Battery drain, rubbish battery, or not charging properly?

[vc-10]

Yup- but if the battery is in a low state of charge, the system should charge it up regardless of braking. My typical long motorway journeys do involve a good hour and a bit of cross country up and down the hills of Somerset and Wiltshire anyway. 

[eiggol]

Hi everybody,my 1966 Fabia SEL DSG went in for second service on 23/01/18 with 5488 miles on the clock .The battery was low and showing infotainment would be turned off ,this shows most of the time as my weekly mileage is low as can be seen by my annual mileage.

I requested the dealership to charge up the battery and check the front assist and Kessy as they were not working.The dealership phoned to say the  service was done and they were charging the battery and the faults were because the battery was low.

They delivered the car back and the report showed the battery was good and 50% charged.

Over the next two days I covered 33 miles and when I turned the ignition off on the second day the screen popped up the dreaded battery low warning.

I immediately phoned the dealership to ask how a 50% charged battery could loose that charge in two days.The first thing they asked was had I been using the wipers ,heater, demister and the radio I told them of course I had used them with the weather we were having,snow sleet and rain.Their answer was the one I expected,using all of them at the one time would drain the battery and the mileage I had done was not usufficient to charge up the battery.I had a few choice words with them about the worth of the battery but best they could tell me was the car would always start and to try to do more mileage and this would let me use all the boys toys on an expensive little car.Technology is a wonderful thing.

[rum4mo]

30 minutes ago, eiggol said:

Hi everybody,my 1966 Fabia SEL DSG went in for second service on 23/01/18 with 5488 miles on the clock .The battery was low and showing infotainment would be turned off ,this shows most of the time as my weekly mileage is low as can be seen by my annual mileage.

  snip snip.

 

eiggol, maybe correct the age of your car?

[Flopsy]

On 25/01/2018 at 20:55, malcster said:

Just for the record the fuel pump primes as soon as it detects an unlock signal from the key fob 

 

mine doesn't, the pump only starts when i insert the key into the ignition and turn the key to the first position. Once it stops pumping i start the engine.

[malcster]

Oh strange I get a high-pitched whine when I unlock the car coming from the fuel rail area

[Flopsy]

the noise i hear sounds to be coming from the boot: 2016 TSI 90 colour edition by the way.

[Ootohere]

The fuel pump does prime when the car has sat a while and you open the drivers door.

 

The Fuel tank is back where the boot is, so no surprise you hear something there.

[AGFalco]

Are there two fuel pumps?

One in the fuel tank to pump fuel to the engine bay and

one to pump fuel in to the common rail/injectors?

 

Thanks AG Falco

[rum4mo]

Are you sure that the noise from the back of the engine area is not just something like the TB running through its self check routine, if indeed it does that, I do agree that there is a noise from that general area and that it stops a minute or so after you stop the engine.

 

Edit:- I'd think that the high pressure rail pump is run off the engine.

Edited 6 February, 2018 by rum4mo

[vc-10]

I'm 100% sure there are two fuel pumps- one to move fuel from the tank to the engine, and another to pressurise the fuel as it needs to be at a very high pressure to be injected when running in stratified charge mode (the S of TSI). 

[freeb1rd]

I am getting the same problem on a 2017 Skoda Octavia DSG.  Stop/start has stopped working.  Having read stuff on here, my husband put the car on charge yesterday, but it is still not showing fully charged.  I haven't had a low battery warning, but I only do about 12 miles to work and back 3 days a week and then around 30 to somewhere else.

[EdHru]

Heard recently from my dealer that apparently a TPI will/has been issued in this respect as they had quite few customers in reading this issue. Don't quote me on this that was my understanding when talking about different TPI's and he mentioned a raise in battery complaints.

 

In respect of charging, will/can those solar chargers help/assist in this instance when the car is not used often. Seen on couple of cars in office car park,  they had them on dashboard?

 

Really didn't expect to hear of this issue on a brand new Škoda even being only 2/3 year's old. Wife's Golf mk5 10yrs old still on original battery, touch wood.

[rum4mo]

I bought an AA Solar Charger a few years ago, maybe expected too much from it, though I was using it to try to maintain a battery in a car with an extra maybe 100milliamp intermittent battery drain - and failed to notice any improvement, which was annoying, these panels output drops away like a stone as the sun moves away from being directly shining onto the panel.

[EdHru]

24 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

I bought an AA Solar Charger a few years ago, maybe expected too much from it, though I was using it to try to maintain a battery in a car with an extra maybe 100milliamp intermittent battery drain - and failed to notice any improvement, which was annoying, these panels output drops away like a stone as the sun moves away from being directly shining onto the panel.

 

Any other options?

[rum4mo]

I've never looked, after majorly over estimating the capacity of the AA Solar Charger a similar one from Halfords is rated at 6Watts so I'd be trying to aim to double that theoretical peak power rating.

[ffox]

I've got an Eco-Worthy 10W one and as rum4mo says, it doesn't do much unless the sun is shining  directly on it.  That means hardly ever in the winter, which is when it is most needed.

[2ndskoda]

AGFalco said - 

 

"The battery will also last longer if you lock the car.

Some people will park the car ( in a garage ) and not lock the car.

This leaves more electrical stuff on than when it is locked."

This is sound advice - several manufacturers have had problems, when garaged cars  LEFT UNLOCKED have battery problems. Subaru in particular was one such brand.

[rum4mo]

I've checked the current drain on a 2009 Ibiza and a 2015 Polo both left unlocked in a garage, and the current drain dropped off down to the expected level quite quickly without the cars being locked, though during some current drain checking with the Ibiza it was left on the driveway so locked, with no change in behaviour wrt current drain.

[2ndskoda]

Might I suggest that the current drain problem is present in cars later than 2009 and 2015 - the later models seem to be the ones with reported problems.

[AGFalco]

Honda Civic's have a problem where something does not turn itself off properly.

Had a car where, once every two months the battery would go flat.

 

Thanks AG Falco

[rum4mo]

20 hours ago, 2ndskoda said:

Might I suggest that the current drain problem is present in cars later than 2009 and 2015 - the later models seem to be the ones with reported problems.

 

You might, but in my experience you would be wrong, nothing new about modern cars needing to make sure that all "not required" power users are forced to sleep to avoid draining the battery.

[EdHru]

Is this any good https://www.aldi.co.uk/autoxs-car-battery-charger/p/097088252113900

 

 

[EdHru]

Lidl will have car battery chargers from 17th February for £13.99

https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/MiddleofLidl.htm?articleId=20252

[DJSmiley]

Does it have an alarm fitted?

 

I know from some Skodas the internal alarm siren has an internal battery which eventually fails. Someway this failed battery results in a constant current drain of the battery....

 

[abaxas]

On 04/02/2018 at 20:58, eiggol said:

Hi everybody,my 1966 Fabia SEL DSG went in for second service on 23/01/18 with 5488 miles on the clock .The battery was low and showing infotainment would be turned off ,this shows most of the time as my weekly mileage is low as can be seen by my annual mileage.

I requested the dealership to charge up the battery and check the front assist and Kessy as they were not working.The dealership phoned to say the  service was done and they were charging the battery and the faults were because the battery was low.

They delivered the car back and the report showed the battery was good and 50% charged.

Over the next two days I covered 33 miles and when I turned the ignition off on the second day the screen popped up the dreaded battery low warning.

I immediately phoned the dealership to ask how a 50% charged battery could loose that charge in two days.The first thing they asked was had I been using the wipers ,heater, demister and the radio I told them of course I had used them with the weather we were having,snow sleet and rain.Their answer was the one I expected,using all of them at the one time would drain the battery and the mileage I had done was not usufficient to charge up the battery.I had a few choice words with them about the worth of the battery but best they could tell me was the car would always start and to try to do more mileage and this would let me use all the boys toys on an expensive little car.Technology is a wonderful thing.

If they charged it to 50% the battery is probably already fecked or mortally wounded.