So after spending £1057 having major service, cambelt, front brake disks and pads, wishbone bush replacement...

 

The battery died yesterday, and another £105 gone.

 

All consumable service parts (except for the wishbone bush) so I can't really complain, just bad timing.

 

New battery in and car is fine again. Oh, I think I need to replace the glow plugs too... But, this car should need nothing for the next 4 years except for servicing and gearbox oil....

 

Edited 25 September, 201411 yr by g_tee

Your battery did well, my OEM battery died in winter 2010 when the car was only a bit over three years old. The replacement Bosch is already older than that and still spins the engine over like new.

Nah - it was a halfords battery I replaced, so I think that was probably the second battery. I think they are only good for 3 years though and I've had the car that long and never replaced it before so yeah it's not done too bad at all.

Oh well three years isn't too bad. I've known a couple of batteries to last for 10 years or more but it is rare. Varta/Bosch seem about the most long lived in my experience. My OH's 2005 Ford Galaxy still has what we think is the original Varta battery, assuming Varta were ever OEM to Ford?

Batteries can last the life of the car if they are looked after.

 

No electrial load before starting the engine, all electrical load off before stopping the engine.

 

Disable coming/leaving home headlights.

 

My 2008 Scout is still on the original battery and my old Peugeot 306 was sold with the original Varta battery at 12 years old.

 

There have been complaints of late though (more so in the Superb section) of Skoda fitting undersized (and therefore cheaper) batteries to no doubt save money.

 

I guess Skoda just need them to last for the duration of the 3 year warranty.

No electrial load before starting the engine, all electrical load off before stopping the engine.

That's a rule I've always been very OCD about.

It used to do my head in when an ex of mine would click the key on, switch on the headlights, wind the electric windows down, choose a cd, put the air blower on.... then think about starting the engine. The amount of times I had to go out with a set of jump leads to rescue her!

My mk1 octavia went to its grave at 11 years, still with the original battery.

More or less what Silver said.

 

Cheap batteries are a waste of money most of the time.  But then I am too lazy now to do all the swopping I used to.

I keep electrical load to an absolute minimum.

 

I am 3rd owner of this car so who knows how it was treated before. I know that it covered only a couple of hundred of miles over a couple of years so no doubt that ended the longevity of the original battery, but never mind.

 

Just hope nothing else goes now.

It's always a tough decision whether or not to throw a chunk of cash at an ageing car or to cut your losses and move it on.

 

You've committed now so your in it for the long run, good luck!

It's always a tough decision whether or not to throw a chunk of cash at an ageing car or to cut your losses and move it on.

Totally agree with this & the OP.

Until this year I've had a genuine no issues with my car to speak of in four years of ownership ('07 plate, second owner) I've been very pleased (one indicator bulb & a drop link mar its 'perfect' history).

Now I'm looking at DMF, injectors, cambelt/water pump, tandem pump, knocking front suspension, rusty sills or any combination of these.

Looking at £2-3,000 of repairs on a car that I was offered £1700-2000 p/x yesterday! Was offered £4,000 last year at a different dealer - wish I'd snapped that up!

I've lost the love of my Octavia, returned it to standard and am on the lookout for the right Yeti to p/x it against knowing mine is worth next to nothing or put mine in an auction to see what it gets and haggle hard without a p/x to worry about.

Well - I sounded like I was complaining.

 

The only actual thing that broke was the wishbone bushes. The rest were consumable parts - it was just bad timing to have it all at once.

 

I'm committed to this car for another 4 years now and my wife has said that once the 4 years is up - it's going. It'll be a shame because it runs fine generally, but 4 years from now means I would have had 7 years and approx 70K miles out of it so it would have had a good run. It'll also be a 12/13 year old car and probably time to move it on.

 

Best start saving for the next one.

 

EDIT: The only bugger is though, I could have sold the car for £4K to someone at work before I spent a penny on it. There's a part of me that kinda wishes I'd done that at the time, but never mind. I've made my mind up for now.

Edited 26 September, 201411 yr by g_tee