battery question!

[07KenVRS]

the battery in my 07 octavia went suddenly yesterday and i cant figure out why! never acted up before and then wouldn't start yesterday!! only thing i did was park it in the garage and open all of the windows to give it a bit of airing out! that would hardly be enough to kill the battery i would have thought! any feedback welcomed

[Kuka]

They do say that the batterys are prone to giving up after 5 years on these so that would sound about right.

Iv just changed mine on a 56 plate.

[cheezemonkhai]

Power steering kills them, so it wouldn't surprise me if it's just finally died.

Could have been an iffy cell, that finally gave up.

The Bosch Silver (IIRC the 096 model) is very good as I replaced with that, albeit at a good price.

Varta make them for bosch, so anyone that can supply a varta for you will probably do a good price too.

Edited 24 December, 2012 by cheezemonkhai

[ryan-re]

battery's nowadays really dont last. They are an expensive "throw away" product

5 years, as above it about right for a normal lead acid battery.

If you want one to last longer spend a bit more cash and get a gel or agm battery. These last much longer and can be of a higher spec too (higher cca and ah - cca is the cranking amps which start the car and ah is how many amps it can put out over an hour)

I have a Optima yellow top which is regarded as a poor quality agm battery now, they used to be the dogs danglies but not today. I bought it as the 6th Gen civic use tiny batteries and optima was the only place which made upgrade batteries for them. I bought it in 2005 and its still going strong

[Perc]

"Ah" is a measurement of how many hours it takes to completely deplete a battery with a load of 1A. Capacity, in other words.

[ryan-re]

basically its pretty usless rating to go on.

My XS Power D3100 is only 110ah but has a short circuit rating of 5000amps and finds running over 6000wrms of amps a doddle

Edited 24 December, 2012 by ryan-re

[skodacarman]

Ironically the better batteries last longer but then die very quickly. The cheaper weaker ones just fade away more gradually.

[littleade]

Sounds like one of your cells has gone open circuit. Once that happens to batteries toast. The usual tell tail is that you don't ahve anything electrical working at all, not even any warning lights. If you have a multimeter put it across the battery to see what voltage you've got. If it's zero this is the problem. I've had this happen to me with the OE battery in the past on our TDI Renault Savanah, drove the car for 1 mile to the childminders, got out dropped off the kids, got back in the car, nothing. Only solution is to change the battery.

Another problem I've had is the battery actually exploding! That was on the Mondeo. This happened because the electrolite on a 'maintenence free'battery dropped below the top of the plates and when the wife turned the key to start it the plates were warped (probably due in part because of the low electrolite) allowing a spark to jump across the plates, this in turn ignited the gasses in the battery and boom! blew the round caps out of the top of the battery with a big bang and scared the **** out of the wife!

[07KenVRS]

cheers for the reply lads... dropped a 12v bosch in her ealier and its workin perfect again!

[DGW]

I normally only replace car batteries when they start to play up: after just 3 years in the case of my wife's Fabia vRS while that of my Mk 1 Octavia 1.8T 4x4 was still going strong after 9 years. The Octavia II's Owner's Manual has the following advice about replacing the battery which surprised me:

'Batteries, which are more than 5 years old, must be replaced. We recommend you have the electrolyte level inspected and adjusted to the correct level or the battery replaced if necessary by a Skoda dealer.'

[Guest liverpoolphil]

Hope you got onto the 25% discount code "brisk25" for eurocarparts. I got the Bosch from their yesterday for a little over £50 with the discount, was made up with that

[birchy]

Thought I may as well hijack this thread seeing as I have battery troubles. I have a 2007 Octavia VRS with the OEM battery. If left for a few days, the voltage drops to around 11.8V. Have charged it a few times over the last month....although it will reach around 12.8V after a day or two on charge, it quickly fades away once stood. Could be a battery drain (not checked), but I think it's more likely the battery as I had to charge it around this time last year and it was fine all summer.

Sooo my question is...do I take it to a local garage and get them to fit a new battery and dispose of the old one for me, or do I buy one and do the job myself (and take the old battery to the tip??). If I do it myself, what precautions do I need to take when disconnecting? The user manual has a couple of standard things like resetting the electric windows, etc, but I can't find any info about the radio code? I have no after-market equipment, so everything is OEM.

[countryboy]

The radio code will be fine if you don't change it as the code is stored in the cars ECU. You can do the reset on the electric windows, what you may also find is that the power steering light stays on. It will go off after a little distance driving.

If you have a garage you know well then perhaps they could do a rapid discharge test and voltage check on it.

Ian

[ryan-re]

that sounds like either the battery is dead or something is draining it. You can take it to a garage and get them to test the battery or take the battery out the car, charge it then monitor the voltage. It shouldnt be dropping below 12.6

Changing should simply be a matter of disconecting the terminals (negative first) and re connecting them (positive first). If you get any sparks at the terminals its nothing to worry about, thats just capacitors charging up after discharging

[birchy]

I think the battery is dead to be honest. It's never been the same since it first went flat about 3 years ago. But it's certainly got worse over the last month or so, not helped by short journies and winter mornings with heaters, lights, etc running.

I can check for a drain by disconnecting the negative and connecting an ammeter in series, but what current is "normal" with car parked and locked?

Local garages don't seem to sell anything decent (i.e. Varta/Bosch), but plenty available online, probably at much less cost anyway. The OEM battery is an AKUMA 1JO 915 105AC, 12V 60AH 280A/480A. As far as I can tell, it's an 096 size. Can anyone confirm please?

Edited 27 December, 2012 by birchy

[ryan-re]

not sure on what is normal. It should be very minimal.

Disconnect the battery and charge it then when fully charged check the voltage and see where it floats down to with nothing attached.

Its its already had to be revived from flat and its playing up again i'd look at replacement

[birchy]

Hope you got onto the 25% discount code "brisk25" for eurocarparts. I got the Bosch from their yesterday for a little over £50 with the discount, was made up with that

Just tried this, says:

"Invalid Promotional Code

The promotional code you have used has either expired or does not exist". :(

[birchy]

Thanks Ryan. I think I'll just buy another battery and have done with it. At the end of the day, it IS 5 years old and I've given it a hard life of short journies and heavy demand. Varta Silver 096 is £76 with free delivery on eBay. Can anyone please confirm this is the corect model before I buy?

[Metblackrat]

Just tried this, says:

"Invalid Promotional Code

The promotional code you have used has either expired or does not exist". :(

It won't work whilst the Xmas sale is on.

If you post the old battery on freecycle, you will find someone local will come and get it quite quickly saving you a trip to the dump. Old car batteries have dozens of uses.

[littleade]

Hi Bircy,

You could go to one of the battery and exhaust places in Hereford and get the battery tested so you're 100% sure it's the battery- They might even do a price match- might be worth asking before you buy off ebay?

Cheers

Ade

[birchy]

Yes Ade, I phoned the 3 I know are "OK" to deal with but they only sell 2 and 3 year guarantee batteries and said "dunno where you'd get Varta or Bosch round 'ere mate". TBH, I've decided to change the battery anyway because this is not the first time it's played up and I have a bit of a history of buggering batteries due to short winter journies.

All I need now is confirmation of what Varta Silver is equivalent to the OEM 1J0 915 105 AC. Halfords reg number checker thingy reckon I need an 096, but most other battery sites are suggesting an 027 for my make/model/year. I'd be inclined to trust Halfords on this one, but don't wanna buy the wrong battery...

[littleade]

Good idea on the change the battery sooner rather than later front IMO. Best do it proactively in your own time than risk a breakdown which will leave you kicking yourself. Can't help with which battery other than to suggest you try varta or bosh's websites to see what they suggest and compare that with the battery you have fitted now for ah and it's dimensions and connector type.

[tyred60]

Battery Change - HELP anyone - my battery died on boxing day, managed to get a replacement (Bosch) delivered which I fitted this morming - hurray it starts!! Horror nothing else seems to work - central locking and alarm is dead, windows don't work and I cant lock the car - looked in the handbook which said how to reset the windows etc - tried that - nothing. any thoughts anyone??

[Kuka]

Battery Change - HELP anyone - my battery died on boxing day, managed to get a replacement (Bosch) delivered which I fitted this morming - hurray it starts!! Horror nothing else seems to work - central locking and alarm is dead, windows don't work and I cant lock the car - looked in the handbook which said how to reset the windows etc - tried that - nothing. any thoughts anyone??

Bit odd that pal, I replaced mine before xmas & had my airbag/esp lights staying on.

Took it for a drive & they went off after a minute or so of driving.

Have you drove it since replacing it? If not I would give that a go.

[tyred60]

Yes had that those come up too but like yours they went out after a few yards - handbook says use key in drivers door to reinitialise the windows etc but nothing !!