Care of the Car during lockdown

[Robbydazzler]

The wife is imprisoned for 12 weeks due to her medical condition and I am not using the Toledo at all since my daughter is doing our shopping. I have , up till now, driven the car once or twice a week until the four bars for water temperature are all lit just to prevent tyre flat spots and , hopefully, battery deterioration. Is this wise ? The engine is 1.0 TSI. I also note that SEAT have provide Honest John with the following concerning battery charging........

While we’d generally advise customers not to trickle charge their vehicles, however, these are certainly unusual times. Our customer helplines remain open, as well as the live chat feature on www.seat.co.uk, so in the first instance we’d suggest a customer contact SEAT customer services, or their local retailer, for guidance on their individual case.

A vehicle can be trickle charged but it’s important to note that our vehicles use lithium-ion batteries so if a customer wishes to utilise a smart charger then it must be compatible for this battery type, and it must not be rated more than 32A with a capacity of 250Ah. 

A customer trickle charging their vehicle will not invalidate their warranty................Lithium-ion batteries??  It looks like a normal Lead Acid Battery to me.

 

If I was to remove the battery to charge it would I run into Radio code and Engine Management problems when I reconnected it?

[MickA]

I've got the 1.2Tsi Toledo, so exactly the same engine  as the equivalent Rapid 2014. I use one of those cheapo Aldi maintainance chargers on it, seems to do the job ok.

Been reading up only the other day about what you should do re charging cars with stop/start function etc...that's mine, as I say it's fine for mine with a low amp unit like the one above.

Regards the taking off  the battery to charge, mine was ok no ill effects, just needed to reset the clock and radio presets. it drove fine afterwards. That was when I had a new battery fitted.

Now my other car (Mazda MX-5)  that had to relearn the the cars typical running characteristics via the ECU when disconnecting the battery. This only caused the idling of the engine to become erractic, a 30 mile drive and it sorted itself out back to normal. I do keep that car hooked up to the same maintenance charger as above with the battery connected in the car, all ok again.😉

Edited 12 April, 2020 by MickA

[silver1011]

Assuming the battery was in good health prior to been sat, then a modern car should be able to remain unstarted for several weeks without adverse effect.

 

Modern tyres take many months to deteriorate so flat spots won't be a concern, as long as they are at the correct pressure.

 

If Honest John was suggesting regular car batteries are lithium-ion, then that's another reason to ignore his advice. Modern cars equipped with stop/start more often than not use AGM (lead acid) batteries.

 

Most trickle chargers are suitable for AGM batteries. Run an extension cable from the house / garage and locate it either under the car or under the bonnet and then there is no reason to remove the battery from the car. Check the owner's manual, a lot of cars these days have a secondary negative terminal to the one on the battery itself to help protect some important battery monitoring technology, it is important to use this where available.

 

The only other thing to do is keep it in gear and release the handbrake to avoid the pads sticking to the discs. Use chocks if necessary.

[Robbydazzler]

20 minutes ago, silver1011 said:

Assuming the battery was in good health prior to been sat, then a modern car should be able to remain unstarted for several weeks without adverse effect.

 

Modern tyres take many months to deteriorate so flat spots won't be a concern, as long as they are at the correct pressure.

 

If Honest John was suggesting regular car batteries are lithium-ion, then that's another reason to ignore his advice. Modern cars equipped with stop/start more often than not use AGM (lead acid) batteries.

 

Most trickle chargers are suitable for AGM batteries. Run an extension cable from the house / garage and locate it either under the car or under the bonnet and then there is no reason to remove the battery from the car. Check the owner's manual, a lot of cars these days have a secondary negative terminal to the one on the battery itself to help protect some important battery monitoring technology, it is important to use this where available.

 

The only other thing to do is keep it in gear and release the handbrake to avoid the pads sticking to the discs. Use chocks if necessary.

Thanks for the advice. I think that the battery is an EFB type 59AH 640 CCA. I have invested in a cheap trickle charger off Ebay. I have painful memories of trying to charge a still connected battery on a Fiat about 35 years ago where I managed to blow the diodes on the alternator which had to be changed. Hence I will only use the charger in a dire emergency.

[Robbydazzler]

I have had so much conflicting advice as to whether I could charge the battery  while it is still connected to the car so I posed the question to Seat customer service and got the following reply..............Thank you for your patience awaiting my response.

Whilst I appreciate the need to look at options to keep your battery charged in your SEAT Toledo whilst it isn’t in use, SEAT Customer Care are not technically trained, so I am only able to offer advice found in the owners' handbook.

If you do wish to use a charger and need to disconnect the battery then this will result in the media unit asking for the radio code, which due to security purposes can only be obtained by connecting your vehicle to special diagnostic equipment in one of our SEAT Retailers.

I apologise I am unable to confirm if you can charge the battery whilst i is still connected or may need to disconnect it to do so.

Thank you for taking the time to contact SEAT UK..................So helpful !!!!!!

[rum4mo]

That info from SEAT is absolutely correct for a VW Group built back in the 2000's and one that someone had replaced the original "radio" - but for goodness sake SEAT customer services, either get a small bit of training or just ignore requests for help!

 

All these modern infotainment systems get "connected" with that car at initial factory build, so that car "knows" its own protected modules and will not ask for any security code - unless it has some inherent failure. (and at least VWs have been like that since the early 2000's if the factory fitted or dealer correctly fitted replacement was still in place - as were most others from back in the 1980's in my experience)

 

I'd always either, for convenience buy a recognised brand of smart battery charger and leave the battery connected and connect the charger between battery +VE and the body bonding point tag for the -VE, or if buying a lookie likie one remove the battery -VE and connect the charger across the battery.

 

I'll not goo into which you brand/type you should buy, but I tend to buy CTEK stuff as I leave it connected to car/cars in a garage for either weeks or months and I want to minimise any possible problems.  Aim to get one that has a 5Amp output as that is what is recommended for that range of battery capacities found in these cars.

 

If you are buying and using a charger, then no need to start the car once a week, maybe once every month and driven for "essential business" as in a 10 mile round trip instead of just running it while on the driveway.

 

I think that I've heard about them all having Lithium batteries according to a VW Group customer services person - maybe we all need to complain and get our batteries type corrected FOC? 

 

One of my CTEK chargers is ready for supporting Lithium batteries though!

Edited 23 April, 2020 by rum4mo

[Robbydazzler]

45 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

That info from SEAT is absolutely correct for a VW Group built back in the 2000's and one that someone had replaced the original "radio" - but for goodness sake SEAT customer services, either get a small bit of training or just ignore requests for help!

 

All these modern infotainment systems get "connected" with that car at initial factory build, so that car "knows" its own protected modules and will not ask for any security code - unless it has some inherent failure. (and at least VWs have been like that since the early 2000's if the factory fitted or dealer correctly fitted replacement was still in place - as were most others from back in the 1980's in my experience)

 

I'd always either, for convenience buy a recognised brand of smart battery charger and leave the battery connected and connect the charger between battery +VE and the body bonding point tag for the -VE, or if buying a lookie likie one remove the battery -VE and connect the charger across the battery.

 

I'll not goo into which you brand/type you should buy, but I tend to buy CTEK stuff as I leave it connected to car/cars in a garage for either weeks or months and I want to minimise any possible problems.  Aim to get one that has a 5Amp output as that is what is recommended for that range of battery capacities found in these cars.

 

If you are buying and using a charger, then no need to start the car once a week, maybe once every month and driven for "essential business" as in a 10 mile round trip instead of just running it while on the driveway.

 

I think that I've heard about them all having Lithium batteries according to a VW Group customer services person - maybe we all need to complain and get our batteries type corrected FOC? 

 

One of my CTEK chargers is ready for supporting Lithium batteries though!

Thank you very much for this advice and it makes complete sense. I bought a cheap as chips 3 stage intelligent charger with a max output of 6 amps. At present I have no confidence in it at all and hence I will take the disconnect the -ve terminal before connecting the charger to the battery method. I would imagine that I will get a lot of  warning lights when I reconnect the battery but they will disappear after I drive the car?  If I wasn't such a lazy sod I would have bothered to a have read of the Owners manual earlier. Having condescended to do this I got the following advise concerning battery charging......"Only in the case of "fast charge" : disconnect both battery connection cables (first the negative terminal then the positive" ....and......"When charging with a low current ( e.g. with a small battery charger), the battery does not normally have to be disconnected. The instructions of the battery charger manufacturer must be followed".....and...." Use a current equivalent to or lower than 10% of the battery capacity to fully charge the battery"....and...."Before "fast charging" the battery however both battery cables must be disconnected".....and.... "Fast-charging a battery is dangerous and requires a battery charger and special knowledge . Fast charges should be performed by an official technical service". ......and.... "The following functions will either be inoperative or will not work properly after disconnecting and reconnecting the battery.  Clock . Multifunction display data is deleted.". There is no mention of connecting the -ve terminal of the charger to an earth point rather than the battery terminal in the case where the battery is left connected to the car although it does advocate this when jump starting the car.

[rum4mo]

I've not yet needed to remove a battery terminal from a car with purely electric steering, but yes it seems that you will end up with some warning lights that will quickly disappear once you start driving.  

 

Being someone that records all the fuel usage etc, my "worst fear" will be losing the running data in the fuel computer's memory, but I'd get over that eventually!

 

Fitting the -VE clip of the charger to the battery -VE rather than the body bonding point tag is essential if you remove the battery -VE lead otherwise there will be no path to complete the circuit for charging, so, if using a good charger, an indication that "all is not well" and much disappointment after doing this for a few weeks and finding the battery is now not fully charged.