Just recently my car (TFSI vRS) has had trouble starting from cold. I seem to have to keep the key turned for longer and then it judders into life.

When I have driven the car and left it for a short time and restarted it is fine.

Having done a search I think it could be the battery, does this sound right?

My car will be 5 years old in September and I believe batteries start to give up about this time.

Thanks

Your local garage or even branch of Halfords should be able to drop test the existing battery and let you know whether it is on the way out or not.

Just another thing, but the alternator charges the battery so if it's not working, this may be a possible reason and the battery may be fine.

Probably is the battery though.

5 years isnt bad for a battery i think our 3.5 yr old superb one is just starting to go and our PD VRS one didnt last much more than 4 years

I don't want to start a "mine's older than yours" competetion here, but my 2006 1.9TDi is still on it's original battery. I was concerned last winter that it might let me down but never missed a beat. I think that doing maybe 100 miles each and every weekday does a battery good.

Having said that, i don't want to push my luck too far here.

Yep more miles would certainly be a good thing and the more "toys" a car the more work the battery has to do

Warming up and a fresh charge often revives a flagging battery temporarily, so it does sound like yours is on the way out.

It's my experience that battery life seems to vary widely, from a couple of years to 10 years plus (I got 12 years out of my last one!).

Just recently my car (TFSI vRS) has had trouble starting from cold. I seem to have to keep the key turned for longer and then it judders into life.

When I have driven the car and left it for a short time and restarted it is fine.

Having done a search I think it could be the battery, does this sound right?

My car will be 5 years old in September and I believe batteries start to give up about this time.

Thanks

This has already been covered on here, it seems to be quite common for the TFSI to have a poor 1st start of the day, stumbling and sometimes not even starting unless the key is held long enough. I have this problem myself on my TFSI as its only once a day I havnt botherd investigating it.

I don't want to start a "mine's older than yours" competetion here, but my 2006 1.9TDi is still on it's original battery. I was concerned last winter that it might let me down but never missed a beat. I think that doing maybe 100 miles each and every weekday does a battery good.

Having said that, i don't want to push my luck too far here.

Wife's Merc A class, 55 plate and still on original battery ;-)

Mines does this to despite the ctek being plugged in over the weekend first start is always an effort it seems then the rest of the day it's fine, battery is fine and holds a charge, alternator is charging perfectly too according to my alternator and battery tester.

If you read the manual it states 'Batteries, which are more than 5 years old, must be replaced.'

I buy my batteries from Tanya.co.uk always a Bosch/Varta one

I was not aware you get a 25% discount from them - any other companies the members get discount from? and what codes apply - is there a link somewhere on the forum??

Just ordered a battery from Euro parts - an Exide for £52 with discount - great thanks for bringing this to our attention !!

Did you use midmonth30 for 30% discount?

Did you use midmonth30 for 30% discount?

????? No used BRISK25 and got 25% - is there more !

Glad I decided to have a quick look on here before buying a new battery tomorrow, quality forum

I've bought quite a bit from eurocarparts and used the brisk25 discount. Currently it doesn't work. It seems the Christmas sale price is all you can have. Great for a turbo which wasn't ever covered by brisk25 but not for a lot of stuff where the discount is now 20% or less.

Just recently my car (TFSI vRS) has had trouble starting from cold. I seem to have to keep the key turned for longer and then it judders into life.

When I have driven the car and left it for a short time and restarted it is fine.

Having done a search I think it could be the battery, does this sound right?

My car will be 5 years old in September and I believe batteries start to give up about this time.

Thanks

Having the same issue with mine, replaced the battery & still no better.

Next stop is alternator & starter motor for me i think.

if you think the alternator is iffy check the voltage of the battery with the engine running. It should be 14.4ish volts. If its any less then the octy has a smart charge which means the alt only goes up that high when unerload or its poorly

if you think the alternator is iffy check the voltage of the battery with the engine running. It should be 14.4ish volts. If its any less then the octy has a smart charge which means the alt only goes up that high when unerload or its poorly

Cool, nice 1 for the info.

Mine started to “walk her legs off”, after 6 ½ years, one morning with -7 degrees Celsius the car didn’t want to start (the car was “at ease” for 2 days). I managed to recharge the battery a little and restart the car with the help of taxi-driver who had the right cables and a good battery. And after 1 week I replaced the OEM batery with an OES Bosch one (every day that week, I let the engine running each evening for about 10 minutes, in order be able to start the car next day).

 

I heard (and I think I have read once on an Octavia Tour Manual from 1999), but I cannot confirm as an official information, that the OEM baterry should last 5 years or up to 60.000 kms. Also, I think it depends very much on what is consuming the battery and if the the consumers are running in the same time with the car being on the roadJ.