If your car is 5 years old or more, VAG recommendation, I'd say 4 or 70k myself you could have a timebomb under there, I've fully charged mine last night, ran tests on it and within 5 minutes it had gone from full to part charged, I can't say for sure if this has contributed to my alternator failure but as you all know something that works harder wears quicker, so avoid the risk and have a tester put on it and see what it's actually holding both idle and running, I blame the running test ror my results as the new battery did the same test without any drain on it, i.e remained fully charged, but my old one went down 30% on the readings, my battery to hear it you'd say it was healthy, turns over fine, but it's the potential damage it's doing elswhere trying to keep thing fully topped up that you need to worry about.

HTH someone else to avoid 2 bills rather than 1

Skoda OEM batteries (Mk I Octavia's and Mk I Superb's in my case) never were any good. For a start, they always have a sticker over the cell caps, suggesting that they are maintenance free. They are not, and especially on diesels the battery drinks water faster than the engine drinks oil (as my V6 TDI can demonstrate).

Furthermore, I find that their internal resistance quickly raises over time which leads to problems with cd changers losing track on startup, intermittent ECU codes (e.g. from ABS on Octavia) and other annoyances.

That is why I swapped the Octavia one to Exide (the premium one, don't remember the type now). The Exide is maintenance free, now 5.5 years old and going strong.

And I was just emailed that the brand new Exide EA852 is heading my way to be put into the Superb. (assuming it survives insurance repairs following recent incident described on "Easter drivers" thread).

Hopefully this one will prove to be a similar performer. It will also fit the Octavia, so I can always have the newest battery in Superb and a 3-6yr old in the Octavia.

Yeah that sounds familiar, I've been having the brake pad warning a couple of times recently even though the pads are 66% still ok.

Picked up one at GSF today, might've needed it might've not, but I got what I considered middling results from my gunston meter unit, so I've replaced it anyway, better safe than sorry.

Mine's currently on it's way out, it's the original 2005 battery and when left for more than 24 hours the car's a bit reluctant to get going. Will strip everything off and clean the contacts while I'm at it.

Apart from the Exide, what to people recommend?

Watch out for GSF and Euro car parts by the way, they specify the same battery for most german diesel cars and it doesnt match... we found this out with the A2 recently, they gave us a 3/4 CCA battery - which went straight back for the same model that was fitted at the factory.

I got the right one, it's an 80 amp jobby, watch that battery though, if you are having to in place charge it through the car each day it will be straining the alternator despite what some ppl might say *found a big ruck over this issue the day on the web* and the alternator is 140 min for an exchange recon or 350 at VW, battery is about 80 quid. hth.

Or 99 at Halfords etc.