My battery has been flat for up to three months as i was ill in hospital. Its an EFB with start/stop on a 1.2 tsi 2016 Fabia. Will it likely just need a full charge with a mains smart charger? If so, has anyone got a good recommendation of one? Or will one of those jump starting power packs maybe be enough? It is fully dead, turning the ignition key does nothing

I'm sorry to hear you were ill in hospital for so long, just being in hospital so long, let alone the illness and medication, will take some getting over so build yourself back up progessively but don't rush it. Also remember if you should have to lift a battery they are very heavy, particularly the large sizes required for VWs and their stop/start systems.

Forget the jump starter packs.

If it can be recovered you need to fully recharge it to 100% (not 80% like the car's system does) using a suitable low amps (2, 3, 4 or 5 amps) charger maintainer following the instructions in the car's 'Owner's Manual' and instructions for the charger maintainer.

This may take 24, 48 or 48+ hours to fully recharge the battery to 100% (of whatever capacity it has). You may not fully recover the battery but it may still have more useable life in it but that depends on how flogged it was previously and how well you recharge it this time.

A battery charger that I recommend only because I use the previous model is the 4-amp Ring RSC904. - (link shows it as currently out of stock with Ring but I'd guess still freely available from other suppliers) - https://shop.ringautomotive.com/rsc904-4a-smart-battery-charger-maintainer.html

If you've not got the paper printed copy of the car's 'Owner's Manual' you can get a free VWŠkoda pdf downloadable version from the VWŠkoda Owner's Manual site. - https://www.skoda-auto.com/apps/manuals/Models

If you need any more help/info just ask.

Edited 13 May13 May by nta16
ETA: photo

ETA: When the battery is charged you will probably still get a load of warning lighs/messages most can be got rid of with the following method -

• start the engine let it run for about 30 seconds so you can look and hear everything is OK

• with the engine running, turn on the air-con, blower and headlights

• then turn the steering wheel to full lock both ways (no need to stran this)

• this will let the very dumb computers know the battery is better

• then turn of the auir-con, blower, headlights as required

• if needed, because a warning remains, or wanted, go for a drive, this should clear any remaing warnings.

HTH.

Chances are the auto windows wont work either. Put fully down and hold for 5-10secs then fully up and hold for 5-10secs.

Alasdair

A good piont, although if the electric windows (and electic sunroof) were fully closed they should be OK but doesn't hurt to reset them just in case and as a good exercise as it's so easy to do. IIRC you just push switch to fully open then to fully close and hold on the button on closed for a second or two after fully closed - but the proceddire is in the 'Owner's Manual'.

After disconnecting and reconnecting the battery the only thing I can remember actually needed resting was the time of day clock.

On 13/05/2026 at 09:27, nta16 said:

I'm sorry to hear you were ill in hospital for so long, just being in hospital so long, let alone the illness and medication, will take some getting over so build yourself back up progessively but don't rush it. Also remember if you should have to lift a battery they are very heavy, particularly the large sizes required for VWs and their stop/start systems.

Forget the jump starter packs.

If it can be recovered you need to fully recharge it to 100% (not 80% like the car's system does) using a suitable low amps (2, 3, 4 or 5 amps) charger maintainer following the instructions in the car's 'Owner's Manual' and instructions for the charger maintainer.

This may take 24, 48 or 48+ hours to fully recharge the battery to 100% (of whatever capacity it has). You may not fully recover the battery but it may still have more useable life in it but that depends on how flogged it was previously and how well you recharge it this time.

A battery charger that I recommend only because I use the previous model is the 4-amp Ring RSC904. - (link shows it as currently out of stock with Ring but I'd guess still freely available from other suppliers) - https://shop.ringautomotive.com/rsc904-4a-smart-battery-charger-maintainer.html

If you've not got the paper printed copy of the car's 'Owner's Manual' you can get a free VWŠkoda pdf downloadable version from the VWŠkoda Owner's Manual site. - https://www.skoda-auto.com/apps/manuals/Models

If you need any more help/info just ask.

I got the RingRSC904 charger. When i looked in the car manual it said to connect to the positive terminal but also to the vehicle grounding point? Where is that?

That's I think if you leave battery in situ still connected to car. They are referring to where the battery is earthed to chassis although on my skoda its under battery tray so I use any bare metal for -ve. Same as when jumping a car. Something to do with sparks and flammable gas. I normally just disconnect +ve and -ve on battery and connect direct to battery.

Alasdair

2 hours ago, Alasdair1 said:

That's I think if you leave battery in situ still connected to car. They are referring to where the battery is earthed to chassis although on my skoda its under battery tray so I use any bare metal for -ve. Same as when jumping a car. Something to do with sparks and flammable gas. I normally just disconnect +ve and -ve on battery and connect direct to battery.

Alasdair

So i connect the +ve lead to the Red +ve terminal and the black -ve lead to the same bit of metal the battery is earthed to?

12 minutes ago, scoob said:

So i connect the +ve lead to the Red +ve terminal and the black -ve lead to the same bit of metal the battery is earthed to?

If you are using a smart charger, you may have an issue triggering the charger if the battery voltage is very low (below about 8 volts) .

There may be a note in your charger instructions on how to overcome this.

4 hours ago, scoob said:

Then i looked in the car manual it said to connect to the positive terminal but also to the vehicle grounding point? Where is that?

This is also in the 'Owner's Manual', as an example only. -

Edited 15 May15 May by nta16
sorry I forgot which tthread I was on

51 minutes ago, Warrior193 said:

If you are using a smart charger, you may have an issue triggering the charger if the battery voltage is very low (below about 8 volts) .

There may be a note in your charger instructions on how to overcome this.

Good piont.

The Ring charges from 2v, according to instructions, which of course is very, very low indeed so will take a couple days or more to fully recharge ("FUL"), if it can, after say 48 hours or so of charging I'd expect the battery might be as good as it gets. Perhaps enough to give more usualable service life but I would check the battery voltage after the car has been standing parked up for three or four days or after a few days of use and see what voltage has been retained and same again after a couple of weeks. You can establish battery voltage by just connecting up the RSC904 and see what figure it gives whether you actually go on to charge the battery again or not.

Let us know how you get on.

Edited 15 May15 May by nta16

3 hours ago, Alasdair1 said:

That's I think if you leave battery in situ still connected to car.

It's also so the battery monitor system know the battery is getting charge and it's state for stop/start operation, it avoids the earth post terminal clamp where the battery monitoring system connection is. -

I connected it to the proper places, +ve and earth but the charger just keeps giving the error message ER1 0.0V. Does that mean the battery is completely knackered?

Yes.

Just a point for future. In the instructions you quoted it says disconnect both terminals from the battery. The same instruction is given with modern battery chargers that can recover over discharged batteries and the reason is that they go over 16V during charging. This can damage some of the electronics.

Short and practical answer for you is yes.

IF you followed the battery charger instructions and did not switch the mains power on until after you had connected the charger leads up correctly and the Ring 904 is working correctly and can charge from as low as 2v then your battery is below 2v (a test with a multimeter, probes directly on battery terminal posts, would confirm this).

From Ring RSC904 instructions -

"ER1 (Error Code 1) appears when:

1. Battery clamps are connected incorrectly. The correct connection is Red Clamp to Positive, Black Clamp to Negative.

2. The charger is powered on before being connected to the battery (connect first, then power on).

3. The battery is completely flat. The charger requires at least 2 V to add charge; below 2 V, it will not charge."

Even at 3 months lack of car use I'm a bit surprised at how low this battery might be but it does depend on on the life the battery has already endured and if there is/are item(s) that run when the engine is not.

I've only seen one battery below 2V and that was IIRC below 1V on a roadside breakdown of a newer type Jag XJ that had been driven at about 5am on the coldest day of that year then shown off with heated seats on when the battery was already showing signs of being low, how it drove as far as it did is very surprising even for the massive battery it had and big alternator.

I've recovered batteries below 3v but I'd not recommend their use on (modernish) German cars particularly those with stop/start and of course it depends on the life the battery has already endured.

15 minutes ago, pikpilot said:

Just a point for future. In the instructions you quoted it says disconnect both terminals from the battery. The same instruction is given with modern battery chargers that can recover over discharged batteries and the reason is that they go over 16V during charging. This can damage some of the electronics.

Some of the gimmicks on some chargers may or may not recover batteries that have got very, very low. With standard batteries, which the EFBs are, I've never needed these, often expensive, gimmicks chargers. I think the Ring maxes out at around 14.8v but never fully trust the word of some bloke off the internet, check with Ring.

"Telephone +44 (0)113 213 2000

Fax +44 (0)113 231 0266

Email [email protected]

www.ringautomotive.com"

Instructions RSC904 - https://shop.ringautomotive.com/media/catalog/product/file/UINS_RSC90x__ALL_2.pdf

Edited 16 May16 May by nta16

As an aside, batteries can die very quickly.

In my case the car had been driven the previous day but next morning showed no sign of starting. I called the AA (I have Have Start in case my wife needed it) and he started the car after connecting another battery in parrallel.

Following an engine start and a 15 minute engine run, he disconnected the jump start battery and the engine immediately stopped. The car battery read 0 Volts and presumed to be open circuit internally.

Unfortunately the four year guarranty (well known German make) ran out two weeks earlier.

On the Fabia Mk3 (and other VW stop/start) generally, unless it's a sudden high drain to the battery, there are warnings of the battery getting very low, the battery has to be very low indeed before it won't start the engine. Before that often the first sign can be that the stop/start doesn't work when it should - or air-con reduced, etc., see 'Owner's Manual'.

Some owner/drivers may drive and use the car and all its many and various electrical bits in such a way that the VW computer programing for the stop/start and lip service to reducing emmissions and fuel consumption keeps the battery and its computer programing around and above the about 80% battery charge much or sufficiently enough of the time not to shorten the useful life of the battery on the car.

But, for many owner/drivers, particularly with models like the Fabia Mk3, won't drive and use the car and all its many and various electrical bits in such a way that fits in well with the VW computer programing for the battery to get other than a shorter useful life on the car. This is why preventative (usually slow) charging to 100% with an aspproprite charger maintainer is required to get more (often much more) useable life from the battery.

Edited 16 May16 May by nta16
typos

4 hours ago, scoob said:

I connected it to the proper places

Be warned, on the earth connection the silver nut is painted.

You need to make sure you connect to the cable connector inside the nut.

I learned this the hard way. ☹️

Thanks. AG Falco

Very good piont.

I forgot about as I'm so used to avoiding this on my wife's Fabia.

The bonnet opening cable can get in the way of being able to see the earth cable strap ring under the painted nut and does get in the way a bit for connecting the charger's negative cable crocodile clip so as well as making sure the clip is actually on the negative cable end you also need to be sure the clip connection is secure and stable. This is very easy to do, getting the positive clip on the positive terminal clamp or its nut can sometimes be a bit more fiddly but again not difficult to do. As with all electrical connections you want them clean, secure and protected (clips have covers).

Edited 17 May17 May by nta16
typos

5 hours ago, AGFalco said:

Be warned, on the earth connection the silver nut is painted.

You need to make sure you connect to the cable connector inside the nut.

I learned this the hard way. ☹️

Thanks. AG Falco

I had a cunning plan to overcome this long term, short term I just cleaned the paint off that dome nut and applied petroleum jelly to stop corrosion, then I managed to buy a -VE remote jump post from an Audi via eBay, but I think that the thread size is smaller than the, in my case VW Polo 6C size - these remote jump posts are galvanised and so should be a reliable place to use for periodic "top ups" - maybe one day I'll check the thread size as so far I've not been able to find that dome nut in the parts listing.

9 hours ago, AGFalco said:

Be warned, on the earth connection the silver nut is painted.

You need to make sure you connect to the cable connector inside the nut.

I learned this the hard way. ☹️

Thanks. AG Falco

Oh me I better double check thanks

16 hours ago, rum4mo said:

I managed to buy a -VE remote jump post from an Audi via eBay, but I think that the thread size is smaller than the, in my case VW Polo 6C size

I thought about doing similar but never gt a roundtuit and got aroud it as I was sure there's enough thread under the nut for the remote post and a washer and nut or half nut and it'd still be awkward to get at.

Why not drill out the threads on the Audi remote post (check it's not plastic if it's from Audi) and clamp it with a shakeproof washer and halfnut and you could paint them if you're that fussy.

I will drill out the thread on the Audi one and re-tap it, but I need to know the thread size on the existing dome nut first - should or could have taken that body earth dome nut off while I was replacing the battery tray for a longer one - which I needed to do to be able to fit the "next size up" AGM battery - but I got caught with needing to "personalise" that new longer battery tray a bit more than I had hoped for, so the time had gone and this extra task had been forgotten about - maybe later this year.