New battery time, recommendations?

[nta16]

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything.

 

No worries I only knew because I still have four fingers and thumb on my hand hand to count with. 😄

 

With the year I take it as year of manufacture, this MY stuff confuses the issue, just marketing or if selling.

 

Even if it was 6 years I think that is a poor and shows the factory batteries were at low cost to purpose.  The later cars I can see owners (unnecessarily often) changing at about 3 years but at least the later cars have suggestions about using a battery charger where required but that does require reading the Owner's Manual which is against the law for Billy-big-*******s men.

Edited 2 December, 2022 by nta16
ETA: Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything.

[BillyParker]

On the factory specs it states built 24 05 2017, so technically it will be 6 years old, but only 5 years use. Fact remains it needs a new battery. It does not do many long runs. I'm retired and the wife uses it once a week for a 3 mile round trip shopping, and I may use it twice for about the same distance, so the battery is getting a hammering, not getting long enough runs to keep it charged.

[nta16]

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything.

 

Exactly the type of car use where the use of your C-Tek, or any other suitable battery charger, would help extend the life of the battery and avoid it going a bit too low so that despite the vehicle starting and the lights seeming bright enough the computer programs start to play up and may give all sorts of unexpected issues and perhaps warnings.

 

You've been lucky to have the change before the cold weather.  The very hot and extreme weather we had this summer wasn't good for the batteries (or charging systems) and will be reflected in an increase in the already seasonal increase in vehicle breakdowns and call outs and battery sales (many of them not strictly necessary).

 

But you should be well sorted now with a new AGM battery and a battery charger to hand for future use when needed but only when needed as a preventative measure and not too often AGMs are fine at 12..4v).  Like me you can lend your charger out to neighbours who have left things too long with their batteries or just made a mistake of leaving something electric running.

 

Good luck.

 

[aubrey]

6 hours ago, BillyParker said:

I'm changing from EFB to AGM. I have an OBD11 and can adapt the battery to the car. 

Just a heads up, The battery type may come up as Fleece, that is what you choose for an AGM battery. It is not Binary AGM.

[varooom]

7 minutes ago, aubrey said:

Just a heads up, The battery type may come up as Fleece, that is what you choose for an AGM battery. It is not Binary AGM.

I documented the changes yesterday, all the sections to be changed.

 

Hopefully helpful to anyone that checks this current thread.

 

[Sheriff]

I noticed that my stop/start packed up several months before I replaced the battery. It was obviously not good enough to power it but still ok for everyday use and starting. As soon as the battery was replaced stop/start worked again as normal.

[nta16]

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything.

 

On 02/12/2022 at 23:00, Sheriff said:

I noticed that my stop/start packed up several months before I replaced the battery. It was obviously not good enough to power it but still ok for everyday use and starting. As soon as the battery was replaced stop/start worked again as normal.

If you had used a battery charger for the battery when that first started, or better still before that, and not let the battery get so low again you may well have got another couple of years or more out of the battery.

 

From the 2017/11'Owner's Manual'. -

 

 

I get the **** taken out of me on here for putting that the battery could be too low even if you can start the car and the lights seem bright enough and that a long low slow charge is generally better than a quicker higher faster recharge and just driving the car is often not enough to recharge the battery sufficiently and may even be discharging it more.  Rule of thumb is if the battery has been run down slowly over time then the recharge should be as slow as possible and practical, if it was a fast discharge with something like leaving your headlights on when parked then a quicker charge might be OK.

 

Edited 11 December, 2022 by nta16
Edited to correct my mistake

[ApertureS]

1 hour ago, nta16 said:

If you had put a battery charger on the battery when that first started

Semantics i know... but DONT put the charger on the battery directly.

 

Put the positive on the positive terminal and the negative on the bulkhead of the car behind the battery. That way the car also knows how charged/discharged the battery is and you dont bypass the system.

[BillyParker]

Got to give a shout for Tayna Batteries. Ordered new battery late afternoon yesterday (Fri), and received it at 09:20am today.

[nta16]

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything.

 

1 hour ago, ApertureS said:

Semantics i know... but DONT put the charger on the battery directly.

 

Put the positive on the positive terminal and the negative on the bulkhead of the car behind the battery. That way the car also knows how charged/discharged the battery is and you dont bypass the system.

 

Good points.  👍  My bad wording, I'll edit it, I'd expect/hope the 'Owner's Manual' or charger instructions would be consulted to check and confirm the charging requirements.

 

[nta16]

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything.

 

25 minutes ago, BillyParker said:

Got to give a shout for Tayna Batteries. Ordered new battery late afternoon yesterday (Fri), and received it at 09:20am today.

 

IIRC generally if you order before 6.30pm you get it the next day.

 

ETA: Don't forget to read the Owners Manual before changing the battery to see what's required and what might need resetting on the car from disconnecting the battery.

 

 

Edited 3 December, 2022 by nta16
ETA:

[BillyParker]

12 minutes ago, nta16 said:

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything.

 

 

IIRC generally if you order before 6.30pm you get it the next day.

 

ETA: Don't forget to read the Owners Manual before changing the battery to see what's required and what might need resetting on the car from disconnecting the battery.

 

 

When I spoke to them regarding size of battery they said because it was friday afternoon, I probably wouldln't get it til Monday, so well pleased. A friend has a tool you plug into the diangnostic port and connect to another battery. This is supposed to save all your settings. I don't have the sliding roof or sunscreen, so if I lose the settings its not a difficult job to reset them. I was more concerned about losing changes I'd made with my OBDeleven.

[varooom]

12 minutes ago, BillyParker said:

When I spoke to them regarding size of battery they said because it was friday afternoon, I probably wouldln't get it til Monday, so well pleased. A friend has a tool you plug into the diangnostic port and connect to another battery. This is supposed to save all your settings. I don't have the sliding roof or sunscreen, so if I lose the settings its not a difficult job to reset them. I was more concerned about losing changes I'd made with my OBDeleven.

You won't normally loose any coding changes, it's just some values like how many miles since resetting fuel trips and windows one-touch.

 

Clear out codes, do the window reset and you will be golden.

 

You can dispose of old battery at Halfords FOC.

 

And also, yes a shout out to Tanya for being well packaged and fast.

[nta16]

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything.

 

Again the Owner's Manual should be consulted as to what you might loose, VW's programs are complex but they're like say a Merc where you might loose more than you can be arsed resetting or not got the codes on old 'radios'.

 

When I disconnected the battery on my wife's 2015 Fabia despite the book giving a list of four possible items it was only the time-of-day clock that needed resetting, I know some think as they have a 'top of the range' it'll have more important memory settings that can be lost but often they don't, consult the 'Owner's Manual' (personally I think it's a good not bad thing to take power away from the VW computers).

 

From the 2017/11 'Owner's Manual'. - https://manual.skoda-auto.com/004/en-com/Models

Edited 3 December, 2022 by nta16
ETA: Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything.

[Danoid]

7 hours ago, nta16 said:

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything.

 

Again the Owner's Manual should be consulted as to what you might loose, VW's programs are complex but they're like say a Merc where you might loose more than you can be arsed resetting or not got the codes on old 'radios'.

 

When I disconnected the battery on my wife's 2015 Fabia despite the book giving a list of four possible items it was only the time-of-day clock that needed resetting, I know some think as they have a 'top of the range' it'll have more important memory settings that can be lost but often they don't, consult the 'Owner's Manual' (personally I think it's a good not bad thing to take power away from the VW computers).

 

From the 2017/11 'Owner's Manual'. - https://manual.skoda-auto.com/004/en-com/Models

Are you American? If so no need for the disclaimer, we won’t sue you  

[nta16]

2 hours ago, Danoid said:

Are you American? If so no need for the disclaimer, we won’t sue you  

 🤣 No, no, far from it.  Best to just say I prewarn for a reason too boring to go into - but It'd be a total waste of money suing me. 🤣 🤣 🤣

 

 

[BillyParker]

Fitted new battery this morning and none of my settings were lost. Coded in no problem, OBD11 found 5 faults after fitting but all cleared ok. However it was also reporting that battery was reading 14.3 when engine running but dropping to 11.4 when engine not running. Thought that may have been cause battery charging system was adjusting to new battery, so went up the motorway on 25 round trip run. Same problem when finished and checked again. Any ideas?

 

On 03/12/2022 at 12:34, nta16 said:

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything.

 

 

IIRC generally if you order before 6.30pm you get it the next day.

 

ETA: Don't forget to read the Owners Manual before changing the battery to see what's required and what might need resetting on the car from disconnecting the battery.

 

 

When I spoke to them regarding size of battery they said because it was friday afternoon, I probably wouldln't get it til Monday, so well pleased. A friend has a tool you plug into the diangnostic port and connect to another battery. This is supposed to save all your settings. I don't have the sliding roof or sunscreen, so if I lose the settings its not a difficult job to reset them. I was more concerned about losing changes I'd made with my OBDeleven.

[varooom]

4 minutes ago, BillyParker said:

Fitted new battery this morning and none of my settings were lost. Coded in no problem, OBD11 found 5 faults after fitting but all cleared ok. However it was also reporting that battery was reading 14.3 when engine running but dropping to 11.4 when engine not running. Thought that may have been cause battery charging system was adjusting to new battery, so went up the motorway on 25 round trip run. Same problem when finished and checked again. Any ideas?

Are those readings from your ODB11 device?

 

FYI: When I got my new AGM a few months back, I fitted to the car and charged it... it took several hours to finish the full cycle (8-9hrs iirc)  You might help it's lifespan by giving it a proper charge with your charger, just remember to only put the positive on the battery terminal, and then negative clamp has to go on the car chassis in the designated spot.

[J.R.]

Perfectly normal for the Terminal 30 battery voltage to be 11.4 volts if the ignition is switched on for the connection of a diagnostic device.

[BillyParker]

I was wondering if the connection to OBD11 was causing it. It reads 12.4 on my multimeter, when OBD11 not connected. Anyway I have now put it on charge on my Ctek charger, and see what happens when I check it later.

 

 

[varooom]

7 minutes ago, BillyParker said:

I was wondering if the connection to OBD11 was causing it. It reads 12.4 on my multimeter, when OBD11 not connected. Anyway I have now put it on charge on my Ctek charger, and see what happens when I check it later.

Diagnostic without the engine started will pull a fair bit of power from the battery, though anything under 12V does not seem either right or good, but you should measure with multimeter not diagnostic tool you used of course.

 

Once you have charged battery to full capacity, only measure it's Voltage after it has rested for a minimum of 2hr, ideally overnight if you can.

Best of luck with your swap.

[nta16]

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything.

 

2 hours ago, BillyParker said:

I was more concerned about losing changes I'd made with my OBDeleven.

Depending on what you mean I don't think you'd lose changes but varooom and others would know better than me.

ETA: Just seen varooom had already covered that, which reminds me, you can get about £7 or £8 back on an EFB battery at a scrappy.

 

The AGM batteries can arrive with 12.4v and a tick for that's fine.

 

I'm with varoom to leave at least 2-3 hours or best overnight before taking a voltage reading and bear in mind unless you have an expensive multimeter the reading may be near enough but not necessary spot on.  I took my optimistic multimeter (which he had bought me) over to a friend's and compared it with the two he'd had for a while and a new one he bought as the first two gave different readings to each other, we tested all four on two different car batteries, the new meter he bought was furthest from the other three which gave different but close readings to each other. 

 

Edited 5 December, 2022 by nta16
ETA:

[Nathanio]

I have used Tayna several times and always great service. This time however I used Halfords as the wife gets money off via blue light card. It was the same price as Tayna with delivery and 5 years warranty on their own brand. 

 

fitted and used Carista to recode to the car. Car starts much better now. I did when I noticed a few sluggish starts on the cooler mornings

[nta16]

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything.

 

50 minutes ago, Nathanio said:

I did when I noticed a few sluggish starts on the cooler mornings

This is the measure many people use but it isn't always a particular good one for modern cars particularly the more modern as the computers can by this time start to throw up unexpected issues but often they can be placated and the battery life can be extended by the use of an appropriate battery charger, given enough time for it to do the job properly.

 

The car batteries now are far from "starter batteries" use.

 

Did you see any/many error codes on the Carista when 'coding the battery?

 

Edited 7 December, 2022 by nta16

[Sheriff]

On 03/12/2022 at 09:59, nta16 said:

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything.

 

If you had used a battery charger on the battery when that first started, or better still before that, and not let the battery get so low again you may well have got another couple of years or more out of the battery.

 

From the 2017/11'Owner's Manual'. -

 

 

I get the **** taken out of me on here for putting that the battery could be too low even if you can start the car and the lights seem bright enough and that a long low slow charge is generally better than a quicker higher faster recharge and just driving the car is often not enough to recharge the battery sufficiently and may even be discharging it more.  Rule of thumb is if the battery has been run down slowly over time then the recharge should be as slow as possible and practical, if it was a fast discharge with something like leaving your headlights on when parked then a quicker charge might be OK.