I am a very low mileage driver. Generally the big car (1.4tsi superb) will be locked in the garage for anything from a few days to a couple of weeks at a time. We use a fabia as the shopping trolley. I noticed the superb has a small 59Ah battery (I assume its an AGM battery) and from previous experience I am concerned about the battery running down, and subsequent shortened battery life.

 

Does anyone know what the current drain is when a superb is locked up?

 

I have a variable lab power supply which I use as a charger, I can set voltage (0-30V) and current limit (0-5A) to anything necessary. Do you think its a good idea to hook it up and set up to maintenance charge levels (say 13.5 volts, 0.25A max) or is it risky considering all the electronics the car has.

Unless your charger has a self monitoring so it stops charging when the battery is optimised, then invest in an optimate type charger but and a big but I do not know what if any impact the AGM type battery has  either. Others will be along with a better answer.

Mines been parked up the longest in Manchester airport for just over 3 weeks with no issues and in contrast when camping leaving the boot open with cool box plugged in triggered the low battery warning after 3 hours...

The car has a low battery warning? Is there anything in the infotainment menus?

first symptoms were Start-Stop didn't worked in last months

then one Monday morning -8c, after ~60h without move, didn't able to activate Webasto by remote control

and next Monday morning -15c, after ~40h without move, didn't able to activate Webasto and started engine just by second attempt

 

dealer charged battery, for free, and Start-Stop became alive for next few days

btw. noticed fuel consumption dropped for about 0,7l/100km

 

 

I keep my low use vehicle on permanent charge with a CTEK battery conditioner charger with an AGM cycle function.  It charges the battery and then continuously monitors it over a 10-day period, charging only if necessary.  The conditioner has an 8 step cycle.  Optimate are another option as long as it includes an AGM capability as they need very specific charging voltages.

Checked and my car has an EFB (Enhanced Flooded battery). This is a halfway house between a standard battery and an AGM battery though not they are not cheap. Just enough for stop start use, but nowhere near as good as AGM.

 

https://www.yuasa.co.uk/info/technical/agm-efb-explained/

I will always put my car on charge if I am leaving it for more than a week! I had an Octavia VRS TDI before and went away for two and a half week and came back to a flat battery. luckily it was on my drive but if I had left it at an airport then that would have been a problem. Going to invest in a solar cell next time as the Super is difficult to leave the bonnet closed, connected to a battery charger.As it is the car after says low battery if I leave it for 3_4 days without running!

I wonder if I can claim some sort of record for the shortest length of time for a flat battery to develop?  I drove my new (to me) Superb TDI a massive 8 miles home from the dealer on Monday, didn't drive it on Tuesday, then on Wednesday, less than 48 hours after picking it up, my new pride and joy announced that the battery was discharging , and advised me to start the engine.  Which I did.  Or, which I tried to do.  No pleasing engine sound, just a lot of high-speed chattering from various relays, and lots of flashing dashboard lights and warning messages.  I called out the nice AA man, who jump-started the car, then ran a few tests and announced that the battery looked as though it had failed.  However, I then managed to make a 130-mile journey to visit a client and, this morning, it fired up okay and has continued to do so.  Would it be worth my taking it in to my local Skoda dealer to have the battery and charging circuits checked?  I've no idea how long the car had been standing at the dealers before I bought it;  it may just have needed a good run to charge it up.

 

Not a very good start to my Skoda ownership but, to end on a more positive note, the ride, handling, sound system and overall appearance of the car are nothing short of, well, superb     

No harm in asking them to check, especially as you have only just got the car. Interestingly I had a routine service done on my car on Tuesday this week and they told me while the car was there they would perform a recall which was a software update to optimise the battery. I haven't had a prom and have no real idea what this was!

For information:

 

When my car is parked up a long time, I keep my battery topped up with a lab power supply set at 13.42v (float/maintenance level). Eventually after 2 or more days the current has dropped to 16-18mA with occasional activity of up to around 50mA lasting no more than 30 seconds a few times an hour. If I query the car from my Connect app, the car electronics click away and come to life consuming far more,  I guess a couple of amps for approximately a minute before going back to sleep.

 

So parked up, current drain is on average < 20mA. Note that cars fitted with Kessy will have a higher drain I reckon.

 

I have observed that the microhybrid arrangement usually keeps my battery at the 70 - 80% charge level on average. Factor in that the (EFB) battery should not be allowed to to go below around say 30% then it's possible to work out a possible maximum standby time.

 

In my case 40% of 59Ah / 20mA = 49days.

 

This is best case, as the battery gets older and tired, capacity may fall and leakage increase. Also it's possible the battery may be less than 70% charged.

 

It seems that a month without starting or charging is possible.

 

Bear in mind deep discharges shorten the life of the battery.

On 02/08/2018 at 21:56, Dwardski said:

I wonder if I can claim some sort of record for the shortest length of time for a flat battery to develop?  I drove my new (to me) Superb TDI a massive 8 miles home from the dealer on Monday, didn't drive it on Tuesday, then on Wednesday, less than 48 hours after picking it up, my new pride and joy announced that the battery was discharging , and advised me to start the engine.  Which I did.  Or, which I tried to do.  No pleasing engine sound, just a lot of high-speed chattering from various relays, and lots of flashing dashboard lights and warning messages.  I called out the nice AA man, who jump-started the car, then ran a few tests and announced that the battery looked as though it had failed.  However, I then managed to make a 130-mile journey to visit a client and, this morning, it fired up okay and has continued to do so.  Would it be worth my taking it in to my local Skoda dealer to have the battery and charging circuits checked?  I've no idea how long the car had been standing at the dealers before I bought it;  it may just have needed a good run to charge it up.

 

Not a very good start to my Skoda ownership but, to end on a more positive note, the ride, handling, sound system and overall appearance of the car are nothing short of, well, superb     

Nice try, BUT . . .

Collected my previous Fabia about 10am.

Drove 1/4 mile to fill it.

Drove 200yds home.

An hour later attempted to start it - nothing!

That was the start of about 3 months of the supplier attempting to fix it - they had it for 3 weeks at one stage !

Drafted a letter of rejection and went in with it, only to be greeted with " we've fixed it! "

"  the dealer traced a temperature switch on the engine which did its own thing in the middle of the night with resultant power loss.  "

28 minutes ago, xman said:

It seems that a month without starting or charging is possible.

 

This tallies with my experience. My car was parked up for the best part of 3 weeks (aren't holidays wonderful?) and I was concerned as to how it might fare once I got back. It started first time, with a very slight increase in crank time (or it could just have been me listening out for it more than usual).

 

I think it had a good charge beforehand as I average 150 motorway miles a day, with little use of lights due to summertime, so it was well prepared. The one thing I noticed was that start-stop was unavailable on start-up (I usually disable it at the start of every journey, but had forgotten). The reason I noticed was that it didn't stop the engine as I left the car park, which it does under normal circumstances if I forget to disable it, but did about 200 yards later at the give way I had to stop at. 

On 03/08/2018 at 12:08, Speedman said:

No harm in asking them to check, especially as you have only just got the car. Interestingly I had a routine service done on my car on Tuesday this week and they told me while the car was there they would perform a recall which was a software update to optimise the battery. I haven't had a prom and have no real idea what this was!

Well, I'm happy to say that, 10 days on, and 600 miles later, "Chukka" has started every time and hasn't given me any further problems.  As you suggested, I could do with having the battery checked properly but trying to arrange that is proving to be a little difficult as I'm currently working away quite a bit.  I'll get it in as soon as I can, and see what they say...  

 

In the meantime, I picked up one of the car lighter adapters (shown below) from Amazon.  It's helped me to keep an eye on my battery voltage and, again, everything seems to be okay so far...

On ‎03‎/‎08‎/‎2018 at 12:08, Speedman said:

Interestingly I had a routine service done on my car on Tuesday this week and they told me while the car was there they would perform a recall which was a software update to optimise the battery. I haven't had a prom and have no real idea what this was!

Hi @Speedman. Did your invoice give the recall number for the battery optimisation mod? Mine did for the headlights mod they did at my last service.

Hi, just checked my paperwork and it doesn't mention the recall. It was something they said when I dropped the car off but I don't know anything further than they said it was a 'battery optimisation recall'.

Are they 'Recalls' because they call you but do not write to you like proper 'Recalls',  or are they Service Campaign Actions, sometimes Skoda Secret Service Campaigns, 

need to know basis and the cars owners needs to know the least!

Are they on here.

http://master.skoda-auto.com/mini-apps/recall-actions 

Tech Service Bulletins is what most of this stuff is NOT recalls. Recalls are usually for safety related matters only and should be notified to registered owners. Nothing to do with secrecy. Most owners don't give a hoot for the detail just that their vehicle has been updated/modified as required by the TSB or recall.

If you ask they will give you details, at least they have always done so when I ask. Maybe the front of office staff have to go ask the techies but so what, they are no more technically qualified than the average owner.

31 minutes ago, Sagalout said:

If you ask they will give you details, at least they have always done so when I ask. Maybe the front of office staff have to go ask the techies but so what, they are no more technically qualified than the average owner.

 

My dealer has refused to divulge any information relating to TPI's on each occasion I've asked. They told me that they are not allowed to make that information public, not even the TPI number.

You can find TPIs relating to your VIN - for a small fee - via erWin.

1 hour ago, Wino said:

You can find TPIs relating to your VIN - for a small fee - via erWin.

 

Is that under the Vehicle Identification section?

Yes, as far as I remember.

Owners of vehicles do not need to pay to find out what some agent of the manufacturer / employee of a dealership is doing to their vehicle.

Data Protection does not cover it and allow 'Employees' to come away with guff.

Corporate Responsibility covers it, and a driver being responsible for the safety of the vehicle they are in charge of.

 

Too many go collect a car from servicing that has had a Software Update applied without them being informed.

This might be no issue if it makes no difference to how the vehicle is going to perform and there will be no difference.

Or the car / van or what ever has been road tested.

As some will know including the 'Techs' here, some Engine Management or Gearbox ECU updates do affect how a vehicle behaves after a Software or Hardware Update.

 

There are indeed 'Service Campaign Recall Actions that are carried out and it is like Skoda Secret Service 'Loose Lips Kills' Say nothing type sh!te from Dealerships.

 

Then there are those chancers still getting cars in for Services or Warranty work and applying the VW Fix, and getting paid to do it, and with no signed permission from the cars owners 

or registered keeper.

Substitute the word 'should' in for the word 'do' in your first sentence and you're right.

The fact that it is possible to find out this information oneself, for not much outlay seems a positive though, to me.

You 'should' not have to pay to find out, and you 'do' not need to pay.  So just say no, go get the boss!.

 So ask in writing what was done to your vehicle and get that reply in writing showing the information and why.

 

There is no Commercial Confidentiality, any 'Updates' should be clearly understood not only by the Manufacturer, but by the driver or owner of a vehicle.

VW Group dropped the 'Das Auto'  and went for 'Honesty',   they just forgot to send that message out to Employees and 'Approved Repairers'.