Hi all, after loads of research I took the plunge and bought a used June 2015 auto Scout. As both my wife and I suffer from arthitis in our left knees we decided to go for the auto gearbox. We also have 2 adult children and a dog so needed loads of space for holidays etc. our family hobby is metal detecting so we often have to park in muddy fields so the AWD was also a factor in our choice. I've had it for a couple of weeks now but, despite the salesman's comprehensive "teach-in" going through all the features of the infotainment system a lot of it fell on deaf ears! After looking up various topics in the manual I'm afraid I'm still struggling with getting to grips with the myriad of controls as I don't find the manual very "user-friendly"! Hence I'd be grateful for any advice from experienced Scout drivers please. If you are happy to bear with me I'll go through my questions over the next few days as/when I think of them. The first one is the fact that I've had the car for about 2 weeks now and although only driven it for a few short joirneys had a message that the battery was low. On checking the status it read 40%. After driving it for about 20 miles it then read 60% and had been 50 or 60% ever since. However it starts and runs fine but the stop/sart raely works (a factor that I'm quite pleased about!) Before taking delivery of it the salesman said that the battery had failed the Skoda test and that a new one had been fitted. Surely a new battery shouldn't already be this low should it or is it down to the lack of a long run? Or is it faulty dagnostics? Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Happy to try to help. 

 

A new battery shouldn’t be suffering at 60% already. 

 

Either a new one wasn’t fitted, or there is another issue draining the battery! 

 

Good luck getting it sorted. 

Thanks for the advice. It's got a year's warranty from Meadens so I'll ring them tomorrow and get thrm to sort it out!

If a Varta battery was fitted, it will have a date code on the negative post week/year. Get the date and see how old it is relative to the car. Batteries fitted in production predate the vehicle by no more than 5 weeks. A newer battery will have a newer more recent code.

 

Short journeys won’t help the battery condition esp in cold weather. It needs a good amount of regular engine run time to keep the battery at peak voltage. Otherwise it slowly declines and if left low for days on end, internal damage starts eventually leading to early life failure later on. The battery could be further compromised if the car was at the dealers for more than a month and didn’t get any sort of battery care or charging during that time.

 

The onboard battery indicator appears to read lower than actual anyway and was removed on later vehicles prob due to customers saying it never shows 100%.

 

if stop start is regularly active, the battery is good. 

Edited 5 March, 20188 yr by BigEjit

9 hours ago, BigEjit said:

The onboard battery indicator appears to read lower than actual anyway and was removed on later vehicles prob due to customers saying it never shows 100%.

Apparently the battery isn't charged to more than 80% normally, with the remaining 20% allowing capacity for regenerative charging to provide additional green "braking".

Many thanks everybody for your help - it's much appreciated! Battery at 50% this morning and went up to 60% after a 6 mile round trip. Just phoned Meadens and they confirmed that they'd fitted a new battery  (but I haven't yet checked the dates on the battety fitted), they're taking it in this week so hopefully it can be easily sorted!

Edited 6 March, 20188 yr by Johnfella

It would be interesting see if you could get it to charge more with some heavy braking in your next journey. the car uses the alternator to help harvest excess speed and energy during braking into battery charge. So heavy breaking should  boost your charging. I learn something everyday.

It’s an emissions thing. One of the alternator control program conditions is for the alternator to charge the battery when off the throttle so that there is no additional fuel needed or burnt to create electrical charge unnecessarily. It’s taken whilst the engine is naturally slowing off throttle and only when the battery is below its optimal charge point. Smashing the brake pedal (other than the for the obvious) just loses forward momentum that could otherwise have been used to create additional charge. 

 

The battery always ways needs to be at 100% for maximum life expectancy of around 10 years. Anything less for too long shortens lifetime and capacity through internal damage. 

Edited 6 March, 20188 yr by BigEjit

As I thought a new battery shouldn't be anywhere as low as mine after just a few weeks. Having been a driver for best part of 50 years now and living through the days of poor brakes back then and ever since braking using the gearbox (manual) I tend not to use the brakes unless necessary as they are so fierce and it's easy to throw your passengers around! Could this be contributing to the problem then?

Hi again

just had a look at the battery and my son took a couple of pictures of it. He also scanned a bar code shich translated as "205# 7P0 915 105      #0683801  #332486349#29041518*205 JCB4F4T0YJK*=". I've no idea what this means but maybe somebody on this forum does! Here are the pictures my son took.....

 

16 hours ago, BigEjit said:

If a Varta battery was fitted, it will have a date code on the negative post week/year. Get the date and see how old it is relative to the car. Batteries fitted in production predate the vehicle by no more than 5 weeks. A newer battery will have a newer more recent code.

 

Q So thats week 18 year 15 then which almost matches your cars manufacture date. 

And as the yellow paint marks on the terminal  all look in line I would say it's original and never been touched

Just spoken to the sales bloke at Meadens and emailed him the photos. He blamed the service dept and said he would tear them off a strip. Hopefully it was a genuine mistake as I don't like conflict and told him that, if he sorted it out as a mattet of urgency and gets a genuine new fully-charged battery fitted that would be the end of the matter! Awaiting a phone call now for it to be picked up and sorted. Here is another photo...

 

Edited 6 March, 20188 yr by Johnfella

Just had a phone call from the sales bloke. He's based at Sway and blamed the Brockenhurst branch for not doing what they said they'd do. According to hm they just tested it and, as it was reading over 12v decided not to bother replacing it but to charge it instead! Not sure if it was a misunderstanding or not but I'm prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt. Anyway new battery being fitted next week and I said I want the battery manufacturer's warranty info. He asked when I could I drop it in to Brockenhurst but as I live in Christchurch told him I want it picked up, sorted and returned to me. I'll let you know what happens!

Nice result!  The 2D snowflake has part number and manufacturing details and dates so that it can be scanned prior to installation in plant as a check to ensure it’s the right one for the vehicle spec and within the age limit for fitment.  The yellow marking is a check mark to show the fixing has been correctly torqued and highlights tampering after assembly. Most major fixing around the vehicle are painted for the same reason. There’s a date of 29/04/15 wk 18 in that 2D code. Car production date prob in May/early June. 

 

The battery warranty only really covers manufacturing defects. If there are any present, they will usually show within a month. Varta AGM’s rarely have any problems anyway. A discharged damaged battery is not a warranted failure, classed as abuse esp if a car has been long term stored without battery care or only does infrequent short journeys.  Previous discharge damage is the reason you need it changing.

 

If you us the car regularly and do more than 4 or 5k a year with one or two big trips out every so often, it will self manage the battery just fine. 

Edited 6 March, 20188 yr by BigEjit

On 06/03/2018 at 14:30, Johnfella said:

As I thought a new battery shouldn't be anywhere as low as mine after just a few weeks. Having been a driver for best part of 50 years now and living through the days of poor brakes back then and ever since braking using the gearbox (manual) I tend not to use the brakes unless necessary as they are so fierce and it's easy to throw your passengers around! Could this be contributing to the problem then?

It shouldn't be. Lots of engine braking should be good for charging the battery. It's a very slow rate of charge the rest of the time.

New battery fitted last Thursday and has been at 90% ever since.