Story goes, day off last Friday - went to start car - flat battery! Always happens on days off!

So friend jump starts car and we travel on our way.

Car goes into Skoda for other warranty work and I tell them about battery- I explain I did not leave any lights on etc etc and suggest there is a fault. They keep it in overnight and charge battery as the battery is sooo low they cannot even get a reading even after I have driven 15 miles to dealership!

I then go and pick up the car the next day (Wednesday) and ask if they tested alternator and electrics and they say they treat it as an isolated incident and just charge the battery but everyhting is fine.

Come Friday (day off) and I try to start the car and low and behold I have a flat battery again! Cue angry call to Skoda who then tell me I need to call Skoda assistance as they wont do it for me. Skoda assist say they will be there in 3-4 hours, 4 hours later they call and say THEY have broken down! Cue 6 hours later and they say they now have a replacement van and will be there as soon as they can- or they can ask RAC! I say RAC!!

RAC turns up in 30 mins - runs tests on battey and says the battery is goosed and needs a replacement. He suggests Kwik Fit as its a fleet vehicle and the car has a contract with Kwik Fit.

Cue jump start to get me to Kwik Fit they then test battery and say its fine, they suggest leaving overnight and then driving the 1 mile back to them first thing, this I do but they say the battery is ok- so no replacement given.

What should I do? Should I buy a battery myself? Send it back into Skoda to check all electrics to see why its still not starting 1 day after overnight charge!

Who to trust??????

ANy ideas or similar issues???

Meant to say its an 08 VRS 2.0 petrol

if it was an older car, I would say battery but as its not that old I am not sure. My battery is still working fine after more than 4 years.

Could well be a dud battery, the cold is showing up the fault, take it to Skoda and insist on a replacement, to breakdown twice is bad enough.

I fail to understand why garages cannot get to the bottom of what is a simple fault in most cases. Just because a battery will accept a full charge, doesn't mean it's OK. It needs to be load tested, and also the the car needs the sleep mode quiescent current measured.

Alternator output needs to be tested as well.

It takes one minute to load test a battery, 20 minutes to test idle current drain, one minute to test alternator output. Too many muppets in the auto trade. :p

I fail to understand why garages cannot get to the bottom of what is a simple fault in most cases. Just because a battery will accept a full charge, doesn't mean it's OK. It needs to be load tested, and also the the car needs the sleep mode quiescent current measured.

Alternator output needs to be tested as well.

It takes one minute to load test a battery, 20 minutes to test idle current drain, one minute to test alternator output. Too many muppets in the auto trade. :p

+1.

Edited 20 December, 200916 yr by cjb

Its one of two things - either the battery is faulty or something is draining the battery overnight rendering it useless next time it is used.

My battery is still good as gold after 112,000 miles and cranked the engine fine at -5 degrees one morning.

I would take it back to Skoda and insist they run the correct diagnostic procedure on it, they should have a special (VAS 5097A or similar) rig to load test batteries, I always get a nice little printout when my car has a service. Just charging it up and (apparently) not even testing it isn't much good IMO.

Some people think a battery test is no more complicated than sticking a test meter across it and seeing ~12volts.

They need to do a drop test on the battery....

that brings back memories

Drop testing a set of loco batteries as an apprentice. Remember one time one of lads went to test a set without blowing the hydrogen out of the tops of the cells first BOOM

I had to replace mine recently; at £110 for the battery I would be looking to get Skoda to change it! Batteries have a life of around 4-5 years in reality especially for us Derv drivers as they are harder on the battery.

At a year old though the battery should be covered under warranty.

The date code on the battery on our Leon shows it's the original factory fitted one, and thats on a 52 plate, so 7 years old. Went to it today after shifting 5 inches of snow that's been on it for 2 days, and it fired up no problem at all. So batteries CAN and do last -- I would suggest it's something draining it.

Thought -- Simbo has posted about a potential battery drain if the radio has been changed for a Columbus, and the wrong controller is in the car. Something to do with the fan in the head unit not powering down when the ignition is switched off. You haven't upgraded your radio have you?

Another suggestion is check the slider switch on the boot latch that controls the boot light. If that's been bent outwards for any reason, the latch won't push the switch into the latch, and so won't switch the boot light off.

I found this when using Ventlock on my boot latch to keep the hatch open a few inches for the dogs when parked up.

Hope this helps

Mike

His is a 08 so won't have that problem if he did upgrade to a columbus. Still could be battery, they can fail anytime regarding age. It happened to my father once, the car was 8 months old and the battery failed.

The date code on the battery on our Leon shows it's the original factory fitted one, and thats on a 52 plate, so 7 years old. Went to it today after shifting 5 inches of snow that's been on it for 2 days, and it fired up no problem at all. So batteries CAN and do last -- I would suggest it's something draining it.

Thought -- Simbo has posted about a potential battery drain if the radio has been changed for a Columbus, and the wrong controller is in the car. Something to do with the fan in the head unit not powering down when the ignition is switched off. You haven't upgraded your radio have you?

Another suggestion is check the slider switch on the boot latch that controls the boot light. If that's been bent outwards for any reason, the latch won't push the switch into the latch, and so won't switch the boot light off.

I found this when using Ventlock on my boot latch to keep the hatch open a few inches for the dogs when parked up.

Hope this helps

Mike

I had the original battery in my 51 plate toledo when I traded it in earlier this year; I think it is more luck of the draw than anything. The cold weather does kill batteries when they are on the edge.

4-5 yrs is a good run with modern cars imo (they require a much larger draw on anything from medium family cars and above) and most are warrantied to this time frame.

However, a year means that it is under warranty with either Skoda or the battery maker. Skoda should be sorting this one for you

This reminds me of the problem I had with my new Octy back in 2006 - battery going flat for no apparent reason.

Turned out to be a faulty brake light switch, it was closing of its own free will and the brake lights flattend the batery. Apparently this was known but not publicised fault with a batch of switches. Dealer replaced the switch and fitted a new battery as this was the directive from Skoda at the time as I told that totally flattening a calcium battery could damage the plates and cause it not to take a full charge.

Probably not related to your problem unless they have another batch of faulty switches or found an old one just for you.

Might be an idea to keep an eye on the brake lights just in case as mine came on at randon but then stayed on till the battery flattend, I only found my fault when i went back to my garage before going to bed one night and found the brake lights were on.

Few weeks ago my Octavia Elegance 2.0 dsg had a full 4 year service and the battery tested at satisfactory,(25%) week later it only just about started and a reading of 11.5 v made me think its about to go.Skoda dealer changed it for what he said is a Skoda battery although nothing on it say;s so, cost £117. Measured the volts today after a run and it read 12.4 v,i thought it should have read more like 12.8/13.0 v.. Do you think at £117 i was overcharged?.

I fail to understand why garages cannot get to the bottom of what is a simple fault in most cases. Just because a battery will accept a full charge, doesn't mean it's OK. It needs to be load tested, and also the the car needs the sleep mode quiescent current measured.

Alternator output needs to be tested as well.

It takes one minute to load test a battery, 20 minutes to test idle current drain, one minute to test alternator output. Too many muppets in the auto trade. :p

I agree. Charge a battery or run the engine and after a while it will appear fully charged even with a duff cell. It just assumes the V that it was being charged at. Leave it for a while and the initial V will drop to such an extent that it will not start the engine. I bet that you battery is down one cell and the poor old charing system is working overtime trying to to keep it up!

I can not help you with the dilemma as to who should cough up the ££.