My new/second hand 2017 Octavia 1.4tsi wouldn't start this morning, battery low warning on the dashboard. 

 

It came with a 12 month warranty, but the garage I bought it from has closed due to coronavirus, lol! I'll keep the receipt and see if I can get some good will from them when they reopen. 

 

Can anyone recommend me a reasonably priced replacement battery please, and a retailer that would be able to deliver before the weekend? Thanks. 

Have you tried charging the battery with a 12v charger of some sort? 

 

Might just be the car sitting unused, the battery lost charges. Charge it up and everything should be fine again. 

26 minutes ago, wyx087 said:

Have you tried charging the battery with a 12v charger of some sort? 

 

Might just be the car sitting unused, the battery lost charges. Charge it up and everything should be fine again. 

This first^^^

 

There's going to be shed loads of flat batt threads in the coming weeks!

If you’re car has stop/ start you need to get the correct AGM or EFB battery and needs to be coded to the car with VCDS or similar.

57 minutes ago, Kenny R said:

If you’re car has stop/ start you need to get the correct AGM or EFB battery and needs to be coded to the car with VCDS or similar.

 

It really needs coding? Bummer, could be awkward at the moment with the lockdown. 🤔

@broona Any reason, other than the battery being too low on charge to start the car, that you want to purchase a new one??????

 

Have you tried charging it, as recommended????????

 

A new battery will cost you a lot more than a smart charger, and even the new battery, if you get one, could lose it's charge if the car is not getting much use.....

3 minutes ago, Tilt said:

@broona Any reason, other than the battery being too low on charge to start the car, that you want to purchase a new one??????

 

Have you tried charging it, as recommended????????

 

A new battery will cost you a lot more than a smart charger, and even the new battery, if you get one, could lose it's charge if the car is not getting much use.....

 

I'd just assumed that it needed a new one, but happy to try charging it first. Do I need to use a special charger, or will any one do? 

23 minutes ago, broona said:

 

I'd just assumed that it needed a new one, but happy to try charging it first. Do I need to use a special charger, or will any one do? 

 

It does need to be a 'smart charger', i'm fairly certain.....

 

There have been a number of 'battery issue' type posts on Brisky of late....................please do yourself a favour and read some of them.....

They will give pointers on what and where to purchase from.

 

Just trying to save you a few quid 

Edited 31 March, 20206 yr by Tilt

1 hour ago, Tilt said:

 

It does need to be a 'smart charger', i'm fairly certain.....

 

There have been a number of 'battery issue' type posts on Brisky of late....................please do yourself a favour and read some of them.....

They will give pointers on what and where to purchase from.

 

Just trying to save you a few quid 

The charger will need to have the option to handle Stop-Start batteries (either AGM or EFB type) Stop-Start batteries charge at a higher voltage than standard lead-acid ones.

Amazon or Ebay are a good bet if delivery times are OK.

2 hours ago, broona said:

It really needs coding? Bummer, could be awkward at the moment with the lockdown. 🤔

Depends. My 5 year old battery died quite quickly before Christmas. As it was probably EOL I didn’t worry too much about conditioning it. I kept it limping on for a few days using a sealed battery charger (not a start-stop one) whilst waiting for the new one to arrive. I  replaced it with the exact same Exide EFB battery. Didn’t code it and haven’t experienced any problems. All the electronic systems run as they should. Start stop works fine. Coding it is necessary if you change type (eg EFB to AGM). It may be necessary if the car is trying to conserve power with a new battery. It will still work and you can still code it later when all this business is over.

Edited 31 March, 20206 yr by webweasel
Additional info

If you change it for the battery with the same capacity, I think you will not need coding. 

Aldi currently have intelligent chargers at about £12, it is believed they are a clone of the Ctek.

Thanks for all the replies.

 

If I take the battery off the car to charge, is there anything special I need to do to reconnect it? 

2 hours ago, broona said:

Thanks for all the replies.

 

If I take the battery off the car to charge, is there anything special I need to do to reconnect it? 

After I changed my 12v battery (due to old age, on a '63 reg car, changed a month or so ago). The dashboard lit up with warning messages. Most of which went away after driving the car a few meters. I remember need to turn steering wheel full left and full right, ACC and reverse sensor also didn't work until I restarted the car. 

 

I did have OBD11 on hand to clear everything, so I can't remember if clearing errors is strictly needed.

 

Best to charge the 12v battery without disconnecting, if you can. 

5 minutes ago, wyx087 said:

After I changed my 12v battery (due to old age, on a '63 reg car, changed a month or so ago). The dashboard lit up with warning messages. Most of which went away after driving the car a few meters. I remember need to turn steering wheel full left and full right, ACC and reverse sensor also didn't work until I restarted the car. 

 

I did have OBD11 on hand to clear everything, so I can't remember if clearing errors is strictly needed.

 

Best to charge the 12v battery without disconnecting, if you can. 

 

Thank you, I've got a Carista dongle which should let me clear any errors if necessary. 

 

Problem is, I live in a corner house with no garage or driveway, and a public footpath running right round, so I'd need to run a cable across this to charge it on the car, probably not the best idea...

I never coded mine after changing it - I swapped it for another AGM, marginally higher capacity as thats all I could get.  Never had any issues whilst I owned the car  for about a year before selling

That's my current battery, EFB by the look of things, is AGM a newer technology? 

 

Just about to put it on trickle charge overnight, old school charger, Amy precautions to take? 

12 minutes ago, broona said:

 

 

Just about to put it on trickle charge overnight, old school charger, Amy precautions to take? 

 

As mentioned above, don’t use an old school charger.

1 minute ago, Kenny R said:

 

As mentioned above, don’t use an old school charger.

 

I haven't got a smart charger, nor access to one, and everywhere is saying next week for earliest delivery, will a standard charger damage the battery? 

 

TBH, I'm probably going to order an upgraded AGM battery anyway, so as long as I can get some temporary charge in without it blowing up, I'll be happy with that. 

If an 'old school charger' only differs from one with EFB/AGM modes by charging at a marginally lower voltage, no harm will come of using one, it will just not charge the battery to quite the same fullness.  Anyone actually measured what these EFB/AGM charge modes do voltage-wise? Please don't answer if you haven't measured, just assumed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

EFB is an enhanced flooded battery. Basically an improved version of a standard wet battery. It can take about three or four times the recharge cycles of a standard battery. AGM is advanced glass mat, a gel battery which is superior to EFB in all respects but it is more expensive.

 

9 minutes ago, Wino said:

If an 'old school charger' only differs from one with EFB/AGM modes by charging at a marginally lower voltage, no harm will come of using one, it will just not charge the battery to quite the same fullness.  Anyone actually measured what these EFB/AGM charge modes do voltage-wise? Please don't answer if you haven't measured, just assumed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14.7 ish in AGM mode on my Ctek, on the bulk charging phase anyway. I think normal mode was 14.3/14.4

 

On my older Ctek its not actually an 'AGM' mode, its a mode for charging normal batteries in the cold but in the manual it does state that it should be used for 'AGM' batteries so I presume the charging program is still identical to a normal battery just the slightly higher voltage.

Edited 1 April, 20206 yr by SuperbTWM

Top man.

I need to get out more it seems....

...bit true of all of us just lately.