Quite honestly Mickey if the car is doing plenty of miles and the battery is not past it's sell by date (usually around six-seven years) you should not have to use a charger. Never had one meself in 40 yrs of motoring. I borrowed one from the bloke next door once but that was for my daughter's car which had a seven yr old battery - I did tell her but as usual in one ear and out the other. I suppose there is one other issue which is dodgy alternator but the car should tell you about that anyway.

If in doubt, before testing these batteries, in my families cars, I tend to use a smart charger overnight, then remove in the morning, then wait as long as possible up to 6 hours before testing the battery, which I do at every service, really just to try to get the battery into the same charge state each time before testing if you don't do that to your own battery then you will find a random set of results, ie not so good this year, a lot better next year - which could be confusing and not helpful.

 

Always connect the battery tester across the battery posts, using any points or even remote "jumping posts" will give you very poor reading.

1 hour ago, Eccles said:

Quite honestly Mickey if the car is doing plenty of miles and the battery is not past it's sell by date (usually around six-seven years) you should not have to use a charger. Never had one meself in 40 yrs of motoring. I borrowed one from the bloke next door once but that was for my daughter's car which had a seven yr old battery - I did tell her but as usual in one ear and out the other. I suppose there is one other issue which is dodgy alternator but the car should tell you about that anyway.

That’s what i’m thinking. I think my battery is wearing out but to be fair it’s done well when you consider 103k of stop starting and the energy recoup charging regime over them miles. That’s a lot of abuse even for an AGM.

 

My battery monitor reports low cranking voltage every morning. I get a few warnings during the day also.

Edited 7 October, 20205 yr by Micky 32

I would agree and personally I would get a new battery before we get into winter and it lets you down. I recently got one on one of the ebay suppliers with a good reputation and my mobile mechanic who has a carista set it up for me - it took him about 5 mins or so.

My mum has a 2015 Fabia and has been having battery wanting lights for the past few weeks.

She has shown me that sometimes it can take 2/3 attempts to start the car, and I have seen it myself.

 

I took the car out for a good run on Saturday and had an error message  both on the dash (three letters) and a stop start error.

 

The car has done 15,000 miles in this time.

 

I have bought a new battery, and am going to get a friendly local garage to fit.

 

 

3 hours ago, wantaskoda said:

She has shown me that sometimes it can take 2/3 attempts to start the car, and I have seen it myself.

 

 

Is this a Starting problem then?

 

Although 15000 miles in 5 years would indicate low usage which can result in a low battery.

 

Thanks, AG Falco

It was very very cold when she tried, and she hadnt given it much driving between her home, and ours.

 

After i gave it a good run it has been starting better, but still not right.

 

New Battery from euro car parts was on offer £56.00

 

Is this on a Fabia II 2015 or a Fabia III 2015 with stop/start?

 

Thanks, AG Falco

its stop start, but not sure II or III

If it is stop start, have you bought the correct battery? AGM or EFB.

£56.00 is too cheap for one.

 

Thanks, AG Falco

Will it make much difference.

My mum drives 3 or 4 miles at a time 

 

25 minutes ago, wantaskoda said:

Will it make much difference.

 

Yes, a normal battery in a car with stop start will only last a few months. 

They can't take the higher charging voltage.

 

Thanks, AG Falco

Thank you for this.

 

taking it back tomorrow

 

Taking the car to kwik fit just to make sure it is the battery, and then buying a new one.

 

(Not from kwik fit!!)

On 14/02/2020 at 16:35, Confused_Cheese said:

 

Odb eleven apparently can, Carista can't from what I've read. Depending on the type of module, it has to be coded differently 🤔 Some info here: 

 

 

TBH its all a bit out of my comfort zone, and with the car under extended warranty I might get Skoda to have a look. Any idea how many notes they'd be likely to relieve me of for a new battery 🙈

 

Is it necessary to code the battery into VCDS when I just disconnected, removed, put back and connected the battery to change the light bulb? I mean if the code could have been erased because of the lack of the battery in the car for few minutes.

 

After two days when I finished my ride and had the car without engine off for 5 minutes the Amundsen Infotainment showed me “12V battery to low. Please turn off the Infotainment system or start the engine”

 

So I´m just trying to find out if there is a nexus causalis or it is just a coincidence.

 

When I reconnected the battery, I had to set the radio stations again, the windows closing / opening by one “click” etc. so I have no idea what else could be gone. Next time I probably go to the Škoda garage just for the bulb.

 

Thx.
 

No, removing > refitting a battery does not mean that you now need to recode the battery management system.

I have enough of this “Clever charging” and this battery life!

Yesterday, I changed the washer’s nozzles. I had the car switched on (without engine) for one hour with infotainment off (no music, no Bluetooth) with lights of and with few switch ons and offs (but never started engine). I tested the nozzles and washers. Wipers worked well on designed speed, I locked the car and went home.

Today morning the car did not start at all. Not even a sound of starter trying to initiate the engine. Wipers move like a snail. Battery at 11V. I don’t understand how this could happen (Anyone has any idea?!), but I have really enough. This “clever” battery will be changed for “old school” battery and I will pull out the black cable which leads from the “clever charging unit” to the battery. It will disable permanently the Start / Stop (which I don’t even use), but also disable the “smart” charging. 

 

46 minutes ago, MinionBob said:

I have enough of this “Clever charging” and this battery life!

Yesterday, I changed the washer’s nozzles. I had the car switched on (without engine) for one hour with infotainment off (no music, no Bluetooth) with lights of and with few switch ons and offs (but never started engine). I tested the nozzles and washers. Wipers worked well on designed speed, I locked the car and went home.

Today morning the car did not start at all. Not even a sound of starter trying to initiate the engine. Wipers move like a snail. Battery at 11V. I don’t understand how this could happen (Anyone has any idea?!), but I have really enough. This “clever” battery will be changed for “old school” battery and I will pull out the black cable which leads from the “clever charging unit” to the battery. It will disable permanently the Start / Stop (which I don’t even use), but also disable the “smart” charging. 

 

I would say you probably have a faulty battery. How old is it? My partners brother thar owns a 10 year old Passat and only does shortish runs and has just replaced the original start stop AGM  battery. The smart charging isn’t as problematic as some people think.

Edited 8 March, 20215 yr by Micky 32

The car itself is 2 years and 4 months old, around 35 000 miles. I do mostly short runs, but by foreign coins (and not only EUR) found in the car when deep cleaning I assume before it did mostly long runs. 

I just don´t get it all, how it could be fine yesterday 6 PM with washers and wipers working perfectly with engine off (changing nozzles and testing) and by 10 AM today not able to start and wipers slow as a snail! The car was turned off and locked during the night!

On 17/02/2020 at 21:22, BigEjit said:

 

 

The best indicator of battery health is actuation of Stop Start. If it operates quite frequently, all is well! 
 

 

Not necessarily but i’m sure for most part that is the case.

 

My battery is now at 430-450 EN Amps 39%-44% SOH depending on temperature. The battery is rated at 680 EN. Sometimes i see “Replace” and other times i see “ Good Battery”

 

I have a battery monitor and i get a lot of low cranking voltage warnings even if the engine is hot. First start of the day i see it drop to 8.5v, below 0 degrees i have seen it drop to 7.5 v.

 

One cold morning about -1degrees i drove a quarter mile to a fuel station. When i started the car the starter sounded painfully slow and activated a start stop error message. I had another incident where the starter bogged down ( voltage dropped to 7.28v)after i was in a shop for 5 mins. The fans were running due to an interruption of the regen process.

 

However the start stop system works very well. The caveat is if the outside temp is below 3 degrees i sometimes get an episode of “ power consumption is high” but the start stop system works flawlessly despite weak battery.

 

One thing i have noticed ( maybe it’s normal) when the outside temp drops to 5 degrees and lower the energy recouperation stops working. The alternator charges the battery constantly until the temperature goes back up to 6/7 degrees. I gather that’s normal?

Edited 9 March, 20215 yr by Micky 32

@Micky 32,  that idea that regenerative charging etc is temperature limited makes sense, though I suppose/hope that I'll need to wait until next winter to put it to the test (DVM plugged into the "ciggy lighter socket" and check what is happening on the over run).

 

The AGM battery in my February 2011 Audi S4, which only gets used for long trips, so sleeps in the garage connected to a CTEK thing, is still giving seriously high CCA when tested but my worry is "what is its amp hour capacity" and that lead me to buy a new Bosch AGM from Costco when they were on extra discount, so £156 for a replacement, 95Ahr 850A EN CCA maybe overkill but after 10 years I thought that it would be sensible to replace it rather than need to buy at a high price whatever was being offered when maybe 600 miles from home.

The new one when fully recharged tested as 975A EN CCA the one still in the car when fully recharged tested as 825A EN CCA back in October 2020, that car's stored battery data gives battery ageing from load as being 52% and battery ageing from output as being 87%.