Anyone experiencing short car battery life on Octavia..

 

Mine went flat after 2 weeks stood still (and probably 4 starts to shift it from drive to the road and back).

It also doesn't engage start-stop most of the time in the cold weather until I've driven 10+ miles.

 

Need to do a recon charge on it.  

Day to day it's fine though.  

 

Not really convinced about start stop anyway, the fuel it saves me would probably take more than the life of the car to pay for a new battery, however from what I can see it dramatically decreases life.

We're still on the original battery that's now 5 years old, and we only use our Octavia once per week. Last Autumn we left it for 4 weeks whilst on holiday and it started straight away.

 

Start/stop usually engages within minute or so of starting.

You can get 10 years or more out of a battery if it’s looked after. All it needs to damage it is a period of being deep discharged to reduce its life expectancy or constantly running short journeys so it doesn’t get recharged properly. 
 

Stop Start isn’t about fuel saving. It’s purely about emission reduction for meeting legislation. 

Edited 8 March, 20206 yr by BigEjit

Skoda went through a period of fitting low capacity batteries (CCA - Cold Cranking Amps).

 

They also more recently had a bad batch of MOLL branded batteries that affected multiple models, a TPI was issued to alert the dealer network.

 

Check the brand and CCA of your battery.

Winter normally hammers batteries,with the constant use of lights,heater,wipers and so on especially as already said doing short journeys and this has been a long winter,my 2013 Elegance is still on it`s original battery but by saying this will probably give it the kiss of death...

Same here.  Octy is my daily drive and the battery is more than 5 years old.  At the dealers last week for service/inspection and they pronounced the battery as still being sound - although that is doubtless tempting fate.

There has been a number of people commenting on failing batteries of late.  This mirrors my recent experience with my dads CRV.  The most use the car got was nipping into town for shopping of car service.  almost not long enough to warm the 1.6 diesel through but the S/S was still active.  The batteries don't like being sat unused.  Particularly as they age.  I've had a couple of slow starts recently but with S/S disabled I believe they will last that bit longer.  Whether it's significantly long enough to warrant full time disabling of S/S I don't know.

My Octavia's now 6 years old, still on the original battery, stop-start still works.  The only time it seems a bit reluctant to kick in is if there's a sudden cold snap.  My (complete guess) as to what's happening is that the system is managing the state-of-charge at a certain level, and if the weather suddenly gets colder then it decides that's not enough for stop-start operation.  It always sorts itself out after a day or two.  Either the weather gets warmer, or the stop-start becomes available again even if it hasn't warmed up.  

I hate and do not use stop start... so I hope when warmer weather come out will improve. 

I've always used stop-start, when the car wouldn't reliably start first time from stop-start (it happened a number of times) I replaced the battery and since then it's been perfect. I upgraded to an AGM battery. The original battery was 6.5 years old.

@iriches It's by no means a rule that S/S and short journeys affect batteries.  But the evidence supports the theory.

can you check the life of your battery ? Think mine is the original and its a 2014 car and may be why my cold start intermittently takes a second or 2 longer at times...

I do not have stop/start on my manual 2014 1.4tsi Octavia (Australia spec) but I will turn the engine off to avoid unnecessary idling at traffic lights where I know I will encounter a long cycle (minute or more).

The thing is that by turning off at the ignition then all the major battery drains are also deactivated.

At this point the original battery exhibits no deterioration and the engine fires at first compression as it always has.

 

I had a (brand new) loan Fabia early last year with s/s and I was very surprised that it activated when the outside temperature exceeded 40 deg C, the air-conditioner was running at full blast as was the engine fan, so the battery drain would have been very high. So much for an intelligent system.

 

I drive other people's vehicles equipped with s/s and I really dislike it in crawling traffic where it can activate many times a minute to as the traffic edges forward. I cannot believe that saves any fuel.

 

Coincidentally the battery failed on our other runaround, a high mileage 2003 Toyota Echo.

The bog-standard (no EFM or AGM) battery was at least six years old and had been compromised by being run-flat a few times but the car still got my daughter to work on time and then failed there.

Before she borrowed it I had already intended to replace the battery that day and now after replacement the idle revs have risen marginally by a 100 rpm and a slight running misfire seems to have been corrected. I don't think it is my imagination as I even checked the plugs a couple of weeks ago to ensure they were ok and showing normal running.

A sticker on the removed battery says that an old battery can affect consumption by 2% or more and I can believe that.

Edited 9 March, 20206 yr by Gerrycan

9 hours ago, Gerrycan said:

 

Before she borrowed it I had already intended to replace the battery that day and now after replacement the idle revs have risen marginally by a 100 rpm and a slight running misfire seems to have been corrected. I don't think it is my imagination as I even checked the plugs a couple of weeks ago to ensure they were ok and showing normal running.

A sticker on the removed battery says that an old battery can affect consumption by 2% or more and I can believe that.

 

Do you think this is similar with a diesel?  Maybe the high pressure fuel systems will struggle at higher revs? (unless fuel pump is driven by the engine)

9 hours ago, Gerrycan said:

I had a (brand new) loan Fabia early last year with s/s and I was very surprised that it activated when the outside temperature exceeded 40 deg C, the air-conditioner was running at full blast as was the engine fan, so the battery drain would have been very high. So much for an intelligent system.

I had a similar thing happen when I had a loan Audi A3 with s/s a few years ago - the outside temperature was showing 35 Celsius and the AC was running full blast when I pulled to a stop at traffic lights - the s/s turned the engine off and warm air was being blasted out of the vents! I was NOT impressed, so I disabled s/s.

It's horses for courses with batteries, some go for ever and others fail early in life.  As my name implies, I come from a time when heaters were an extra or make it yourself in the form of a travel rug.  In my, ahem, younger days one used a starting handle or got someone to give you a bump start when the battery died.   I don't like the start stop and always disable if when starting.  I know the reason is to cut emissions, but I like to be kind to my battery and yes,  I know the system is supposed to be able to stand it.   When it comes to having to buy a replacement battery I will always look for a good quality one.  Mine, new Octavia 1.5TSI in October 17, is till fine.

My 63 plate with original battery died this winter (and quite quickly too). I did have some electronic gremlins in the months leading up to it dying, which in hindsight should have been a head’s up. With start stop, it’s easy to order the wrong replacement if you’re not careful.  You’ll need EFB or AGM. If the old battery is EFB you can upgrade to AGM but not vice versa. The car will need to be re-coded if you change manufactures and especially if you change types (EFB to AGM). Found Tayna to have very good prices and fast delivery. 

 

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/types/

Well mine went flat while I was at Wickes yesterday, that was fun.  Seems having the boot open for 30 mins and moving the electric seats while I cut up wood in the car park and loaded the car was enough to drain it 😐

It's now having a recon charge from my mxs5.0 charger, see if that helps.  Otherwise, it'll be a new AGM battery.

 

A friend with a 1.4tsi of the same age (66 plate) is experiencing the same issues as me...  Drains very quickly, start stop rarely initiates.  

 

 

Anyone know where the best place to buy an AGM battery from is? 

Edited 15 March, 20206 yr by Alex-W

On 13/03/2020 at 23:59, webweasel said:

Found Tayna to have very good prices and fast delivery. 

 

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/types/

Not sure I know anyone whom has bought off them though, we are currently replacing the battery on the wife's campervan.

 

She has opted for a 5 year warranty battery & hence has chosen to pay about 20% more to Eurocar parts to ensure easy of warranty claim if necessary.

 

I don't feel the battery will get that much use & spend a lot of it's time "standing" so, is a lotta no use gonna reduce the life span or increase it? Opinions would be nice

 

 

2 hours ago, Alex-W said:

Anyone know where the best place to buy an AGM battery from is? 

 

11 minutes ago, themanwithnoaim said:

Not sure I know anyone whom has bought off them though

 

I used Tayna on three occasions now, good pricing and no messing, no issues so far.

 

I put a Varta 096 Silver AGM on in place of the crappy Moll EFB, not the cheapest battery out there but the difference was marked even on starting. Still going strong now and no regrets other than Stop Start works flawlwssly now and needs turning off each time.

 

The 1.4 can also take the 096 battery as an upgrade, good write-up HERE  by someone who is also on Briskoda.

 

Remember to code the new battery!

 

(It does not matter in the slightest but it suits my OCD that Varta are one of the manufacturers selectable when coding)

 

EDIT: one warning many places including (but not confined to) the online places will list the smallest batteries possible for your car (because they are giving the cheapest price) If you want the biggest battery then it sometimes takes a bit of looking/asking

Edited 15 March, 20206 yr by flybynite

2 hours ago, themanwithnoaim said:

Not sure I know anyone whom has bought off them though, we are currently replacing the battery on the wife's campervan.

 

She has opted for a 5 year warranty battery & hence has chosen to pay about 20% more to Eurocar parts to ensure easy of warranty claim if necessary.

 

I've bought several Tanya batteries albeit, for myself and friends with electric golf carts. Found them to be no better or worse than others, in fact I think they're the same battery, just re-branded. Tanya often do some good discount codes tho. I'll defo buy from them again.

 

I'm very sceptical about any extended warrantiy as there's normally some small print so would need to see what the actual wording was before paying extra. One trick some warranties use is to say the product must be returned to manufacturer at your own cost so you might find it's just as expensive for postage than it would be for a new battery.

3 hours ago, flybynite said:

I used Tayna on three occasions now

 

1 hour ago, Scot5 said:

I've bought several Tanya batteries albeit,.......... I think they're the same battery, just re-branded.

 

Just to clarify, I have not used any Own-Brand Tayna batteries, I have used them to order the specific battery I wanted (usually Varta) as they had stock of some unusual combinations of size, spec and manufacturer

Interestingly, after mine went flat last weekend, I put it in on recon charge for maybe 36 hours.

Drove it Monday/Tuesday and start stop didn't kick in once.  I concluded it still wasn't behaving how it should do I'd get a new battery as previously after a charge start stop at least worked again for a day or so.

 

Got a Yuasa AGM 9000 one from GSF car parts (£126) on Wednesday, got home with the battery in the back and start stop engaged when I pulled up on the drive.

Drove it Thursday and start stop engaged multiple times, the speed at which it starts is also notably quicker.

 

It's bloody typical, spend out on a new battery and the old one starts behaving itself.

 

I can only conclude that the recon charge needed a few drives, discharges and recharges to take effect.

 

Whether it'll stick or not I don't know.

Probably keep the new battery in the garage and cycle charge it so it's ready to swap on if and when I need it.   

Edited 21 March, 20206 yr by Alex-W

Our octavia has a cheapo lion ecp special on at the moment, I will be replacing it for a decent one soon enough. While the sticker on it says agm, I have my doubts, also when stop start kicks in restarting is nowhere near as quick as it was with our last octavia which was running a varta agm battery.