24 minutes ago, Tonyduncan said:

The AH is low is it an AGM

33 minutes ago, Johngerard said:

original 59AH EFB Battery.

John shows as having a 2019 Polo TL 1.0 M5F 65 hp (petrol) in his 'Author's stats' (click-on three dots drop menu at top right corner of post).

Don't put too much into raw figures, figures given for brand new batteries can be at different methods of testing and relate to a new unused battery, some batteries will retain nearer those figures for longer than others and of course all depends on the environment, use (abuse and neglect) of the battery as to how well and long it performs well. Remember the figures going to 11 and not 10 may not mean much.

2 minutes ago, Warrior193 said:

Unless the 12.081 volts is while the battery is under load, that figure on a EFB is a fraction over 50% SOC - not 73% as stated by your scan.

Battery health would appear to be around 30%.

You're trusting two different computer systems and programs and to to interact with each other, and doesn't the VCDS use drop the voltage too(?).

ETA:

47 minutes ago, Johngerard said:

IDE01843 Battery voltage at rest 12.4 V

14 minutes ago, Warrior193 said:

Unless the 12.081 volts is while the battery is under load

It was; ignition on (in order to be able to scan), 5 amps flowing as shown in list.

1 hour ago, Johngerard said:

IDE01836 Battery current -4.997 A

No I wasn't sure what that meant either. 😄 Exclusive clubs like VCDS users don't want me as a member but as Groucho Marx said "I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member." 😁

I'd like to know how VCDS can conjure up a battery at rest voltage, 12.4V, if true is ~ 71% SOC, VCDS shows 73%, not a whole lot different. Below is the first set of (partial) data that I took after 2years and 8 months and todays one again, below that. Two things that strike me is, one, the usable battery charge, 21AH now vs 38AH then but I suppose there is a lot of starts left in that battery at ~ 0.25AH/start, assuming a 3 sec crank at 300A, and two, which will/may eventually cause real starting problems due to voltage drop, internal battery resistance, 8.2mOhms now vs 6.6mOhms then.

IDE01834 Battery voltage 13.487 V

IDE01836 Battery current 2.639 A Engine ON, idling.

IDE01837 Temperature of battery sensor 32 °C

IDE01838 Battery temperature 27 °C

IDE01839 Battery charge level 85 %

IDE01841 Battery internal resistance 6.6 mOhm

IDE01842 Usable battery charge 38 Ah

IDE01834 Battery voltage 12.081 V

IDE01836 Battery current -4.997 A Engine OFF.

IDE01837 Temperature of battery sensor 16 °C

IDE01839 Battery charge level 73 %

IDE01841 Battery internal resistance 8.2 mOhm

IDE01842 Usable battery charge 21 Ah

IDE01843 Battery voltage at rest 12.4 V

IDE01948 Battery internal resistance not normed 7.6 mOhm

12V Battery Voltage	State of Charge
12.70	100%
12.50	90%
12.42	80%
12.32	70%
12.20	60%
12.06	50%
11.90	40%
11.79	30%
11.58	20%
11.31	10%
10.50	0%

Edited 7 March7 Mar by Johngerard

25 minutes ago, Johngerard said:

I'd like to know how VCDS can conjure up a battery at rest voltage, 12.4V,

You tell us, those were your figures from your use of your VCDS on your car and battery.

As I've put before don't get too hooked up on machine (or other) figures and simple maths, and remember these are snapshots at one point of time and many variable circumstances. Plus also I'd imagine that VW allow a margin for delay in immediately replacing the battery with, hopefully, them for good profit, so give an over-pessimistic view of wear and end of battery life.

Charge figures and how they're obtained can have a few variables too, here's (one of?) VW table on this and I'm sure others will have other tables with slight variations on the figures. -

VW

Charge level             No-load          voltage

1.28 g/cm3                 100%              12.7 V

1.21 g/cm3                 60%                12.3 V

1.18 g/cm3                 40%                12.1 V

1.10 g/cm3                 0%                  11.7 V

Car went in today. Battery drop test suggests it’s a bit degraded but still more than capable of doing the important things so will keep my £265 for now. Stop start isn’t essential. Thanks all

3 hours ago I posted on another thread (and model) about "battery" (not) issue, so I'm just going to copy and paste what I put there to give you the idea, obviously the post is from another thread so doesn't totally relate here but the principals remain the same.

Quote: "It depends on your use of the car and it's electrics but only 2 years out of any battery sounds bad, Varta are normally a good make and EFB or EFB+ whilst possibly not as good as AGM aren't that bad.

The battery gets the blame for many electrical and charging issues when the vast, vast (twice) majority of times it isn't the battery at fault, rather a problem with the car (part(s), component(s), system(s), programing) seen many times with VW - or and I'm not suggest this is the case this time, but other times, it's the use, abuse, neglect of the vehicle owner/driver(s).

Varta is a reliable make, most are, VWŠkoda vehicles have been proven to be less so by all the different threads and posts on the various models of "battery problems".

By all means fit a new battery for yourself and code it in, do this carefully to have correct data entry, loads and loads of examples of how on the various model forums here or I can post up info again here - but if you still have the car in 3 years time I expect you might have the same/similar issue (if not before).

Good luck, let me know if you want battery 'coding' info (to confirm what you might already know, even more relevant if going AGM)."

Wow 😮 this gets very technical. I started searching about battery problems and found this. It appears my battery is flat. Should I remove it from the car to charge it? Or at least remove all connections and charge it or is there some sort of ‘re-set’ I’d have to do?

Is it possible to whip one out and drop a new one in?? If so any experienced advice on which one?

2020 superb est sportline plus (TSI S-A) 190PS.

Is an ‘AGM’ worth the extra money for stop start feature?

Thanks

I hope the following helps, say if you need more info.

Panic later for now do what was needed on cars decades back and became a need again about a decade or more back particularly with VW products.

With stop/start the car's computer system only want to charge the battery to about 80% so that there is 20% room for regenerative top up, whether your car and it's use ever gets anywhere near the 20% is a different matter.

What you can do is to recharge the car's 12v by following the instruction in the car's Owner's Manual' (so the computer knows about the recharging) and follow the instruction for an appropriate battery charger maintainer. (£15/£20 from Lidl/Aldi are fine for this or you can go all Audi and buy expensive CTEK).

Recharging the battery may take many hours so if you can't do it fully in just one go then do it in two or more sessions but what you want to do is to recharge the battery to 100% (of what it can take) and do this slowly, that is lower amps not fast higher amps for lack of patience. A 4, 5 or 6 amp charger will be fine but a 2 or 3 amp would be better but take longer of course.

IF your battery is the original factory fit EFB (+?) then at 5+ years old if it hasn't had a battery charger maintainer used on it before it shows the EFB batteries can be fine and even better if they get some very easy attention.

Best is to do preventative recharges using an appropriate battery charger maintainer following the instruction in the car's 'Owner's Manual' and for the charger, rather than shutting the gate after the horse has bolted by recharging because of warning or problems. 2, 3 or 4 times a year winter and summer (batteries don't like the hot or cold and driver's put the battery to a lot of use during both summer and winter).

SSP-426-Start-stop-system-2009.pdf

Thank you,

new to Skoda and new to forums so appreciate your responce.

I've borrowed a 'CTEK' charger and I'm happy to leave as long as it needs - so fingers crossed it should get 100% charge (If it is still capable!). Or should I try the "Reond" setting? 🤷‍♂️

I shall sit and read the attachment - thank you - with a cuppa. What's really frustrating is that it's just had a (50K)Oil/pollen service & MOT!!! Not so sure they checked the battery. I think - according to the Skoda website - battery check should have been done. Anyway not at all happy, but given that it's 6 years old and I haven't treated it 'correctly' I may just have to bite the bullet and buy new - and start a proper regular charge regime !!!! Fingers crossed.

I may even update later if all goes well. 🤞🏻

Cheers nta16 👍🏻

Hi and welcome, I always call modern Skodas VWŠkodas as I feel it's more accurate and you see more press about VW and the stuff they have been up to which gives you more idea about the cars and possible treatment and lies you might, or might not, get from them during your ownership. Other car companies can be as bad or not a lot better and the English motor trade in my personal 50 years experience has never always been the best. Which is why I suggest owners READ and refer to the car's 'Owner's Manuals' to learn about the cars which can help the owners help themselves and avoid some unnecessary (and often expensive) trips to Dealerships, garages, mechanics and auto-electricians. You will also then know more about your model/year than many/most other long term owners of your model/year.

If you don't have the useful paper printed copy of the 'Owner's Manual' then VWŠkoda have a free website where you can download a pdf copy. - https://www.skoda-auto.com/apps/manuals/Models

Here's their "Update portal". - https://updateportal.skoda-auto.com/

Their Recall Campaigns (well the ones they actually admit to anyway). - https://www.skoda-auto.com/services/recall-campaigns

50 minutes ago, DaddyDan said:

Or should I try the "Reond" setting? 🤷‍♂️

Always try the "low and slow" standard settings first. The CTEK flash things should decide for themselves what is required (and so do the much less expensive Aldi/Lidl types), 'Recon' is more for a wasted battery or one that has been given buckets loads of use, abuse and neglect, yours is nowhere near that from what you have put, or the car's computers would be giving you pain and making you suffer and pay for your mistake(s).

The start/stop not working when it should is the first sign the battery is low in state of charge, the battery state of charge can be too low for the computers yet your headlights seem bright enough and the engine starts easily, engine not starting is when you've really flattened the battery, usually the computers would be complaining and throwing up all sorts of warning and strange issues well before then (yet some still ignore all this, plenty of posts and threads to confirm this.)

53 minutes ago, DaddyDan said:

according to the Skoda website - battery check should have been done. Anyway not at all happy,

As you can probably tell I'm not a VW fan or apologist for them but they might have checked the battery and it was fine at that piont. Think of the battery like an energy store or a bank account, you have to put in as well as take out.

The same applies to the battery as the MoT just because one in 365/366 days you are shown a snapshot of it doesn't mean things will always remain that way. The MoT is just one person's (hopefully qualified) opinion of the car meeting the statutory minimum requirements at that one point of time only, a second later could be a fail, or another tester's opinion. Do not put too much faith in an Mot pass it doe not mean things are fine for another 365/366 days.

1 hour ago, DaddyDan said:

but given that it's 6 years old and I haven't treated it 'correctly' I may just have to bite the bullet and buy new

You're crossing a bridge you haven't come to yet, no one has said you haven't treated the battery correctly, some owners see that sort of message quite regularly. See how well the battery picks up with a full 100% recharge and how long it holds it (the car's computer will take it down to around 70(?)-80(?)% as soon as it possibly can anyway.

You might get a few more years reliable service out of the battery using a battery charger maintainer more so if doing a few very easy, clean hands, preventative recharges.

FYI - AGM batteries in VWs are supposed to have additional insulation to EFB if fitted in the engine bay, the AGM batteries are more expensive and will need 'coding' to the car if replacing EFB (+).

As it's a 2020 Superb, loads of electric toys, I've no idea if it has a second 12v battery(?) that would throw a very bit more complexity to the VW hills of complexity too, Superb section owners would know but it'll be in the 'Owner's Manual' too.

DO connect the CTEK as instructed in the manuals.

A preventative recharge, not reactive as the battery wasn't low, on my wife's 2015 Fabia with the AGM battery I fitted in winter (minus 4 overnight) took 16 hours IIRC, a Superb battery would be bigger so take longer ( I use a 4-amp charger).

However long it takes or sessions get the battery to 100% and see how it goes from there, if it doesn't last long then either the battery needs replacing or you are very wasteful with the electric or you have a drain (camera left on, something faulty).

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

If you have a multimeter you should also just check that the alternator is charging the battery, with engine idling, 13.5V to 14.8V. A DVM (digital volt meter) is also a good investment for a few bob, you can either leave it plugged in permanently or just use it to check periodically that the battery is charging at ~ 13.5V while driving (sometimes, 14.8V) and allways at 14.8V on overrun. My original 59AH EFB battery is now 3 months into its eight year, stop/start operates even if SOC down to 70% but have noticed recently that it charges at a constant 14.8V if the ambient is less than 6C, once the temperature rises a degree or so the charging then returns to its 13.5V/14.8V.

Ö

18 minutes ago, Johngerard said:

allways at 14.8V on overrun

I say no, I have 4 MQB vehicles at home and none of them charge permanently at 14.8V during overrun.

Edited 17 March17 Mar by Cairus

22 minutes ago, Johngerard said:

alternator is charging the battery, with engine idling, 13.5V to 14.8V

It depends on the state of charge; with an 80-85% charged battery you won't get 13V from the generator.

9 minutes ago, Cairus said:

It depends on the state of charge; with an 80-85% charged battery you won't get 13V from the generator.

Mine has often been charged to 80/85% and I've never seen the DVM reading any lower than 13.5V and its allways read 14.8V ish any time I've glanced at it while on the overrun. Seems a bit daft then if the battery is only allowed to charge to 85% which, presumably, is to allow a bit of room to avail of "free" charging on the overrun at 14.8V, yet seemingly doesn't allow this, may as well charge to 100% if thats the case.

By DVM do you mean one of the cheap (£5 or a lot less) plug in little mushroom type things as they may not always be as accurate as you expect, but good enough for general information perhaps.

Bear in mind the alternator/generator is also dealing with car electric being used so that will effect readings. some say there's x-amps being used for the car just sitting there with the ignition on and all other electrics off, well as much as you can turn off.

Despite what many may think I am very relaxed about the car getting on with sorting its own electrics use and storage and I rarely put multimeter probes on to the battery terminal posts to see what reading it will give at that time. So I don't promote checking on these things too often as it's better to know and understand your particular electric usage with the car and when you might want to give a preventative recharge, as the car will let you know when it needs a (reactive) recharge as you've learnt the signs - or the computer will give you plenty of signs best not ignored (either though some do).

It's like having sufficient of any sort of fuel for you needs rather than always running low and constantly having to check and worry about when to replenish. This is from someone who has run out of petrol more than once (in old cars, modern cars need a good level of fuel in the tank to cool the pump).

Out of interest, does either the onboard software or VCDS reveal the date of battery fitting? When I worked in an electrical garage some decades ago our standard practice on fitting a battery was to scribe the date on top so there was an easy reference as to its age. Don't think I've ever seen that anywhere else.

Also, if fitting a direct replacement EFB battery will that need coding in? I'm new to all this mad software stuff!

Edited 18 March18 Mar by hubrad

1 hour ago, hubrad said:

Out of interest, does either the onboard software or VCDS reveal the date of battery fitting?

@Johngerard is the man for those sort of details.

Sorry, I don't know and/or can't remember about the date being in the software, the geeky legacy VCDS system isn't my cup of Darjeeling, the printout I posted earlier in this thread from OBDEleven shows the date and time at that point but if that remains I don't know. The battery system is doing a counter up for, possibly premature, how long and what been happening to the battery to do what it thinks is best with it (and when ever has a computer program been wrong).

Some people enter the date they change the battery as the redundant "Battery serial number" (perhaps(?) a VW thing to blame the battery supplier for VW errors with charging programing and hardware).

The date the battery is installed only tells you a very limited amount of information, there are so many variables including the users of the vehicle wasteful, or not, use of the electricity (put a coin meter on it and they'd be less wasteful, generally)

1 hour ago, hubrad said:

Also, if fitting a direct replacement EFB battery will that need coding in? I'm new to all this mad software stuff!

Two schools of thought on that, well three I suppose, one is yes you MUST 'code' a new battery in or HAL9000 will take your first born, another that it doesn't matter if you change battery like for like (technology type, Ah) some have said they have done this and everything has been fine. Whether the new battery life is shorten may takes x-years to really discover.

Third is the one I go with - probably best to get the new battery 'coded' in but I don't see it as an absolute instant panic emergency at very exact moment the new battery is fitted, but as soon as (reasonably) possible after.

You've got a 2015 VW so you already have high levels of computer electronic "aids" and "assists", nothing like as much as near later years to now but more than enough (or perhaps needed?).

20 minutes ago, nta16 said:

You've got a 2015 VW so you already have high levels of computer electronic "aids" and "assists", nothing like as much as near later years to now but more than enough (or perhaps needed?).

I know.. I nearly cr@pped myself after a few days of having this car.. a crisp packet blew across the road and triggered the front assist! 😬

Previous car was a 2006 Corolla, which seemed like a pretty good balance of electronic and mechanical. Bit of a culture shock just up to this. Mind you, it does warn me of Possible Icy Roads every time it drops to 4 degrees..

36 minutes ago, hubrad said:

I know.. I nearly cr@pped myself after a few days of having this car.. a crisp packet blew across the road and triggered the front assist! 😬

My wife had sdimilar luckily whilst driving slowly through town centre she said just after she noticed a thin carrier bag blowing in the wind so we assume (always dangerous) that was the cause that time.

My wife's had a system inoperative warning for the front collision and rang me from her stop and I just said it's probably a leaf on the rad grille and to forget it, whatever it was the system was fine at next turn on of ignition.

These systems are like a very nervous learner driver, flinching and hopping about needlessly but then missing what they're design such as lane "assist" that jumps at the shadow of a leaf blowing ten foot away from the verge but then can't see white lines on the road when it should.

The dash amber triangle of doom is 'great', twice, telling us a rear bulb was out when it wasn't but later didn't notice the DRL bulb was blackened (silver), the worst I've ever seen, until at least a week later from when I noticed it. I deliberately waited to change the bulb to see how long the system and computer program would take.

48 minutes ago, hubrad said:

Previous car was a 2006 Corolla, which seemed like a pretty good balance of electronic and mechanical. Bit of a culture shock just up to this. Mind you, it does warn me of Possible Icy Roads every time it drops to 4 degrees..

What ! What? You went from a Toyota to a VW product ! Really(??) wow, different. You're in for an education. 😄

Good luck.

@nta16 , yes, the DVM is one of those cheap and cheerful mushroom voltmeters and also showes the car interior temperature for a mere £3 or £4, its accurate to within 0.1C of my M.meter plugged in to the same auxiliary socket but the readings here are ~ 0.2C lower than that taken off the battery terminals, I think this has been noted/noticed elsewhere.

@hubrad, I will code in the new battery when installing it, easy to say as I've got VCDS which was presented to me for services rendered to many people over dozens of years, don't think I'd have bought one myself, my diagnostic equipment is a M.meter and a small darning needle stuck into a cork for piercing wiring harnesses. If I didn't have VCDS I would initially monitor the new battery charging pattern for a few days, if somewhat similar to the past, probably would't get it coded, I remember all my older VWs charged at a constant 14.4 ish Volts and (the batteries) lasted "for ever". Still, it's worth finding some battery shop that does the coding "for nothing", Halfords maybe??.

No, pretty sure the VCDS doesn't show the battery installation date.

Edited 18 March18 Mar by Johngerard

14 minutes ago, Johngerard said:

@nta16 , yes, the DVM is one of those cheap and cheerful mushroom voltmeters and also showes the car interior temperature for a mere £3 or £4, its accurate to within 0.1C of my M.meter plugged in to the same auxiliary socket but the readings here are ~ 0.2C lower than that taken off the battery terminals, I think this has been noted/noticed elsewhere.

My apologies, now you've put this I do remember you saying before the volts bit was good (I still don't remember the bit about the air temperature but that's not unusual).

I have thought before some of the readings for alternator from it seemed a little unusual perhaps but if those are the readings you get then fair enough, out of interest how do they compare with your VCDS for live data on this (assuming the VCDS can record the varying figures / patterns / graph(?) over a period of time?

@hubrad - I forgot the warning about 'coding' as with all computer data entries (one-finger typing) it has to be correct. A technical chap a member here had a lot of trouble after having a new battery fitted for about a year IIRC(?) and that was because though he could have done it he left the battery 'coding' to a professional auto-electrician to discover when doing the following battery replacement 'coding' that the professional auto-electrician had entered 7 Ah instead of 70 Ah. Very poor programing on VW's part that an error like this should be possible but I find VW's (and others) programing parameters can be wide which is why owner/drivers can notice when there's something up when the computer don't, or don't report an error anyway.

Also forgot, some members are willing to offer using their scan tools for other members, such as 'coding' a battery, printing off and/or deleting error codes and more (I offered but don't have a VCDS, never got a reply, if you were nearer we could plug the machine in and you could see what's available to see, sound the car horn remotely to test communication). See here. - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/262215-list-of-vcds-owners-previously-known-as-vag-com-vcp-owners/#comment-3091029