Battery? Seems very poor on my new car.

Charge level is very low so S/S does not work until after a very, very long run. Popped it on a trickle charger, and takes over four hours to fully charge. 

I do quite a low mileage on my cars, so always pop them on a trickle charger after a few months of ownership. This battery has to be the poorest yet. Previous few cars had AGM batteries, and held charge for ages.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

 

Do you plug a phone, or any other device into the lighter socket?

Some of them can draw enough current to slow down charging. 

1 minute ago, JD52 said:

Do you plug a phone, or any other device into the lighter socket?

Some of them can draw enough current to slow down charging. 

Nope, nothing plugged in. Never do in any car.

My wife has an August 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS and during lockdown etc, I was connecting it up to a CTEK smart charger, the stated and/or preferred way to connect an external charger is between the battery +VE and body earth point near the battery.

 

I also have a CTEK battery tester/analyser and that along with online tales of battery woes, lead me to "jump the gun" and grab myself a Bosch AGM battery of the "next size up", really to be ready to walk away from minimal sized/rated EFB battery - i bought that AGM battery back in early winter of 2021 - and yet that car continues to survive on its original battery after 8 years and 45,000 miles - like many other people, I can end up being a bit selective as to when I allow the auto Stop/Start to be in control, but so far so good.

 

It seems to be part of the price of lowering emissions, ie to fit minimal sized/rated batteries and then only allow them to charge when they threatening to go flat, as I said,  that 2015 VW Polo has never ended up giving the impression that it is too low on battery charge that it will not start.

I would definitely get it checked out. I have a MkIV 110 Auto which is a year old now and I've not had any problems.  I don't drive it for weeks on end but when I do, it it doesn't take very long for the S/S to kick in.

15 hours ago, Tintowellfan said:

Popped it on a trickle charger, and takes over four hours to fully charge.

A trickle charger will take 2 or 3 days repeat days to charge a battery.

8 minutes ago, Paws4Thot said:

A trickle charger will take 2 or 3 days repeat days to charge a battery.

Probably not making myself clear. Have been using 4 amp trickle chargers for a number of years. I hard wire it to the battery making it easier to connect/disconnect. My Mokka diesel AGM battery lasted me nine years using it. On return from a journey it would take less than 20 minutes to get back to full capacity, many times only a couple of minutes. This Skoda using same procedure takes over four hours to get back to full capacity. My Mokka did not have a 'smart' alternator, this car does, so I believe that is the problem. Anyway, no big deal as long as the car starts when I need to use it. If it starts to annoy me I will make an issue of it.

18 minutes ago, Paws4Thot said:

A trickle charger will take 2 or 3 days repeat days to charge a battery.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

Sorry but I wont be repeating that one!

Edited 13 August, 20232 yr by J.R.

7 hours ago, Marcopolovitch said:

I would definitely get it checked out. I have a MkIV 110 Auto which is a year old now and I've not had any problems.  I don't drive it for weeks on end but when I do, it it doesn't take very long for the S/S to kick in.

Please to tell me what S/S is?

17 minutes ago, offthewall said:

Please to tell me what S/S is?

Stop Start

Ah .... OK. Thanks.

On 13/08/2023 at 10:34, Paws4Thot said:

A trickle charger will take 2 or 3 days repeat days to charge a battery.

Just noticed your post/reply. Not sure what you mean. A trickle charger will take 2 or 3 days repeat days to charge a battery. By 'trickle', I am showing my age, I believe they are now called 'smart' chargers. Anyway, I am using a 'Smart' charger, and on the Fabia it takes forever to get my battery up to full charge,  After today's journey of almost 100 miles from Lanark to Ayrshire and round about a bit, and back home, it has been on my smart charger for over three hours, and still not fully charged. Would have been fully charged on my previous Mokka within a few minutes. Just clarifying.

Someone might explain why the battery does not go to full charge as in 100%.   It goes to 100% of what you can trickle charge, but space / a % is left because the car regens a bit when driving. 

3 hours ago, Tintowellfan said:

Not sure what you mean.

Ok, a day is a period of 24 hours. A trickle charger will deliver an initial current of maybe 3Ah reducing as the battery nears capacity. Simple arithmetic then shows that, with the current flow reducing as the battery fills, it takes days to fill the battery with a trickle charger.

 

So called "smart" chargers are another beast entirely.

5 hours ago, Paws4Thot said:

Ok, a day is a period of 24 hours. A trickle charger will deliver an initial current of maybe 3Ah reducing as the battery nears capacity. Simple arithmetic then shows that, with the current flow reducing as the battery fills, it takes days to fill the battery with a trickle charger.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

7 hours ago, Paws4Thot said:

Ok, a day is a period of 24 hours. A trickle charger will deliver an initial current of maybe 3Ah reducing as the battery nears capacity. Simple arithmetic then shows that, with the current flow reducing as the battery fills, it takes days to fill the battery with a trickle charger.

 

So called "smart" chargers are another beast entirely.

Not sure you fully read my post. I am using a smart charger, I clarified that. Anyway, my point was that my previous car’s battery got to a full state of charge in minutes, on the charger, after a drive, but the Fabia takes several hours. Possibly a good reason for it, I was just noting my observation.

15 hours ago, toot said:

Someone might explain why the battery does not go to full charge as in 100%.   It goes to 100% of what you can trickle charge, but space / a % is left because the car regens a bit when driving. 

Isn't that only on the Mhev mild hybrid engines

(there isn't any full hybrid Fabia), and not sure there are Mhev either

 

Others have stated that while under the control of the car's smart charging system, cars with "regenerative braking", will always aim to charge the battery up to a level of roughly 85% - doing that means that all/most of the "free" energy provided by "regenerative braking" - mainly during on the overrun /braking phase, can be absorbed by the car's battery and so lower overall emissions (and save the national grid from being stressed by people home trickle charging - hopefully that will be taken as intended as a joke).

Pretty sure there is nothing hybrid about this Fabia. If there is, then Skoda kept it a secret in their adverising bumf! Haha.

3 hours ago, rum4mo said:

Others have stated that while under the control of the car's smart charging system, cars with "regenerative braking", will always aim to charge the battery up to a level of roughly 85% - doing that means that all/most of the "free" energy provided by "regenerative braking" - mainly during on the overrun /braking phase, can be absorbed by the car's battery and so lower overall emissions (and save the national grid from being stressed by people home trickle charging - hopefully that will be taken as intended as a joke).

 

21 hours ago, Paws4Thot said:

Ok, a day is a period of 24 hours.

Hopefully you were not attempting a take at the ****. Not appreciated if you were. 

A trickle charger will take 2 or 3 days repeat days to charge a battery.

What are these repeat days that you talk about? Maybe some punctuation would help. Anyway, maybe me, but not sure what you are talking about.

 

Edited 15 August, 20232 yr by Tintowellfan

You can only lead a horse to water. 

6 minutes ago, toot said:

You can only lead a horse to water. 

I am new to this forum. Please explain. Have I encountered someone to be avoided? Or is it me? Been on loads of forums, and it takes a wee while to suss it it out. 

Maybe instead of cracking jokes about not being a hybrid look into how they managed to get the WLTP results and how the battery and charging operates.   Stop / start is a joke with Skoda and is more often not operating as it should with many driver.   Skoda / VW group are installing about as crap batteries as they can. 

Edited 15 August, 20232 yr by toot

On 13/08/2023 at 10:47, Tintowellfan said:

I hard wire it to the battery making it easier to connect/disconnect

Is it hard wired to BOTH battery terminals?

 

On 12/08/2023 at 21:04, rum4mo said:

the stated and/or preferred way to connect an external charger is between the battery +VE and body earth point near the battery.

 

The Fabia IV is a micro hybrid vehicle:-

https://www.yuasa.co.uk/info/technical/micro-hybrid-hybrid-vehicles-explained/

 

HTH

 

Thanks. AG Falco

 

Edited 15 August, 20232 yr by AGFalco
Went from III to IV.

Still confused. Have I said something that has annoyed you?  I made no cracks about hybrid, never had any idea that they may be until some posts!