Hi all,

Last night my mk 4.5 vrs wouldn't start, called Skoda Assist, when they arrived checked it over, told me the battery is dead.

It's driven daily typically for 40 miles.

The car is only 6 months old, anyone else suffered this?

I have an Octavia VRS MK4 2024 plate, which appears to also have a faulty battery. Kept throwing up 20-30 engine management warnings then resetting itself after I drove for a period. Had it checked by an independent garage which have confirmed the battery is only at 64% helth. Contacted Skoda main dealer today to discuss but they cannot confirm that this is a warranrty item and it will cost me £168 to get it booked in for diagnosis and another almost £30 for a car to use whilst its being check (which apparently needs the whole day!!!!).
To be honest I have told then to poke this where the sun doesnt shine as a replacement battery is between £180 and £300 depending on they battery typr you opt for.

I honestly think its all to do with the stop/start system switching off far too early for the battery to cope with.

Just gonna biite the bullet and opt for an AGM battery which apparently are a much better option for modern cars with high spec/demand electrical equipment.

I have also resided to the fact that I turn the Stop/Start system off each time I get in the car. I am also looking at getting this to permanently stay off via coding.

I know this doesnt help you situation much but the advise might be of use

Tony

Yes mine was replaced at about 6 months as noted in other threads you can search. Hint was the auto start stop hardly ever operated and some very occasional weird error lights which led me to the dealer to check it and they replaced it. Problem solved.

10 minutes ago, whippersnapper said:

Yes mine was replaced at about 6 months as noted in other threads you can search. Hint was the auto start stop hardly ever operated and some very occasional weird error lights which led me to the dealer to check it and they replaced it. Problem solved.

10 minutes ago, whippersnapper said:

Yes mine was replaced at about 6 months as noted in other threads you can search. Hint was the auto start stop hardly ever operated and some very occasional weird error lights which led me to the dealer to check it and they replaced it. Problem solved.

Any problems since the replacement? Or too early to tell? From what you're saying it's the stop start that's the problem not the battery?

8 hours ago, bigtonyibo said:

I have also resided to the fact that I turn the Stop/Start system off each time I get in the car.

I have always turned the stop/start off every journey with my car from new.

I am still on the original EFB battery at 9 years old and 92K miles.

Stop/Start will still work if I try it.

This is also interesting on the wear aspect of stop/start : -

Thanks. AG Falco

Edited 13 November, 202513 Nov by AGFalco
added stop/start works, bit.

46 minutes ago, Ianh05 said:

Any problems since the replacement? Or too early to tell? From what you're saying it's the stop start that's the problem not the battery?

No issues. I’m not saying stop start is the cause it was the symptom that the battery was not okay as the car won’t use stop start if the battery voltage is too low. I simply must have had a bad battery from new. It happens.

5 hours ago, AGFalco said:

I have always turned the stop/start off every journey with my car from new.

I am still on the original EFB battery at 9 years old and 92K miles.

Stop/Start will still work if I try it.

This is also interesting on the wear aspect of stop/start : -

Thanks. AG Falco

I think this is largely bunk. Stop start probably doesn’t provide real world fuel savings that it does in the official fuel economy testing but it won’t produce accelerated bearing wear. There is no evidence of such a thing despite how long the tech has been in place and there are plenty of other failings of modern VAG and other manufacturers

23 hours ago, whippersnapper said:

No issues. I’m not saying stop start is the cause it was the symptom that the battery was not okay as the car won’t use stop start if the battery voltage is too low. I simply must have had a bad battery from new. It happens.

I think this is largely bunk. Stop start probably doesn’t provide real world fuel savings that it does in the official fuel economy testing but it won’t produce accelerated bearing wear. There is no evidence of such a thing despite how long the tech has been in place and there are plenty of other failings of modern VAG and other manufacturers

Exactly. Modern cars are well able for the start stop system. There’s a lot of BS out there regarding SS. My 2017 passat had 200k on it when i sold it. The battery lasted 7 years despite thousands of starts. The starter was still original when i sold it.

I’m just trading in my B8 Passat Estate for the Superb IV.

The car had on 77653 miles when my battery dropped to 40%, I’m not a gambler so replaced it before the warm weather ended. I expect it’s a batch of batteries that’s causing the issue. Unless of course, your car was on of many stock on the continent awaiting export approval last spring (I thing there’s a thread on here somewhere mentioning it).

A replacement should short it all out for a fair few years.

John

On 13/11/2025 at 10:53, bigtonyibo said:

I have an Octavia VRS MK4 2024 plate, which appears to also have a faulty battery. Kept throwing up 20-30 engine management warnings then resetting itself after I drove for a period. Had it checked by an independent garage which have confirmed the battery is only at 64% helth. Contacted Skoda main dealer today to discuss but they cannot confirm that this is a warranrty item and it will cost me £168 to get it booked in for diagnosis and another almost £30 for a car to use whilst its being check (which apparently needs the whole day!!!!).
To be honest I have told then to poke this where the sun doesnt shine as a replacement battery is between £180 and £300 depending on they battery typr you opt for.

I honestly think its all to do with the stop/start system switching off far too early for the battery to cope with.

Just gonna biite the bullet and opt for an AGM battery which apparently are a much better option for modern cars with high spec/demand electrical equipment.

I have also resided to the fact that I turn the Stop/Start system off each time I get in the car. I am also looking at getting this to permanently stay off via coding.

I know this doesnt help you situation much but the advise might be of use

Tony

Have you got or able to borrow a multimeter?, if so, while watching the M.meter set to 20VDC or nearest and with the probes on the battery + and - terminals, get someone to start the car, the terminal volts will/should rise to almost 15V even if only for less than 20 seconds or so, at least this will show you that the alternator is not at fault, of course it still could be the BMS. You could pop in to Halfords or the like and buy a DVM (digital volt meter) for a few quid and plug it in to your auxiliary power point and observe the charging pattern (carefully, while driving), the voltage should always rise to almost 15V (14.6/14.9) on the overrun and may hover around 13.2/13.5V while driving, mine seems to do this (original almost 7 year old 59AH EFB battery) even with a 68% SOC and can take days to recover to its normal max of 85% SOC, stop/start has never failed though even at this low SOC.

If you can'r source a DVM, you can make one up with a 12V plug, a bit of wire and a connector block and stick the M.meter probes into it if you only want to trouble shoot the (if) problem.

Edited 15 November, 202515 Nov by Johngerard

2 hours ago, Johngerard said:

I don't, car is at the Main Dealer so awaiting news on what the fix is

Have you got or able to borrow a multimeter?, if so, while watching the M.meter set to 20VDC or nearest and with the probes on the battery + and - terminals, get someone to start the car, the terminal volts will/should rise to almost 15V even if only for less than 20 seconds or so, at least this will show you that the alternator is not at fault, of course it still could be the BMS. You could pop in to Halfords or the like and buy a DVM (digital volt meter) for a few quid and plug it in to your auxiliary power point and observe the charging pattern (carefully, while driving), the voltage should always rise to almost 15V (14.6/14.9) on the overrun and may hover around 13.2/13.5V while driving, mine seems to do this (original almost 7 year old 59AH EFB battery) even with a 68% SOC and can take days to recover to its normal max of 85% SOC, stop/start has never failed though even at this low SOC.

If you can'r source a DVM, you can make one up with a 12V plug, a bit of wire and a connector block and stick the M.meter probes into it if you only want to trouble shoot the (if) problem.

2 hours ago, Johngerard said:

Have you got or able to borrow a multimeter?, if so, while watching the M.meter set to 20VDC or nearest and with the probes on the battery + and - terminals, get someone to start the car, the terminal volts will/should rise to almost 15V even if only for less than 20 seconds or so, at least this will show you that the alternator is not at fault, of course it still could be the BMS. You could pop in to Halfords or the like and buy a DVM (digital volt meter) for a few quid and plug it in to your auxiliary power point and observe the charging pattern (carefully, while driving), the voltage should always rise to almost 15V (14.6/14.9) on the overrun and may hover around 13.2/13.5V while driving, mine seems to do this (original almost 7 year old 59AH EFB battery) even with a 68% SOC and can take days to recover to its normal max of 85% SOC, stop/start has never failed though even at this low SOC.

If you can'r source a DVM, you can make one up with a 12V plug, a bit of wire and a connector block and stick the M.meter probes into it if you only want to trouble shoot the (if) problem.