Extracted from a late 2002 Fabia, whose owner believes the battery has been replaced at least once in the car's lifetime; hazy about when.

Top photo has various numbers along top edge that may include some manufacturing date info, but it doesn't 'leap off the page' at me.  Anyone able to decode?

What is interesting is that there are some 'date wheels' on the bottom of the case that suggest October 2006 for the manufacture of that. Apologies for photo quality/lack of, especially the second.

 

 

 

 

Edited 10 December, 20214 yr by Wino

The clock dials in the mould might be for when the case was moulded or could be for the last revision or repair to the mould, on low volume production it would normally be the latter.

The 'clocks' are probably your best bet but is there an engraving on it anywhere - the place I get my batteries from always engraves their postcode and the date of sale on the case.

8 minutes ago, skomaz said:

is there an engraving on it anywhere

Nothing I can see except what's in photo #1.

I'll check if he had the car in 2006, can't remember.

Website below any help?

 

https://technoluxpro.com/en/akkumulyatory/avtomobilnye/rasshifrovka-markirovki-varta.html

 

That would suggest 14th November 2006

Edited 10 December, 20214 yr by skomaz

Awesome, thanks @skomaz. I was hoping something as useful as that might come out of this thread.  

That fits with the production date of the case body.

Owner thinks he's only had the car since 2012 approx, so probably wrong about having a replacement battery fitted in his ownership.

 

Not surprised it needed replacement then at a shade over 15 years old and in a car that is only used occasionally! 😲

57 minutes ago, Wino said:

 

Not surprised it needed replacement then at a shade over 15 years old and in a car that is only used occasionally! 😲

 

 

Those Varta's are excellent batteries though - I've used them for as long as I can remember and, once fitted to replace a OE battery have never had to replace them again during my ownership (which usually runs to over a dozen years)

I shall attempt to resurrect it with long-term charging, but suspect it may be beyond help. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Wino said:

Not surprised it needed replacement then at a shade over 15 years old and in a car that is only used occasionally! 😲

 

Best we got was 12 years with our Fiat Grande Punto which did mostly short journeys. 

The best longevity will be from a Varta/Bosch originally fitted to the vehicle as appears to be the case here, the exact same battery reference from the same company whilst still being the best of what is available is unlikely to perform for as long as they are made to different standards and have different warranty liabilities.

 

Having got 12 or 15 years from the first battery through taking care of it not many of us are going to keep the vehicle for another decade or more.

 

I replaced my MK1 Octavia battery at 12 years old, it would have carried on I believe had I not left the lights on & killed it, replaced with exact same Varta 096 and after 5 years I was definitely nursing it during winters, left a spare battery in it when I left it at the TGV station for a couple of weeks etc, it saw the car to the end of its life but only just.

Original factory fit one only appears to have lasted four years, late 2002 (52 reg car) to late 2006/ early 2007 when this one was probably fitted.

On 10/12/2021 at 17:19, AnnoyingPentium said:

 

Best we got was 12 years with our Fiat Grande Punto which did mostly short journeys. 

When the battery on our Fiat Multipla became sluggish I bought a Varta and it did us the 10 years until we sold the Multipla.

Update on that battery: charged it for several days at 13.8V on a bench PSU. Put it in my spare Polo to see if/how it worked, and it started the engine, but only just. 

Unsurprising, at 15 years old.

 

Straight from the charger?

 

If so then it wouldn't have started the vehicle once its core had cooled to ambient temperature.

 

When I was young and poor and once again between 2004 and 2014 and could not afford to replace a failing battery I would pour a kettle of boiling water over the casing before starting on a very cold morning.

 

Other times when the battery gave up while cranking if I did not have the time to attach the charger and wait a couple of hours I would use the kettle  and it would usually give enough to start the engine.

 

At one time when things were really tight & I was camping in the unheated building I had to take the battery to bed with me at night and put it in the sleeping bag.

 

When charging a flat battery it will usually start the vehicle as soon as you can feel the case temperature rising, it will only have say 10% of its charge so you have to leave the engine running for 30 minutes to finish the job.

36 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Straight from the charger?

No, a day later.

Did run the engine for half an hour after, as I do approx. monthly on this vehicle whilst it's off the road. Out of curiosity I'll go and try it again now. Has been disconnected from the car in the meantime.

It worked again, just. Sounded even less likely to start than the previous time, but it did. 

 

It is unseasonably mild today though.

Edited 28 December, 20214 yr by Wino

A keeper nonetheless for jump starting, its capacity plus what remains in the vehicle battery will probably be enough.

 

I got £9 for my last 096 battery when I weighed it in, when you see how many are taken to municipal dumps there is a lot of money there.