Graham Butcher

Well surprise, no such email has been received today, so I'm still no further ahead and the buyer that I had lined to take the old car away to rebuild it, now has said wishes to buy it because they have also revalued my old car at approx 2.5 times the previous valuation, so thank you 😠 to the driver who started this entire chain of events of in the first place by his silly U turn.

Can't control the amps, it is a 4amp charger and the only thing that can control the amps is the BEMF of the battery itself which as the voltage rises, reduces the current down to 1.1amps, a little more than a trickle charge, but I think the battery hold up for the purposes of getting the car loaded onto the transporter OK as it held 12.5V overnight without being on charge, so although it did prove unreliable in normal service, it should be OK for what I need. I'll only fit the battery on the day that are going to collect the car so the ECU's don't drain it too much.

Yep, if you look long enough you can always find differing information on the internet, the information I saw came from a battery manufacturer, but either way, I'm fine with the standard battery charger as the car does not stand around long enough to drain the battery, it is in use almost daily, so it receives regular top-ups. If it was not being used for extended periods of time then it would benefit from a battery maintainer or slow trickle charger which will charge a few milliamps just to keep it topped up and feed the onboard ECU's.

Thanks for the input, I was asking because I needed to make a quick decision about whether I purchase a new but second-hand battery charger for normal batteries (£15 on Gumtree) still sealed in its box, or to get a second-hand battery. The cheapest price from a scrapyard for a battery was £40, decision made, charger it was then. Checking, like you said on the internet, did eventually reveal that a AGM battery should only be charged to a maximum voltage of 14.4V otherwise there is a real risk of overheating the battery and possibly exploding as a result, unlikely but possible all the same. Normal batteries are charged upto 14.8V, and the chargers designed specifically for AGM type batteries (Start/Stop) are intelligent and cut off the charging once the battery voltage reaches the 14.4V but they are almost double the price of normal chargers. Opening up the charger reveals an adjustment potentiometer in the circuit that I think will allow me to tweak the charger to stop charging once the back EMF reaches 14.4V anyway, so getting myself an intelligent charger on the cheap for future use. The battery is on charge and seems to be responding nicely, rising from 8V upto 13.9V now and the battery is nice and cold so no sign of it getting warm, let alone overheating. I'm keeping an eye on it every 90 minutes so will be able to detect any appreciable temperature rise before damage is done. I'm confident now that I can use this battery to start the car if I leave it on charge until just before Copart come to collect it on their transporter, that it will start the engine, I can always give it boost with jump leads from the saved battery if needed.

Update time, it transpired that the claim was originally being handled by a crash management company who appointed a firm of assessors who valued the car at just £8,500 😒. Anyone know where you could buy a L&K Superb (63 plate) fully loaded with just 79,000 miles and FSH, in good condition for the same kind of money? I couldn't get anything less than £10,500 for the same year, and almost double the miles, and no history, so I rejected the valuation. The management company passed it back to my insurance company to handle, who got their assessors to look at the claim, and they came back with an identical offer, which I again rejected. After a long chat with the assessor on the phone, and providing him with 3 example listings from Autotrader (dealers only) for estate cars, in Elegance trim for around the £10,000 mark, with no history, no cam belt or water pump being done, and the dealers would not even throw that into the deal, and Mk3 L&K, 3 years younger but 137,000 miles, with service history and cam belt, water pump along with DSG service already done by the dealer for £10,500. The assessor kept going away and calling me back asking more questions, it transpired that they were under the impression that my L&K was an entry level model and not a L&K and then claimed that I was looking at models with a higher spec level. Once we got that sorted out, he went away again and done some research and then called me back and admitted that it has been an eye-opener just how good the L&K car was and how they are fairly rare on the used market they are and that are dearer, so after a bit of haggling he offered a better deal of £10,000, which I accepted. All I have to do now is wait for the email and the money to come through. I had already put a deposit on the Mk3, which although was more, my own car was due to have its 2nd cam belt and water pump change in 3 costing around £600+ for that. So I have a 3 year newer, MK3, 150HP,FSH car, less the TV tuner, but plus the tri zone A/C, adaptive cruise control and lane assist with blind spot detection and what I always wanted, dynamic chassis control, which because of its registration date only cost £35 in road tax, saving £145 a year. Now all I have to do is wait for a replacement headlamp to arrive from Škoda and be fitted before I can go and collect the car. So beware you other L&K owners, if you are unfortunate enough to be in an accident, especially if it was not your fault, make it absolutely clear to everyone that your car is a L&K version, top of the range and not a basic model otherwise you stand zero chance of getting another without putting your hand in your pocket to add to the pathetic settlement they offer. It still smarts when I see my old car outside the house, I've had it from new, and I know its complete history, but hey ho, that's life.

I'm inclined to agree with you, if there was the incorrect of gas recharged, then it would have been making those noises from December.

I have an old battery in the garage which is old, and I have a new battery on my banged up car which looks likely to end up going for scrap but has a new battery, only 7 months old, which I'd like to swap out for the older one (if it accepts a charge) so that I can fit the 7-month-old one into my new car when it's ready for collection from the dealer who is currently addressing a few points as agreed before he'll release the car to me. The new car has what appears to be an older battery and damp on the top (might just be water if they jetted the engine bay) which could indicate a battery problem. Chances are that the old car might be taken away before I can collect the car so I need to source a battery charger or a 2nd hand battery before that happens.

Hmm, this is fascinating indeed, the concept of introducing digital speedos in cars was to prevent unscrupulous sellers/dealers removing miles from the car's history? It seems Police forces are openly breaking the law and also turning a blind eye to the now widespread practise of winding the mileage back, especially on emergency vehicles as they don't get MOT'd whole they are in service, that is only a requirement in the civilian world. Does the same practise go in the armed forces I wonder, it needs stamping out and if the presenter of this video is to be believed, and I think he should as he has clear evidence of this, it also shows that the main stream media is also biased. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEryJeBcg-8

Yes, I know that can be done, I follow the Salvage Rebuilds channel and they often have to get a locksmith to come to them and cut and programme keys for some of their vehicles, as can be seen in this video. But I would think that if someone tools up with the required kit, they are not going to be looking at Skoda's, their value is not worth the risk involved, as you said, they are professional and after a far bigger payback. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKGhBERjfi0

I found this video by accident on YT, it might help someone out, personally I'll be doing all of these preventive measures once I take delivery of my new car. Big thanks to all who have contributed in this thread as well, thank you all.

I wasn't implying they were, but there will be small crooked outfits that will be doing the same thing but low tech, low-key and low profile as once the body shell is gone, there is almost no way of identifying the parts unless someone has invisibly marked certain items.

Wow, that is really impressive and clearly shows that there is some serious money to be had from old crashed cars, and hence why there are reports of cars being stolen to strip for parts. Once the parts are removed and on racks, the frame crushed, melted down etc, there is nothing left for police to identify as stolen. I can see manufacturers having to come up with a clever way to encode parts so that they can at least prove that a part is from a stolen car. As to my car ending up in a place like that, nah, I already have someone lined up who wants to buy it and do the work required to put it back on the road for a family member, once the insurance companies can get their arses into gear and come up with a realistic valuation. Its already been over a month since the accident and now the whole claim has been put back to stage one and the firm of assessors and management company have effectively been fired from the case and the whole process is starting all over again. I have travelled the best part of 2,000 miles trying to find a replacement and it puts me in a very awkward position, I can't finalise a deal until I know what the valuation is going to be😒

There are reports of normal everyday cars being stolen, stripped for parts and the parts ending up on eBay etc, so it is not just high end cars, but normal cars as well. Skoda parts are becoming harder to get hold of according to my dealer, headlights, seat belts for instance are on back order from the factory.

You know, a few years I would have believed that, but given that these cars are gaining rapidly in the popularity stakes, the Superb especially, once a rare sight on our roads are now extremely common, at least around the London end of the country, I fully expect that they will come within the sights of some at least of the criminals in the auto realm before long. I'm just moving onto my 5th model so far, and I've had Rover 2000's, 3 litre's, Vanden Plas Princess 3 litre's, Mondeo's, and many Passats before, but as good as those cars are/were, none have come close to the comfort, space and style of the Superb 👍.

Yep, after years of being used to a normal key and not having any problems, getting used to a KESSY system is taking a while (my hire car has this system) and apparently so do all the stolen cars around me, this BMW was taken only 3 days ago, not too far away from me either.

There are about 3 to 5 a week stolen in my city a week, mainly more upmarket brands is true but there have also been a few small fords etc over the last few months, many of which have been recorded on CCTV, I just don't want to be among those if I can help it.

I'll have to try that when I get the new car.

Unfortunately, that is so often the case in this day and age, seen it happen with alarming regularity.

Reading the owners handbook, you are right, you can disable it, but when you lock the car, it is re-activated at that time, so what is the point of deactivating in the manner describe?

I don't know, the manuals always talk about various bits and bobs as they are not model specific, so may need to wait until I get a car and then work through the manuals and menu options on the car.

That's what I'm currently leaning towards at the moment, but looking for something smaller that could be slipped into a pocket, any tin is OK for indoor storage.

Oh, well, the one I'm thinking of is 2016 or 2017, so that might at a higher risk then😒

So it seems that reviews on Amazon were correct then, so maybe a small metal tin is perhaps the best solution for all round security?

Thanks, interesting as there are a lot of reviews on Amazon stating they have had issues with those Faraday bags/pouches, some people say that didn't work full stop, others claimed that only worked some of the time and others said they stopped working after a couple of months. How long have you had it for, and have you checked it recently to see if it is still as effective as it was when new?

That is good to know, there has been an increase in the number of thefts of Range Rovers, Mercedes, BMW's and the like near me and many have been caught on CCTV using the relay method, so it seem that the Superb has far better protection than these posher cars have, winner winner chicken dinner.