Disclaimer - I'm a total novice, but will try to provide the details.

 

2012 mk2 Fabia Elegance. No accidents or anything, 25,000 miles on clock.

 

Just the the other day the engine was slow to turn over when turning on the ignition. I put it down to the cold weather. (Mistake)

 

Last week, it simply wouldn't start. It was as if the last remnants of power within the battery just wasn't enough to start the engine.

 

At this point - bit of backstory about my usage - I get told all the time that the car isn't that suited to my very short journey life-style. It sucks for the fuel particle thing (I usually have to take it a Sunday blast to clear the DPF) so the only major problem I';ve had with the car last year was getting the DPF cleared. Took ages and a fair bit of cash.

 

Perhaps this short-journey usage has hurt my battery, so when it eventually died, I had to pay £60 for a recovery van to jump start me. He was a bit unsure with the battery, seeing as his voltmeter didn't really think it was picking up charge very fast. In short, he told me to get it to a garage pronto.

 

The Skoda dealership had been upsetting me prior. Not just being unhelpful, but charging me out the eyeballs for the DPF stuff, particularly since car was out of warranty. I made the potential mistake of going to Halfords who....... replaced battery. Replaced altenator. Replaced brake-pads (unrelated I guess). Came to a grand total of £890. 

 

Last few days - couple of long journeys to see family, new battery was mostly behaving. Strange symptom alert - the air-conditioning system managed to conk out mid-journey. This had never ever happened before, but in my lack of car-knowledge state, can only assume is power related. Sigh.

 

Roll on today, getting the same old sluggish starting of car. In fact it took that long to turn over a few minutes ago I really thought I'd lost it again.

 

In summary, I'm thinking I have a power leak somewhere (how? No lights left on, no USB items plugged in...) Alternatively there is a loose wire/connector to the starter motor, but I wouldn't even begin to know where to look and expected Halfords to sort that **** right out.

 

So here I am, £950 in total lighter, with seemingly an unresolved problem. Please someone put me out of my misery, what am I doing wrong?
 

Any comments hugely appreciated, cheers.

 

***For those (who I don't blame) who don't want to read that wall of text...... I spent £950 trying to fix a seemingly electrical problem starting my car. No bueno. Please help.

Edited 29 December, 20169 yr by lifeissocomplicated

OK, some simple questions:-

1. Does the alternator warning light work correctly when you switch on?
2. Back up at "Last week it wouldn't start para" - When you turned the key to "start" did you get a loud click and no sign of the starter turning?

Thanks for responding.

 

1. I get a brief flash of all the warning lights, which I understand is normal. But nothing stays on except for I guess the parking brake light.

2. Sorry about my poor explanation. "Normally" I'd turn the key, and get the classic car starting noise. To be honest I don't particularly hear a click or anything. Just engine starting noise. When it wouldn't start, it sounded like the engine was about to start but in slow motion, really struggling to turn over. And finally when turning the ignition nothing would happen at all.

On Fabia, I've seen suficient battery voltage (and battery in good condition) but engine doesn't turn over as it should.

Voltage drop test confirmed it to be poor connection/high resistance at earth connection at engine mount next to timing cover.

Hope this helps.

1) The alternator light should stay on until the engine is running. If it's not, then I think I'm on the right track.

2) When you have the slow turn-over the engine will turn but not fire because you must have 250rpm or better before you get fuel injection. When the engine failed to turn over, I'd expect to hear a marked "click" and then nothing. The click is the solenoid engaging, and the nothing is the flat battery.

 

Now all this makes me think that one or both of the alternator load sense wires may be broken. If that might as well be in Udru, you need to speak to a good mechanic or an auto electrician. Do not, repeat NOT, go back to Halfrauds!

@JohnMack may also be right but we've gone to the point where you need someone competent with access to the car to confirm either diagnosis.

Thanks guys. I'm afraid my knowledge of wires is poor. I'd imagine people here will scoff. My problem is that I don't believe the Aberdeen Skoda dealership to be particular competent, therefore I am pretty screwed. WIll resort to them though :(.

Can you confirm how the alternator warning light behaves clearly for us, as said, turn key to first position = the alternator  "no charge" warning light should stay on as will the parking brake light, start the engine, the alternator "no charge" warning light should go out to indicate that the battery is now being charged.  So, is that light staying on when the key is at the first position prior to starting the engine?  If you can confirm that that light is not staying on prior to engine start, you will have found something out which you can pass to your mechanic - and as said already, that something is that some wire/wires have broken.

Regarding Halfords.....you've paid them A LOT (understatement) of money to NOT fix the problem...........I think you should tell their service manager you're not happy with the work done to achieve nothing except new brake pads.

Do you have a breakdown of the bill?

I actually had this problem in the past 2 weeks and it was a nightmare. It went away when I charged the battery and came back a few weeks later.

 

The alternator had gone, but the car was increasing the revs to keep the battery charging and didnt throw up any faults. Essentially the car thought there was enough voltage to charge the battery, but on shorter journeys it couldnt put the capacity back. On this note, I had it replaced on the 12/12/2016 and it went again within 2 weeks. Alterantor manufacturers are cutting a lot of corners lately so do expect a new alternator to have failed.

 

A few basic checks yourself can help identify the issue if not done already. I did these because I thought I had a grounding problem before (-2v reading from the ground of the alternator to the battery). Grab yourself a 10quid multimeter if you've not got one. These checks are perfectly safe when the car is running... i've not died yet, after all. Set your multimeter to 20v DC...

 

Few rough figures to remember (anyone, please clarify if im slightly off):

 

A good, charged battery (12.5v ish)

A dead/bad battery (11.75v ish)

A good charging voltage (13.8-14.5v ish)

Insufficient charging voltage (anything less than 13.5v) the battery essentially needs a voltage head to allow it to be charged.

 

1. Car off, check the voltage across the battery pins (not the clamps). I imagine it's pretty beat down, so it could be anywhere from 11.7 - 12.6ish (this is only for reference).

2. Car on (might need a jump/charge first), check the voltage again. It should be reading 13.5-14.5v if the chaging system is OK (no need to read on, im now just waffling if it's OK). If it's reading around 12.5, then this might be your issue.

3. Measure the live of the alternator (large connection closest to you when you look at it) against the negative of the battery (pin, not clamp). If this is around 12.5, then proceed...

4. Measure the ground of the alternator (further back large wire, should be held by a nut & bolt), to the negative of the battery pin. If this reads a negative voltage (-2v or something), then you can deduce the following:

a. The rectifier in the alternator has gone (probably an open diode), meaning the alternator needs replacing/repairing (most likely)

b. There's a grounding fault somewhere, probably on the negative side of the alternator

 

Now at this point you have enough grounds to get a mechanic to further investigate grounding issues and the alternator itself. You can do more checks, but the garage should be able to isolate the problem and actually deal with it for you.

 

Hope this helps!

Edited 31 December, 20169 yr by Coombersaurus

Thanks for all that Coombersaurus. It's not actually right though, because the alternator control wires (normal size, not the heavy charging circuit wires) aren't tested, hence rum4mo and I asking in such detail about the behavior of the warning light.

lifeissocimplicated,

if you are a customer of SKODA SPECIALIST CARS, JOHN CLARK Group, ABERDEEN, 

just contact the Principal Dealer and tell them the issues and your feeling on the workshop employees and the service you are getting now or in the past.

 

There is a Service Manager, & a Master Tech there that should be caring about Customers getting works carried out correctly.

This is an Official Skoda Dealership with all the gear and there should only be fully trained staff working on your vehicle which 

is rather different from Halfords.

Edited 31 December, 20169 yr by Offski

Thanks for all that Coombersaurus. It's not actually right though, because the alternator control wires (normal size, not the heavy charging circuit wires) aren't tested, hence rum4mo and I asking in such detail about the behavior of the warning light.

 

I didn't mention anything about the control (actually the signal wire) wires though, I don't think?

 

The only reason I suggested that is because i've experienced literally the same problem in the last few weeks and have been searching forums to no avail. The warning light won't necessarily come on (mine didn't) and the car will drain the battery (as described above) if the journeys are short.

I didn't mention anything about the control (actually the signal wire) wires though, I don't think?

 

The only reason I suggested that is because i've experienced literally the same problem in the last few weeks and have been searching forums to no avail. The warning light won't necessarily come on (mine didn't) and the car will drain the battery (as described above) if the journeys are short.

You didn't; my point was that they also need testing, and it's a test you can do without special equipment, or even opening the bonnet.

I had an issue like this with a previous car, not VAG group.

 

The battery was relatively new. The supplier tested it, diagnosed it faulty and replaced it.

 

A couple of weeks and again a very discharged battery.

 

The battery/alternator light was working correctly but it turned out that with the engine running at 2000rpm the alternator output was only about 12.5V not 14.5V. Hence with the engine running power for lights etc and some charge going in to the battery but not enough.

 

While it could have been co-incidence just before my problems I gave a jump start to someone. Their car still didn't start after several tries so a bigger issue. Now I refuse jump starts. I was lucky getting an alternator of eBay for £25 and as relatively accessible swapped it myself.

 

I doubt an exchange alternator fitted by my local independent VAG specialist and a new battery would be anything like Halfrauds price and I wouldn't have come away with brake pads fitted too. Equally much more than £25 plus I doubt I could confidently change my Fabia one on the drive.

 

I quickly learnt years ago to avoid my local fast-fit centre that now is Halfords. They wanted to fit new brake discs, pads, drums and shoes in addition to the wheel cylinder actually needed. The weep was very small so no contamination on the shoes. Later a friend told me they at first went there for MOT's and every year some work was needed. Once they went to a independent garage recommended to them they never had an MOT failure again. I used the same garage for my Audi and like wise no failure except a CV boot that was already on the job list.

 

Hence the Halfrauds name is earned.

Hi guys, quick update.

 

My car has been off the road all week. Phoned Halfords customer support to moan/whine/see what can be done, seeing as their £850 replacement of battery and altenator done sweet FA.

 

The person who initially recorded my call was quite sympathetic, so I was well hopeful that they'd do something positive for me.

 

No response while "under investigation"

 

Phoned back a couple of days later (today). The response was "get the car back to the autocentre, if we find that something we have done has caused the "second" issue, then we can look at reimbursing you">

 

So I was like, Halfords, what you've done is probably OK. It wouldn't have made things worse. But you've charged me £850 which has done nothing to fix the problem.

 

His response: stock answer again "get back to autocentre, yadda yadda"

 

So I could see where he was going with this. I now need to find a way to bump/jump start the car and get it back to the autocentre, where I'm going to do my stubborn best to get some kind of recompense. Or at very least actually fix the problem for no further cost.

 

Cheers again for reading/responses. Lesson learned: don't go to Halfords and for any garage be sure to query quotes at the time, even if it means going elsewhere (with a car that doesn't start)

Maybe this is where "breakdown cover" comes into its own?  I've always had breakdown cover, basically to cover when wife has an issue and I'm not around, also for when we are "out and about" and carrying a garage worth of tools makes no sense. Though I'd always aim to never need to use them by keeping all my cars in good nick.

 

If you had, for instance AA or RAC decent level of cover, they would come to you and also hopefully influence your local Halfords way of thinking, or if not sort things out so that you just put that unfortunate experience down to bad luck.