Hi.

I have a 2008 Fabia with 1.2l engine. This has a 51Ah 480A battery as standard. The original battery was replaced in September 2015, which means it last for about 7,5 years. It was replaced at a Skoda partner with an original part, but the new one is now starting to become weak. I wonder why the new one only lasted for about 4,5 years.

Anyway, this time I think I will try to replace it myself. Therefore I have been looking for a replacement battery. In Norway, where I live, we have a store called Biltema which is know for having good value batteries, so I think I will try one of these. But then the question, which size should I choose.

There is one with 54Ah 500A, and another with 62Ah 620A. But for some reason the one with larger capacity is a bit cheaper. And the larger one is also the same height as the original, the other one is a bit lower. I don't think it will matter, but there will be a gap between the battery and the plastic part that is over the battery.

I read in the Biltema catalog that it is recommended, as a general rule, to use a battery with similar capacity as the original, as the batteries capacity is selected by the car manufacturer based on the equipment level and the dynamo for the car. And if you choose a larger battery, you can risk the dynamo couldn't charge it enough, and you could end up with start problems. I don't quite get this. I understand that it will take longer time to fully charge an empty battery when it has larger capacity, but when you start the car it will use a certain amount of power. Will it then take longer time to charge up again to the same level as before start, if the battery capacity is larger?

I can add that I normally use my car only about 2-3 times a week, for shorter trips, and some longer trips maybe once a month. I guess this driving pattern is not healthy for the battery, so I have now got a charger to charge the battery once in a while. Have tried to charge the battery I have now, and if I measure the voltage right after fully charging I get about 12,7V, but if I check the next day (without using the car) i get about 12,2V. If I leave it for a few more days it drops to right over 12V. I think this concludes that a battery replacement is needed soon.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Should I go for the battery with the largest capacity (which also is a bit cheaper), or is it better to choose the other one that is more similar to the original to be on the safe side?

Could there be more load on the dynamo if I choose the larger one, or other negative impact?

I did also have a question about if there could be any issue when disconnecting the battery on this car, but as far as I have found out it will be okay as long as the power isn't disconnected for too long.

The car manufacturer will only have fitted the smallest battery that would allow the car to get as far as the end of its new car warranty, so in normal use adequate but no more.

Fitting that bigger battery will be okay as long as you can still get it to fit into the battery tray, maybe that version of Fabia has a standard tray that suits all engine types in that car, I plan to fit a bigger battery to my wife's 2015 6C Polo if/when its original one fails, and by buying bigger one it is cheaper than buying the same as fitted at factory, but I had to buy a new bigger battery tray.

 

Disconnecting the battery - you will maybe need to reset the electric window top and bottom points, ie hold at fully up then hold at fully down for a second.

 

The alternator will charge the battery as quickly as it can.

 

Have you considered that your car might have a higher than normal current draw from the battery when it is not running - do you have any extra aftermarket equipment fitted to that car.  If you can get the drain current checked after the controllers have been sent to sleep that would answer that question, I think that it should be roughly 50 milli amps.

Hi, and thank you for your reply.

 

My Fabia has a standard tray I guess. The battery I have now is 207mm wide, and the new one is 245mm. It seems like there is about 35mm extra space on each side of the old battery, which should leave good space for a new and larger one.

 

I think I will go for the biggest one then, the 62Ah.

 

I have considered that there could be an issue with abnormal draw from the battery, but I have no extra equipment. Everything is original and I had it since it was new, so I know nothing is modified in any way.

 

The last times I have charged the battery with the charger, I have also sometimes got an error code in the charger indicating a bad battery. Tested today, the voltage was 12,02V before I connected the charger, and when I checked again after 40-50 minutes the charger has stopped showing the "bad battery" error. There is also a kind of hole/window on the top indicating the status of the battery. It says if it's dark/black the battery is ok, but if it's yellow it's indicating a bad battery. I don't quite know how this is supposed to work, but if I use a flashlight on a tilted angle, it's kind of yellow.

 

So I guess the conclusion must be a bad battery here, and I think it's best to replace it. Even if the car start fine with a voltage around 12,0V, it even started an other day with as low as 11,8V, but then I could hear it struggle. I read somewhere that you never should have the voltage under 12,4V on the battery over time, as it then quickly starts to degrade it's capacity.

 

I guess it then only will be a matter of time before the capacity gets so low that the car wouldn't start at all, so better to get it replaced before that happens. And I will now, after replacing the battery, do regular maintenance charging every month or two, and hope the new battery will last longer.

Yes, a smart move to work out that the battery has handed out some warnings and so replace it before it causes you inconvenience!

 

One thing concerning possible long term battery drain when the car is not being used, your car was built roughly at a time when a small number of VW Polo typically with the 1.4 16V 86PS and same SEAT Ibiza, ended up with being fitted with BCMs that had a programming error/issue that caused the BCM not to always send all the "not required" controllers to sleep, so the "normal" or expected current draw/drain of 50 milli amps ended up at times being 150 milli amps or even 250 milli amps. The issue only seemed to involve cars with the lower level or basic BCM which your 1.2 would also probably have fitted.

When this is happening, if the car is used every day or every other day and for reasonable length journeys AND the battery is in good health, you would never suspect anything is going wrong - in your case, I have yet to see this being reported as being an issue with Skoda Fabia from this period of production - but I have yet to see/read this being reported for 6R VW Polos of this age, but when I finally got my daughter's late 2009 SEAT Ibiza 1.4 16V 86PS SC sorted out by a SEAT dealership, they had just had to request technical help from VW to locate the required S/W patch for its BCM to stop this happening - the theory being that any affected VW Group cars would have been sorted a lot earlier in their life, or in early life, so there was at the time I handed that Ibiza to for investigation in December 2017, no awareness of this "very old 2009 or 2010" problem. I considered myself lucky to have finally had success getting this issue resolved because prior to that, my previous SEAT dealership considered my "story" about this being the root cause of this problem to be pure internet forum nonsense/misinformation - which was extremely annoying for me, and from reading other SEAT Ibiza owners postings where this was a possibility, they just ended up selling their car on to get rid of this issue.

 

Just remember that the above is only a possibility when every other fault/failure possibility has been ruled out - and I had, to the best of my abilities ruled out all other possible faults/failures. That Ibiza, was at the time I was investigating it, a third car ie not used or needed, so I could spend lots of time checking it without causing an inconvenience to us, as I was looking after it while our older daughter was working abroad.

Edited 28 April, 20206 yr by rum4mo

Interesting to read about the software issues. I know the feeling, when you have found a problem, but have problem with the other part to accept that it's a problem. And when they at last do, and you have right. :)

I don't think my car has this software issue. It hasn't been an issue with battery running low, until before I got problem starting it lately, and right before I replace the battery last time. But of course, there might be a problem even I don't have noticed it. Anyway, if I should look into it, it will take too much time. I think the best solution for me is to replace the battery, which I just brought today, and take better care of it this time by do maintenance charging once a month.

I think you hit the nail on the head to start with, suggesting the battery to be at fault. I have had a few vehicles and known of many, where the "Standard" Original battery lasted around ten years, then follow-on replacements lasted around 3 to 5 years. I always try to get one with a 5 year warranty just for this reason.  (Had one swapped for me as it failed at around 4 years so had brand new one, which lasted anther 4 years but will only have the remainder of the first battery's warranty).  My Fabia's first one only lasted around 6 years but then, I am  a driving instructor so lots of stops/starts/stalls etc, compared to a typical driver. I have now replaced it with an Exide battery after the 2 Bosch ones that ran short of the 5 years expected but then, may well have lasted 6 or 7 in normal use. 

 

Bigger capacity will most likely be better as you correctly assumed the car will charge what it flattens over a decent drive but stay charged longer to start with.

That said, regular top-ups to the charge will almost certainly benefit the life of the battery so if possible, do this around every three months and definitely at the start and end of winter. Charge as slowly as your charger will allow and if you can bear the car being unused whilst doing so. I have now kept the older, weaker battery as a spare and charge that, pop it on the car, then charge my good one and swap again a few days later. 

Hi and thank you for your reply.

 

I'm not sure which brand the original and first battery was, but the one it was replaced with was an Exide battery. It has worked well until lately, but I think it's mostly my fault it's failed now. Since I have never done any maintenance charging, and many small trips, it's almost certain it will fail sooner. I wasn't aware of how a car battery works in more detail until I read more about it lately. And having a lower voltage on the battery over time, even if the car starts fine, will after some time destroy the battery. So even if my Skoda servicepartner have 5 years warrany on all replacement parts, including the battery, it will not cover wear related issues like this.

 

As I wrote in a previous post I have now got a new Biltema battery which have a 4 years warranty and only costs 849 NOK, and this even have larger capacity (62Ah) than the original part with 51Ah that my Skoda servicepartner wanted 2099 NOK for just the battery without installation. So it will be interesting to see how long this will last. But I will now do a regular maintenance charging about once a month to be sure the battery is in good condition at all times.

 

About charging, I have read as a general rule, that you should charge with a current about 1/10 of the batteries capacity or lower. My charger has two settings, fast (4A) and slow (1A). On the specifications on the new Biltema battery it says "Charge Acceptance (A) = 6A". I guess this means the battery will accept a charge up to 6A. I guess then using the charger with the 4A settings will be okay. Or will it be better to go as low as 1A? According to the manual of the charger (which also is a Biltema), it says the slow setting is for battery up to 20Ah, while the fast settings is for battery up to 80Ah.

 

 

I have a 3 cyl diesel engine and they do like quite  bit of power, on initial start-up, from cold. A weak battery will soon cause issues. Oh and don't be fooled by the battery saying its charged and ready to use... I have never found one to be more then around 70% or so, charged so if possible, charge prior to using or at least, fairly soon as possible. It won't take too long but will set you off to a better battery life.

 

Once the battery starts to weaken, it is just a matter of time before you will need to swap it out but as mentioned, keep the old one as a spare, charge that, then swap to charge the new one for its maintenance every few months. Monthly might be just a little OTT but then, if you live in a cold country, it might well be a good idea. 

 

Generally, a slower, longer charge is better for the battery as it will be less harsh so the back-up spare really comes in to play here. 

With practice, removing and refitting the battery is fairly simple and quite quick so worth the effort. I park on the street and have to carry the unit indoors to charge but still prefer to do this. I would probably still disconnect both leads (+ and-) prior to charging, even if I had my own garage/driveway with power but thats just me!

 

Without looking, I think mine is way above a 60AH on a vehicle with a reasonable but not high amount of electrical toys.

Edited 14 May, 20206 yr by mrgf

I finally got time to replace the battery today. It went pretty smooth, but I struggled a bit with the plastic cover over the battery. It was easy to loosen the 3 clips to loosen the main plastic cover, but I wasn't able to move it enough away to get the battery out. I then came across a workshop manual here, and according to this you should remove the fusebox on the top first. I tried to slide it to the right as described, but was only able to do so for a few millimeter. It seems I was to careful at start, as it was just to push it a little harder, and then it got loose. :)

 

I don't think I will remove the battery for maintenance charging. According to the user manual for my Skoda, it's not necessary to disconnect the battery either as long as you do a normal charge. It only says it's necessary if you are going to do a quick charge. And as long as I park my car in a carport where I have a power outlet, it's very easy to just connect the charger and do it a day I'm not going to use the car. :)

 

After replacing the battery, the clock and driving computer information was reset, but everything else was ok. Radio presets was not lost, and not any other error codes. I would guess the battery was disconnected for a little over an hour, as I also cleaned the plastic battery cover and the battery connectors while I first have it removed. I read somewhere it should not be disconnected for too long, as you then might could get other error codes. Finally I also did a reset of the electric windows. I don't know if this was necessary, but the driver window has been acting strangely for a while now. It sometimes stops half way up, and then go down again. After doing the reset/calibration it now seems to be working fine at last for the 3-4 times I tested it. Maybe this wasn't done when the battery was replaced last time about 4,5 years ago. :)  I don't use the windows much, so it hasn't been a problem.

 

I also charged the battery before I installed it. It only charged for about 2 hours, then the charger said it was full. It might be because the battery was a new stock just arrived at the store when I brought it, so I guess it's a pretty short time since it was produced.

 

I put my 2.0ltr diesel Octavia battery in my Fabia mk2 1.2htp years ago. I think it was a 096 it fitted perfectly without any mods to wiring or clamp. One point to note, when you battery is on it's way out and drops below 11v whilst cranking, it can cause all sorts of false warnings.

Without having a TDI and monitoring its battery voltage while cranking, from past experience, I'd think that the voltage figure that should be tolerated while cranking is 9V.