Having had 2 O3s and run them both with hard wired dash cams, and having had start stop issues, mine were caused by the dash cam draining the battery.

These batteries are not designed for a constant current drain, and the charging system also takes a lot of driving to recharge the battery.

The start stop system sounds like it is working as designed in your car, the battery is in a permanently semi discharged state due to your dash cam, so stop start is being disabled so that your battery receives as much charge as possible.

 

What dash cam is it that requires the card formatting every time you power it off and on again, haven't come across that before.

2 minutes ago, andyvee said:

Having had 2 O3s and run them both with hard wired dash cams, and having had start stop issues, mine were caused by the dash cam draining the battery.

These batteries are not designed for a constant current drain, and the charging system also takes a lot of driving to recharge the battery.

The start stop system sounds like it is working as designed in your car, the battery is in a permanently semi discharged state due to your dash cam, so stop start is being disabled so that your battery receives as much charge as possible.

 

What dash cam is it that requires the card formatting every time you power it off and on again, haven't come across that before.

Its a Nextbase 312GW and was bought in Halfords. 

We need to get the problem sorted asap as in 4 weeks we are driving through France into Spain for the winter and do not want the car breaking down while we are there.

We also need the dashcam to work owing to the Spanish drivers loving their 'kisses' with other cars. 

Also, can you be more specific about the mileage/types of trips you are normally doing in the car each day?

If it a case that your mileage is very-low or you make several very short trips, it can be the case the the driving you do isn't enough to recharge the battery & then the issue is componded by the additional drain from the dashcam overnight?

11 minutes ago, DHRichards said:

Its a Nextbase 312GW and was bought in Halfords. 

We need to get the problem sorted asap as in 4 weeks we are driving through France into Spain for the winter and do not want the car breaking down while we are there.

We also need the dashcam to work owing to the Spanish drivers loving their 'kisses' with other cars. 

That cam does not have a parking mode that I can see, so is recording constantly. It has a current draw of 1.5A at 5v, so approx 0.7A at 12v. That is a serious drain on the battery, no wonder you are having problems. It is pretty much the same as leaving your sidelights on when the car is parked.

 

Basically, you are trying to get a £80 dash cam that isn't designed for permanent hardwiring to behave like a £200 Blackvue connected to a PowerMagic Pro. I think we have got to the bottom of your issue.

 

There is nothing wrong with your car, you have a flat battery caused by your always on dash cam.

56 minutes ago, DHRichards said:

Its a Nextbase 312GW and was bought in Halfords. 

We need to get the problem sorted asap as in 4 weeks we are driving through France into Spain for the winter and do not want the car breaking down while we are there.

We also need the dashcam to work owing to the Spanish drivers loving their 'kisses' with other cars. 

Nextbase do a hardwire kit with battery protection. I would suggest getting one rather than using the cig lighter.

 

I wouldn't want to use the USB port as it is designed for pen drives, not delivering 1.5A to a dash cam. The USB standards are 500mA.

35 minutes ago, andyvee said:

Nextbase do a hardwire kit with battery protection. I would suggest getting one rather than using the cig lighter.

 

I wouldn't want to use the USB port as it is designed for pen drives, not delivering 1.5A to a dash cam. The USB standards are 500mA.

Thanks for your thoughts and advice. Skoda are returning the car this afternoon so I'll disconnect the dashcam every night and see how the car performs. Hopefully this is the end of the problems as this model, the Superb, is one of the best cars I have ever owned. It is only beaten by a classic Daimler Sovereign I once had the pleasure of owning. 

3 hours ago, DHRichards said:

Thanks for your thoughts and advice. Skoda are returning the car this afternoon so I'll disconnect the dashcam every night and see how the car performs. Hopefully this is the end of the problems as this model, the Superb, is one of the best cars I have ever owned. It is only beaten by a classic Daimler Sovereign I once had the pleasure of owning. 

You just need to get a good charge in the battery first, unless Skoda have charged the battery for you.

 

I stand corrected on the parking mode though - it does have a manual parking mode, so you can wire to a switched 12v then manually turn on parking mode, which is slightly different to the Blackvue range which can be left wired to a permanent live and will automatically enter parking mode when no motion is detected in the field of view.

1 hour ago, andyvee said:

You just need to get a good charge in the battery first, unless Skoda have charged the battery for you.

 

I stand corrected on the parking mode though - it does have a manual parking mode, so you can wire to a switched 12v then manually turn on parking mode, which is slightly different to the Blackvue range which can be left wired to a permanent live and will automatically enter parking mode when no motion is detected in the field of view.

 

Well, Skoda returned the car to me reporting that it was a power draw from the dashcam that was the source of the problem.
I have the 'parking mode' activated so the cam should only power up when the parking sensor detects movement while the car is unattended, else the cam goes stays in sleep mode so there should be little drawn power.

I will unplug the device at night and take the car on a longer drive each day to see if the problem returns - hopefully it will not.

I still need to sort out the 'format card' warning that appears on power reconnection. There may be a setting on the dashcam that needs altering (doubtful) or, there may be a fault with the sd card, which I will check.

That's everyone for your help. 

Make sure you have the latest firmware on the camera, and for some reason most of these cameras don't seem to like Sandisk cards either ........

10 hours ago, andyvee said:

Make sure you have the latest firmware on the camera, and for some reason most of these cameras don't seem to like Sandisk cards either ........

Which mine is. I have a couple of other makes that I use on other devices so I'll try those. Thanks. 

Surprise, surprise. I've had the car back for two days, switched everything possible off (dashcam, auto wipers and auto lights) driven over 13 miles and guess what? The same error is being reported on the display - high power consumption/start stop not functioning! 

All this despite Skoda telling me that there is no fault with the car!

High power consumption means it is trying to charge your battery basically, so has disabled start/stop. Did the dealer charge your battery?

 

If not, charge your battery, forget about the dashcam completely (in fact, leave it home for a week) and then see what happens. You are not going to get your dealer to change their mind easily unless you can prove to them that starting with a fully charged battery with no 3rd party accessories plugged in you still have a recurring problem. Don't worry about the auto lights and auto wipers. If your dealer didn't charge your battery then you could have been starting with a 50% charged battery, so what you have seen is to be expected under those circumstances.

 

I know it sounds daft, but have you checked that both battery terminals are tight (ie you can't move them by hand) - all sorts of weird behaviour can happen if one of them is loose.

 

If the battery control module senses a problem with one of the modules in the car when the ignition is off it will log a fault code for excessive current drain, the problem is that the high consumption of the dashcam could have been masking this. If there is a fault then you need to get the battery control module to log which module is causing the problem

 

For reference, a Blackvue dash cam consumes approx 500ma when recording, so your dashcam is a fairly high power consumption in comparison. I occasionally got the same High Power Consumption messages when running a BlackVue on a PowerMagic Pro and doing regular short (10 mile) journeys. A long run soon put enough juice back in the battery for the messages to not re-occur for a while.

Edited 2 October, 20178 yr by andyvee

24 minutes ago, andyvee said:

High power consumption means it is trying to charge your battery basically, so has disabled start/stop. Did the dealer charge your battery?

 

If not, charge your battery, forget about the dashcam completely (in fact, leave it home for a week) and then see what happens. You are not going to get your dealer to change their mind easily unless you can prove to them that starting with a fully charged battery with no 3rd party accessories plugged in you still have a recurring problem. Don't worry about the auto lights and auto wipers. If your dealer didn't charge your battery then you could have been starting with a 50% charged battery, so what you have seen is to be expected under those circumstances.

 

I know it sounds daft, but have you checked that both battery terminals are tight (ie you can't move them by hand) - all sorts of weird behaviour can happen if one of them is loose.

 

If the battery control module senses a problem with one of the modules in the car when the ignition is off it will log a fault code for excessive current drain, the problem is that the high consumption of the dashcam could have been masking this. If there is a fault then you need to get the battery control module to log which module is causing the problem

 

For reference, a Blackvue dash cam consumes approx 500ma when recording, so your dashcam is a fairly high power consumption in comparison. I occasionally got the same High Power Consumption messages when running a BlackVue on a PowerMagic Pro and doing regular short (10 mile) journeys. A long run soon put enough juice back in the battery for the messages to not re-occur for a while.

As I said in my last post, the dashcam has not been connected since the dealer last had the car in for repair (a week ago) - the third time in two weeks.

I disabled all auto modes so I could let the dealer know that all possible power consumers had been disabled. They previously performed several road tests and, since the car was returned to me on Friday last, the car has done over 15 miles a day so the battery should be fully charged. 

We cannot afford for the car to break down during our drive to Spain in 4 weeks time so it has been agreed that the car will be returned and we will select another car and possibly a different make. 

40 minutes ago, DHRichards said:

, the car has done over 15 miles a day so the battery should be fully charged. 

 

 

Sorry but it won't be, never has been enough...in actual fact its way longer & higher mileage than most people think

 

Especially with the newer cars which have bigger batteries & loads of control modules...

 

Get a C-tek battery charger one that does AGM & then fit an 096 AGM Bosch battery....

15 miles a day for 3 or 4 days will not come remotely close to fully charging the battery, in fact it is more likely to have drained the battery to a lower state of charge than when the dealer returned the car to you. The old rule of thumb used to be 20 minutes of driving to put back in the charge taken out by a cold start. Given that your 15 miles would have taken at least 20 minutes, but probably included a couple of starts initiated by the S/S system, you are more likely to have been draining the battery overall than charging it.

 

The Battery Charge Monitoring on these cars is very sophisticated, to try and reduce emissions the alternator only trickle charges most of the time, it only outputs at full when you are braking, and then the alternator acts as an additional brake by placing extra load on the engine and putting a high current in to charging the battery. One of the worse things you can do to these types of systems and batteries is let the battery get discharged. Normal driving will not restore a full charge, unless it is a very long run, and the batteries can soon lose capacity if left in a discharged state. Unfortunately, your dash cam has drained your battery so you now need to get it charged up.

 

Did the dealer, or have you, charged your battery in the last week? If you don't start off with a charged battery you are going to be forever seeing this message with the low mileage you are doing, and the dealer will not be able to find a fault, because there is unlikely to be one. The system is working as designed and is trying to protect the battery from becoming excessively discharged.

 

As I have said multiple times in this thread, charge your battery. You can choose to ignore my advice if you wish, but having had 2 O3s with S/S and running dashcams, and doing almost 100,000 miles in those two cars, there might be a slight chance I know what I am talking about. The first one of those O3s had lots of S/S issues until I fitted a PowerMagic Pro which disabled the power to the dashcam when parked if the battery voltage dropped below 12v. There was a setting for 11.8v, and if I used that then I regularly got the 'High Power Consumption' messages. Interestingly, on the new revision of the PowerMagic Pro those thresholds are now 12v and 12.5v. I wonder if that was done because of issues with cars fitted with S/S technology?

 

Charge your battery, if the errors come back in a week then you do have a fault.

 

Your upcoming long drive to Spain is probably the best thing you could do at the moment, at least it will get some charge in your battery!

 

I am surprised the dealer has agreed to swap the car, their diagnosis seems correct, there is not a fault and your dash cam has drained your battery.

6 minutes ago, andyvee said:

15 miles a day for 3 or 4 days will not come remotely close to fully charging the battery, in fact it is more likely to have drained the battery to a lower state of charge than when the dealer returned the car to you. The old rule of thumb used to be 20 minutes of driving to put back in the charge taken out by a cold start. Given that your 15 miles would have taken at least 20 minutes, but probably included a couple of starts initiated by the S/S system, you are more likely to have been draining the battery overall than charging it.

 

The Battery Charge Monitoring on these cars is very sophisticated, to try and reduce emissions the alternator only trickle charges most of the time, it only outputs at full when you are braking, and then the alternator acts as an additional brake by placing extra load on the engine and putting a high current in to charging the battery. One of the worse things you can do to these types of systems and batteries is let the battery get discharged. Normal driving will not restore a full charge, unless it is a very long run, and the batteries can soon lose capacity if left in a discharged state. Unfortunately, your dash cam has drained your battery so you now need to get it charged up.

 

Did the dealer, or have you, charged your battery in the last week? If you don't start off with a charged battery you are going to be forever seeing this message with the low mileage you are doing, and the dealer will not be able to find a fault, because there is unlikely to be one. The system is working as designed and is trying to protect the battery from becoming excessively discharged.

 

As I have said multiple times in this thread, charge your battery. You can choose to ignore my advice if you wish, but having had 2 O3s with S/S and running dashcams, and doing almost 100,000 miles in those two cars, there might be a slight chance I know what I am talking about. The first one of those O3s had lots of S/S issues until I fitted a PowerMagic Pro which disabled the power to the dashcam when parked if the battery voltage dropped below 12v. There was a setting for 11.8v, and if I used that then I regularly got the 'High Power Consumption' messages. Interestingly, on the new revision of the PowerMagic Pro those thresholds are now 12v and 12.5v. I wonder if that was done because of issues with cars fitted with S/S technology?

 

Charge your battery, if the errors come back in a week then you do have a fault.

 

Your upcoming long drive to Spain is probably the best thing you could do at the moment, at least it will get some charge in your battery!

 

I am surprised the dealer has agreed to swap the car, their diagnosis seems correct, there is not a fault and your dash cam has drained your battery.

 

1 minute ago, DHRichards said:

 

Our last several cars never had this problem. We change cars every three years and do around 3000 miles a year. I have no intention of driving up and down the motorway just to keep the battery topped up. This would be ridiculous, time wasting and costly.

The dealers say they topped the battery up and checked it before returning it to me. If a battery runs down that much in two days then pity help us if we leave it in an airport carpark for two weeks while we go on holiday.

We also have no intention of attempting to drive through France and Spain, given that in the winter months the air-con, heating and fan will be going full blast most of the time. The very last thing we want is to be stuck in the middle of France for several days while a garage attempts to repair the car.
The dealer does not have a say as to whether or not we can exchange the car as it is leased through Motability and it is they who agree that it is totally unwise to attempt such a long journey in a faulty car and it is they who have authorised an exchange.

I appreciate all your comments but not everyone wants to or can afford to spend half the day driving around just to keep a 5 month old battery in full charge or worry whether the car is going to start in the morning or fail to start when leaving a carpark, for example. 

22 minutes ago, DHRichards said:

 

I appreciate all your comments but not everyone wants to or can afford to spend half the day driving around just to keep a 5 month old battery in full charge or worry whether the car is going to start in the morning or fail to start when leaving a carpark, for example. 

 

NO person has suggested that you do this....& you will have the same problem with other new cars as the same basics of electric systems & BCMs applies...

 

Get a trickle charger & bigger better AGM battery....

 

PS I do about the same mileage & my short journeys are 36miles & I have to trickle charge..But I do it to prevent what happens to you, but again I have fitted a 096 AGM battery...one of the first things I did to the car when I got as I know the problems with them..

11 minutes ago, DHRichards said:

Our last several cars never had this problem. - Did they have Start/Stop technology and a battery drained by leaving a 1.5A dash cam plugged in 24/7?

We change cars every three years and do around 3000 miles a year. I have no intention of driving up and down the motorway just to keep the battery topped up. This would be ridiculous, time wasting and costly. - I don't recall suggesting you do. I suggested charging your battery with a suitable battery charger. Doing such a low mileage, this would be a sensible thing to do once a month, especially in winter.

The dealers say they topped the battery up and checked it before returning it to me. If a battery runs down that much in two days then pity help us if we leave it in an airport carpark for two weeks while we go on holiday. - Topped up or fully charged it? I have asked numerous times if you had charged the battery and this is the first time that you have indicated that it has at least been partially charged. I've left my car, which has had similar messages but not as frequently, for similar lengths of time and it has been fine. Exactly how much has your battery run down? All you have seen is a message saying that S/S is disabled due to high power consumption. I thought you were driving to Spain anyway? Is your car now failing to start?

We also have no intention of attempting to drive through France and Spain, given that in the winter months the air-con, heating and fan will be going full blast most of the time. The very last thing we want is to be stuck in the middle of France for several days while a garage attempts to repair the car. - Has it broken down yet? Why is it more likely to break down on a long run with the heating on - if anything it is less likely as the battery will actually be getting charged because the car is getting a half decent run for a change. As I said, the Battery Charge Monitoring system is very sophisticated, the alternator will supply enough current for all accessories plus a trickle charge to the battery under normal circumstances.
The dealer does not have a say as to whether or not we can exchange the car as it is leased through Motability and it is they who agree that it is totally unwise to attempt such a long journey in a faulty car and it is they who have authorised an exchange. - Good luck with your new car, Motability obviously know better than the dealer who has hooked your car up to diagnostics and performed test drives.

I appreciate all your comments but not everyone wants to or can afford to spend half the day driving around just to keep a 5 month old battery in full charge or worry whether the car is going to start in the morning or fail to start when leaving a carpark, for example. - No one is suggesting you do, your car is not faulty, you have drained your battery by leaving a dash cam plugged in and the battery hasn't been charged properly since. How many times has your car failed to start so far - I don't recall you mentioning this. The system is working as designed and stopping you from flattening your battery further by disabling stop/start.

 

See my comments above in red, as they say, you can take a horse to water ...........

 

Good luck with your next car, just don't plug your dashcam in and drain the battery.

3 minutes ago, fabdavrav said:

 

NO person has suggested that you do this....& you will have the same problem with other new cars as the same basics of electric systems & BCMs applies...

 

Get a trickle charger & bigger better AGM battery....

 

PS I do about the same mileage & my short journeys are 36miles & I have to trickle charge..But I do it to prevent what happens to you, but again I have fitted a 096 AGM battery...one of the first things I did to the car when I got as I know the problems with them..

Some people just don't want to listen, they come asking for advice then tell everyone else they are wrong and that their car is faulty because Motability say so.

 

Moral of the story, don't buy a cheap dashcam and then **** your battery over by leaving it plugged in 24/7 LOL

I do not how many times I have say this but - the dashcam has not been plugged in for over a week!

In the last few years I have owned (all new cars) a Hyundai Santa Fe, a Peugeot 3008, a Ford C-max, a Vauxhall Zafira and now a Skoda Superb. After 3 years daily use, all had around 9,000 to 12,000 miles on the clock and none had any problems, only the Skoda.
As to how full the dealer charged the battery I have no idea (until last Friday). I have had to rely on their honesty. I have not mentioned to what extent the battery has been topped up because until they returned the car last weekend, I did not know!

How am I meant to keep the car on a trickle charger? Not everyone is blessed with good health to be able to perform this every day or have the means to plug into the mains.

Do you expect two disabled retirees to attempt driving through Europe in a car that neither they nor the independent expert Motability contacted can rely upon? 

I asked for advice or comments from others, yes but I have not said that you are wrong. I am sure that you know everything there is to know about my car - even if you don't fully read my posts. 

I accept all comments except when insults are paraded for all to see. There is no call for insulting me. I have enough personal problems without batting away your uncalled for posts.

 

 

 

Yet again, you haven't read my post properly. Who said anything about trickle charging every day? Doesn't matter that it hasn't been plugged in for a week - you don't have a fully charged battery and your car is trying to get some charge back in to it by disabling stop start.

 

How many of your previous cars had S/S technology out of interest, and how many did you leave a dashcam plugged in 24/7?

 

Long and short of it is, as your dealer told you as well, you drained your battery with the dashcam and your car is trying to stop you from draining it further and get a half decent charge in it. 15 miles a day for 4 days will not do that.

 

Humour me - turn S/S off everytime you use the car for the next week. Don't use the dash cam. Then after a week enable S/S and come back on here and let us know if your faulty car has magically repaired itself or if it still has the Informational Message (notice I didn't use the world fault) that High Power Consumption means S/S is disabled.

 

Anyway, as my posts are 'uncalled for', which they may as well have been as you ignored the advice of charging the battery, no doubt you will not do the above as you will not be willing to prove yourself, or the Independent Motability Expert, wrong.

 

I'm quite happy to be proved wrong and look forward to the results of a week of driving with S/S disabled.

I HAVE NOT HAD THE DASHCAM PLUGGED IN FOR OVER A WEEK!!!! RTFS!

5 minutes ago, DHRichards said:

I HAVE NOT HAD THE DASHCAM PLUGGED IN FOR OVER A WEEK!!!! RTFS!

Yet again you haven't read my post.

I know you haven't, you keep telling us.

Your battery is still not fully charged, help the car to charge it by turning off S/S if you are not able to charge it with a battery charger.

7 minutes ago, DHRichards said:

I HAVE NOT HAD THE DASHCAM PLUGGED IN FOR OVER A WEEK!!!! RTFS!

 

29 minutes ago, DHRichards said:

I do not how many times I have say this but - the dashcam has not been plugged in for over a week!

 

How am I meant to keep the car on a trickle charger? Not everyone is blessed with good health to be able to perform this every day or have the means to plug into the mains.

 

 

Again no one it suggesting you need to do this everyday....once every couple on months...& don't think that any other new car won't have the same problems..they all do masses of problems on other makes with S/S tech & loads of tech modules..

 

Nature of the beast..your other cars are "old tech" by comparison which is why you have not have these problems...