Anyone available to code a new (AGM) battery in Northampton please?

[xman]

https://www.scraprice.com/index.php?view=prices&cat=1&subcat=&country=12&cur=GBP

 

[nta16]

TBH the battery is far too good to scrap, I'd sooner give it to a mate to use for a garage radio or 12v tools or jump start his cars, in fact the battery is probably too good for that but someone ought to get some use out of it.

 

I don't have the room, need or inclination for it.

 

The last battery my mate took to the local 'caravan club' scrappy he got £7.50 and that was about 2 or 3 years ago I think.

 

[johnh510]

19 hours ago, rum4mo said:

From that experience of CTEK chargers, I've come to the conclusion that you should ignore the "you don't need to reselect the same program when next using it" - now I always cycle the program selector through all the options back to the one I want to use as I've had the second CTEK also ending up on a safe but constant output after being on for a while, switched off, then reconnected a day later, I eventually reverted the older CTEK to behave as it should by cycling through the program options.  Nowadays, as my own car tends to snooze in the garage, I make a point of checking its "current" voltage and take corrective action is it is lower than it should be when in the final "pulsed top-up stage".

 

My CTEK CT5 is the basic 3.8 Amp version and has no program selector, it just does what it does.

The only clues on the box are three leds: check, charge, and care.

 

Regarding "pulsed top up stage" the BM2 I used to show the battery voltage only samples once every 2 minutes and it doesn't show anything interesting happening.

 

Attached are some BM2 charts from when the battery was still in the Fabia, with some comments.

With hindsight it should have been left on "care"/maint charge for a lot longer as the voltage never used to get high enough to stop the warning bong - battery low, charge by driving.

 

Or just driven the car a bit more.

 

[nta16]

I love the accidentally unplugged, did you use to work in a hospital until "the incident". 

 

My Accumate is also just a plug in and no more, three LEDs red, green and you've put the clamps on the wrong way round on the battery.

 

Apparently it's a 4-stage, I think modern types are 7-stage now and programable, probably the programs confuse the users (they would me) and possibly confuse the machine itself sometimes.

 

One thing to remember in winter is if it's very cold the electronics in the charger won't like it so if like me you keep it in a very cold shed bring it to somewhere warmer for half an hour or so to get it more comfortable before using it, in use it should keep itself warm enough, unless it's very exposed and very cold.

[johnh510]

8 hours ago, nta16 said:

I love the accidentally unplugged, did you use to work in a hospital until "the incident". 

 

 

No, nothing that responsible.

 

 

[nta16]

To conclude, I now have the new battery coded.

 

Thank you to inspectorman for pointing me to the map of VCDS owners. - https://tinyurl.com/yn6mmtyk

 

And a big Thank you to Zach for doing the coding and clearing codes and providing me with a record.

 

The new battery (top) felt hot to my touch just before recoding so probably best it was done and a report of an intermittent misfire in cylinders 3 and 4 explained why the tickover was rough from starting up yesterday, I hope it doesn't return.

 

Whether reality or imagination to me the car sounded different on the drive back from recoding, I rarely get to drive it normally but the night before I took it for a short Italian tune-up and have done a few test drives with the new battery, and for another matter best left to another thread and the reason I recharged the old battery and hoped buying a new battery might sort things - of course it didn't. 

 

At least we're set up battery wise for a bad winter.  

 

Thanks all.

[johnh510]

On 22/06/2021 at 13:47, johnh510 said:

Your comment about getting a conventional battery going again is interesting to me - my son in law sorned his Mk1 Fabia last year at the start of WFH. The battery is now flatter than a flat thing, I told him it had been left too long, what with the freezing conditions for a month earlier this year.

Perhaps I should see what I can do the next time I am "up there"...

@nta16 Well, the flat battery I mentioned above isn't at all well:

On an old 8 amp charger the old flat battery drew about 2 amps, according to the meter on the charger, with the voltage getting from 1. something towards 15 in just a few minutes.

So I put it on my CTEK CT5 instead, and left it with "charge" showing.

 

Some hours later there was a warning display on the CT5 I'd never noticed before, and the battery voltage was 8.6 which I think is too low for the CT5 to function.

I'd guess the battery voltage collapsed at some during the CT5's charging/care cycle.

(I hadn't taken the BM2 battery monitor with me so I have no idea what happened. The BM2 also has a minimum voltage and it forgets if the voltage is removed).

 

Left off charge the voltage the next morning was 6.5, so I'd guess another cell has failed, again.

 

Perhaps I different charger type, or a few hours on the old charger first might have produced a different result, but that method did work on my Rapid which went completely flat during the freeze earlier this year - the key in the drivers door lock was nice and handy to get in, but the passenger side handle for the bonnet was a bit awkward to pull - and the old battery charger, followed by the CT5 did get it back up again. Even to the extent of "stop start" still working now.

The original battery in that Rapid is a "Banner" 65A/h

 

 

 

 

Regards,

 

johnH

 

 

[nta16]

@johnh510 Bad luck, sometimes it's a loss and not a win.

 

Did you put the CTek on recondition mode, a neighbour's Ring charger/diagnostics has that but as he was given it after it'd been dropped I don't think it was always reliable.  I lost out to a neighbour's battery last winter but he had really drained it and really it wasn't man enough for the job as the car's not often used and then only for short journeys.  I blamed his Lidl charger/conditioner but I think really it was a lost cause despite might two old slogger chargers.

 

I do however think that possibly the more modern chargers are a bit too cleaver and impatient, I think some of the modern ordinary won't entertain as low as 6v and refuse to try.  I've no really idea of the specs on my two I just plug them in and let them get on with it but with the two batteries for another neighbour's diesel van one at least took almost the 60 hours to complete the task but that was a previously drained battery from at least two years before that had just sat in cold garages, the chargers got it back to full charge and holding the charge so much so he kept as a spare.

 

This year's failure was the first, I know modern batteries seem to give a lot less warning of their demise and modern cars are on constant drain but the failure was an ordinary battery in a 1991 Merc diesel, but with lock down the battery was more suited to active use as it was lower of of the spec required in normal use.

 

Pity the battery wasn't nearer to me I could have taken the challenge with my trusty old chargers, it's the type of work I like, plug in and walk away, only having to check to see when the work has been done without me.

 

I've just checked the Fabia's old battery before I take it over to my mate tomorrow and it 12.77v on the digital multimeter from a few weeks of sitting in the shed on its lonesome.

 

I used to have a (130) Rapid, a long time ago (1986) ...

[johnh510]

The Ctek charger I have is a "CT5", it's their basic automatic, does what it does, no choices charger/conditioner for stop/start batteries.

 

The failed battery is further away than you'd guess - I live in the midlands too, and it's nearly 240 miles drive from me.

 

The old battery from our Fabia (the one with all the charts further up this thread) is a whisker under 12.4 volts this morning, after 5 weeks or so being ignored in my garage.

If it was in the car it would be have been flat a while ago, as there is significant drain from the car.

 

Regarding the older Rapid, a work colleague back in the late 70's had a new "Estelle" which was an interesting thing to be driven about in occasionally.

Quieter than you'd expect, until you realised all the noisy stuff was in the back of the car.

He was quite happy with it, but got a lot of stick/abuse as Skoda drivers did back then.

[nta16]

Yes of course that's the real test how it stands up in actual use, any figures from (most) machines only give you an indication.

 

Our new AGM battery had on its label a symbol badge "min 12.4v  (with a tick)" so I assume it means it's fine at 12.4v but I've not looked anything up, my digital multimeter I get the feeling is a little optimistic with its DC volt readings so I'd never know unless I borrowed a well cared for proper professional meter.  I'm sure we'll see the 5 years 'guaranteed' use out of the battery though.

 

I had three Estelle 2s in the mid-80s to start of 90s when The Sun newspaper(?) ran all the Skoda jokes, sure they were check cars but the rear engine certainly made them fun to drive and with some good tyres on them could go well on B roads.  I liked the jokes but more than once I had someone whisper to me that they'd owned one and they weren't that bad - as if I needed telling.  I know all about lower quality cars as I've owned a few British made cars. 

 

70s would have been Estelle 1, in late 80s I drove one as a loan car from the dealership "the flagship of the fleet" an old high mileage 110, just over 1,000 cc, heavier steering but it flew along, garage part owner said they just couldn't kill it and it seemed to go better as it got older.

 

[johnh510]

22 hours ago, nta16 said:

Our new AGM battery had on its label a symbol badge "min 12.4v  (with a tick)" so I assume it means it's fine at 12.4v but I've not looked anything up

 

I think the "min 12.4v" is likely to be a guide for storage prior to sale, and/or a pre-sale tick box exercise*, judging by this extract from a Yuasa "technical/need to know":

 

" 1. Batteries should be installed ideally within 15 months after manufacture. The voltage should be (worse case higher than 12.25V) ideally higher than 12.4V at the time of installation.

  2. Batteries require recharging when the voltage has dropped below 12.4V due to extended warehouse storage. "

 

 

* It was good when we sold it - we ticked the box.

 

Regards,

 

 

John H

 

P.S. With that in mind, I think I'll put our old battery back on charge again....

[nta16]

@johnh510 Yes I can see that and it makes sense to me.

 

I always check and if required fully charge a new car battery, or any car battery, to green LED on with my old 4-stage charger so that I know for sure the battery is fully charged right from first fitting to give a known and confirmed start point.

 

To be fair our new AGM battery only needed a quick top up, and I did top up the old battery before I took it over to our mate yesterday, IIRC by the time we got it in his shed he checked it on his cheap digital multimeter it was IIRC 12.86v.  I can't remember what the drop was from charging 2-3 weeks to before recharging this time but it wasn't notable, whether the drop would have been notable with use on the car I don't know but too late now and the reassurance of the new battery is probably worth it alone.

 

[nta16]

@johnh510 - I've just realised I might have misled you, the 12.4v was part of the manufacturer's label on the battery rather than one added by Tayna.