Hi guys,

i am on my holidays, and my skoda fabia III combi  (2015 1,2 tsi 90KM)  started behaving strangely. The passenger door won't lock, the driver's window won't open sometimes...and has a lot of trouble starting the engine. It's really struggling, and next time I doubt it will start again. And the display shows low battery status. Soo I suspect it's the battery fault, because the first one from 2015 still inside, soo 7 years old now. So what's a good replacement for the original accu? Originall is Moll efb 59ah320 din. I'm on vacation on the Croatian island of Hvar, where there isn't much choice of batteries, what do you suggest? Efb, AGM or standard? how much ah? Here is very popular Ciak akumulatori brand, which one will be the right one?

what are you put in into those models as a good alternative to the original one? 

thank you all for your help

You have left things very late if you have waited until the doors will not lock, you have weaken the battery with your use, if you were at home I would advise you to use a suitable battery recharger to save replacing it but now you are best to replace the battery before you cause the car to breakdown.

 

We have different makes and models and car battery capacity figures in the UK, here a Vatra, Bosch labelled Vatra, Yuasa could be considered.  320 DIN is about 540 EN or 600 SAE (according to the table I have anyway).  For an idea of different batteries see, for EFB - https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/types/027-efb/ and for AGM - https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/types/027-agm/

 

If you have start/stop EFB is your minimum not standard, you could upgrade to AGM.

 

If you change from an EFB 59ah 320 DIN then possibly to get things working as they should immediately you would need to code the battery to the car.

 

Get the best quality battery Ciak (or other) battery you can, if they can correctly code the battery to the car then a AGM battery should be better but again get the best suitable AGM battery.   The EFB 59ah 320 DIN should be your minimum but higher numbers on a poorer quality battery will not last as long.

 

And bear in mind just because a battery is new or not very old it can still be depleted and when it is hot or cold weather the battery will not be at its best causing the charging system to work harder too.

 

As soon as you fit a new battery and have it coded if required, or driven the car enough, you might notice other improvements that had dropped before.  If you can also get the car checked and cleared of any stored error codes relating to the battery being allowed to go too low (for free or reasonable low cost) that could also help to speed up getting other stuff right on the car.

 

Good luck, enjoy your holiday.

 

 

Edited 17 August, 20223 yr by nta16