Hi all

Battery finally ran out of sufficient juice to start the car. Borrowed a neighbours very old charger. Took battery off the car. It started off charging at 3amps & seemed to stop charging 24 hours later at 1 & a little bit amps (1.25 ish). Put battery back in car.

Car started up first time. Topped up the coolant, went to get some fuel & did around 12 miles half of which was on the motorway at decent speeds. All seems well.

What I did notice was that the battery is 65 ah. I always thought that the 1.9 SDi came with either a 70 or 77ah battery (neither my Haynes manual nor the handbook tells me). This seems to be partly confirmed when I do on-line enquiries on battery sites for the vehicle as they all seem to come up with 70 - 70ah batteries - the Halfords site being a good example.

In fact one came up with a real stonker of 80ah!

So question for you battery gurus, with my light mileage (<5K pa) & 4 batteries in 18 months, & I'm assuming they were all around the current ah of 65, might this be the cause of my probs? Is there anyone (I have mailed an enquiry to Skoda but don't know if they'll get back to me) that knows what the battery cap should be?

This might explain that the previous battery got through 3 weeks of non-use during the heavy snows earlier on in the year, as I had done a few hundred miles over a couple of days, then "died" a couple of months later with only very light use i.e. taking more juice out than was being put back in? This latest battery now exhibiting a similar performance. Might it not have enough power to deal with this or do I need to buy a charger that I can connect to the battery when it's in the car I have it on low or trickle charge all the time?

Many thanks to all those who've posted replies to my earlier ramblings.

Edited 17 September, 201015 yr by brush-head

Try these, and they are between 70 and 72

http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/k/battery/p/Car-Parts

5 batteries in 18 months!!

That's crazy.

I bought one of these for my vRS

and can't fault it. Plenty man enough for the job.

Great next day service, very well packaged, decent price and

a 5 year guarantee to boot.

http://www.tayna.co.uk/Type-096-Varta-Silver-Dynamic-Car-Battery-P3197.html

More 5 Star reviews than a mid eighties edition of Smash Hits :yes:

Hi all

Battery finally ran out of sufficient juice to start the car. Borrowed a neighbours very old charger. Took battery off the car. It started off charging at 3amps & seemed to stop charging 24 hours later at 1 & a little bit amps (1.25 ish). Put battery back in car.

Car started up first time. Topped up the coolant, went to get some fuel & did around 12 miles half of which was on the motorway at decent speeds. All seems well.

What I did notice was that the battery is 65 ah. I always thought that the 1.9 SDi came with either a 70 or 77ah battery (neither my Haynes manual nor the handbook tells me). This seems to be partly confirmed when I do on-line enquiries on battery sites for the vehicle as they all seem to come up with 70 - 70ah batteries - the Halfords site being a good example.

In fact one came up with a real stonker of 80ah!

So question for you battery gurus, with my light mileage (<5K pa) & 4 batteries in 18 months, & I'm assuming they were all around the current ah of 65, might this be the cause of my probs? Is there anyone (I have mailed an enquiry to Skoda but don't know if they'll get back to me) that knows what the battery cap should be?

This might explain that the previous battery got through 3 weeks of non-use during the heavy snows earlier on in the year, as I had done a few hundred miles over a couple of days, then "died" a couple of months later with only very light use i.e. taking more juice out than was being put back in? This latest battery now exhibiting a similar performance. Might it not have enough power to deal with this or do I need to buy a charger that I can connect to the battery when it's in the car I have it on low or trickle charge all the time?

Many thanks to all those who've posted replies to my earlier ramblings.

Hi brush head

The 65 ah battery is not necessary the problem,working a battery hard, will not do it any harm, if you have had as many as you say I would be looking why they have failed!

Do some checks, and report back

What is the voltage of the battery after a run (say 1 hr) ?

what is the voltage when the engine is running (just above tick over)?

what is the current drain when every thing is switched off ?

Is it a sealed battery, if not whats the electrolyte level like ?

Radiotwo