Hey everyone,

I'm looking for advice on a serious, recurring issue with my Octavia.

The car sometimes refuses to start. Started earlier this week on monday morning, and just happened again friday evening. When this happens, the dashboard is immediately flooded with a ridiculous number of unrelated error messages, like "Steering wheel heating failure" and "Gear selector mechanism fault." (See video attached).

Crucially, after about 30 minutes of trying, the car often starts again perfectly, making it impossible to demonstrate the issue to the technician.

I have already had the car checked. The garage confirmed the battery is healthy and fully functional, and they mostly just cleared the error codes. However, the problem has immediately returned.

This suggests there is a deeper, structural electrical or sensor issue they are missing.

Has anyone experienced this specific combination of starting failure and a cascade of random electrical faults, even though the battery was confirmed good? What was the solution in your case?

Looking at the OBD errors is throwing a lot of communication errors and BUS errors.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/JNNYMWdmguHnAZKLA

Edited 12 December, 202512 Dec by MaxvdP

It appears your battery is low/not being charged sufficiently, I'm replacing my car battery as I'm seeing a few issues and a couple of non start's in these long cold winter nights

Thanks for your quick reply, the thing is, garage checked the battery already and mentioned that it is perfectly fine, and that it will start after 15 minute- isnt that strange?

Edited 12 December, 202512 Dec by MaxvdP

@MaxvdP It would be useful if you said what engine and gearbox your Octavia has, and how long have you had the 4 year old car?

I suggest checking any earth connections to the engine / starter.

Thats a good one, its a 1.0tsi with a dsg transmission, ive had the car for nearly 5 months now. First couple of months had quite some issues with the motor due to fuel pump and the gear leaver (common issue). And now this...

3 hours ago, Warrior193 said:

I suggest checking any earth connections to the engine / starter.

Any tips where to look first? I'm quite handy myself but never worked on cars...

I had to recharge or jump-start my battery several times over a period of four months before the mechanics officially declared it dead. Each time they connected their diagnostic tool, the battery appeared to be within normal limits.

However, I had just come from a Focus 4, which was a heavy battery consumer (apparently due to a telemetry module that was too talkative and drained it, a fault never acknowledged by Ford). So I knew what a low battery was and its symptoms.

1 hour ago, BeaverRS said:

I had to recharge or jump-start my battery several times over a period of four months before the mechanics officially declared it dead. Each time they connected their diagnostic tool, the battery appeared to be within normal limits.

However, I had just come from a Focus 4, which was a heavy battery consumer (apparently due to a telemetry module that was too talkative and drained it, a fault never acknowledged by Ford). So I knew what a low battery was and its symptoms.

Hmm and you think, looking at the video, this is also related to the battery? Sucks to hear the hoops you had to go through.

9 hours ago, MaxvdP said:

Any tips where to look first? I'm quite handy myself but never worked on cars...

You may need to remove the undertray first - but any wiring connection or earth-strap connected to engine or ancillaries (starter motor, alternator) - especially heavy-current connections.

Also suggest testing battery voltage while engine is being cranked-over.

19 minutes ago, MaxvdP said:

Hmm and you think, looking at the video, this is also related to the battery? Sucks to hear the hoops you had to go through.

Many, apparently random, fault indications is a very common sign that the battery voltage is too low.

Agree with what @Warrior193 states above

Your video shows these multiple errors as the voltage is too low for the modules to communicate effectively

39 minutes ago, MaxvdP said:

Hmm and you think, looking at the video, this is also related to the battery? Sucks to hear the hoops you had to go through.

It could! In any case, on mine it looked like a Christmas tree. And when I started it up, it made lots of clicking noises.

Same here. Battery was failing and eventually dash lit up with loads of clicking. If you battery is in good condition then I would start with cleaning terminals and then check earths for corosion/damage. If its a bad earth/earths then the connection may be heating up when trying to start and eventually making contact hence it staring after 15mins.

You could try another battery to rule it out.

Alasdair

Amazing. Thanks guys, the gear lever is indeed also clicking a lot (like it tried to catch a gear but slips), so it sounds like the same cause...

Batteries can fail two different ways. Either by low cranking ability( the battery will have loads of reserve capacity) or low reserve capacity( the battery will have loads of cranking ability)

If it’s the latter testers might give the battery a clean bill of health. The problem arises when you sit in the car listening to the radio for 15 mins and it won’t start.

Sounds like mine has the first one in that case... strange that I happened all of a sudden. The first time it happened was the day after a long drive. Last time just after a short drive to the city centre. So best thing to do currently now is to swap the battery out and verify?

You could try and jump start it from another car or booster next time it happens. If your battery is failing the other should give you enough power. If that works then new battery I am afraid. Think I got my last one from Tayna batteries. Pretty good price and next day delivery. Not sure if yours has start stop etc. Batteries these days just seem to fail without any warning signs. My last one had a bad cell.

Alasdair

As an aside to this topic

I believe there is a setting in your dash cameras where it will power down from standby when the voltage limit you set is reached (say 12.2v)

And the car is back at the dealership... diagnosing the issue, hope that it's resolved soon!

I had a similar issue, except the car didn't start. After change of battery and charger the problem has not reoccured.

Hi, I have a 1.5TSI MHeV with KESSY. The car sits on my driveway only a few yards from where I usually sit in the Lounge. Unless I put the keys into Faraday Pouches the 12v system warns me of 'Low Voltage' after about a week!

AFAIK if the car senses the keys are near it waits in readiness to unlock the doors and also keeps the door handles 'Active'. This keeps the car 'Awake', thus preventing it from fully 'Sleeping' therefore draining the 12v system.

My 1.6tdi 12 plate usd to drain battery when sitting for about a week. No kessy but reckon the alarm was gradually draining it. I fitted a new battery and havent had the problem so far. (will find out over xmas as car wont be getting used). Reckon my battery was on its last legs due to colder weather. Not sure what the drain is with kessy on your car although have been reading recently articles advising keyless owners to keep as you do in a faraday box for security reasons especially fords for some reason if the cars parked in range of keys.

Alasdair