Hi all, new member here, recently bought 67 plate Fabia automatic, push button start. still under warranty.  

Firstly, trying to unlock car, found key was dead, so used spare.  Replaced battery in key but now worried in case it goes again - and if I'm not at home no access to spare.

Looked at the emergency fix and that is to manually open door and hold key by starter, which should start even if key battery dead.

My questions are - has anyone done this emergency start procedure and does it work?  And, how long would you expect the key battery to last?  Lastly, does the key battery give any warning if it is about to expire, all I've noticed is a red light when you press it.

Decided to keep a spare battery in the car and another at home.  

Thanks.

Quite a few posts knocking about on this. My car didn't warn me about the battery, it just died on me. It also had a super el cheapo battery so hopefully a better brand might help it report the status. Assuming the key uses some form of NFC so is powered via proximity to the start button to validate the key when the battery is dead... I've never tried but unless something is faulty it should work fine.

Edited 8 March, 20206 yr by Confused_Cheese

Yes, the start button has a coil around it so if you have a flat battery in the key the coil around the start switch can power the fob up, and make everything work. Haven't tried it on a Skoda but have tried it on other VAG brands where it worked fine.

thanks for the replies, I was going to give the emergency start a go with the failed key battery,..only to find it now works, maybe just got out of line in the key fob. In any case now bought a new battery.