Shortly after leaving for work this morning, my wife ran back in the house proclaiming "my car won't start!"

It's a '14 Rapid Spaceback 1.2 tsi 105. Since we've had it, it's always taken a long time to start but has never failed to entirely.

She tried a few times this morning and it just cranked but wouldn't fire. For context, there was thick ice on the windscreen and the MFD said it was 3 degrees celsius outside.

I had a go, and at first it didn't look like it was going to start, but just before I gave up, I gave the accelerator a brief stab and it immediately fired into life.

Now I know that's a common trick on old cars, but I've never had to do that on any car I've owned. The wife had never even heard of doing it.

I rushed to get my fault code reader, but nothing was logged.

Any ideas?

First thought is that your battery is knackered and is struggling to hold & deliver enough cold crank amps (CCA) to turn the engine over & fire. Possibly a duff one from the moment it was fitted on the production line (and the cold weather, which always affects a battery, has exacerbated the issue).

Other likely issue is a faulty starter motor.

Either way, a 14 plate is still under warranty, get Skoda Assist out, if they can't diagnose,have them tow you to your dealer for diagnostics. My money is still on the battery though.

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Agreed, with the note that if you own a multimeter you can test the battery yourself. Look for about 12v with the ignition off, and 14.4v idling, with things like lights and HRW off.

If it cranks fine then there's nothing wrong with the battery. Might be bad temp sensor. These engines should start easily no matter how cold it is.

It was cranking fine and it did eventually start, I don't think it's the battery either.

 

If it happens again or gets worse, I'll book it in, but for now I'm going to wait and see how it goes.

tbh the 1.2tsi is bad at starting in the cold at the best of times. it only needs a slightly weak battery not to start at all. Mine is sometimes very rough on startup and sometimes takes longer to start than usual. Ive also started getting the old loose timing chain rattle on startup for the first second or so.

 

It's a great engine..... But it HATES the cold.

Mine starts fine and in the cold it still pulls nice and sharply, I'd even go as far as to say the engines better now than its been in any month since I got it in June.

Mine was great in the cold weather. Nice performance:)

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Oh yeh the performance is def a little better.... But fuel consumption gets worse :-(

True but I couldn't tell you on mine.

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Apparently turbos like colder weather. As far as fuel consumption goes the fuel computer has only just started to read differently every journey before it was kind of stuck. Now it ranges from really low to sometimes in the 50s. I'm guessing it was faulty but has rectified itself. Yet another thing that was wrong!!!!!!

Any internal combustion engine car has better performance and worse fuel consumption in colder weather. It's because colder air is denser and therefore more oxygen rich.

Yeh I get that totally and most engines when up to temperature run better in the cold. I know they might use a bit more fuel, it's just my fuel computer has now moved from permanently stuck on 41.2mpg it's now reading the whole range of figures the engine actually achieves.

Yeh I get that totally and most engines when up to temperature run better in the cold. I know they might use a bit more fuel, it's just my fuel computer has now moved from permanently stuck on 41.2mpg it's now reading the whole range of figures the engine actually achieves.

That sounds to me like you've knocked the roller button on the steering wheel and moved the Maxidot display from average consumption 2 to live Consumption.

+1

 

Was in Average Cons 2, Now in Average Cons 1 or Realtime Cons.

The only thing I've got on my steering wheel is the horn an the ability to turn left and right

I do understand live consumption and average by the way, but thanks anyway.

I do understand live consumption and average by the way, but thanks anyway.

You also realise you car has a long term average and trip average? Button on the underside of the wiper stalk switches between them.

Yes one says 1 and the other says 2. I promise it's only just started doing more realistic readings, I do also known one does readings as you drive so literally changes before the eye.

As weather gets cold here too (by Greek standards hehe) I noticed that I need a liiitle more cranking than normal in the morning to get going, otherwise it won't. Diesel is much more affected from cold than petrol and I don't think we have winter diesel here.

What is the cold crank amp of the battery fitted ? I would suspect it's pretty low.

 

Do the engine / starter motor seem to spin at the same startup speed or seem a bit slower ?

 

Just as an example, the other day i had a Astra hire car (700 miles on it) and we had ice, it started on the 4th spin of the engine after been left 12 hours overnight which i thought was odd.

Edited 13 December, 201510 yr by RickTT

What is the cold crank amp of the battery fitted ? I would suspect it's pretty low.

 

Do the engine / starter motor seem to spin at the same startup speed or seem a bit slower ?

 

Just as an example, the other day i had a Astra hire car (700 miles on it) and we had ice, it started on the 4th spin of the engine after been left 12 hours overnight which i thought was odd.

Supposing you are asking me, I still have the original battery on, I bought the car in March so I think it is P/N 000 915 105 DE with 330 A sustained, 61 Ah capacity and 540 CCA. I'm too lazy to open the hood now

I'm talking about a really small difference in cranking time, nothing to worry about, but noticeable.

Memory test. I seem to recall this came up some years ago on the Octavia thread.

Finally it was discovered that the engine has a back-drain blocker in the fuel supply to ensure the injectors have a supply of fuel on start-up.

The system is very sensistive to not just starter motor revs but the power or vigour of the cranking.  Until it senses good strong spin-up from the starter motor it wil not unblock the blocker and let fuel flow.

The cranking may sound fine but not to the engine.

 

New battery cured mine immediately.  Can't find thread.  Maybe got it all wrong. Either way ---new battery needed. Just my two-pennath.

Okay, looks like you guys might have been right about the battery.  Just had the same issue this morning.

 

Wouldn't start for my wife, just kept cranking.  She ran into the house in a panic.  This time, the stereo screen displayed a warning about low battery voltage.  I got in and turned off the climate, stereo and interior light and it started with the first turn of the key (it's NEVER started that quickly that since we've had it).

 

Will book it in for investigation.

It went in to the dealer just before Christmas.  They kept it overnight, and said they'd cleaned corrosion from the battery earth.  I was doubtful this was the necessary fix, but they seemed confident it was the issue.

 

Literally the next day it happened again.  So we decided to video it every time we started it, in the hope of catching it failing to start.  This way, we'd have something decent to show the dealer when we went back and said "FIX IT!".  Sods law, it's been fine since.  Until this morning.  The difference is, previously it's always started EVENTUALLY, but today it's just not having any of it.  Skoda assistance are on their way, but in the mean time I thought I'd post the video I finally managed to record.

 

https://youtu.be/C1hwzyUBe2k