I have a fabia estate mk3 (2016) 1.2 (90hp) and recently am having battery issues which I hope someone can advise on.

 

2 days ago for the 1st time the dash gave an alert that the battery was low and to drive to charge up. Today the car won’t start because of dead battery. So understand the need to get new battery and perhaps it has just run out of life.

 

one thing I’m thinking about is that recently I had a full car and one of the backseat passengers (behind driver) somehow dislodged what I believe to be the sensor for the seatbelt warning under the seat and since then although the light in the dash comes up to indicate occupant without seatbelt there is no sound. Everything looks connected (unit is just hanging under the seat) but I’m wondering if this could be causing the issue with the battery due to a constant drain.

 

would appreciate advice and thoughts because don’t want to just replace the battery and then have the same issue because of a battery drain problem.

It is a pity that you cannot recharge that battery and then test it, really to try to work out if that battery has indeed run out of useful life - or the battery monitor built into the -VE lead has become faulty and has led to that battery being under charged.

My wife has an August 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS 6MT, and maybe 10 months ago it did change its charging characteristics enough to get me worried, but after changing the battery serial number, things have improved, though I'd doubt if that battery will remain useful for another 2 years, but I'm sticking with it while keeping an eye on its "habits" via a cheap Chinese made plug in DVM, new AGM battery ready for action for when the time comes.

Remember that your car will need an EFB or AGM battery and it should be coded to the car.

I'd doubt if the seat belt warning defect will be the root cause of this issue.

 

Edit:- don't get me wrong, it could well be that that battery has indeed reached the end of its life,I am just trying to cover all bases just in case there is another reason other than that battery.

Edited 14 September, 20223 yr by rum4mo
added in missed out "me"

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

 

My wife has a 2015 Mk3 1.2 TSI (90) and I have years of experience of recharging and reviving car batteries for neighbours and friends.  It's all very easy stuff but to do it properly and fully can often require two things that some don't posses - time and patience.  I have had a couple of failures where it was just too late or the battery had been flogged to death.  If you want to try and revive it I may be able to help you or it might be too late anyway or you may prefer to replace with new now anyway.  Do read the (Driver's Handbook) Operator's Manual about battery replacement or ask here if you don't know about things like battery coding on these cars (I didn't).

 

If for any reason you don't have the paper printed copy you can download a pdf copy from the following link. - https://manual.skoda-auto.com/004/en-com/Models

 

For the seatbelt warning I don't quite understand what you mean but again I always recommend reading the Driver's Handbook (Operator's Manual) as that gives loads of information and with things like this that don't crop up often you could thinking it does something it doesn't.

 

If you can say which seat and more info on what warning(s), I assume front if your expecting a noise and you go above a certain speed(? I forget the details now, I'd have to be in the car to find out or read the Driver's Handbook) then yes a constant low drain will deplete the battery eventually but a charged or new battery in good condition should take a while.  But your battery might be 6 years old of use and abuse, it's not been fully recharged and the very hot and extreme weather we had won't have helped it or the charging system.  Fully charging or changing the battery might even help with the seatbelt issue (no guarantees on that though).

 

If you want to read them, as they used to say on Blue Peter, here's two I prepared earlier. - 

 

 

The following also gives different info related to your issues.

 

 

Edited 14 September, 20223 yr by nta16
spelling

Thanks for the input everyone,

 

Planning on getting the battery replaced because I realise it might have just reached the end of its life.

 

The question on the seatbelt warning system was due to a fear this might be draining the battery and if not fixed will just drain the new battery once installed.

 

Up until recently, if the driver or front passenger didn't use the seatbelt there was a warning light on the dash and a sound but after a recent holiday where the car was fully loaded one of the back seat passengers had dislodged a module from underneath the driver's seat and since then no sound is emitted when either the driver or passenger don't use the seatbelt although the module which has 2 connectors seem to still be connected.

 

This was a few weeks ago and up until Monday of this week there were no battery issues when the dashboard displayed a warning to recharge the batter by driving and the car does a mix of short and long trips (on Sunday the car had done a 2hr round trip so would have expected the battery to be topped up and charged from this trip)

 

Thanks for sharing the link for the manuals; I'm living in EU and the manual supplied with the car isn't in English so will read the English owners manual later

 

Hello Zagato, welcome to the forum. One thing you may not be aware of - due to the way VW charging system utilises energy recuperation under over-run and braking conditions, the alternator very rarely will be permitted to charge the battery to more that 60-75% - even on a battery in perfect condition - leaving the remaining 25% battery capacity available for regenerative charging. 

ETA: Sorry I missed Warrior193's post when I posted this post. 

 

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

 

4 hours ago, Zagato said:

(on Sunday the car had done a 2hr round trip so would have expected the battery to be topped up and charged from this trip)

Depends on what was used electrically but yes it might have topped the battery up but this might not be to fully recharged and bear in mind a 6 year old battery won't have the capabilities of a new battery.

 

The seatbelt fault might just need the connector firmly pushing together or if the battery has got too low it can put the computer's and their programs on a merge electric diet which they don't like and can cause they to play up.  With a battery not too low the computer might reset itself or you might be able to speed things up by clearing any error codes stored.

 

Edited 14 September, 20223 yr by nta16
ETA: