48 minutes ago, Pessimal said:

Far as I can tell the battery is OK, but the car seems to stop/starting less often, so my assumption would be that the battery is starting to decline and may need changing.

Or just charging but if the car doesn't allow start/stop more often because the battery is too low then the battery will be harder to rescue.

 

 

48 minutes ago, Pessimal said:

I dont fancy being stranded In a remote part of Scotland thanks to a dodgy battery!

I do see your point and don't blame you but it's not really a dodgy battery as such.  As I put get a new battery and perhaps you might need to treat it more if you want it to last longer.

 

 

48 minutes ago, Pessimal said:

That car did a run down  to Leeds from Newcastle last weekend,

Thinking of it perhaps like some bank accounts, gets depleted because is more taken out more often than is put in.

 

 

48 minutes ago, Pessimal said:

I am seeing about 12.3 to 12.4v with the car off.

Depends when the reading is taken, just as an example, after the car hadn't been used for (a lot more than) a couple of hours (gets rid of surface charging from use) I quickly unlocked my wife's car and had the bonnet up to take an immediate reading -12.4V, left the car unlocked and bonnet open to settle itself down for 35 minutes then took another reading, 12.6V this time.  (A new fully charged settled battery could show 12.7V or 12.8V, then you have to allow for how accurate or not your multimeter is)

 

At a settled 12.3V the battery wants charging, best I think to fully recharge using an appropriate battery charger and maintainer, lower the better for me, 2- amp charger better than 4, 4-amp charger better than 6, 6-amp better than 8.  I'd never use a fast charger on a battery that's not at its best, quickest way to kill off a battery in a poor state I've found.

 

Personally I'd (slow) fully charge the new battery before fitting it too* though this isn't or shouldn't really be needed.

 

ETA: I've just thought, if you fit the new battery to the car and charge the new battery on the car with the negative connection of the charger to the body earth point the computer might(?) get the idea of the battery being in a different state of charge (charging) sooner than just fitting the battery and driving to sort things out.

 

 

ETA 2: Do consult your 'Owner's Manual' about changing the battery, what needs resetting/synchronising (usually just time of day clock if you've not left stuff open) and do consult your 'Owner's Manual' about charging the car battery, lots of good info in the 'Owner's Manuals' and needs looking at even for what you'd think is very simple straight forward job - plenty of posts and threads on the site where people don't, and I sometimes forget to look first and then have to.

 

 

Figures from my neighbour's Ring battery charger/tester. -

 

12.7v - 100%             12.5v - 90%               12.4v - 80%               12.3V - 70%

12.2v - 60%               12.1v - 50%               11.9v - 40%               11.8v - 30%

11.6v - 20%               11.3v - 10%

 

VW

 

Charge level             No-load          voltage

1.28 g/cm3                100%              12.7 V

1.21 g/cm3                60%                12.3 V

1.18 g/cm3                40%                12.1 V

1.10 g/cm3                0%                  11.7 V

 

Edited 5 March, 20233 yr by nta16
ETA: and ETA 2:

I think that you are just getting range(from home) anxiety, which is fair enough, the drop off in "start/start" might just be down to winter temperatures and so using more lights/heaters, NC500 in March, brave person, I waited until May/June.

 

I hope that there are plenty Langoustines in Applecross - if you like that sort of thing, I'm well overdue my meal of them fresh out of the sea!

 

I have an exwork mate who is going to France in July, so he felt the urge to get rid of his 3 year old 4K miles Ford Focus and get a new Ford Kuga - now that is proper range(away from home) anxiety - PCP had run out though, and he'll have a 1.5 engine instead of a 1.0 engine for the long run down UK and through France.

Here's an update for everyone:

 

Firstly thank you everyone for your help and insight, with that being said, I was able to replace and code the battery on my own. 😁 The only real thing that I think can hold anyone back from doing this is either a lack of an OBDII scanner with coding abilities, a wrench with an extension or two and determination.

 

A local garage quoted me at £20 to fit a battery but when I asked if this included coding they said no. The other was a Varta specialist going for around £40 up to £80 just to fit one in. Halfords had their own brand EFB battery at £186.99 plus £27.99 fitting. 🤯

 

So with that being said let's go over it.

 

I have a 2017 Skoda Superb MkIII fitted with an OEM Banner EFB 6R0 915 105 B 12V 69Ah 360A DIN battery. The main key points are the battery type, EFB, the capacity 69Ah and the dimensions, length: 275 mm, width: 175 mm and height: 190 mm.

 

 

I realised my battery was dying/dead when I had the error message "Manoveure braking unavailable" pop up time over time and then one day it wouldn't crank without the help of a jump starter. It wouldn't even hold any charge even when charged with a trickle charger. 6 years, low miles over Covid (still low miles now) and plenty of cold winter starts probably killed the battery.

 

I ordered the ever popular Varta AGM E39 12V 70Ah 760A 570 901 076 D86 2 battery for £145 including next day delivery. One reason I picked Varta is because it's also an OEM choice battery found in some other VAG vehicles. The key differences are that it is an AGM type battery, the capcity is 70Ah and that it is slightly longer at 278mm but the same width: 175mm and height: 190mm. The extra 3mm is nothing to be concerned about. It arrived next day from Tayna and was pretty much fully charged when I tested it with my trickle charger.

 

 

From what I understand  an AGM type battery should last three times as long as a regular battery, compared to an EFB type when compared to a regular battery which only lasts twice as long. The only issue is that AGM batteries don't like heat - hence why there is a thermal battery sleeve in the Superb.

 

The other thing that needs doing is that changing from an EFB to an AGM type battery needs coding. I originally got the OBDeleven when it was on sale with a voucher, however at the time you could get free credits (not anymore) but in order to do any coding or adaptations you'll need a Pro subcription. So you're looking at just under £100 together in order to do it (the OBD2 device is £60 and the 1 year Pro plan is £50 separately). This together can really put someone off, nearly did for me, but it can save some money clearing codes, diagnosing faults on the car, service intervals, and in my case when I managed in a very roundabout way of getting Pro, save money.

 

That and you need a 10mm and a 13mm sockets with a wrench and extension bar.

 

As @BillyParkersays, it took longer to get the battery swapped over than coding it in.

 

You first disconnect the negative terminal first by loosening the 10mm socket, then loosen the postive terminal and move them aside - it can take a lot of loosening and nudging to remove the terminals from the battery. I wasn't keen on the idea of using a screw driver to wedge loose the terminals so that's probably where I took the longest.

 

At the front of the battery there is a bracket with a 13mm bolt that you can undo with the extension bar (in my case I used two) and the removed the bracket which can be finnicky. But once that is out, you'll need to pull the battery towards you so it leaves the battery tray mounts at the rear, then you can remove the thermal battery sleeve, and then carefully lift the whole battery out - it was pretty heavy especially when you're leaning forwards and you have to be cafeul that you don't want to drop it on the car panels.

 

I used the plastic cover from the positive end of the new battery to cover the old one - there is also a plastic nub that I used to seal up the old battery to stop any leaking.

 

Give it a clean at the bottom of the battery tray - there are several mounting holes you can use but I can't imagine anyone using a smaller battery. then lift and insert the new one into the bottom battery mounts and push until it's fully in. Here I put the thermal sleeve on but I imagine it might've been easier to put the sleeve on first then push it into position.

 

When you're connecting the new battery, do it in reverse, connect the positive terminal and then the negative. I got a few sparks when trying to seat the negative terminal but once it's in there wasn't anything to be afraid of.

 

Then you can add the battery bracket and hand tighten them all. That's the hard part done.

 

The next part was coding, I turned the ignotion on and instantly nearly every warning light came on - low tyre pressure light, brake disc fault, hill hold disabled, start stop disabled, cruise control disabled, auto parking brake error, steering angle error, digital radio antenna fault, emergency SOS fault and so on. Kinda scary.

 

I connected my OBDeleven to the car and went straight to code the new battery in, tapping onto Control Unit, Gateway 19, Adaptation, then Battery Adaptation, where you are presented with your old battery settings. Incidentally a lot of it wasn't accurate, I had a Banner battery which was labelled as JCB instead of BA2 and the Battery serial number was just 1111111111. The only correct things were the Rated battery capacity at 69 Ah and the Battery technology EFB.

 

So this is where you need the Pro version of OBDeleven, which has a green checkmark on the bottom right which you hold to save your new values, otherwise you're faced with a red padlock and needing to splash out £50 or so. Thankfully I was about to get around this and save myself a bunch.

 

 

So the new settings I added were 70Ah, changed the last digit on the Battery serial number to 1111111110 (10 digits, doesn't really matter what), changed the Battery manufacturer to Varta's code VA0 (or VAO, it apparently doesn't matter which one as long as it doesn't flag up an error) and the new Battery technology Fleece. Tap and hold the green button (at this point I should at looked for a test on the app but didn't) and then turned on the engine.

 

I did a full lock left to right (which instantly cleared one or two faults) and then did a little drive. The engine turned over instantly and the steering and acceleration felt a lot more tighter. When I next stopped I turned the engine off, key out of the ignition, then open and shut door, key back in and only turn on the ignition - I cleared all the remaning faults and then it was all good. I even silenced the Superb's remote liftback beeps while I was at it.

 

So thanks everyone, and if anyone is interested in doing it themselves I hope this helps, given this new experience. 😁

Edited 7 March, 20233 yr by SomethingSuperbly

Great news and great write-up, well done. 👍

 

 

15 hours ago, SomethingSuperbly said:

360A DIN

Just a note, for UK at least it's usually easier to go with the EN / SAE number, 680A on your previous EFB battery (780A on your new battery).

 

 

15 hours ago, SomethingSuperbly said:

The only issue is that AGM batteries don't like heat - hence why there is a thermal battery sleeve in the Superb.

I've also seen where some have put that factory AGM battery installs get additional insulation on engine bay installations, to the battery tray I think but don't know.  I've not bothered about this with my wife's 90hp 1.2 but I might with have with a VRS type model.

 

 

15 hours ago, SomethingSuperbly said:

and the steering and acceleration felt a lot more tighter.

Some will say that's placebo but the battery state of charge can effect the computers and the computers control the car, you now realise how very important it is to the car not to have the car battery in a low or very low state of charge.

 

 

Even though you have an AGM battery now it is still just a storage device so if you want the longest life out of it and least hassle from the computers and are going to have a similar car use as previously you'll want an appropriate battery charger and maintainer (which may or may not be your present trickle charge depending on its use) and use it when required in a preventative manner.

 

I put a Bosch battery on my wife's car but apparently they're Vatra with a different label, which is good. 🙂

 

On 07/03/2023 at 21:48, SomethingSuperbly said:

 

Snap!

 

 

I love Brisky 👍  Mrs Gaz's 2015 Polo GTI threw up an EPC light yesterday during a 55+ mile run.  The only thing of note was that s/s was unavailable.  I'm certain it's the original battery, so it's done well.

 

Googling it 'coz it's a VW, not a Skoda, and it brings me pretty much straight back to Brisky 😎

 

The EPC's not on today, but I suspect it won't be far away before I'm following your post, and changing to an AGM battery 

 

Gaz

 

 

@Gaz you don't necessarily need a more expensive AGM (that should really have more insulation if fitted in the engine bay) rather than an EFB if you just do very occasional driver maintenance on the new battery which you will also need t do on the AGM battery as well, plus you will need to have the AGM 'coded' correctly if changing to AGM.  More details can be given if required.

 

Plus you might be able to successfully recover your existing battery for longer good use if you want to.  I think the VW 'Owner's Manual' might tell you to take the car for a drive to charge the battery (or is that BMW?) but as you have found this often isn't enough.

 

1 hour ago, Gaz said:

 

Snap!

 

 

I love Brisky 👍  Mrs Gaz's 2015 Polo GTI threw up an EPC light yesterday during a 55+ mile run.  The only thing of note was that s/s was unavailable.  I'm certain it's the original battery, so it's done well.

 

Googling it 'coz it's a VW, not a Skoda, and it brings me pretty much straight back to Brisky 😎

 

The EPC's not on today, but I suspect it won't be far away before I'm following your post, and changing to an AGM battery 

 

Gaz

 

 

That battery is in remarkedly clean condition for original fit, obviously very well cared-for.

48 minutes ago, Warrior193 said:

That battery is in remarkedly clean condition for original fit, obviously very well cared-for.

 

It's in the boot, under the spare wheel, so is in just about the cleanest place it could be 👍

A better set up than the horrible flimsy BMW boot set up.  As with my neighbour's Citigo a large battery to cope with VW's electronics and dare I suggest perhaps less efficient German engineering quality starter motors and perhaps alternators.

 

Take that yellow/black indicator with a pinch of salt, it looks like you might be able to peel the plastic labels back and possibly remove the cap plugs to see electrolyte ('water') levels of the 6 cells and condition of the plates in each cell.

 

ETA: it'd be interesting to see if VW have the battery serial number as 1111111111 in the 'coding'.

 

Edited 2 December, 20241 yr by nta16
typos

On 07/03/2023 at 21:48, SomethingSuperbly said:

Here's an update for everyone:

 

Firstly thank you everyone for your help and insight, with that being said, I was able to replace and code the battery on my own. 😁 The only real thing that I think can hold anyone back from doing this is either a lack of an OBDII scanner with coding abilities, a wrench with an extension or two and determination.

 

A local garage quoted me at £20 to fit a battery but when I asked if this included coding they said no. The other was a Varta specialist going for around £40 up to £80 just to fit one in. Halfords had their own brand EFB battery at £186.99 plus £27.99 fitting. 🤯

 

So with that being said let's go over it.

 

I have a 2017 Skoda Superb MkIII fitted with an OEM Banner EFB 6R0 915 105 B 12V 69Ah 360A DIN battery. The main key points are the battery type, EFB, the capacity 69Ah and the dimensions, length: 275 mm, width: 175 mm and height: 190 mm.

 

 

I realised my battery was dying/dead when I had the error message "Manoveure braking unavailable" pop up time over time and then one day it wouldn't crank without the help of a jump starter. It wouldn't even hold any charge even when charged with a trickle charger. 6 years, low miles over Covid (still low miles now) and plenty of cold winter starts probably killed the battery.

 

I ordered the ever popular Varta AGM E39 12V 70Ah 760A 570 901 076 D86 2 battery for £145 including next day delivery. One reason I picked Varta is because it's also an OEM choice battery found in some other VAG vehicles. The key differences are that it is an AGM type battery, the capcity is 70Ah and that it is slightly longer at 278mm but the same width: 175mm and height: 190mm. The extra 3mm is nothing to be concerned about. It arrived next day from Tayna and was pretty much fully charged when I tested it with my trickle charger.

 

 

From what I understand  an AGM type battery should last three times as long as a regular battery, compared to an EFB type when compared to a regular battery which only lasts twice as long. The only issue is that AGM batteries don't like heat - hence why there is a thermal battery sleeve in the Superb.

 

The other thing that needs doing is that changing from an EFB to an AGM type battery needs coding. I originally got the OBDeleven when it was on sale with a voucher, however at the time you could get free credits (not anymore) but in order to do any coding or adaptations you'll need a Pro subcription. So you're looking at just under £100 together in order to do it (the OBD2 device is £60 and the 1 year Pro plan is £50 separately). This together can really put someone off, nearly did for me, but it can save some money clearing codes, diagnosing faults on the car, service intervals, and in my case when I managed in a very roundabout way of getting Pro, save money.

 

That and you need a 10mm and a 13mm sockets with a wrench and extension bar.

 

As @BillyParkersays, it took longer to get the battery swapped over than coding it in.

 

You first disconnect the negative terminal first by loosening the 10mm socket, then loosen the postive terminal and move them aside - it can take a lot of loosening and nudging to remove the terminals from the battery. I wasn't keen on the idea of using a screw driver to wedge loose the terminals so that's probably where I took the longest.

 

At the front of the battery there is a bracket with a 13mm bolt that you can undo with the extension bar (in my case I used two) and the removed the bracket which can be finnicky. But once that is out, you'll need to pull the battery towards you so it leaves the battery tray mounts at the rear, then you can remove the thermal battery sleeve, and then carefully lift the whole battery out - it was pretty heavy especially when you're leaning forwards and you have to be cafeul that you don't want to drop it on the car panels.

 

I used the plastic cover from the positive end of the new battery to cover the old one - there is also a plastic nub that I used to seal up the old battery to stop any leaking.

 

Give it a clean at the bottom of the battery tray - there are several mounting holes you can use but I can't imagine anyone using a smaller battery. then lift and insert the new one into the bottom battery mounts and push until it's fully in. Here I put the thermal sleeve on but I imagine it might've been easier to put the sleeve on first then push it into position.

 

When you're connecting the new battery, do it in reverse, connect the positive terminal and then the negative. I got a few sparks when trying to seat the negative terminal but once it's in there wasn't anything to be afraid of.

 

Then you can add the battery bracket and hand tighten them all. That's the hard part done.

 

The next part was coding, I turned the ignotion on and instantly nearly every warning light came on - low tyre pressure light, brake disc fault, hill hold disabled, start stop disabled, cruise control disabled, auto parking brake error, steering angle error, digital radio antenna fault, emergency SOS fault and so on. Kinda scary.

 

I connected my OBDeleven to the car and went straight to code the new battery in, tapping onto Control Unit, Gateway 19, Adaptation, then Battery Adaptation, where you are presented with your old battery settings. Incidentally a lot of it wasn't accurate, I had a Banner battery which was labelled as JCB instead of BA2 and the Battery serial number was just 1111111111. The only correct things were the Rated battery capacity at 69 Ah and the Battery technology EFB.

 

So this is where you need the Pro version of OBDeleven, which has a green checkmark on the bottom right which you hold to save your new values, otherwise you're faced with a red padlock and needing to splash out £50 or so. Thankfully I was about to get around this and save myself a bunch.

 

 

So the new settings I added were 70Ah, changed the last digit on the Battery serial number to 1111111110 (10 digits, doesn't really matter what), changed the Battery manufacturer to Varta's code VA0 (or VAO, it apparently doesn't matter which one as long as it doesn't flag up an error) and the new Battery technology Fleece. Tap and hold the green button (at this point I should at looked for a test on the app but didn't) and then turned on the engine.

 

I did a full lock left to right (which instantly cleared one or two faults) and then did a little drive. The engine turned over instantly and the steering and acceleration felt a lot more tighter. When I next stopped I turned the engine off, key out of the ignition, then open and shut door, key back in and only turn on the ignition - I cleared all the remaning faults and then it was all good. I even silenced the Superb's remote liftback beeps while I was at it.

 

So thanks everyone, and if anyone is interested in doing it themselves I hope this helps, given this new experience. 😁

Hi all,

I followed this excellent guide - thanks to SomethingSuperbly - a change a dead battery on my 2019 Superb Mk3 estate. The car hadn't been driven for a while and when I first tried to start it I got a Glowplug warning and the car was sluggish to start. I then got loads of errors about ABS, ESC, Brakes, etc, so after some quick reading of this forum, I decided to upgrade my EFB+ (see picture) and purchase an AGM (as per picture). The uninstall and install went easy, the coded seemed to work (Fleece, VA0, 70ah, a new 10 digit serial number all using OBDEleven Pro. Excellent - the car started first time. When I watched the battery status in OBDEleven whilst driving, with foot on the accelerator battery showed as discharging, when i took foot off the pedal (rolling down hill) it showed charging at 14.7

Tested battery with a meter after stopping and it showed 12.7

Turned the car off, left overnight, tried next morning - wouldnt start - tested battery and it was 11.4v

Any clues or tips where to go next with this please?

Car is outside and not being used as cannot trust it! :-(

Many thanks

Paul

Quick thoughts.

Did you test the alternator?

DId you clean the battery terminal clamps inside and out before fitting them to the new battery?

Have you checked the battery post clamps are securely fitted to the battery posts?

Did you check the main battery cable connections are clean, secure and protected both ends?

Did you check the new battery voltage before you fitted it to your car?

Did you fully charge (to 100%) the new battery before fitting it to the car?

Is your OBDEleven Pro fully updated for its programs?

Have you checked the coding with your OBDEleven Pro?

Have you checked for error codes?

The engine should start well with a new battery but will start even with an old battery that is in a low state of charge, do you think you might have some elctrical drain, have you left some car setting on which might drain the battery, far too much potential for this on some Superbs with all the extras, "aids", "assists", conveniences, etc., etc..

If you were accelorating why was the battery showing as discharging what electrical loads were on at the time?

When did you get the 12.7v reading after stopping, was that very soon after or many hours later?

Try fully recharging the battery (to 100%) with an appropriate battery charger maintainer following the instructions for the charger and the instructions in the car's 'Owner's Manual'. This may take many hours from 11.4v. Then disconnect the stop/start battery monitoring whilst you investigate this.

Have you tested the alternator?

That's enough for now, no doubt others will have other and perhaps better ideas.

@PJGallagher Have you changed any bulbs to LEDs? This can have weird side-effects including the car not powering down properly and draining the battery.

54 minutes ago, D402 said:

@PJGallagher Have you changed any bulbs to LEDs? This can have weird side-effects including the car not powering down properly and draining the battery.

Nope, any change was the battery.

New battery is now charged overnight with Noco genius 10 and is reading 13v on my M-830B Multimeter. Will install that and see how I get on...

Edited 18 May18 May by PJGallagher

Just a note.

As your battery is new it probably won't mind being rushed but if the Noco 10 runs at 10-amp its a bit over the top for a 70 Ah battery, VWŠkoda in the their 'Owner's Manual' have to use 0.1 to battery Ah, so 7-amp when battery is connected to car and that would be my maximum for bench too, though I'd use a lower amp charger, often 4-amp or 1.8-amp for a battery that won't start the engine particularly a modern engine. Varta might also have their battery to be bench charged at 4/5-amps(?). More isn't always better. IIRC general rule is faster recharge for fast discharge and slow recharge for slow discharge but in my experience I've always found a long, slow, low recharge to be better but of course this does require the time (sometimes days) and patience.

Good luck, how's it going?