Battery not charging warnings

[Irishgirl]

Hi, 

A couple of days ago I got a red warning on my display that my 12v battery is not charging and to stop driving. Also a red battery icon appeared on bottom right of the display.

I pulled over.. 

When I started it again it didn't turn properly but started OK. 

When I tried to drive the steering was hard, the power steering went. 

 

Got the car home, and my husband put his own new car battery in, as I needed my car, it was a Sunday, nowhere open, and took my Moll EFB+ 700a battery out. 

I have a Stop/Start Octavia 2018.

 

I have driven my car fine on the normal (non EFB ) battery since, I just turn off the Stop /Start while I'm driving, as I've read that the battery will drain without the proper EFB battery in. 

 

I took the Moll battery in to be checked, and was told today the battery is fine, charging fine. 

 

What could be the problem, the car is fine at the moment, but I worry that it will happen again? 

 

Will I put my Moll battery back in? 

 

Any advice much appreciated.

Thanks. 

 

 

[BigEjit]

If you have swapped the EFB battery out and the issue has gone away, that’s an indication the old EFB battery is not performing right. Stop Start not working that often is another indicator of an end of life battery. 
 

If you put the EFB back in and the issue returns, it’s definitely the cause and best practice would be to replace it with the same spec, higher rated EFB or pick an AGM of same case size. You can get a charger for it to see if it will recover a little but if it’s not OK in a frequently used car, recharging won’t help so just swap it out anyway. 
 

Short term, the standard flooded battery will be ok to use as a substitute but the cars charging set up for EFB will work it harder than the battery spec is designed for. You won’t notice much difference, it just wears out quicker requiring replacement sooner.

[Irishgirl]

Thanks for that.. 

I think I'll leave the standard battery in for now. 

I have been turning off the Stop/Start function for the last few days in case it drains that battery. Should I continue doing that or will that standard, (non EFB) be able to handle it? 

Also, what do you think caused the battery initially to stop charging? 

It's worrying now that I've been told the battery is good? 

 

Could the alternator be an issue? 

Loose connections? 

 

Thanks 

[BigEjit]

If the alternator is goosed, you will have the same issues turn up. It’s rare for alternator defects to appear though. Batteries are more sensitive to passive abuse and more likely to give issues as a result. 

 

Inhibiting the stop start function on the button will save the standard battery from having to crank the engine frequently taking some of the stress off it. It will still be open to the work load of the charging strategy that’s operating in the back ground that you can’t change without external equipment. A frequently active stop start function is also a good indicator of a good battery. Stop start will still need an EFB or better performing AGM to handle the duty cycle. 

 

Battery performance is difficult to measure accurately. Even the best gadgets at dealerships need an experienced head to interpret the results based on other variables around battery life.
 

Without having the measured values for Voltage, CCA and ambient temp to hand, it’s a bit of guess work to determine root cause. However…

 

Common causes of battery failure are:-

 

Infrequent short trips

Below average mileage vs age

A significant period of discharge during the life of the battery such as being laid up for a couple of months at holding yards or dealership forecourt’s with the battery connected allowing it to fully discharge. This could occur at any time from the moment the battery was first fitted to present day. Deep diving the vehicle history may find a period of time suitable to fit this pattern. 

Repeat exposure to high heat soaking increasing internal decay which shows up later in cold environments as poor performance. 

High mileage/ taxi duty cycle wearing it out.

Old age heading towards 10+ years service.

6 months lockdown with zero use/ needed a jump start. 

 

I hope that sheds some light on things for you. 

Edited 8 March, 2022 by BigEjit

[Irishgirl]

Thanks so much for all that very helpful information. 

Very much appreciated.. ☘️

[AGFalco]

57 minutes ago, Irishgirl said:

I think I'll leave the standard battery in for now. 

 

See link below, part four.

https://batteryworld.varta-automotive.com/en-gb/standard-flooded-battery-start-stop

 

Had one come in at work where eventually, the non stop start battery that the customer had fitted, could not take the higher voltages from the car, that it cracked open and caught fire.

 

Thanks, AG Falco

[BigEjit]

5 minutes ago, AGFalco said:

 

See link below, part four.

https://batteryworld.varta-automotive.com/en-gb/standard-flooded-battery-start-stop

 

Had one come in at work where eventually, the non stop start battery that the customer had fitted, could not take the higher voltages from the car, that it cracked open and caught fire.

 

Thanks, AG Falco

It takes a lot of work to put a battery into a condition to crack a case. Stop start operational voltage range is OK for a standard flooded SLI to handle, it’s the aggressiveness of discharge/ recharge current and frequency that does the long term damage.

 

Ok to use SLI short term for a few weeks, still needs the right spec battery long term. 

[Irishgirl]

57 minutes ago, BigEjit said:

It takes a lot of work to put a battery into a condition to crack a case. Stop start operational voltage range is OK for a standard flooded SLI to handle, it’s the aggressiveness of discharge/ recharge current and frequency that does the long term damage.

 

Ok to use SLI short term for a few weeks, still needs the right spec battery long term. 

Thankyou, will bear that in mind and I plan to put back the correct battery, too risky otherwise.. 

[Irishgirl]

If I put back the original EFB battery in, or put a new EFB in, do they need recoding? 

 

Thx

[PetrolDave]

11 hours ago, Irishgirl said:

If I put back the original EFB battery in, or put a new EFB in, do they need recoding? 

Original battery no, an identical replacement battery will need the serial number held in the battery management system updating (just change 1 digit).

[Irishgirl]

Thankyou.. 

[KenONeill]

17 hours ago, Irishgirl said:

I got a red warning on my display that my 12v battery is not charging

Does the battery light appear when you first switch on, but haven't actually started the engine?

[Irishgirl]

No, it came up on my display while driving a couple of days ago, warning message to stop driving, and also a red battery icon in the the bottom right corner of the display too

[KenONeill]

1 minute ago, Irishgirl said:

No, it came up on my display while driving a couple of days ago, warning message to stop driving, and also a red battery icon in the the bottom right corner of the display too

If I'm reading this correctly, you're not getting a battery light when you first with on, yes? If so, then I'd suspect a break or loose connection in the alternator control wires.

[Irishgirl]

15 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

If I'm reading this correctly, you're not getting a battery light when you first with on, yes? If so, then I'd suspect a break or loose connection in the alternator control wires.

This was my first message Ken....

 

Hi, 

A couple of days ago I got a red warning on my display that my 12v battery is not charging and to stop driving. Also a red battery icon appeared on bottom right of the display.

I pulled over.. 

When I started it again it didn't turn properly but started OK. 

When I tried to drive the steering was hard, the power steering went. 

 

Got the car home, and my husband put his own new car battery in, as I needed my car, it was a Sunday, nowhere open, and took my Moll EFB+ 700a battery out. 

I have a Stop/Start Octavia 2018.

 

I have driven my car fine on the normal (non EFB ) battery since, I just turn off the Stop /Start while I'm driving, as I've read that the battery will drain without the proper EFB battery in. 

 

I took the Moll battery in to be checked, and was told today the battery is fine, charging fine. 

 

What could be the problem, the car is fine at the moment, but I worry that it will happen again? 

 

[ords]

As you've used the car for the last few days without any problems, presumably the battery is being charged.

Try putting in the old battery and see what happens. If you get the same fault(s) then you have more info to give readers here or an auto electrician.

[Irishgirl]

Good point! Might wait and try it at the weekend when I'm near home, just in case!

Thanks again.

[Johngerard]

On 08/03/2022 at 21:50, Irishgirl said:

If I put back the original EFB battery in, or put a new EFB in, do they need recoding? 

 

Thx

 

I wouldn't recode if the old battery is re installed, a new EFb battery, yes. I have VCDS and you might find below interesting, (from a Jan 2019 Polo)                            To recode, just change the last (generic) serial number to a 2 and your done.

 

Apparently when IDE07681-MAS060876 becomes > IDE07681-MAS06087 then the BMS system will start inhibiting non essential items like stop/start, etc.

VAG use 50 X battery capacity as a benchmark for useful battery life, in real terms don't really know how this pans out, battery below at 59AH "life" is 50X59, 2950AH so apparently 1478/2950, 50% life used so 50% remaining or another 3 years for this car, 6 years in all?. This is reflected in the usable battery charge at 28AH below even though a battery charge level of 79% might indicate a actual battery charge of 47AH.

 

If you are down around my neck of the woods (Cork) then no problem in having a look at your car values.

 

From Can Gateway, advanced values.

4:58:57 24/01/2022 14,154kms

  IDE01834   Battery voltage 12.166 V

  IDE01836   Battery current -4.386 A

  IDE01837   Temperature of battery sensor 12 °C

  IDE01839   Battery charge level 79 %

  IDE01841   Battery internal resistance 7.8 mOhm

  IDE01842   Usable battery charge 28 Ah

  IDE01843   Battery voltage at rest 12.5 V

  IDE01848   Energy balance of last driving cycle 0.0 Ah

  IDE01849   Previous journey duration 0.0 H

  IDE07681-MAS06086   Battery total charging throughput-Total re-charge 1354.8 Ah

  IDE07681-MAS06087   Battery total charging throughput-Entire energy throughput 1478.3 Ah

 

Adaptations from can Gateway

IDE03256-MAS06105  Battery adaptation-Rated battery capacity 59 Ah

 IDE03256-MAS06106  Battery adaptation-Battery technology EFB 

 IDE03256-MAS06107  Battery adaptation-Battery manufacturer JCB 

 IDE03256-MAS06108  Battery adaptation-Battery Serial Number 1111111111