Alex. Dont store the battery on top of concrete. Put wood or some insulator between the battery and floor to prevent discharge. Just incase you didn't know. 

2 hours ago, William2 said:

Alex. Dont store the battery on top of concrete. Put wood or some insulator between the battery and floor to prevent discharge. Just incase you didn't know. 

 

Fake news............Just incase you didn't know. 

On 21/03/2020 at 06:10, Alex-W said:

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.   

Can you take the new battery back for a refund?

 

As has been mentioned, there was a bulletin on MOLL batteries; mine was replaced under warranty, as I’d called the dealer for a price on a new battery. Very proactive of them to want to check the battery to see if it was a warranty job before charging(!) me for a new one.
 

Mine’s a 2017 too!

 

Cheers,

 

Nick

Edited 22 March, 20206 yr by Cubbington

My car is out of warranty...   Ran out in Jan.

 

May be able to get a refund, although now trying not to leave the house as advised.  It's just whether or not it'll last or whether it's just the softly warmer weather of the last week that's doing it.

Dammit, that’s a shame.

 

Fully understand you not leaving the house, but maybe in light of things, it’s worth swapping the battery over anyway?

 

Nick

3 hours ago, Alex-W said:

May be able to get a refund, although now trying not to leave the house as advised.  It's just whether or not it'll last or whether it's just the softly warmer weather of the last week that's doing it.

 

If you have given the battery a recon using a good charger, then combined with the slightly warmer weather the old battery may last the summer depending on use. You might need to give it another recon in the meantime.

 

But make no mistake about it the battery is on its way out and I would think it will go completely the first cold snap next year.

 

I kept mine going for about 10 months but it was never coming back.

 

You get what you pay for in batteries, Yuasa are very good and I use a lot of their (mainly smaller) batteries however find I have settled on the German-made batteries for cars these days (Varta and Bosch made in the same factory) which have not let me down for many years after the lesser brands which  arrive new on other machines.

47 minutes ago, flybynite said:

 

But make no mistake about it the battery is on its way out and I would think it will go completely the first cold snap next year.

 

Very likely, but folk need to remember even a new battery can be quickly damaged in close to freezing weather if left with little charge

 

Stop / Start aside, anyone doing short journeys only, especially in a larger engine'd car (especially diesel) ideally need to charge their battery regularly especially in freezing weather.........

Partly depends on power consumption whilst driving, ie lights, radio, heater etc but some neglect to think about this. Some have bigger things to worry about, fair enough.

 

I leave a 4 watt solar charger permanently in mine, (but is just a normal (non AGM) Bosch S5008). Reduces the effect of battery drain whilst vehicle unused.

Not sure if this is ok with an AGM battery?? cannot see why not tho.

 

Edited 22 March, 20206 yr by Tilt

So, my hopes were false.

It certainly looked like it was getting better after the recon charge, but 16 days into lockdown I went and checked it yesterday and it was down to 9.7v (the measurement was secondary really, you can tell it's flat by the slow mirrors and dim headlights).

I'll most likely just charge it and leave it on the car until after lockdown and then swap the be one on.  No point putting a new one on just to have it sat there slowly draining and not being charged.

On 08/04/2020 at 06:54, Alex-W said:

So, my hopes were false.

It certainly looked like it was getting better after the recon charge, but 16 days into lockdown I went and checked it yesterday and it was down to 9.7v (the measurement was secondary really, you can tell it's flat by the slow mirrors and dim headlights).

I'll most likely just charge it and leave it on the car until after lockdown and then swap the be one on.  No point putting a new one on just to have it sat there slowly draining and not being charged.

 

16 days standing is hard on even a good battery, parasitic drain is quite high in these cars. With regular use it should have got you through the summer but as I said above: 

 

On 22/03/2020 at 10:26, flybynite said:

make no mistake about it the battery is on its way out and I would think it will go completely the first cold snap next year.

 

See, for me I'd have thought a reasonable battery should last months before being drained.

People go on holiday for 2-3 weeks at a time and shouldn't come back to a flat battery.

I wonder whether there's actually a tech spec for a car where requirements like this are called out.  

 

I'll be interested to see how much the new one drains.

I've got a feeling it's not holding charge for any decent period (my charger was at stage 2 after 24 hours, so I assume i dropped in voltage and restarted the cycle) so I may have to just swap it out.

 

Next up:  check the other two cars!  None are moving for a while.  Hell, I've SORN'd one and may SORN the Skoda come the end of the month, depending on what happens.  No point paying for tax for a car that's sat on my drive.

 

Edited 9 April, 20206 yr by Alex-W

The usual OEM spec is approx 30 days stand time and still crank the engine for a battery left in good condition. It’s possible to go a few weeks longer if the battery was always well maintained. After that, the chances of a non start increase.

 

Battery manufacturer recommendations are to recharge the battery on a standing vehicle once per month if left connected, once every 3 months disconnected. 

Not in my printed manual, but in a PDF version that I downloaded it says "You should replace batteries older than 5 years."

 

Also it says it is possible to check the charge of the battery by switching off the ignition and holding in the button that sets the trip counter, but this doesn't seem to work in my 2015 car, and is also not in the manual that was supplied. Perhaps this may be helpful to someone whose car has this feature.

 

There is a potential problem if the battery goes flat, as the bonnet release is on the passenger side and needs the door to be open to operate it. Somewhere on here I saw a suggestion to leave the bonnet release popped, and it seemed like a good idea, but when I tried it I got a warning on the small display showing that the bonnet was open. I am thinking that this display will be draining the battery over a period of time, so maybe it is not such a good idea after all. I am thinking that the best plan is to try to start the engine every few days. Hopefully if the battery is not good enough to start the engine, it will have enough juice to unlock all the doors.

 

 

 

Edited 9 April, 20206 yr by OldBoyScout
Deleted PDF that wouldn't display.

31 minutes ago, OldBoyScout said:

Not in my printed manual, but in a PDF version that I downloaded it says "You should replace batteries older than 5 years."

 

According to car manufacturers, "You should replace cars older than 3 years."

33 minutes ago, OldBoyScout said:

Somewhere on here I saw a suggestion to leave the bonnet release popped, and it seemed like a good idea, but when I tried it I got a warning on the small display showing that the bonnet was open. I am thinking that this display will be draining the battery over a period of time, so maybe it is not such a good idea after all

 

My MY2018 Superb shows the bonnet open warning, but it goes out after a short while. I can confirm even with bonnet open, the car goes to sleep and current drain drops below 15mA average (it wakes from time to time and spikes around 50mA for around 30 secs.

 

Obviously not a good idea to leave bonnet open when in a unsecured place.

1 hour ago, OldBoyScout said:

Somewhere on here I saw a suggestion to leave the bonnet release popped, 

 

A better solution would be the suggestion to bend the release handle into the cabin when needed as you can always get into the car through the drivers door but the pas door is in the way of the release handle. Apparently it is designed to be able to bend it into the cabin enough to operate.