flowing and as the wire gets hotter, that resistance gets higher. The cable will and does get red-hot and glows like the element of an old style electric fire. The glowing wire is perfectly capable of starting a fire inside the car. Oh, as for the fuse being 10 times the rating of the one in question, I think you will discover, the rating of the fuse for 12v power outlets is going to be around 20A if you look at the fusebox its normally printed or embossed on it somewhere, hence why I used 20A as the example.

I'm sorry to have to say this, but you do have to consider either a dealer's service centre or, as @ordshas said, an auto electrical shop. This has been going now far too long and there is a real possibility that it could cost you far more in the long by trying to clutch at straws, you clearly need someone trained in auto electrics to look at it for you.

That is also assuming that the correct fuse is in place or has NOT even been bypassed previously. I nearly had a nasty fire in my old car which was 100% as original, but a power lead plugged into the 12V power socket developed a fault and the wire was actually glowing red-hot, smoking and almost set the leather seat on fire, but the fuse did not blow, so it is not hyperbole at all but is a real possible situation. I think that the 12v power socket is backed yup with a 20A fuse, which means it that will allow 30A to flow for a long time and a dashcam power cable is not capable of withstanding 20A even, it will glow red-hot but will NOT blow the fuse. This is why I say that a little knowledge is very dangerous in the wrong hands, as it is simply not true that a 20A fuse will not allow more than 20A to flow because it will blow if more does flow through it. Firstly you have to understand what "Ohms Law" is and how it works. Wire adds in resistance, and that resistance can glow red-hot or white-hot, i.e. a bulb, but that heat can and does cause cars to catch fire, even bad connection i.e., dirty connections can also cause fires. See the chart below, the 60A fuse needs to see about 2 times its 60A, so 120A to flow before it will blow quickly. In fact, it will happily allow 40% more current to pass indefinitely without blowing, hence why fuses in buildings have been banned for a long time and circuit breakers are now mandatory because they will blow far sooner than a fuse will. The 60A fuse will as the graph shows carry 100A+ for a really prolonged time, and the cable connected to it will more than likely be getting toasty and the insulation can breakdown. Hence, why I advised automass to seek trained professional help as he is clearly out of his comfort zone here. I'm not as I'm a retired electrical engineer and electrics are not a thing to take lightly, it carries some real potential to really spoil anyone's day.

I refer you back to the points I mentioned in an earlier post of mine regarding the drive belt may be slack, or a bad connection in the wiring somewhere, may be the charging regulator is damaged or indeed the alternator could be toast. There are many other things it could be, remember you were having the OBD11 flagging up a misfire etc, then it was saying it was not authorised etc so it could even be a fault in the bus wiring that connects all the ECU's in the together in order to make the car work. There really is only way that you can certain as to what the real problem is and that is to book the car into your local Skoda service centre and have them thoroughly investigate the problem with all of their diagnostic devices which are way better than the device you have. There is no easy DIY solution to this type of event without the right tools and the skills that these people have and years of experience.

Err, maybe I've been speaking to some insurance companies direct rather than a broker?. As it happens, allegedly, seeing as the only accidents in the last 5 years (for the record I've only ever had 1 accident that was my fault in 56 years, and that was in my first year of driving), are taken into account, and I've had 3 accidents since 2016 as mentioned in my earlier post, so only the last one in April this year should be considered, and I have declared that one in every request for a quote, one of the companies did tell that when they ran my details through the Motor Insurance Bureau database CUE, it came back with a discrepancy between what I declared and the database records. They kindly gave the contact details for the MIB, so I can get details of my claims, in order to track down where the problem is and get it rectified. I have been in contact, and they say it could be up to a month before I get anything back because they are so busy. As the insurance is due on the 17th, I'm going to have to suck it up this year and see if when the error is corrected, I can get a refund.

Glad to hear that the system is working OK now that the correct coding for the battery has been inserted. With regard to the dashcam and the suspect power lead, be very careful with it if the cable is broken, and it creates a short circuit than it is a major fire hazard, as are phone charger leads or add on after market satnav power leads, their weak spots are area within 6" of the plug as this part gets a lot or wear and tear with being pushed and pulled in and out of the socket and over time bad connections on the cable and also bad contacts on both the plug and socket will all cause problems at some point. I really can't stress enough that it is always best wherever possible to buy the optional hardwire kits for them and install them, routing the cables out of sight also tends them less attractive to the thieves as who would buy a device without its power lead and your licence will be better protected by always being ON when required along with your car from the reduced fire hazard from worn leads.

Ok, I can accept the latest one seeing as it happened this year, BUT I had declared that already, but I was told that the database was claiming there was another claim had been made, the only other claims I made were in 2017 and 2016 and both are outside the 5-year timescale. I expect that someone along the chain has entered the wrong date on the one this year. I entered the date of the accident occurred, but maybe someone entered another date?

It clearly was not saved to the systems memory.

If you can't find the makers details etc, just change the last 2 digits of the existing code number and input the correct Ah rating and save the settings. The digit change is enough to make the system understand the battery has been changed.

Yep, this a thing that the Taycan clickbait man has mentioned in many of his videos as well that you can plan your journey using these apps but all too often the apps aren't showing true information and you can arrive to find either the chargers are out of service or have been vandalised, some have even had their cables stolen, its utter madness.

I only saw the added text you wrote here. The dashcam will not switch off as long as it is connected to a power supply. If you can see it switch off when your driving means it has bad connection somewhere on the car. It is not because of the battery or the alternator not providing enough power or else the engine would stop running as it needs power, much more than the dashcam does. It is beginning to look as if the best course of action is to book car in for proper check over.

I wouldn't be too hasty to jump to that conclusion, it could be many things, loose or worn out drive belt, bad connections on the alternator, bad coding of the ECU with regard to the battery information, bad charging regulator. The forum also shows your location as being London, UK and if you have been driving for 4 hours there tonight, it means that you had your lights on. It could even be something like the heated rear screen relay might be welded up so that all the time the ignition is on, so is the heated rear screen. You say the AC is off and so is the fan, which fan are you talking about, the heater/AC fan or the big powerful cooling fan at the back of the radiator? If you don't have the knowledge and the equipment to test each of these possibilities in order to eliminate them from the equation, you ought to get your garage to check it out. It could be that the comms network has intermittent connections somewhere in the circuit, or even a short circuit on the comms line of the CanBus. If you took the battery to the store that you purchased it from, and they tested it with a proper tester that applies a load to the battery and measure the voltage under the load, and it passed, then it is unlikely to be faulty as their tester would certainly have shown it. Just in case the person who tested it wasn't sure of how to use the tester, you could also try taking it to another branch, there are many in London to choose from.

I was told that by the underwriters, they told me that once they have recovered the money from the other company, that they would pay me out, and that happened a few days before the end of May. Price gouging is best described here Price gouging - Wikipedia

Maybe it was doing a regen of the DPF? Mine also stops at times after a long trip the day before or on a really warm day, at the first stop.

Yep I did, I had a phone call coming in and just wanted to post it, so I could concentrate on the call, it was an important one.

@J.R.I did a test last night with another online quote with a major provider, first quote I did, I decided to omit any accidents and the quote was for £888.84 and the second one I submitted the accident and that quote came in at £1042.37, a jump of £153.53. The other information was identical, but I did have the protected NCB box ticked. I think that if the third had tried to lodge a claim for whiplash or whatever I think he would be foolish to claim from me or my insurer as he admitted to me that he was 100% to blame, my insurer also rang the next day and asked him if he thought he was to blame, and he openly admitted it, knowing that they were recording the conversation, and lastly he was fully aware that I had his actions in his car all recorded in full HD quality on my dashcam, in fact he spotted the camera in my windscreen. Hopefully I can this error resolved before I have to renew the cover. In my previous 2 no-fault accidents, I was with a different insurer and both times come the renewal time there was hardly any difference in the quote, so when I've been told many insurers I've spoken to about these quotes now and they say that is because I have made a claim that is why they are so high, even for a no-fault claim and the other insurer has paid up, is putting it bluntly, is just pure bo****ks, it is blatant price gouging.

A quick update on my position, the first year I was with my current insurer, my total bill was £328.09 for a year, the second year it was £396.35 and may be around £420 at the end of the policy (it is miles driven based). This coming year if I don't move, doing the same 6,000ish miles is going to be £998.95. I think that this could well be down to an error in the information held in the Underwriters database that all insurers work from to decide if what you are declaring on the application forms is correct. This I found out by arranging a quote over the phone rather than online and the nice lady I was speaking to gave some information that there was a discrepancy between the accident I declared and what the database indicated. All of my accidents have been no faults ones as they only need those that occurred within the last 5 years, I only gave details of the one in April this year. When she told the database shows different to what told her, I then mentioned the 2016 one where I was sideswiped by a foreign lorry on the M25 and then about the time in 2017 when I was stationary at a roundabout and got rammed in the boot and neither those were the problem. So now I have got to track where this error has come from and get it corrected ASAP and maybe the renewal figure might be more palatable.

The thing to remember with Start/Stop is that the engine has, and the air needs to at a certain temperature before it will kick in, so on colder days it will take quite a bit longer to become operational. and then of that is very dependent on how the system is seeing your battery charge level etc, if the battery monitor things that the battery does not contain sufficent charge, it will not allow the Stat/Stop to operate. On my old car sometimes if I had been using the radio or DVD player while the engine was off for any length of time, it would allow the system to operate until I had driving for some considerable distance while it topped the battery up again.

I thought you said that the Start/Stop sometimes worked and not at other times? Is that not the case? Mine sometimes works and not at other times. I have tracked mine to what I think is the cause as it never stops if the rad fan is running because the engine is hot, or if the aircon is set really low as the system seems to favour comfort over economy, this I discovered by slowly turning the temperature up until it gets almost to the point of the outside temperature, at which point, start/stop works OK. Lower the temperature and the engine kicks back into life again to power the aircon. I thought you said that the OBDelevan was displaying error messages about being not being authorised? If so then you cannot rely on the log it provides?

Good, so we seem to have cured the battery problem, so it was the dashcam after all then? Take my advice and get yourself the hardwire kit so that it automatically switch ON and OFF with the ignition and then that issue should never occur again and more to the point, you won't forget to switch on. If an accident is going to occur, you bet that its more likely to happen the time you forget to plug the camera in.