Just a thought on battery issues - is there a battery age when you should change the battery even if everything is working okay? Or is it okay to wait until something misbehaves?

7 year old battery from new and everything works perfectly and I charge/condition it every month or so using a Ctek charger - never needs much charge when its connected to Ctek. So do I swap it or wait??

Well, I have a similar dilemma with my Yeti.

 

It too still has its original battery. The car will be eleven years old in November. It shows no signs yet of any weakness (I am firmly touching wood as I type this!) The Yeti was garaged overnight for a few years during the covid lockdowns but now stays outside again. Should I replace the battery regardless before Winter?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Applies to both of the above posts.

14 hours ago, Expatman said:

Just a thought on battery issues - is there a battery age when you should change the battery even if everything is working okay? Or is it okay to wait until something misbehaves?

No and no.  Age doesn't matter like use, abuse and neglect.  If you wait until something misbehaves that is already passed the better point of fuller recovery and better and long service life of the battery.

 

By the time you get a low battery warning message the start-stop will have made itself unavailable for use one or many more times, worst still the computers don't like low batteries and can show this by causing unexpected issues (and unseen error counts) before putting up any messages and lights to the driver.  This is when the engine still starts normally and the lights seem bright enough.  Best that the battery is recharged before this but certainly at this point for better and longer service life of the battery.  The recharge might be a good run with less electric items used on the car or to use an appropriate charger maintainer having read and followed the instructions in the car's Owner's Manual and charger' instructions.  When you get to the point where the engine is difficult to start on a modern car you have possibly/probably taken the battery beyond where it can fully recover from this and may have shortened its service life.

 

For many a few, as required, preventative recharges by using using  an appropriate charger maintainer, having read and followed the instructions in the car's Owner's Manual and charger' instructions will prevent the premature and unnecessary change of expensive battery and prolonger and better its service and life.  But for those that prefer to change the battery that's fine, helps the economy and companies profits at least, I've changed batteries before just out of convenience (and being lazy in my case and loathing working on my own cars).

 

It's a bit like filling the fuel tank before you run so low you have run around looking for fuel or running out - I've done that a few times but never with more recent modern cars, they might not like that. 😄

 

Edited 2 June, 20242 yr by nta16

On 31/05/2024 at 11:30, Dunkf said:

Hi

I’ll put it on charge tonight, just to see if it makes a difference but I’ll probably change it anyway as it’s a few years old and I don’t know the history as I’ve only had the car since September 

 

Just out of curiosity did recharging the battery or changing it for a new one solve the problem?

Hi

i ended up changing the battery.

no change. 

On 30/05/2024 at 18:54, Dunkf said:

looking through the small amount of paperwork that came with the car I noticed that a clock spring had been replaced at some point.

 

Nobody seems to have picked up on this perhaps very relevant point.

 

I assume that you had used the horn successfully prior to the engine stalling problem manifesting, did all of the steering wheel functions work correctly? I am thinking of cruise control, scroll wheels etc if fitted.

 

I would hook it up to VCDS and interrogate the steering controller see if there are any codes and then run output tests while the engine is idling including sounding the horn (via VCDS output test not via the horn button) see if the stalling occurs or not, if it does did it bring up a fault code?

Hi

thanks for the reply. I think that I may have only used the horn a couple of times before this happened.

strangely, it happened yesterday, but this time it didn’t give any dash warning lights. Also Carista didn’t show any fault. This time I was at traffic lights and it took nearly 5 mins before the engine eventually started.

i am due a service and mot in the next month so I’ll get the garage to have a look as they have VCDS.