New battery needed at 43 months

[Richf]

My battery has just given up the ghost at just over 3.5 years old , I've never had to replace the battery on a car this quickly ,my previous E class lasted 7 years on the oem battery especially since the car is a well used 50,000 miler as well so be warned , occasional flat batteries may well be the sign its just given up and not the sign of anything left on, which is what i presumed

That said the factory one isnt great (570a) so replacing it with a quality Varta Silver (780a) which didnt break the bank at £78 delivered from Tanya

[ukcruiser]

My battery let me down this time last year (when the car was less than 2 years old)

I took it to Skoda who said the battery needed a charge!

This year, once it began getting colder, it started to start slower... and slower... so have replaced it myself (car not 3 years old yet) with a Bosch 5 year warranty battery.

It starts quicker than ever now.

Al.

[Danny 57]

If your car was not 3 years old the it would have covered under warrenty. They replaced mine on my Superb 1 when it was one month short of 3 years old. They came to the house under the VW scheme.

[jrw]

The current batteries aren't adequate enough for the diesels in my opinion. The battery on my diesel Bora is about twice the size of the measly one in my Octy. I replaced the Bora one at 7.5 years old and that was only due to it slowing down on the crank and didn't want swmbo getting stranded anywhere.

On my Octy if I do anything electrical wise without the engine running the battery will flatten itself in minutes enough so that it will not start without a jump.

Cost cutting at an unacceptable level i reckon.....

[ukcruiser]

If your car was not 3 years old the it would have covered under warrenty. They replaced mine on my Superb 1 when it was one month short of 3 years old. They came to the house under the VW scheme.

As i said, i tried for a new battery last year after the car failing to start - they fobbed me off with it needed a re-charge.

Was not going to go through that again for the cost of a battery - it was so much easier, quick and more economically sound to get my own and fit it.

Al.

[Richf]

The battery is certainly big enough , I think its just of poor quality , the Varta/Bosch ones have come top in tests and I've always had good results with them and at less than £80 if you shop around there seems little point putting a cheaper one in.

The Superb in general has a lot of "toys" to power so batteries will always get a hard time

Nice to hear i'm not alone in this though , as I recall my Octavia one lasted less than 5 years but 3 years isnt good.

But its not all down to size, the stock battery in my 2.0l Evo is tiny and works just fine

[Richf]

Thought I'd add the part number

Old battery

[Guest]

The stated power of the battery is plenty good enough. The magic eye effort is poor. If you remove stickers on top of the battery and examine the electrolyte level you will almost certainly find the top of the plates are dry. Sealed batteries still have a vent so as like any older type the electrolyte will evaporate . Only the area of plates covered works. If the tops of the plates are dry put on a slow charge for a few hours, if the electrolyte level does not rise add a small ammount of distilled water ( unless you live in Cornwall where tap water is o.k. ) to just cover the plates and leave on charge. Very often the battery will come back to full charge. Sealed batteries are good for replacement sales, Varta are very good.

I have not replaced a battery in 24 years, Ford Orion 14years, Superb MkI 6 years, Superb MkII 2 years, second and present MkII 2 years, possibly because I keep the electolyte level topped up.

[Richf]

Well after fitting the new battery the car turns over better than it ever has you can feel the benefit of the extra amps

[pdrisc]

All batteries hate the cold. I imagine that this probably affected you on the first real cold day that we have had this winter.

I used to work for Bosch and they recommend that batteries should be replaced every 5 years. I have replaced the battery on my 98 passat twice so far. Then again it has done 166k!

[Richf]

Yep it's always the cold that kills them off but this just wasn't holding a charge for more than a day

[ukcruiser]

Well after fitting the new battery the car turns over better than it ever has you can feel the benefit of the extra amps

100% agree.

[dfsuperb]

I must agree. I think the battery is pants.

It always seems sluggish at start nad gets worse in the cold.

It goes flat too easily too.

I will try alternative when the time comes....

[Richf]

Looks like it might be that time again. Battery went flat for no reason yesterday , charged it and am keeping an eye on it for now

[JakeBlade]

Looks like it might be that time again. Battery went flat for no reason yesterday , charged it and am keeping an eye on it for now

That's a bummer. Did you get the 4 or 5 year warranty one?

I had a 3yr old Bosch S5 battery fail on me 3 weeks ago. I tried charging it 3 times through the 12V socket, each time my charger told me the battery wouldn't hold a charge. So I took it back to ECP. They refused to take it back, saying it passed their test.

So I took it home, left it on charge overnight in the garage on the croc clips (battery was out of the car by then as I'd already bought and fitted a replacement). The sodding thing only went and charged up, and is now showing on my charger as a healthy battery.

I thought that perhaps bringing the battery in from the cold to charge it somehow brought it back to life.

[Supurbia]

VAG state in their manuals the battery is generally dead after 4 years,

 

Yes yes yes I know someone has a 6 year old one and it's still perfect blah blah,

 

My personal experience since 2007

 

Superb 1 battery dead @ 75k car 4.5 yrs old

 

Passat B6 battery dead @ 54k car 4.5 yrs old, replaced with Banner battery from GSF which is prime gets what you pays for,

 

Vx Insignia battery dead @ 45k car 3 yrs old, this turned out to be me forgetting to turn off the auto lights while sitting waiting for a job and said job taking too long to appear and not enough distance to re-charge, replaced with Bosch S4 no probs since, original battery not trusted to see whole shift out anymore though

[Richf]

This is two in just under 6 years , hopefully I can find the paperwork for the bosch as it's less than 3 years old

I'm fairly pragmatic about it , the Superb has a lot of electrics and draws a lot of current to start.

I left it all day after charge and it was down to 75% so I'll pop it on my ctek 3600 tonight and see what happens.

It's to be traded in shortly anyhow so hoping it will last a few weeks either way

[Supurbia]

This is two in just under 6 years , hopefully I can find the paperwork for the bosch as it's less than 3 years old

I'm fairly pragmatic about it , the Superb has a lot of electrics and draws a lot of current to start.

I left it all day after charge and it was down to 75% so I'll pop it on my ctek 3600 tonight and see what happens.

It's to be traded in shortly anyhow so hoping it will last a few weeks either way

 

 

Rich, the toplight & meter drain them fast so they do die earlier, short runs also kill the battery and the lack of them as it's so quiet these days and the stop start moving up the rank all while leaving the radio on and the dash illuminated, I'm getting an LED strip for mine soon as that uses less energy which also means less engine work re-charging it, I also turn my meter off until I get 3 cars from the front.

[Richf]

I'm not a cabbie ! Lol

The car does the daily commute of about 20 miles , motorway there and back . It's got 85,000 miles on it now

Truth be told we have had a few electrical gremlins showing their face recently , could be a symptom of a low battery or the low battery could be being caused by a wiring fault somewhere .

[peterposh]

Has anyone had a stop start battery changed? I've heard they are a lot more expensive

[jrw]

Has anyone had a stop start battery changed? I've heard they are a lot more expensive

They're the same. No such thing. My megane is stop start and has a standard 71ah battery. It's just a bigger battery than what they would perhaps install.

[JakeBlade]

Must admit, I thought that stop-start cars would use the AGM batteries, as they are faster charging.

[jrw]

Must admit, I thought that stop-start cars would use the AGM batteries, as they are faster charging.

Well they don't in my megane! Stop start is unavailable 90% of the time anyway so probably explains it

[Supurbia]

I'm not a cabbie ! Lol

The car does the daily commute of about 20 miles , motorway there and back . It's got 85,000 miles on it now

Truth be told we have had a few electrical gremlins showing their face recently , could be a symptom of a low battery or the low battery could be being caused by a wiring fault somewhere .

 

 

Ah sorry Rich I've mixed you up with someone else.

[JakeBlade]

Well they don't in my megane! Stop start is unavailable 90% of the time anyway so probably explains it

They're about 50% more to buy than the equivalent "normal" battery.