Just had a dead battery...

[TSIspirit]

Hello, never had any problems with my Fabia until today, I'd left it sitting since Christmas Eve but had moved it yesterday to let someone out, don't know if the battery had been low and starting it briefly drained it but it was completely dead, didn't even try to turn over. AA came out and sorted it in two seconds, gave her a check over and said no other issues just a dead battery - no lights left on or anything so any ideas why it drained so drastically?

I have access to OBD2 but not VCDS - will take a peek in the morning, but no lights no nothing before it died and nothing when I turned the key. All fine now too so very odd!

Anyone had a similar experience?

[trundlenut]

Yes on a few different cars. Battery just dies. Years back I stalled whilst parking, having just been driving for half an hour. Went to restart it and nothing, completely dead.

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[sharkrider]

Hello, never had any problems with my Fabia until today, I'd left it sitting since Christmas Eve but had moved it yesterday to let someone out, don't know if the battery had been low and starting it briefly drained it but it was completely dead, didn't even try to turn over. AA came out and sorted it in two seconds, gave her a check over and said no other issues just a dead battery - no lights left on or anything so any ideas why it drained so drastically?

I have access to OBD2 but not VCDS - will take a peek in the morning, but no lights no nothing before it died and nothing when I turned the key. All fine now too so very odd!

Anyone had a similar experience?

All modern batteries do this now... they don't die slowly any more, they seem to work perfectly then just stop. new battery will fix your issues

[TSIspirit]

Huh, well this is my first car, my dad was around when it was dead and was surprised it wasnt at least trying to turn over or anything, nothing even on the Maxidot. The rear wiper twitched, so that's something!

 

Thanks for the info. Battery got back up to a good  charge fairly quickly, i'll keep a meter in the car from now on, will look into a new battery if i have any other problems. Will update this thread if anything else occurs! Thanks ^_^

[bluecar1]

dying battery can cause a number of warning light on the dash, on the old mk1 fabia the favourite was power steering lamp, which went out if you drove a couple of miles the restarted the car

 

I think the mk2 has similar issues but not as sensitive

 

point I am making is if you do see the odd warning lamp don't panic straight away if you suspect a dying battery

[trundlenut]

dying battery can cause a number of warning light on the dash, on the old mk1 fabia the favourite was power steering lamp, which went out if you drove a couple of miles the restarted the car

I think the mk2 has similar issues but not as sensitive

point I am making is if you do see the odd warning lamp don't panic straight away if you suspect a dying battery

My Octavia would beep and flash the steering and traction control lights when you turned the ignition off, which was rather weird.

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[TSIspirit]

My Octavia would beep and flash the steering and traction control lights when you turned the ignition off, which was rather weird.

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dying battery can cause a number of warning light on the dash, on the old mk1 fabia the favourite was power steering lamp, which went out if you drove a couple of miles the restarted the car

 

I think the mk2 has similar issues but not as sensitive

 

point I am making is if you do see the odd warning lamp don't panic straight away if you suspect a dying battery

 

This is exactly what I would expect with a dying battery, but it gave me no clue :p Its behaving itself since the AA gave it a jump and I left it running on the drive for a while.

 

Keeping a meter in the glovebox now, will check the battery every few days for a few weeks!

[Defenderben]

100% it will do it again and probably when you need to use the car, batteries do this no warning flat as a pancake.

My last couple of battery failures were the same, last one I started the car drove 18 miles to work 10mins later tried starting the car- absolutely dead as a dodo.

Get a new battery fitted asap.

[TSIspirit]

Thanks for the advice, will look to get it replaced asap Will be in a few weeks.

[mrgf]

Defenderban has a good point there... They can just go kaput!

 

I had a Yaris do that... Driving around with lights, heating on etc and turned off. Few mins later, went to turn on but absolutely flat. Rac guy came, charged me up some but said the battery was ****-ed... As I was in a hired school car, I went to the required repairer and they fitted a new battery and everything was fine again. I've had motorcycles fail to start too, with a half flat, week battery and they again were fine after fitting a new fully charged one. An old worn battery will reach its so-called full charge quickly but that full charge WILL be just a small amount of the original capacity of the battery when it was new and fresh!

 

I changed my Fabia one a while back as it too, started to show signs of being a bit weak, just to save the cost of cancelling lessons, being stranded and having to source a new one at short notice. I got a five year warranty Bosch one as my replacement. 

[SuperTurbo]

I'd make sure the AA put the correct battery on the car, because they carry a select stock of batteries in their van they very often will fit what ever they had that will fit in the tray rather than one with the recommended CCA and AH ratings.

Seen it many times and it's not just the AA.

[TSIspirit]

They didn't change it just gave me a jump and watched the battery level over half an hour with the engine running and he was happy with the levels. He told me to leave the engine running a bit once I got home too. I am looking at replacing the battery soonish if it's a problem but in no hurry.

 

Thanks for the advice though


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Edited 29 December, 2015 by TSIspirit

[SuperTurbo]

Good to hear you're ok for now, I'd reccomend heading to a smaller or independent motor factor for a new battery. You can often get a good quality battery with decent warranty for the same or less money than the superfactors, you will also find things easier if you ever needed to claim on the warranty.

[TSIspirit]

Was looking at eurocarparts since they have a sale on at the moment. I have a good relationship with a branch of a certain chain and I'm sure they'd pop it in for me (I'd do it myself but would rather someone else do it then it's their fault if there's any problem haha)

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[mrgf]

Hot tip...... Chuck it in your basket, with any promo codes etc to get cheapest price.. Leave it a day or two and they usually offer a further 5% discount for you to complete your order. Great if you have a few days to play with..

[TSIspirit]

Awesome! Will do thanks

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[fabiamk2SE]

Hot tip...... Chuck it in your basket, with any promo codes etc to get cheapest price.. Leave it a day or two and they usually offer a further 5% discount for you to complete your order. Great if you have a few days to play with..

Somebody else watches Martin Lewis too then

[mrgf]

Martin Lewis watches me!

[delta925]

Check the price at TPS if not too far from you. At my local one when I went in for screenwash a while ago they had batteries at a good price. If you intend to keep the car awhile the cheapest may not be the best choice. I learnt the hard way with my last car when I had to change it again after less than 4 years.