I've had quite a few people asking me about what they need to do to change the car battery on their fabs. Do they need to use a battery memory keeper etc? That's the main question they want an answer to. So, Answer: No. As a general rule, the car stores your settings for the radio, including the code for about 30 mins after the battery is disconnected. Everything else is maintained, including some other ecu controlled engine settings. Make sure you switch off any power source before doing this, like radio, or light and to take the key out of the ignition when you change the battery as I've know the doors to lock if you go over your time of 30mins or so, or have problems with the battery connections, ie: you touch the terminals with a/the connectors more than once and connect power then disconnect power quickly in succession. You may not want to have your keys locked in the car!! The only thing you have to reset is the window operating parameters so the one touch works again. Simples...that is unless you take longer than about 30 mins. Then you will need the radio code and you may need to allow the ecu to reset the throttle etc. There is plenty on here about it but it's easy to miss I guess. So thought I'd mention it. The above works unless the existing battery has been completely flat for a long time before replacement. Earlier cars may need a battery keeper to maintain the settings, but not the Mk2. 

Edited 23 June, 201412 yr by Estate Man

Thanks for the advice.

 

On a side note, any recommendations where to get the battery? would the dealer stock be old stock? oem brand?

This way solves all the problems re battery changing. You will need a cigar lighter plug with a length of cable, another battery ( I use my electric golf trolley battery) and a voltmeter.

1 Check the polarity of the cigar lighter with the meter

2 Connect the spare battery to the plug the same way as the car 

3 Insert the plug into the cigar lighter and turn on the radio. This tells you that the car is powered up when you remove the cars battery.

4 Change the battery

5 Remove the plug, etc

 

Job done!

fabia55, yes the dealer can do a battery and the stock will not be old. Quite often the batteries are prepared on demand the same day you order one. They don't need charging either before fitting. £115 for the one on my automatic tiptronic 1.6 with one year guarantee, so I went elsewhere. That's a bit pricey and it was only a lead acid.  The problem is that the dealers are generally quite expensive compared to somewhere like Halfords. And you only get a 1 year guarantee with the Skoda battery. Halfords are not too bad on price and offer a choice of batteries such as lead acid, calcium etc etc and the prices are a lot less. Currently, mostly all Halfords batteries are Japanese Yuasa, which are good batteries and fitted widely to motor cars and motorcycles throughout the world. You also get guarantees ranging from 3 to 5 years. Plus fitting too if you pay £9. They will use a memory keeper if you need one but you must ask for it incase you or the fitter are not aware of whether you have a canbus.  I bought one from Halfords for my Fabia estate and got the calcium heavy duty with more amperage than the original Skoda one for just £74 with 4 years warranty. Not bad as trade I couldn't get one any cheaper for the type of battery I wanted and I know all the right people to go to. 

Just read this as I'm wanting to force a reset of the ecu on our htp car due to an occasional racing throttle (4000 rpm for several seconds) after high speed cruising.

Estateman, Are you sure about the radio? I didnt think the factory fitted radio needed a code, where would I find this code as I dont think I've seen it in any of the documents. I remember a salesman ( yes I know its not a reliable source) telling me on the mk1 that the radio was coded to the ecu and no manual coding was necessary as the code was non volatile.

I was looking at replacement batteries the other day and they were mentioning that a battery replacement will require re-coding of some sort (tell the cars ECU that a different battery is in). Is this true? Or can I take any given third party battery and just switch it?

First I'd heard on Skoda's. I understand BMW do that as it can affect how the way the car charges the battery. Bit ridiculous if you ask me!

As far as I understand it's for MMI equipped VAG cars (mainly Audi?) which will show your battery level in the cars multimedia system. Fabia doesn't have this, but can anyone confirm if plugging in is needed for whatever reason?

 

It's completely silly, like having your car re-coded when changing winter/summer tires because of the TPMS.. luckily Skoda uses a passive system

Edited 6 April, 201511 yr by Laars

I changed my battery. No need to connect any gizmo's, just disconnect, remove, fit new one and connect back up. Re-set the clock and drive! The radio etc was fine, it just took a few seconds to re-set itself!

 

BTW, I got a Bosch 5 year warranty replacement, from Euro car parts or carparts4less, forget which one.

Hi xman, yes...I'm sure about the Mk2 Fabia's but not so sure about the Mk1's. If the Mk1 has a CANbus then you will need the radio code only if you go over 30 minutes to change the battery. After that time the ECU will reset and you will loose the radio code. Your MK1 may be different especially if it doesn't have a CANbus. If you need a code for a car that has a CANbus, your Skoda dealer has access to the codes. It's not written down in any of your documentation.