This follows on from my thread “Fabia 4 mc first breakdown experience.”

I thought that my time spent messing about under the bonnet with "bangers" was many years in the past.  I was wrong and am having to do research in order to make some pressing decisions.

The Fabia 4 has an EFB type battery which is the minimum necessary for start-stop cars.  It seems that due to the high demand of all the electronic aids such a battery, if used for mainly short journeys, may need replacing after two years.  I don’t want to discuss this with the dealership because it would be more trouble than it’s worth. If you have ploughed through the thread mentioned without glazing over you will understand why.

Replacement of an EFB battery with a more powerful AGM is hopefully doable. Skoda offer an accessory pack on new Fabia cars that provides a heated front windscreen, heated steering wheel and heated seats. That suggests to me that the battery fitted for such a model is likely AGM and that I can have such a battery retro fitted to our car.

I contacted an independent car service and repair business specialising in VW group models.  The reply was impressively quick but they will only offer a like for like battery replacement. I’ve decided to concentrate on businesses saying they are experts in battery replacement. There’s BSM (Battery Solutions Midlands) in Aldridge. I sent them an email yesterday and am awaiting a response.

Can anybody please recommend a business ready, willing and able to upgrade the battery? It needs to have a workshop with the right electronic equipment and fully trained staff.  I am aware that the warranty may be invalidated by installing an AGM battery but that has been useless to date and it’s up in October. I have all but given up on Skoda dealerships which would no doubt be far more expensive and difficult to contact. Any suggestions welcomed but I'd prefer that they have a West Midlands location.

I agree with what you are trying to do, I have done that on my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS 6MT SEL, though ironically while that version of Polo is "fully loaded", the headlights, at least are lower power consumers as they are LED! Though at the 10 year/55,000miles point, I got bored waiting for the EFB to run out of life while the Bosch AGM "next size up" was sitting waiting for its service life to start.

Anyway, I'd think that the main issue, in your case, is "new car warranty" and that rightly so, has sent the business(es) you have already contacted, running.

In every case like this where "the owner knows better" the owner really does need to acquire the skill to make these changes themselves and live with any possible consequences - or leave as is - sorry, no sensible business needs the possible fallout from complying with your requests.

Edit:- our younger daughter and husband bought a 2019 SEAT Arona 1.0TSI 115PS which is loaded with "bits", and only use that car when they need to as they live on the edge of London and use trains to get into town for work. It was no real surprise to me when she phoned me to say that they had needed to call the AA out to deal with a flat battery, ie the original EFB, the car was out of new car warranty but had a used car warranty. I had considered asking them to request that the AA sold and fitted a new AGM same size or next size up - but I quickly considered that the AA while being happy to sell a member a new battery and fit it at a slightly elevated price - they would not be allowed to sell a different type of battery or a bigger one, just in case there was an issue and that member was trying to blame AA for fitting a requested "wrong" battery. I gave them a solar charger, but I'm not convinced that they are re-fitting it as they leave the car to sleep for the next 10 or 14 days, so I'd think that they will end up once again with a flat battery over the next couple of years. Car gets parked outside their garage which along with the other resident's garages is behind the block of flats and so no power point available for a trickle charger.

Edited 10 February10 Feb by rum4mo
Added in bits about another car.

Thanks for your reply which clarifies things. There’s little chance that owners of the most recent models will have the expertise and equipment to do this for themselves.  Cars ten years ago were in a different league. There’s good money to be made for auto electricians able to offer bespoke services so people will enter the field – better than vape supply, tattooing or Turkish barbers.

Are you suggesting that I stick with EFB as a replacement battery with same/increased capacity?  I do think your point about an independent workshop being concerned about work on a car under warranty is valid but was hoping that there might be a business out there, preferably in the West Midlands, that has already done such upgrades.

Do you think that I should I wait until October when the warranty runs out and what would you do rum4mo?

I feel that you are trapped in as much as you can't personally implement this change, which if you bought a suitable scan tool and swopped over to a AGM even an AGM "next size up" and acquired the knowledge, you could.

I'm only guessing here when I say that I'd think that after the warranty had expired, a proper VAG Indie workshop would make these changes for you when you explained why you felt that "like for like" was not going to work for you for long.

Also, I not sure how anyone could survive with a small EV town car, unless they had it connected to a charger while not in use, if they only used it for short journeys.

The key in both cases is availability to an electrical outlet to get and keep the 12V battery in a good state of charge.

Edit:- personally, every time that I've bought a new car or even a slightly used car with manufacturer warranty, I was keen for the time to pass so that I could do what I thought needed doing to my cars without any complaints or threats from the dealership.

Edited 10 February10 Feb by rum4mo

The starter-battery factory-fitted to my 2024 Fabia SE L DSG (1.0litre motor) is the Varta EFB+ (Enhanced Flooded Battery) shown in this advert.

https://www.skoda-parts.com/spare-part/000915089aa-car-battery-efb-12v-49ah-skoda-48154.html

This is a relatively compact 012-size battery with dimensions of Length=207mm, Width=175mm, Height=190mm, but my car's battery-tray has two extra threaded holes and it's evident that a longer 027-battery (Length=242mm) or an even longer 096-battery (Length=278mm) could be installed instead. It wouldn't in the least surprise me if Fabia Mk4 cars with the 1.5litre motor and/or marketed in 'cold-weather' countries have longer batteries than my car's, but I've no reason to think Skoda would switch from EFB to AGM as well.

This 2020 BRISKODA thread discussed replacing an Octavia Mk3's battery

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/486589-octavia-mkiii-startstop-battery-replaced-without-any-coding/

In 'The Good Old Days', if a 12V starter-battery could be shoehorned in, then its size or type was irrelevant - but Start/Stop and complex electronics have complicated matters.

Regarding battery replacement, the my Fabia's Manual just says "The new 12V battery must have the same specifications as the original battery". So I'd expect replacing the Varta EFB+ 49Ah battery shown in the advert on an exact like-for-like basis to not require any subsequent 'recoding'. And (maybe) replacing the Varta EFB+ battery with another make of EFB battery with the same dimensions but slightly different capacity might also not make recoding necessary.

But if the Varta battery were replaced with a physically larger battery EFB battery with a substantially greater capacity, I'd expect recoding to be needed and, if the Varta EFB battery were replaced with a an AGM (Absorbent Glass Mat) battery, recoding should definitely be carried out.

Given previous and current problems I think it best on this occasion at least to get a new the battery 'coded' so that no one can make the excuse that the computer didn't know it weas a new battery and thought it was a (not very) old (at all) that was possibly lower in state of charge.

'Coding' a battery isn't difficult it just requires like all computer stuff accurate information to be entered and even careless professions can balls-up this simple task but others would take more care.

The important things on 'coding' are the "battery serial number" change, often by one digit increase as the factory was lazy in its own previous requirements and just entered/keystokes/'coded'/data entry of ten ones (1111111111) so you can change to 1111111112. Then the change of amp hour rating if required and the change of battery type if required (EFB to AGM).

Below is from when a member used OBDEleven for the battery change (to AGM) on my wife's 2015 Mk3, as you see I didn't even bother with VW's three character code for battery make but you can just leave or retype what was in before (JCB in the case of my wife's previous battery in example below).

Also below that a pdf for coding with VCDS to give you the idea of how simple it is (scan tool required of course).

Don't get too carried with bigger cranking and capacity figures on a battery rather go for a good battery that can maintain its figures reliably for longer. Generally physical size and weight still matter but you are limited to the space available.

If the battery is fitted in the engine bay then VW want extra insulation to an AGM battery (underneath IIRC) to protect it from engine bay heat but again I didn't bother and things still seem fine after 5 years - but others, including you can do differently if you want.

VCDS How to adapt a new battery.pdf

HTH.

This 2025 YouTube video relates to replacing a Skoda Octavia VRS's standard EFB+ starter-battery with an AGM equivalent. (A similar EFB-to-AGM procedure would apply for a Fabia Mk4.)

Interesting video DerekU. Posted by someone also pretty unhappy with dealerships. I am 80 and the last battery I changed was a couple of years ago on my 22 year old car. How we miss it. The young man in the video said that it was heavy work fitting the battery. You should try it when you are my age. His Octavia has an ignition switch which my car lacks. Instead, it sports a super duper button which you press to start the engine and presumably the ignition all in one swift move.

The OBDEleven device sounds interesting but what I'm asking for is recommendations of someone who can do the job for me and already has the skills, equipment and experience required. I have had enough tech challenges recently including making payments with my smartphone and mastering the Hive system for our central heating. I am looking for a pro to do the job for me and not a new tech challenge.

3 hours ago, DerekU said:

This 2025 YouTube video relates to replacing a Skoda Octavia VRS's standard EFB+ starter-battery with an AGM equivalent. (A similar EFB-to-AGM procedure would apply for a Fabia Mk4.)

He's put "Binary - AGM" rather than "Fleece", it might not may any odds but with three batteries in three years I'd not take a chance and would even stick with the three character "VAO" manufacturer code rather "Lion" just to be sure with a 2022 or 2025 VW product and their even more complex computer programing. He doesn't seem like a careless person so I'm guessing VW might have a battery charging or other issue they're not admitting to.

For 'coding' the new battery you could try - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/262215-list-of-vcds-owners-previously-known-as-vag-com-vcp-owners/

I appreciate that decent posts take up time so thank you everyone.  I haven’t found the answer I wanted but picking through the info provided has given me some ideas about how to progress. For the moment I will charge the battery each week but that is not going to be the solution.

I prefer emailing but many businesses don ‘t want to communicate like that. Instead, I’ve decided to drive to the service provider to ask them what they think would work best. One of the first steps will be visiting a local garage that serviced my Peugeot for many years. They have a youngish tech with an electric car who the managers sent on courses about electronics and electric cars.  At least I can now converse on the topic sensibly.  They are very relaxed and helpful which is what we all need with car issues.

The weather situation is looking grim and it may take some time to settle on the best replacement battery and way to go with this.  I will check back in and let you know what the result is but that will likely be after quite a few weeks. Thanks again.

 

 

You shouldn't need to change the battery on a 3 year old car, there's a fault with something, but, well, that's where you might be at.

If you're charging the battery then fully recharge it to 100% (of what the battery is now) with as low amps as your charger goes (5-amps IIRC), this may take many hours to get to 100% charge but stick with it even if it takes more than one go to get to 100%.

It might be that the battery has already got too low and/or too low too often to fully successfully fully recharge and hold on to that charge very long or have enough guts left in the battery for much robust use but you might be able to keep it topped up (as much as possible) by regular recharging with a suitable charger maintainer.

Getting a battery fitted and 'coded' shouldn't be too difficult but finding out why this is required might be more difficult unless VWŠkoda cough up on anything, other than you perhaps have fitted something to the car that causes additional battery drain but you'd hope the Dealership would have noticed such.

Good luck.

You are right, nta16, a new battery shouldn't be necessary in a car less than three years old and still within warranty. Getting any concessions out of a main dealership (Johnson's Skoda) would be nothing but trouble and unlikely to succeed.

In 2002 I tried to get some work done on our new and low mileage Peugeot 307 which was then "car of the year", at a dealership not in the Johnson's group. The short story is that most things aren't covered under warranty. Main dealers can shelter behind the fair wear and tear excuse while sympathetically pointing to the small print.

Most contributors to the forum threads I've posted on don't even own a Fabia 4. The present offerings are not directly comparable to earlier models. Skoda have continually stuffed in more and more energy consuming drive assist and safety features which also add unwelcome high levels of complication.

To the point: I have made progress on the AGM battery upgrade so will let you all know how it goes. It is not going to be cheap. I fully charged up the battery yesterday to reduce the likelihood of any extra glitches before the scheduled transplant takes place.

Even with a new AGM battery fitted as your mileage is so low at some point you will need to start preventative charges of the battery to stop it getting low enough in state of charge to upset the computers (forget how bright the headlights are or no difficulty the engine (though stop/start not working when it should is a sign of low state of charge in the battery).

That is on top of any possible undetected fault(s) in the car that might affect the battery, that VWŠkoda might not, or might, know about. My wife's 2015 had a Recall "for battery" as my wife was told, it wasn't the battery but "the onboard supply control unit must be reprogrammed". Easier for them to blame the battery than the programming.

Has your car had any programs updated on it as updates often seem to (perhaps) solve one problem and create one or more new problems (sorry Derek) - or perhaps there's an outstanding up date that might sort the issues on your car.

The computer systems can get their panties in a twist with each other and causes all sorts of unexpected and "unrelated" issues and problems so I'm always in favour of a full removal and discharge of power so for you I'd disconnect the present battery and not reconnect the new AGM straight away (for my own car I'd add in another stage but that seems to upset some other members that predict disaster).

Good luck. Don't let your new AGM battery get too low for the computers and see if that improves things in the future.

6 hours ago bazz2004 said

Most contributors to the forum threads I've posted on don't even own a Fabia 4...

That's indeed the case, but the specification of my 2024 Fabia Mk4 closely matches his car's - same 1.0litre motor, same battery - except mine has a DSG automatic transmission and (I think) his has a manual gearbox.

The starter-battery in my car is EFB-type and manufactured by Varta for the VW Group. It is 063H size (Length=207mm, Width=175mm, Height =190mm) and has no insulating sleeve/cover around it.

Nowadays the rule-of-thumb lifespan of a good quality wet-acid battery is expected to be 4-5 years, with 5-6 years for an EFB battery and 6-7 years for an AGM battery.

The standard Varta 49Ah EFB battery should be adequate for a Skoda Fabia Mk4 with the 1.0litre motor, but I agree that, if the car is not regularly driven a reasonable distance, the battery will lose charge fairly quickly. bazz2004 regularly uses a CTEK battery-charger to keep his car's battery well charged: I do too and I wouldn't be confident that - if the car were locked/alarmed and unused for 2 weeks - that it would start. (My previous 2021 Hyundai i20 was similar, with Hyundai advising that, if it was anticipated that the car were to be out of use for a fortnight or longer, the battery should be disconnected.)

I'm certainly not going to attempt to dissuade bazz2004 from swapping his car's EFB battery for an AGM battery. A Yuasa YBX9012 AGM would be a direct replacement and available for (say) £107-£140.

https://www.yuasa.com/uk/ybx9012

Fitting should be straightforward and, personally (aged 82 and weighing 53.5kg) I'd have no difficulty removing/replacing a Fabia Mk4's 16kg battery. But then, of course, there would be a need to 'register' the new AGM battery and I do not have the equipment (or inclination) to attempt that task.

bazz2004's Fabia has now broken down twice (once in early-2025, and again recently) and his car ran, seemingly without any issues between the 2025 and 2026 incidents and, after the latest breakdown, is apparently now running OK again.

In both cases, the AA technician found fault codes and, having 'wiped' the codes the car apparently ran properly. The 2nd time the car broke down, the fault codes found were P060600, P0299900, P063800. Those codes do not directly point to a battery issue and it's interesting that, in both instances, the AA technician - simply by 'wiping' the codes - was immediately able to restore the car to full working order.

It's POSSIBLE that replacing the present EFB battery (either with another EFB or an AGM type) might prevent another similar breakdown occurring. But as the car is now running fine, a Skoda dealer will be unable to investigate a non-existing fault. It's unrealistic to expect a dealer to place any credence on the fault codes the AA technician found, nor - if a Skoda dealer agrees to hook up the car to their diagnostic equipment, finds no fault codes or fault history data - to continue to investigate free of charge. If the present EFB battery is now found to below par for the car's age, Skoda might authorise a 'good will' replacement but only on a like-for-like basis. (That used to be the standard Hyundai dealer response when an owner's i20 had Start-Stop issues.)

Fabia Mk4 system updates are OTA (Over the Air) and, although it should be practicable for a Skoda dealership to confirm that bazz2004's car is 'fully up-to-date', I'm uncertain whether that would help.

My own view is that, if my Fabia Mk4's battery has enough charge in its battery to start the car and the starting process is 'normal' (ie. starting is quick with strong cranking) then the car should behave normally while it is being driven. It's to be expected that, until the battery reaches the appropriate state-of-charge threshold, Start-Stop won't function. But I don't believe that a battery able to start the car satisfactorily, but not 100% charged, will result in the vehicle's electrical system spontaneously 'glitching', nor, if the system is recognisably 'glitchy', that it's the battery's charge-state that's the culprit. (Some of my Fabia's equipment isn't wonderfully intuitive and sometimes gives the impression that it has a mind of its own, but that's not 'glitchy' in my book and I can always understand what's happened even though I may not like it!)

In bazz2004's case it's Catch-22. If he goes it alone, has an AGM replacement battery installed and the car never breakdowns again, then going EFB-to-AGM may have provided a cure. If it does breakdown similarly again within the warranty period, it should be transported to a Skoda dealership while the fault is present (and without an AA technician playing with the car) for an 'official' investigation - but then there might be controversy about the replacement AGM battery.

UK Fabia Mk4 owners may well be aware of this, but, besides the car's own 'In an Emergency' system, Skoda Assistance can be contacted on 0330 100 3243

And the following link provides some in-depth information on Start-Stop batteries and the possible need to 'register' replacement batteries.

https://www.bannerbatterien.com/en/Battery-knowledge/7-HOW-TO-In-an-emergency-without-a-BEM-code

Well here's the promised update. Our local garage fitted an AGM battery two weeks ago and coded it to the car. The job took less than half an hour from first arriving to leaving. I was told that charging up the battery every week should not be necessary.

Having an AGM battery fitted does require more expertise than many older workshops can provide but I suspect that somewhere like Kwikfit could do the work. I never heard anything from a vehicle battery supplier located in Aldridge that looked an obvious choice.

The car behaved perfectly - until it didn't. In the second week the car started to show the crazy gear change recommendations I've complained about previously. Yesterday, there was a third episode of the breakdowns that have jinxed the car. We've been worried that this fault could easily get us killed.

What I found out today is very important and I'll start a new thread soon to explain. I haven't seen this information anywhere else. Hopefully, all is now resolved but perhaps better not to take anything for granted.

30 minutes ago, bazz2004 said:

Having an AGM battery fitted does require more expertise than many older workshops can provide

I can't see that being correct, AGM batteries how been commonly about in the UK for many years now and possibly lots longer in USA and they're not always the most advanced or forward looking place.

Sorry to hear your car is still playing up, the computer systems will do for these newer modern cars before the engines fall apart (but probably not some of the VW suspensions). I'm going to your new thread to read it now* (despite not being a Mk4 owner!).

ETA: * well I will when you post it

Edited 11 March11 Mar by nta16

That's my view as well. AGM batteries have been out for years and I've fitted them to my motorcycles many years ago.

Many if not most modern cars require recoding if a battery is replaced (even my 11 year old Audi TT requires recoding even if the same type of battery is used) and it doesn't require any more expertise if replacing a wet battery with an AGM other than changing the codes.

Anyway good to hear that you've managed to get the battery changed but sorry to hear you encountered problems again.

Edited 23 March23 Mar by VAGCF

This VARTA website discusses battery coding for vehicles with a start/stop system.

https://www.varta-automotive.com/en-gb/knowledge/articles/article-details/the-right-coding-of-the-battery-energy-management-system-for-battery-replacement

IIRC the Americans have been using AGM, instead of "ordinary", batteries on their old 1960s and 70s "classics" cars for very many years and obviously without any of the cars having battery monitoring computer systerms.

The following Wikipedia link relates to VRLA batteries (of which AGM batteries are one type) and states that the first AGM battery cell was patented in 1972.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VRLA_battery#AGM_battery

I'm a member of a Hyundai vehicle forum that has a large number of USA-based participants who will commonly recommend replacing a traditional 'wet-acid' starter-battery with an AGM type without mentioning any potential overcharging risks or re-coding requirements. But I suspect that this is either because their own vehicles are old enough to have no BEM system, or that the BEM system used in more modern Hyundai vehicles is the 'self-learning' type and battery re-coding is unnecessary.

My 2009 Skoda Roomster does not have Start/Stop and, although I could replace its standard wet-acid starter-battery with a more expensive EFB or AGM equivalent and no re-coding would be required, there's no obvious incentive to do so: the Roomster does not need an EFB or AGM starter-battery - the standard wet-acid type is perfectly adequate.

My 2024 Skida Fabia SE L does have Start/Stop and has an EFB starter-battery as standard. I definitely would not replace the Fabia's EFB battery with a wet-acid equivalent and I'm unconvinced that replacing the EFB battery with an AGM equivalent would merit the extra cost of the AGM battery plus the required re-coding.

In bazz204's case he was told that his Fabia's EFB battery was below-par and - thinking (hoping!) that this might be why his car had been breaking down - decided to have the EFB battery replaced with an AGM equivalent. But, realistically, although a below-par battery might cause stating problems, it was most unlikely to be the culprit for the types of breakdown that had been occurring and this subsequently proved to be the case.

Replacing a wet-acid (traditional or EFB) with an AGM battery is not a magic bullet and will not cure problems that are not specifically battery-related. It's also the case that, if there's a high parasitic drain on a vehicle's starter-battery, that drain will flatten the battery irrespective of its type.

The Yanks also have used other types of batteries on their "classic" cars and bikes for a few years now not just AGM.

Just a note a below par battery on these modern VW products has to be very, very below par to cause engine starting problems.

However a battery being below par can cause all sorts of unexpected warning messages and lights, unseen error codes and issues with the car, as has been shown by very many threads and posts on many models and ages of vehicles on Briskoda alone. Also shown is that properly recharging the battery (or replacing for some) can sometimes, depending on the actual cause(s, )totally resolve things as again shown in many threads and posts on Briskoda alone.

Of course the state of charge and health of the battery isn't always the cause of issues on the car, many design, build, parts and programing errors have been shown to be the cause(s).

Getting VWŠkoda Dealerships to find (let alone admit) to some of these causes is another matter.

For proper diagnosis you need the battery to be in as good a state of charge and health as possible, or reasonable, otherwise the diagnostics could be hindered, this has always been the case even before the over-complex systems, and computer programs, that the German marques have favoured going back many decades but more so with a very modern example.

Previously on Mk3 Fabias there was a period of a relay (hard wired to a board) not up to cold weather preventing the car from starting so internment, some members of Briskoda had to discover this for themselves and a couple at least carry out the repair themselves as the Dealerships were no help in finding the issue or if they did were able to offer an expensive repair.

Main reason I changed to AGM on my motorbikes is that in some cases the paintwork on the frames or swing arms had been damaged due to a badly positioned vent pipe and if I ordered a new battery online you had to fill it with acid which I was never that happy with having to do.

Some owners have also used Li-Ion batteries though you have to be wary of low temperature use. With older vehicles they don't care about battery type as volts are volts as far as they are concerned!