I have a much cherished carefully maintained 2004 fabia automatic.  It has, until lockdown, been driven regularly locally and at least twice a month taken for a 70 mile motorway spin to my sister's.  In. Mid January 2020 I came out to find a flat battery -  last replaced around 18 months before.  Breakdown service advised replacing it and having got started, I drove round to Halfords and bought a new one. In mid February my car passed its MOT with flying colours. In March, three weeks ago, it had a full service and I specifically asked them to test the battery , that it had no dead cells, was charging properly and there were no potential drains on it while parked. They reported it was fine.

 

I  drove to my sister's on 15 March but have not driven it since. This morning I came out to go round to the supermarket for our weekly shop (OH has been doing since lock down but his car had flat battery today.) Mine battery too was as dead as a rock. Not even enough oomph to unlock for via central  locking. Never ever been that flat. Lights def not left on. I can see it from my kitchen window. Breakdown serviceman checked alternator cable at my request and said it was fine. No internal lights staying on.  I have no stereo system and in any case I like to drive in silence. But battery was totally flat. Never had that before.  New in January. 

 

Then OH revealed he had  replaced the battery three months ago on his Peugeot Partner. Yet he had had to get breakdown service out to start him  with a flat battery 3 weeks ago so afterwards took it for a spin on the motorway to get it charged up. Yet both cars totally flat today . Parked outside near each other. Mystified. (While weworking on my car  breakdown man got a call for another flat battery round the corner from me. ) Could it be caused by  mast of some sort or some thing else. There is a film studio nearby. But it is closed now.  Anyone got any ideas?

 

 

Edited 14 April, 20206 yr by honeyrose
Typo

The cars are not being used enough to be charging the batteries.  Just starting a running a short while will not help.

If you can get the battery charged up enough to get the electrics alive again, or you put another battery in it, do this one-minute, free check as soon as you can:

 

There might be a parasitic drain as well, but if that light isn't coming on when it should, you need to fix that fault before spending any more on batteries for it.

 

 My car is mostly driven locally in the week but at least twice a month I do a 40 mile round trip see my grandchildren and  twice a month I  do a 140 mile round trip on the motorway to see my sister. This has always been enough to keep the battery charged until this year. My car did the 140 mile journey to my sister's,  on a new battery , the last time I used it.  (BTW OHs car does  do long runs for his business regularly and is in regular use.,)

 

I do not accept that suddenly I am not doing enough long runs to keep it charged. It has never ever previously been so flat I could not open it remotely. It was this afternoon.  I was surprised it needed a new battery back in January which is why I specifically got it checked  out in its service last month. 

 

Leaving aside alien force fields. I am thinking there must be something causing my battery to have started going flat. I  was hoping other Skoda Fabia  users might have some relevant experience to offer..

 

6 hours ago, honeyrose said:

I do not accept that suddenly I am not doing enough long runs to keep it charged

 

You say you last used the  car on 15th March, and found the battery flat on 14th April; that is indeed not enough use to keep the battery charged. Many, many people around the world will be suffering similar problems just now due to lockdowns and massively reduced car use. Even when the car is completely 'off', with nothing accidentally left on, it still uses power out of the battery. Not much, but enough to cause problems over a timescale of a month.

 

 

If there are any problems with the charging system, like the extremely common one I mentioned in my previous post, it's even more likely to misbehave.   Please do the suggested check when possible.

As Wino says. Few years ago I left my car off road with a suspect battery. Year later the pension parrot gave birth and I could afford a new battery. Connecting up ,i noticed a spark when I connected the -ve lead. Next step- meter ( on 10 A range) to look for a possible drain. Drain was low after a few minutes, but it's constant and car depends on been driven a few miles a day to top up battery. One thing I learned in my professional life is that there's nothing worse for a lead acid battery than leaving it in a low charge state, or even on drain with no charge going in. Even thse days with a 90A alternator ( lot larger  than petrol models) and with an 096 battery I still try to go the long way home and give it least 10 miles .Still starts ( even with some objections) even with a five year old battery and a grumpy starter.