I had to callout Skoda assist, because my car would not start.

For the last week or so its only been used for short runs of a mile at most between restarts, so judging by what the man from the RAC said it looks like my battery had been slowly discharging over these constant short runs. Then factor in the cold weather and the fact the car had been standing for 3 days and the RAC reckon that I had run the battery a little to flat, especially because when the RAC turned up an hour after I called them the car started first time as I guess the battery had a period to recover a little. No fault codes recorded on the ECU, so it looks like and hopefully is all it was.

I followed their advise and went for a 15 mile drive to put some charge back into the battery, and touch wood its been ok since.

I had to callout Skoda assist, because my car would not start.

For the last week or so its only been used for short runs of a mile at most between restarts, so judging by what the man from the RAC said it looks like my battery had been slowly discharging over these constant short runs. Then factor in the cold weather and the fact the car had been standing for 3 days and the RAC reckon that I had run the battery a little to flat, especially because when the RAC turned up an hour after I called them the car started first time as I guess the battery had a period to recover a little. No fault codes recorded on the ECU, so it looks like and hopefully is all it was.

I followed their advise and went for a 15 mile drive to put some charge back into the battery, and touch wood its been ok since.

Short runs can always be a problem for the battery on any car especialy in winter, start up, lights on, heater blowing, rear screen heater and heated mirrors etc, the poor old alternator can cope with it but not if every trip is a short one. As the RAC man said give it a bit of a run now and again to help put back in the battery what you have used.

All of the associated diesely bits like the glowplugs will also add additional load on colder mornings.

If short journeys are a regular thing it might be worth investigating a trickle charger.

I have a Halfords booster pack on standby in case such a thing ever happens to me, I once got caught out big time on a job at a farm in the middle of nowhere thanks to my leaving the ignition on with the radio blaring away all day, half four and *click* - dead battery.

Luckily for me there was a genny on site with a massive 12v battery on it which I had to disconnect and drag round to my car to jump start it

The booster pack worked a treat on SWMBO's old vRS when it was left unused for a number of weeks thanks to the nipper arriving.

Hi I read some where years ago that it takes around a 10mile drive to recharge the battery to its start level after each start !

also if you suspect that you may have a low battery ensure that when you stop you turn off lights wipers radio etc so that when you try and start it the load from other electrical circuits is as low as posible

another thing is i have had a similiar problem on my CRV even though i do 40k per year, most of the new cars these days are all multiplex wired with various ecu and controllers etc and as soon as you put the key in the ignition these cct avtivate which all start to drain the battery so dont sit in the car for 10-15 mins on the phone before starting !! as i have done in the past :(

Andy