That battery tester is a good tool to have for anyone running a car. Just hook it up and it'll give you a reading. For an £18 spend it's good to know if the battery just needs charging or replacing. Of course going to any garage, dealership or even Halfords they may just say, new battery mate when it doesn't need one and please handover £xx for a diagnosis.

I just think of the time a friend went to a garage a few years ago, he had a noise from the engine, you need an engine swap mate, we can do you one for £xxxx. All it needed was an aux belt tensioner replacing.

I don't have enough details of your car or battery dimensions to pin it down exactly and VWŠkoda code 8E0 915 105 B is only going by the 105B shown. 320A DIN is about 530A EN CCA approx. on the conversion chart I have.

To me the battery looks factory fit (scan tool reading would confirm), if it is factory fit then as in the VWŠkoda 'Owner's Manuals' used to have - "You should replace batteries older than 5 years." - (and IIRC it later changed to 4 years) then if your 2019 car was more than 5 years old at point of sale the VWŠkoda Dealership should change the battery to keep car manufacturer's recommendation.

As it still has these horrible bar connects (with fuse links?) you don't want to be taking the battery out too often in case you fatigue or damage anything, so a long long slow recharge as described above with battery on car.

If you want or need a new battery and the Dealership wriggle out it, which snakes often do, then measure the battery, go to websites of and see what batteries are offered and confirm fitment, your car's registration (plate) or VIN will speed things up but bear in mind to cross-check as all databases have errors and omissions.

Whether you're getting a new battery or not (from you or Dealership) you want to recharge the existing battery as much as you can in the meantime even if it takes more than one session to get it fully charged or charged as much as you can, as Tesco tells us every little helps.

1 hour ago, zer081 said:

I've loaned a battery charger off my dad and I'll pop that on overnight tonight to see how theyit as it did indicate it needed a charge.

Borrowed 😉 Best if it's a "smart" (they're not really) for start/stop batteries and is lower amperage or has a low setting and if it automatically switches to maintain mode when the battery is full even better as you can just connect it up and leave it as long as you like and it doesn't overcharge the battery but keeps it topped up.

1 hour ago, zer081 said:

(Also, stop start did seem to work again today more regularly after the day got warmer, so who knows what's going on!)

The battery like 20c and the cold not so much plus when colder you and perhaps things in the car use more electric so greater use when the battery isn't at its best so the computer program judges it can't trust the engine to always be started in stop/start mode without draining the battery beyond a certain level. Have you not been driving long or inexperienced, North West you must be used to cold weather (for much more of the year in my experience 😄 well than in Northamptonshire at least).

8 minutes ago, MickA said:

That battery tester is a good tool to have for anyone running a car. Just hook it up and it'll give you a reading. For an £18 spend it's good to know if the battery just needs charging or replacing. Of course going to any garage, dealership or even Halfords they may just say, new battery mate when it doesn't need one and please handover £xx for a diagnosis.

I just think of the time a friend went to a garage a few years ago, he had a noise from the engine, you need an engine swap mate, we can do you one for £xxxx. All it needed was an aux belt tensioner replacing.

Certainly would argue about some dodgy people who work in the motor trade ripping others off, I've plenty of experience of that.

It's a matter of need and priority and space or want or interest for many, some would prefer to carry a jump-starter pack I prefer prevention over cure and always changed any suspect battery on a car new to me but can generally judge by car use and multimeter readings a generally state of a battery in any car I have not because I know much about anything just decades of experience of running cars many of them 20-50 years old, as well as modern and even brand new cars in the past and experience of dealing with neighbours' cars and car batteries over decades.

If you and others see value in having a battery tester and promote it that's great I think the interpretation of the figures some testers may give could leave to a false negative need for battery replacement, perhaps the one you have is different. I've successfully revived a couple of old "dead" batteries that taking the readings off his Ring charger battery tester suggested wouldn't be worth the effort. I must say this there for a 2005 GM Vauxhall Astra diesel van not a more modern VW product with start/stop and VW German complex computer systems and programming.

However I'm not one for boys toys I don't even own an electric screw driver though sometime now with my weak muscles, soft skin, and creaking bones I sometimes wish I had, then I see some simple work done with them badly and glad again I don't have one.

I'm not a Luddite just disappointed in the working and quality of some stuff that been about for decades and has gone backwards and/or down in quality or new stuff that just isn't reliable enough or is trusted too much and not checked if it's correct or needs further interpretation or diagnosis from it, and we all know computers aren't always right or correct or accurate. (same as a selection of digital multimeters though 😁).

"However I'm not one for boys toys I don't even own an electric screw driver though sometime now with my weak muscles, soft skin, and creaking bones I sometimes wish I had, then I see some simple work done with them badly and glad again I don't have one"

I've just invested in a new cordless drill and separate driver. My old cordless drill the battery died (back to batteries again😁) and replacements unavailable. I dumped it and replaced it with both the drill and driver from those middle of Lidl specials. Must say after building a raised bed (garden) numerous screws and just completed some shelving half the length of the garage. I have around 10 screws left of a box of 100 building that, the cordless driver came into it's own along with the drill of course. Lidl, tools perfect for the DIY man, that's me. I'll probably have a rest now for a few weeks, bones are certainly aching.😁

I missed out the letter 's' in sometimes as I already sometimes wish I had an electric screwdriver, I already sometimes go on to the mechanical version of cordless screwdriver, a rachet driver, as I already have withered muscles, not that there was much before, and always had soft skin, and decades since I've done enough to have calyces. Much into double digits with screws I think I'd want a palm battery driver, AA batteries to save having to recycle it just because they make the battery unavailable (an excellent sales con). Not long now before I get clicks from my wrist when using a non-powered screwdriver. 😄

I almost got blisters from rehanging a neighbour's big(er) gate and shed door, as he's from Yorkshire the shed is cheap and unsubstantial, the gates were there before him, and the hinges and screws I put on as replacements added the extra weight needed to stop the shed blowing away, if not over, though they didn't stop the door from dropping again as the whole shed tilted with rain and damp. 😄

He also got some Lidl garden telescopic loppers a few years back and they have been excellent, I clean and use GT85 on them after every use and only need to tighten the socket screws and nuts when I have done lots of cuts on (too) thicker branches, £8.50 or £6.50 he can't remember which, extraordinary value even just with what and how I've used them, good for roots too.

I could whinge about German / VW car batteries and alternators as opposed to the Japanese and Korean cars I've dealt (very, very few all combined) but I won't. 😇

6 hours ago, MickA said:

That battery tester is a good tool to have for anyone running a car.

I have one, they are very good but the % life remaining figures should be viewed with informed scepticism, better to go by the CCA reading, compare it to the batteries original rating and ask yourself would this car reliably start if I fitted a new smaller battery with the CCA rating that my current battery is showing, the answer is usually yes for maybe a couple of winters.

Also be aware that they will give a false reading if the battery is still connected to the vehicle unless you trick the vehicle into thinking it is switched off and locked like you would do for a parasitic current reading, the same applies to any voltmeter readings but using the electronic drop tester the current being consumed by the active Canbus modules is going to give a result like 60% life remaining on a brand new fully charged battery, disconnect it and it will test at 100% life remaining.

On the other hand Halfrauds and other garages will never disconnect the battery when using the electronic testers because they want the result to falsely show the battery being in poor health.

Me Again!

Quick update from over the weekend....

I popped the battery charger on over night from about 10pm on Saturday night, checked it periodically through Sunday and the voltage got up to 12.2 after the best part of 18 hours charging (and never reported that it was full).

So, after that period I ended up taking it off charge and immediately, the volts went down to 12v.

Checked again this morning (around 7:20) before staring it up and voltage down to 11.9v

Drove to work and checked it again as I got out of the car (7:55) and the voltage was 12.7

All through this journey the infotainment system reported "power consumption too high" and stop/start failed to engage once.

I am guessing that the alternator is working ok as the battery is charging on the journey to work, but 11.9 seems to be quite (very?) low.

The 11.9 volts standing voltage is low, but could possibly be because some of the modules have not gone into sleep mode yet - the standing reading can be unreliable unless taken at least 20-30 minutes after the vehicle has been fully shut down.

However, it's very likely that your battery is faulty - which can be confirmed with a full battery test.

1 minute ago, Warrior193 said:

The 11.9 volts standing voltage is low, but could possibly be because some of the modules have not gone into sleep mode yet - the standing reading can be unreliable unless taken at least 20-30 minutes after the vehicle has been fully shut down.

The reading this morning was taken after I locked (and left the car alone) at 17:30 ISH last night, so plenty of time for the vehicle to have shut down.

Assuming the battery has sufficient "water" (electrolyte) in it and the plates are OK then the raw figures don't look great but I don't know how they were taken or what with and the method needs to be consistent plus I don't know how the battery was charged and what with.

The 12.7v measurement means very little as it was taken too soon after the battery was hopefully charged by the alternator.

Depending on how the battery was charged 18 hours isn't necessarily that long and obviously not sufficient for whatever reason in this case. To give you an example the battery in my wife's car wasn't that low but took 14-15 hours for the charger maintainer to show full - cold winter's night but "winter" setting on 4-amp "smart" charger maintainer, battery in car.

Unless you have your charger maintainer with you and can use it at work then I presume (always dangerous) that your car will be sat parked up for many hours with the battery slowly being drawn of some power, coming out rather than being replaced and more going in so if you can as soon as you get home, if you want to, put the battery charger maintainer back on and leave on until you go to work tomorrow and see if there's any improvement.

IIRC I think you put before your plug-in digital thing was showing 14.x v while driving but monitor it again when you drive home tonight.

Other than having a third party check your battery (and alternator) you've had two lots say your battery is OK if they are correct it leaves the alternator, computer system, wiring or connection(s) as being faulty.

Did you check battery terminal clamps are tight and cables, wires and their connections (live and earth) are all secure and in good condition - yes the Dealership and Halfords should have at least checked the battery terminal clamps but if you are having to do a job for yourself you don't want to trust the work of those that didn't sort things before you.

If a Briskoda member with scan tool, multimeter or battery tester was perhaps near to your home or work they could check stuff and or show you how to confirm and possibly help find the cause of the issue(s) or the resolve, most perhaps for a beer token at worse.

If you want to have a look at the list and map here. - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/262215-list-of-vcds-owners-previously-known-as-vag-com-vcp-owners/#comment-3091029

Edited 17 March, 20251 yr by nta16

The figures quoted were taken using the plug-in 12 checker (again - i know not totally accurate, but better than nothing at the moment)

The battery was attempted to be charged with an external battery charger (mains powered) (image of that attached).

I've not checked the figures whilst driving with the plugin digital thing, just before turning the engine on and after it was turned on.

I don't want to go against what you have said, but I am not entirely sure what good it would do putting it back on charge again this evening, as I was in and out during the period of charge from Sat night to yesterday tea time and the voltage did not seem to change for hours once it got to 12.2v.

I did not look in detail at the connections, but it's one more thing I can check this evening.

The Kamiq does not appear to be listed on that link currently, would it be safe to assume its the same as one of the other makes on there?

1 hour ago, zer081 said:

The reading this morning was taken after I locked (and left the car alone) at 17:30 ISH last night, so plenty of time for the vehicle to have shut down.

If the bonnet was left open to take the reading the next day then the systems will not have shut down and will have drained the battery.

If you unlocked the car and opened the bonnet to take the reading then the voltage drop would have been at a maximum.

You need to close the bonnet lock manually with a screwdriver or similar then lock the vehicle, this will make the bonnet closed microswitch change state allowing the timed shutdown.

Edited 17 March, 20251 yr by J.R.

Not my preference at all but the plug-in for all I know might be very or reasonably accurate but as long as it is reliable in what it does it means a consistent method of taking the readings. A better picture I think is from probes directly on to the top of battery terminals.

That's a 6-amp "old fashion" charger so you want that connected up properly and kept a good eye on as there's no telling when it goes from yellow to green light.

The VW . . . (caught wrong button (again) more to follow

Edited 17 March, 20251 yr by nta16

Hi in my 2020 Kamiq I changed the original battery about two years ago, in the three years of use I charged it with a maintainer every 40/50 days and checked before the change with a 60% SOH. I now mount a 55AH carbon 2 technology battery, because of the size of the positive terminal cables and a spark of 540. I must say that I managed to have a very good efficiency after about two weeks of standstill I measure a voltage above 12V, the original battery is too low inrush for the on-board electronics a 60AH would have been perfect as in the Audi A1 GB

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

. . . The VWŠkoda Owmer's Manual seems to be playing up sometimes at the moment, do you have a paper printed version (much more reliable) to refer to. Basically you connect the charger positive to the battery positive but the charger negative wants to go to the dedicated earth point or a good earth point on the engine or elsewhere so that the computer knows the battery is being charged, The charger wants to be a tenth or less of the the battery Ah rating, so 60Ah battery you can us 6-amps or less.

Up to you what you do but if you try connecting up as described hopefully you should get up to 12.2v a lot quicker and if after a couple of hours or so it remains at 12.2v reading you might as well give up. But it'd be better if you could borrow a reasonable quality multimeter and take readings on the battery terminals with charger turned off at these points.

Other thing is if you have something running and draining the battery that shouldn't be fighting against the charger and battery but drops sound too big really.

If it wasn't for those stupid links on top of the battery I'd say take the battery out of the car to charge it, that should at least speed things up a little and give battery only readings and the Owner's Manual is best consulted for battery disconnection/reconnection, usually as long as the windows and roof were fully shut you only need reset the time of day clock. With the battery out of the car you could also try the computer reset but you'd hope the Dealership would have cleared any error codes (unless of return since).

Or return the car to the Dealership and tell them of your readings - bear in mind IF applicable 12.2v plus say 0.2v or 0.3v is 12.4v or 12.5v which they may be happy about (see previous charts).

Stranger and stranger with this now...

Checked the reading before I set off from work at 16:30 and the reading was 11.9 (exactly the same as it was this morning).

All the way home , stop/start functionality was available and working !

So I'm even more confused now.

I've also found that the battery charger I posted earlier is faulty and not charging correctly (as confirmed by checking it in a fully charged battery) so I've got another one to try this evening that I know is working.

It may not even be a battery issue after all this considering it was working again this afternoon and maybe it is just so so with the temperature at the moment....who knows at this stage (well I certainly don't!)

Couple of photos as well of how the terminals look on the battery.

A thought I had earlier was that plug-in thing but if you have cross-checked it in other cars, which is why a confirmation with a reasonable multimeter on the battery terminals might help plus it might show the difference at different reading points.

Warmer weather will help the battery plus some electric items in the car may be used less or not used with the difference in the weather.

I must admit I didn't think of battery charger fault but what makes you think it is faulty by trying it on a fully charged battery and how do you know the battery is fully charged - I've been told this and that the battery is "good" a number of times when they weren't the case.

Something I forgot to put which I normally do is, always check the testing equipment before each use or you can waste a lot of time and get false results and diagnosis - perhaps the battery charger is as you say faulty, or it might not be obviously I can't know just from the information given. Again the use of a reasonably reliable multimeter. Some cheap digital meters can be a bit inaccurate and even hit and miss if you had a selection of multimeters, unless high quality, two or more giving the same reading would probably be more about chance and coincidence in my experience.

The terminal clamps look tight enough in the photos as long as there's no crud between them and the posts and you can't turn them with hand pressure. The negative terminal post top looks like it has a probe point hole and scratch perhaps from a multimeter and what's with the top of the positive terminal post I'm not sure perhaps zooming in on the photo gives something of nothing.

Pity you don't live nearer to me as I could throw my old analogue charger on it and get an idea of the battery's potential within 10-15 minutes, never certain particularly with the battery still in the car but a reasonably good idea from experience and for this situation possibly using the "smart" charger maintainer might give an idea but with even less overall certainty just potential.

Thought i'd give a quick update as it's been a few days since I posted.

With the second external battery charger I used (which I know was working as it was used the previous day to charge a different battery - not fitted to a car mind - and reported "green-fully charged on that battery), I left it on overnight and it charged the battery to 12.7v*, but never recorded the battery as being full, as the indicator light remained on amber.

Arrival at work (after 30-ish mins travel) battery remained at 12.7v*.

After an 8 hour day, checked battery before turning engine on and battery reporting as 12v*

Arrived home and battery reading 11.9v*

However, each day this week, the temperature has been a lot higher and as a result, every day this week, the stop/start functionality has worked perfectly as expected.

So, maybe there was never really an issue with the battery and it was, as implied by the dealership down to temperatures.

One to keep an eye on I guess but for the time being, I am not going to think too much more about it and see how it goes.

Thanks once again for everyone's advice though, very much appreciated.

*(voltages checked with plug-in tester into cigarette lighter socket.)

I'm just charging my neighbour's car 12v as I borrowed the car and the car gets very little use and then on short journeys only. The 4-amp "smart" charger maintainer showed 12.7v just after a short journey when I put the charger maintainer on to start charging.

It was a new battery last year IIRC.

If it gets to full (well "FUL" on this charger maintainer) I will let you know the reading it shows immediately after charging or what it reads when I have to stop this time. The charger gives about the same reading as my multimeter. The charger is connected to a tag that connects to the positive on the battery and an earth tag off the engine (though not a start/stop car).

IF your plug-in is near enough or reasonably accurate and allowing for its plug-in location and what the VW computer systems might be up to I think those readings suggest there is something up somewhere. 12v car batteries can be duff but not very often at all, often just scapegoats for blame. But if there's a fault elsewhere it could drain and eventually damage or kill off the battery for reasonable reliable use. Then of course if you just replace the battery without solving the issue the same will happen. For both this and next battery it might take a while to show and get to point of battery replacement but reliability might go a lot sooner and this might get worse quicker with accumulated effect(s).

9 minutes ago, nta16 said:

I'm just charging my neighbour's car 12v as I borrowed the car and the car gets very little use and then on short journeys only. The 4-amp "smart" charger maintainer showed 12.7v just after a short journey when I put the charger maintainer on to start charging.

It was a new battery last year IIRC.

If it gets to full (well "FUL" on this charger maintainer) I will let you know the reading it shows immediately after charging or what it reads when I have to stop this time. The charger gives about the same reading as my multimeter. The charger is connected to a tag that connects to the positive on the battery and an earth tag off the engine (though not a start/stop car).

IF your plug-in is near enough or reasonably accurate and allowing for its plug-in location and what the VW computer systems might be up to I think those readings suggest there is something up somewhere. 12v car batteries can be duff but not very often at all, often just scapegoats for blame. But if there's a fault elsewhere it could drain and eventually damage or kill off the battery for reasonable reliable use. Then of course if you just replace the battery without solving the issue the same will happen. For both this and next battery it might take a while to show and get to point of battery replacement but reliability might go a lot sooner and this might get worse quicker with accumulated effect(s).

I found that when comparing the plug-in with multimeter direct to the battery, the values were not a million miles off.

With what you have said above now though, I'm not sure what the next point of call should be, the dealership said battery was fine as did Halfords and I suspect all the dealership will again say is battery is ok, we can't fault it.

It depends what tests they did and how (well) - ask to see the figures or readouts and if they say the battery is good ask them to explain your figures. They might see something you have missed. The fact the battery wouldn't fully charge, off the car too, doesn't suggest the battery is in best of health.

I can't remember that the battery age was confirmed, if it is a factory battery then for some owners it would be dead or "dead" by now and VW say to change battery at 5 years (or might be 4 for yours and some VW 2019 owners only get to 3 years. If you bought the car from a Dealership 3 months ago and it is the factory fitted battery then if it wasn't over 5 years old then it is now and you've had problems since you bought the car.

The Dealership will know if it's a factory fitted battery. Butt if it has been replaced it still doesn't seem to be good given your figures, at face value over the internet. Play on the fact that the car has already ben returned to them with issues and you don't want to be returning to them too often more about sales and warranty issues.

If the battery is good they need to prove that to you and if there is an issue with the car or you or your use they need to discover that too.

All testing has to be done correctly and with testing equipment that is tested (and up to date with programming if appropriate) but 12v standard batteries aren't rocket-science.

Someone with a scan tool check to see if the battery has been reported to the car's computer as changed, error codes reports and do live data recording and tests. If you want you could seek out a Briskoda remember with a scan tool to do some if not all of this for possibly beer tokens at worse. I don't have a scan tool but with a simple multimeter and/or charger I could perhaps confirm what you've done or show you if required but I'm in Northampton. I now longer have access to my neighbour's battery tester (not that I blindly took what it gave) or his scan tool, or all his mechanical tools, he had the cheek to move away.

1 hour ago, nta16 said:

I'm just charging my neighbour's car 12v as I borrowed the car and the car gets very little use and then on short journeys only.

My neighbour - "Salut J.R. Can I borrow your bagnole?"

Me - Non! Va t'en and find someone elses battery to satisfy your perversion!

23 minutes ago, J.R. said:

My neighbour - "Salut J.R. Can I borrow your bagnole?"

Me - Non! Va t'en and find someone elses battery to satisfy your perversion!

Your trolling here is just making you look silly and stupid (again). It seems you search out the words like neighbour and battery in my posts which is a form of stalking. You also try to bully.

You cannot know or understand neighbours and people getting along well particularly me and my neighbours, they actually ask me to drive their cars and insist I borrow them if I need to and to charge the battery when required to prevent them paying a lot of money on battery replacement and other simple jobs on their cars and homes.

You only toll, stalk and bully because you are on the internet, I'm not responsible for your past relationships or you being in France, please don't take it out on me because it has got very boring for me and others.

Once again you have contributed nothing constructive or humorous to this thread.

Edited 21 March, 20251 yr by nta16
typos

@zer081 FYI - say at about 1.00 pm I started charging that battery and after the last of three short journey's it showed 12.7v on the charger before starting the recharge. That reading would have been from surface charge of the last journey. A 4-amp "smart" charger maintainer connected to the positive tag on the battery and earth tag off the engine, battery still connected to car. Say about 7 hours later the charger showed "FUL" and immediately after disconnection the charger showed over 13v (I forget exact reading, how many tenths more) which again would be a a surface charge reading and would drop not too long later or if I had turned the headlights on to get rid of the surface charge, but it was raining and I wanted to get the car back down the road so I was rushing a bit.

If I remember I'll take a reading again tomorrow for you, with my multimeter as they don't have an outside 13a power socket to use the charger for consistency but both show just about same figures. .

Edited 22 March, 20251 yr by nta16