Posting this here in case it helps anyone in the future.

 

I have a 93,000 mile, 2014 Octavia 1.4TSI estate.  I've owned it since it was 9 months only.  Until very recently, it was running on the original battery (assuming it hadn't been changed in the 9 months before I had it...)

 

The stop-start system had become quite sporadic in its operation.  The display normally said "Power Consumption Too High".  Then, seemingly completely unrelated, I started getting warnings about failures in the rear number plate bulbs.  There was nothing wrong with the bulbs, and tapping the lights and/or opening/shutting the tailgate often "fixed" the problem - suggesting a dodgy connection somewhere. 

 

The, one morning I got a "battery low warning" flash up on starting the vehicle.  I completed a 45 min drive, left the car for ~4 hours, then drove back again 45 minutes.  On locking the car, the mirrors did not fold in.  I thus booked in for a new battery the next day.  On trying to start it the next day, the battery was completely flat.  I got it jump-started, and the battery replaced.

 

Since then, I have not had a single warning about the number plate bulb lights.  They have worked flawlessly.  Stop-start has also been far more available.

 

If you're still reading...

 

1. If your Octavia ever says "battery low" - it really means it.  You may only have one start left before it dies...
2. Consistent "Power Consumption too High" messages explaining why stop-start is unavailable are a much better indicator of a failing battery in my experience.
3. I can only assume that I have a slightly high-resistance connection somewhere in the circuit to the number plate bulbs.  If the overall system voltage was a little low before the battery change, would that explain why my error messages and non-working lights have now decided to fix themselves?

 

56 minutes ago, iriches said:

Posting this here in case it helps anyone in the future.

 

I have a 93,000 mile, 2014 Octavia 1.4TSI estate.  I've owned it since it was 9 months only.  Until very recently, it was running on the original battery (assuming it hadn't been changed in the 9 months before I had it...)

 

The stop-start system had become quite sporadic in its operation.  The display normally said "Power Consumption Too High".  Then, seemingly completely unrelated, I started getting warnings about failures in the rear number plate bulbs.  There was nothing wrong with the bulbs, and tapping the lights and/or opening/shutting the tailgate often "fixed" the problem - suggesting a dodgy connection somewhere. 

 

The, one morning I got a "battery low warning" flash up on starting the vehicle.  I completed a 45 min drive, left the car for ~4 hours, then drove back again 45 minutes.  On locking the car, the mirrors did not fold in.  I thus booked in for a new battery the next day.  On trying to start it the next day, the battery was completely flat.  I got it jump-started, and the battery replaced.

 

Since then, I have not had a single warning about the number plate bulb lights.  They have worked flawlessly.  Stop-start has also been far more available.

 

If you're still reading...

 

1. If your Octavia ever says "battery low" - it really means it.  You may only have one start left before it dies...
2. Consistent "Power Consumption too High" messages explaining why stop-start is unavailable are a much better indicator of a failing battery in my experience.
3. I can only assume that I have a slightly high-resistance connection somewhere in the circuit to the number plate bulbs.  If the overall system voltage was a little low before the battery change, would that explain why my error messages and non-working lights have now decided to fix themselves?

 

A tip if you are attempting to verify age of battery - there is usually a date stamp on the top of the negative terminal, format is WW,YY.

18 hours ago, iriches said:

Posting this here in case it helps anyone in the future.

 

I have a 93,000 mile, 2014 Octavia 1.4TSI estate.  I've owned it since it was 9 months only.  Until very recently, it was running on the original battery (assuming it hadn't been changed in the 9 months before I had it...)

 

The stop-start system had become quite sporadic in its operation.  The display normally said "Power Consumption Too High".  Then, seemingly completely unrelated, I started getting warnings about failures in the rear number plate bulbs.  There was nothing wrong with the bulbs, and tapping the lights and/or opening/shutting the tailgate often "fixed" the problem - suggesting a dodgy connection somewhere. 

 

The, one morning I got a "battery low warning" flash up on starting the vehicle.  I completed a 45 min drive, left the car for ~4 hours, then drove back again 45 minutes.  On locking the car, the mirrors did not fold in.  I thus booked in for a new battery the next day.  On trying to start it the next day, the battery was completely flat.  I got it jump-started, and the battery replaced.

 

Since then, I have not had a single warning about the number plate bulb lights.  They have worked flawlessly.  Stop-start has also been far more available.

 

If you're still reading...

 

1. If your Octavia ever says "battery low" - it really means it.  You may only have one start left before it dies...
2. Consistent "Power Consumption too High" messages explaining why stop-start is unavailable are a much better indicator of a failing battery in my experience.
3. I can only assume that I have a slightly high-resistance connection somewhere in the circuit to the number plate bulbs.  If the overall system voltage was a little low before the battery change, would that explain why my error messages and non-working lights have now decided to fix themselves?

 

I think that would be a good assumption to explain the fault.

The slightly high resistance in the circuit will probably remain and may possibly cause spurious alerts in future. If access is easy, I'd suggest checking/cleaning the lamp contacts.