Hi

I have a Skoda Fabia 05 reg and for a couple of months the electric windows, A/C and fans and rear washer have been not working as I start the car, and then all roaring into life after about 5 or 10 mins. It's been getting worse and yesterday I drove for over an hour and they didn't come on at all.

Has anyone come across this before? Any ideas on possible causes? Any experiences that will save the garage running hundreds of £££ of diagnostics gratefully appreciated!

Also if anyone knows a reliable garage in Manchester / Tameside area it would be much appreciated - either Skoda or not.

Hope someone can help!

Dunno if gettin someone local to you with VAGcom would help to diagnose the problem?

It's sounding very similar to my problem except we now know that my battery has failed virtually overnight! Trying to build up enough charge to get it to start so that I can get a new one fitted has brought on similiar symptoms because the windows, power steering, A/C, radio, central locking are all affected in some way by lower than usual volts on the system. If your battery alarm has come on at all after starting up, then its a safe bet that you have battery problems which is not good news after such a short time! My replacement will cost at least £150 inclusive and no-one seems to hold them in stock. The reason they burst back into life after 10 mins running is that the alternator is lifting the system volts back to normal after a short period of running, and perhaps like my case, the voltage drops on switch off. I had a couple of days when the warning light came up previously, but went away. Then the whole system crashed down overnighit to 9.88V!

Thanks guys.

Re VAGcom - sorry but I'm new to all this. I've seen the list of people with it on the forum and there's one near me, but are these garages, or friendly skoda owners? Any idea how I can get in touch?

PSBridge - I haven't had any battery warning lights, but the problem first happened when I was away camping and using the cigarette lighter to blow up airbeds, recharge phones, nintendos etc! I probably drained the battery then, but would have expected it to recharge on the drive home. I've never had any problems starting the car, even that time. Also it doesn't seem any worse when the car has been not used for over a week, and if something was draining the battery I think it would.

Think I'll have to take it down to the garage and face the bill - I just wanted to try to diagnose it first.

Cheers!

Hi

Yes agree with your proposed action, I left mine too late and the battery volts collapsed overnight! Dealers don't seem to stock batteries to fit the vRS, so it takes a few days to organise one if required. I've been stuck in my garage since Fri and had to buy an engine starter from Argos. Although I can start it, if you go anywhere to pick up food etc, one of us has to sit in car with the engine running, I dare not swich off, wouln't get it going again! Imagine paying for your shopping and asking to plug the extension lead into a socket to start car! Mine has arrived and should be fitted tomorrow.

Best of luck!