Tried to start the car this morning (2010 Scout 2.0 CR) but it just turns over and all the warning lights flash and make a clicking sound. Finally the maxidot displayed an "ESP Error" message. Is this just a dead battery or something worse?? I've been listening to the stereo whilst cleaning the car/swapping wheels over but surprised that this has drained the battery. Any help appreciated before I call Skoda assist. Thanks.

If the car turns over, then the battery isn't that dead, does it sound normal when turning over or labored/sluggish? In which case it may just be on the edge. Let us know how you get on!

Sounds to me like the battery is dead. The initial poor attempt to turn the engine over is very quickly replaced by the clicking of the solenoid indicating that there is no juice left in the battery - you can try charging it but unless you have left the lights or something else draining the power overnight it would suggest that the battery has past it's best and trying to coax much more life from it is usually wasted effort.

Cheers for that. It sounds like its almost turning over so I don't think its completely dead. Just not quite enough juice to fire it up. Is the ESP error just a symptom of the systems attempting to acvtivate and there being insufficient power to complete this??

A nice man from Skoda assist came out within an hour and got me going again. The battery was just below the minimum voltage required to turn the engine over. All fault codes cleared and battery is good. I've learnt from that experience at least.

the pd engines are a pain for this and maybe the cr's will be too.

they have to spin over very fast before they will fire which means weak batteries usually arent much use