Hey hey!

My Skoda Fabia just had an EPC warning light come on and vehicle menu shows that there is an error with start/stop system. I already scheduled a check-up with the dealer on Thursday (have 45k km on clock, so just in time for third service anyways), who will check what's wrong with the system. The symptoms are vehicle not turning on, maybe after a few tries and the EPC light sometimes is on, but sometimes is not. If I leave start/stop enabled, it can happen that it won't start back when entering a stop state, for example, at a red light. Anyhow, turned off the start/stop and everything seems to be working.

Anyone else had any problem like this? Just in case the dealer tries to convince me it's not a factory fault, so looking for any ideas...

Try checking/charging the Battery first.

 

All sensors work off voltage, low voltage and sensors can throw a wobbly. ( English for not work properly. )

 

Thanks Ag Falco

Disable the start/stop. Does nothing but destroy your battery prematurely.

 

31 minutes ago, pfaff said:

Disable the start/stop. Does nothing but destroy your battery prematurely.

 

Out of interest, how does it destroy the battery?

 

As i was planning on disabling when i get my new Fabia, as i thought it would wear the battery out using start/stop...

 

would be interested to know. 

Not a worry in the real world.

Someone driving their car with Stop / Start enabled might have it stopping and starting less than someone with it disabled that does business use, 

deliveries etc and is stopping and starting a car all day long. 

 

As it is there are pretty poor batteries fitted as standard that need charging and stop / start might be inhibited more than it functions as the car never gets 

long enough journeys to have a fully charged battery in cold weather, with heater, heated mirrors, rear screen, lights, wipers, radio  etc being used.

There is a lot to read regarding stop/start here: - https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/search/?q=stop%2Fstart&type=Question

Not a fan of start/stop myself. I get to drive a lot of different marquees due to my job and they all seem to cause me  problems that I simply do not get in my crappy 13 year old dirty diesel that doesn’t have it. 

 

As an example, just got back from a road trip to Derby in a Hyundai Tucson that turned off when I hadn’t quite stopped at a roundabout. Trouble was it took me a second to realise that it had cut out, by which point I was half on the r-a-b. 

 

The system in the 1-series BMW I drove last week is the best IMO as you have to put the car in full eco mode for it to be active. All others (iirc) I have it working when you turn the key, so I have to remember to turn the stupid thing off. (I appreciate that there may be some way to change it on the other cars I’ve had, but they’re not my cars and I just get in and drive - apart from pairing my phone)

I think I figured it out. Have to wait for input from the dealer yet. Turns out the battery indeed was low. I saw the warning, but it flashed for like a second and I thought it was warning about key fob battery (it's been running for two years without change, so I expected it to be that, considering reports about poor keyfob battery life), but it turns out it was the car battery. Considering I do mostly driving around city and far less often outside, it simply might have not had the chance to charge up due to power drain from various systems, including start/stop. Turned off coming home lights and went on a lengthier drive with multimedia system turned off and no extra power drains. Today works like nothing happened and had no glitches. Will see what the dealer says though.

To save battery turn off Daytime Running Lights as well. See: -

 

1 hour ago, wiganken1 said:

To save battery turn off Daytime Running Lights as well. See: -

 

 

That's one of the top things I love about the looks of the car  those DRLs are supercool, no way I'm turning those off  I'll better let battery die than not see those lights

Ahh, the battery is not at fault. The problem is a starter cable, which is obviously too short coming already from the factory so leaves no room for vibrations. As it is semi tightened, the engine vibrations have caused it to tear, which results in bad connection and sparkling, accordingly, sometimes there is enough power to start the engine and sometimes there isn't.

Oh, brilliant, another VW Group mistake!   Now I wonder if that issue affects the 1.2TSI 110PS with the 6MT, I'll need to check the parts listing to see if all versions use the same cable, and check to see if the similar 6C Polo uses the same cable.

50 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

Oh, brilliant, another VW Group mistake!   Now I wonder if that issue affects the 1.2TSI 110PS with the 6MT, I'll need to check the parts listing to see if all versions use the same cable, and check to see if the similar 6C Polo uses the same cable.

You can open the bonnet and see it on the driver's side below the battery. According to the dealer, obviously there are longer cables available, not sure why they put the shorter one.

The parts listing that I use does not cover the latest version of Fabia, only up to 2014, so I could not check if the Mk3 Fabia uses the same cables as 6C Polo 2015, I did find the earth cables for the 6C Polo, and see that one cable changes from 180mm to 200mm, the change date was 25/01/16 which is during the production run of 6C Polo, also another cable changes 30/05/16 but there is no length given for that one either before or after that change date, so VW Group has been changing these cable sizes for a reason.

 

Edit:- sorry, I meant to ask what the build date of your car was roughly?

Edited 1 February, 20188 yr by rum4mo

3 hours ago, rum4mo said:

The parts listing that I use does not cover the latest version of Fabia, only up to 2014, so I could not check if the Mk3 Fabia uses the same cables as 6C Polo 2015, I did find the earth cables for the 6C Polo, and see that one cable changes from 180mm to 200mm, the change date was 25/01/16 which is during the production run of 6C Polo, also another cable changes 30/05/16 but there is no length given for that one either before or after that change date, so VW Group has been changing these cable sizes for a reason.

 

Edit:- sorry, I meant to ask what the build date of your car was roughly?

Ordered at the beginning of October and arrived on December 19, 2015, so somewhere in between.

15 hours ago, rum4mo said:

Oh, brilliant, another VW Group mistake!   Now I wonder if that issue affects the 1.2TSI 110PS with the 6MT, I'll need to check the parts listing to see if all versions use the same cable, and check to see if the similar 6C Polo uses the same cable.

Got an answer today on procedure, they said they have to change the entire cable under warranty. Said they will install a longer cable.

I'd be interested to know which of these cables they end up replacing, I still have not looked at these cables on my wife's July/August 2015 build date Polo 1.2TSI 110PS 6MT, but I'll do that later!

 

Edit:- as you have said it is a starter cable, I'd think that you were meaning the +12V lead and not an earth lead to that general area, if it is the +12V starter supply cable then I'd think that it will be part of a pre-assembled wiring harness, which does sound like what they are replacing in your car - like I said, I have not looked at this on my wife's car - yet.

Edited 2 February, 20188 yr by rum4mo

Okay, I've now had a look at this area on my wife's August 2015 6C Polo 1.2TSI 110PS 6MT, and there are two +12V leads, the first one heads down to the starter motor and has a loop/bend in it to minimise the possibility of it attempting to fracture or force the retaining nut to unscrew and the connection to the starter motor is still tight, the second one heads across from the battery +VE to the alternator, it is certainly built into a wiring harness, I've forgotten if the starter +VE feed is, though I'd expect it will be as well.

My 2016 Fabia III has just developed this problem with the ECP light coming on and a message 'Start/Stop problem' coming on screen, the warning disappears when the Start /stop is switched off. The car has done very few miles recently, and warnings advising me to drive for a few miles to charge the battery have appeared. I bought a smart charger and have kept the battery charged. Having read all the reports about low battery power causing problems I checked the battery, (my charger gives an indication of charge level before being connected to the mains) it showed no charge present, even though it started the car. Plugging the charger in for just a few minutes appeared to raise the charge level to about 50%, more than enough to start the car but the start stop warning remained. Leaving the battery on charge until it indicated 100% charge on the charger, did not change anything, the car starts but the problem persisted. The battery is the original and is over 4 years old, although the voltage shows around 12+, could the car be detecting low capacity? I haven't taken the car on the road but it seems to run well enough with the Start-Stop switched off, would driving it cause any other problems - I might need to if I go to renew the battery.

Sorry but the computers don't care about the battery having enough power to have bright headlights and even enough to start the car and driving the car will do very little to help as just starting the car used to in the old days take 8-15 miles to just get the starting charge back into the battery and that was for cars without computers to keep happy.

 

A fully charged battery, after being left to settle for a while, can show12.6v - 12.9v but can be well below these figures to start and run the car (plus you have to allow for for errors and discrepancies in whatever electronic device gives you these figures).

 

Your battery charger might not be up to this particular job that it's required to do - or the battery is too far gone for it (or any).  The hot weather and the battery still being connected to the car will make any chargers work harder. 

 

To recharge the battery well you need a long slow and low recharge which may be beyond some of the big brash fast modern chargers, or make the little maintenance chargers take a long time.  I'm not a fan of modern chargers unless you get the better (usually much more expensive) ones, my chargers are 20+ and 30+ years old.

 

Ideally you'd take the battery out of the car, and charge it somewhere cool during this hot weather.  Fully charging it could take a day or two or more depending on your charger, you certainly could go faster with some chargers but often faster in is faster out as it doesn't go deep enough.

 

Much to my surprise on my wife's 2015 Fabia only the date and time needed resetting after having the battery was out the car for nearly a day (I must admit I panicked and went against my own advice and fitted a new battery anyway, I've more than enough loathing farting about with my own car to fart about with a second).

 

As with battery chargers same with batteries you want the right one for the job and not paying enough can be false economy, I'm sure your charger would cope with your existing battery fully charged or keeping a new battery topped up (subject to the charger being suitable to the type of battery).

 

If you prefer change the battery that will (may?) require a recoding of the new battery, either by a dealership or garage with the VAG system or there is a map of VCDS owners who may, or may not, wish to help, obviously I can't speak for others but I was helped by one local to me. - VCDS owners map  - https://tinyurl.com/yn6mmtyk

 

This is the battery I've recently put in my wife's 2015 Fabia - the AGM battery from Tayna, a Bosch S5 A05 (other suppliers and batteries are available). - https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/bosch/s5a05/

 

HTH.

 

Edited 26 July, 20214 yr by nta16

10 hours ago, rgcaston said:

The battery is the original and is over 4 years old

In a car with start/stop, that's effectively scrap.

1 hour ago, KenONeill said:

In a car with start/stop, that's effectively scrap.

Possibly for some, depends on the use of the car and stop/start.

 

My wife's car regularly does very short journeys, some days only 1.5 miles twice a day, so the start/stop is often switched off when not required.  After nearly 6 years I changed the battery but I'm sure with maintenance I could have got at least another year out of the battery but it's not my car to have available for such, plus I'm fed up with faffing about with my car and don't want to with a second car.

Thanks for the responses to my post.

We have rarely use the start stop system as most journeys are short anyway. The car was an ex demonstration model and had done 22.000 miles in a few months, I would hazard a guess that the system had been 'demonstrated' many times. We have only put about 11.000 miles on the clock when the clutch began slipping and was down to the rivets when recently replaced, which suggests the car was worked hard in those 22,000. miles. Overall I have been quite pleased with the performance of the car. It does seem likely that the battery is ready for scrapping but will try a long cool charge before that, my charger is claimed to be suitable for AGM type batteries of up to 100Ah so it is worth a try. 

1 hour ago, rgcaston said:

my charger is claimed to be suitable for AGM type batteries

 

Also if you don't remove the battery from the car then don't connect the charger up to both battery terminals.

You need to connect the negative up to an earthing point, see the car manual for more detail.

 

Thanks, AG Falco 

My wife's car was a claimed to be a courtesy car for the dealership we bought it from and had 10k-miles on it at purchase but I've no real idea how long it took to get that mileage.  22k-miles sounds a lot for a demonstrator but sometimes these cars can also be used as 'pool' use for as runabouts or for some employees and their families use.

 

Check what type your battery is, ours was EFB and I switched to AGM but your charger may probably have a general setting for stop/start batteries which covers both.  If you have the type that does crank and alternator testing check those too as a battery can fully charge and still be unsuitable for the type of use it will get.  Also if your battery charger has a 'recondition' (or similar worded) setting then that might be use but be aware you will need more time and patience with that setting.

 

My 20+ year old 4-stage maintenance charger, with the battery out of the car, might take up to 60 hours (that's two and a half days) on a big battery that's as flat as a pancake and many people don't have that amount of patience but I've recovered a few of the neighbours' batteries with one or two days of charging.  One was for a diesel van battery that was flattened and a modern battery charger had failed to recover it so it sat for two years on the garage floor.  All it needed was the right type of old slow, low charger and time and patience other than lifting the battery no hard work was involved, the 48 hours took up just minutes of my time, getting the charger out, connecting up, checking when it's done and disconnecting and packing away the charger.

 

I always let the chemicals or machines do the hard work, preferably without me being their so that I can be doing something much more enjoyable which is just about anything that doesn't involve faffing about working on cars, which is always unrewarding to me.