hi there, proud owner of a 2013 Superb 2.0 D estate.

the battery had gone flat, took it out charged it up, has full charge. put it back in the car and now all sort of errors are being thrown on the dash, engine turns and turns but won't start. don't think its mechanical, as everything is in tip top condition. any ideas ladies and gets?

thank you

1 hour ago, jim_d said:

hi there, proud owner of a 2013 Superb 2.0 D estate.

the battery had gone flat, took it out charged it up, has full charge. put it back in the car and now all sort of errors are being thrown on the dash, engine turns and turns but won't start. don't think its mechanical, as everything is in tip top condition. any ideas ladies and gets?

thank you

Just an update, what actually happens is that it starts and immediately cuts out. 

Do you get the immobiliser warning light on the dash ?

 

The EGR can stick fully open, engine then chokes on its own exhaust gasses ( you could temporarily blank off the EGR or disconnect it from the inlet manifold to check ).

 

 

Thanks for this, i believe its very much an electrical issue as all sorts of errors are reported on the dash and now its asking me for a code when i turn on the radio. 

As the battery has been disconnected, there will be several warnings up, which should go out once the car has been driven.

 

Perhaps check all the main fuses , especially those at the front of the engine fuse box ( they can crack & look ok so check with a meter or test light ) as well as those inside it.

good idea re the fuses, i will do that. i've also called out the AA man, see what they can do. 

If it starts and immediately cuts out it's probably the immobiliser. One other possibility is the CAN gateway acting up, since that looks after communications between all the other modules.

 

A fault scan with VCDS or similar would be a good idea.

Edited 20 March, 20215 yr by chimaera

thanks for the responses @chimaeraand @PipH

The RAC man disconnected the battery then drained whatever was lurking in the system, and put the battery back in and it was fine.

plenty of erroneous error codes needed to be cleaned up from the system and the car is back to being awesome again.

the most likely cause would have been when i put the battery back after a charge it created a spark and that sent the system into some sort of meltdown.

i didn't know, but when removing a battery the black comes off first then the red and when putting back on, red goes on first then the black, making sure one carefully insulates the black as much as possible during this.

so all probably my fault, but resolved now.

 

I had a similar thing with my Kodiaq after a flat battery dash was lite up like a Christmas tree. The engine did start. I took for a run a lot of the systems returned to normal . The rest I had to clear with VCDS.

yes, exactly the same. I had to invest in a new battery and now its fine. 

but after the RAC man left the EML: was still on. after a few trips out it is now off. so good news.

i tell you one thing, i am very impressed by it. lovely car.

13 hours ago, jim_d said:

yes, exactly the same. I had to invest in a new battery and now its fine. 

but after the RAC man left the EML: was still on. after a few trips out it is now off. so good news.

i tell you one thing, i am very impressed by it. lovely car.

Good you have it sorted now and can enjoy it with no big repair bills!

Is it a recent purchase ?  If so it would be worth making sure the timing belt and water pump have been changed so that you can continue to enjoy it !  Is it 2WD or 4WD ?

Cheers

yes, it is a new purchase, but i am sorry to say the saga continues. this morning it wont start again. checked the voltage while the car was running this morning and it seems to be returning 13v. i think this means the alternator may need changing

On 25/03/2021 at 12:27, jim_d said:

yes, it is a new purchase, but i am sorry to say the saga continues. this morning it wont start again. checked the voltage while the car was running this morning and it seems to be returning 13v. i think this means the alternator may need changing

When you say " wont start again " , did the engine turn over briskly & not start, or fail to turn over ?

 

If it has stop/ start, 13v can be ok with the engine running.

13v seems low. Should rrally be 13.8 and above. What battery was installed

Saga continues again, took it to a mechanic (not a car electrician) and he wasnt able to identify the problem. next step is to call out a mobile electrician and see what they can do on site.

this is what happened on Thursday:

Wed night voltage reading (after a dirve): 13.8V

Thur afternoon @1300 reading: 12.8v (doors were unlocked overnight, no lights can be seen on, alarm not armed.)

Thur afternoon @ 1845pm reading: 1V.

(this was a brand new battery from ECP and had been on charge since buying it [in case it had sat on a shelf for months]). 

so there is an event which occurred between 1300 and 1800 which took it from 12.8 to 1v.

i think that battery is pretty dead now, wouldn't even react when trying to jump start or charge.

what a pain. otherwise a great car. i just have to unplug every time its stationary until it's fixed.

 

Do you have access to a code reader at all ? (I use Carista which is fairly inexpensive...)

 

Would be worth seeing if there are any codes getting thrown up once you have the flat battery sorted out.

 

Can a faulty alternator not cause severe battery drain ?

 

Keep us posted thanks.

Hi

I have vcds. If an alternator does that though it will throw a red battery light. 

Battery is due today and i also ordered a volt display led thingy so i will monitor voltage. 

Everytime i have tested the alternator is throwing out the right voltage of over 13.8v. 

 

I do beleive its the battery as its not even a 096 size which is what it should be. Its a 61ah 540cca which is too small

right, just to close the loop on this and share the love, as they say. the issue with mine was narrowed down to a faulty Gateway Control Unit, located just behind the dash on the drivers side (RHD).  cost is £350 at the dealers (all in) and since then it's been great, no issues. 

Mine was just simply a battery. Bought a varta 77ah 780cca battery for £77 ish quid off tayna batteries. 

Spot on since