Hi,

I just found this site and thought I'd ask a question about a charging fault on my 36,000 mile, 03 fabia. A few months ago, I had a flat battery and got the car recoverd to my local non skoda garage. I thought it must be the battery which is four years old, but it wasn.t and the guy said the alternator seemed ok too, but it wouldn't cut in and start charging until the engine got to 2500 revs. Being a diesel and spending a lot of time pootling about the town, it hadn't been reaching 2500 revs on some days, and ran flat.

I rigged up my digi voltmeter to the cigar lighter and sure enough, 12 volts until I rev to 2400 then 13.4 and once on, the alternator continues to charge as normal and stays on even at tickover. Also, I don't have any charging warning light on switch on. The charging warning light never comes on. The garage weren't sure about the way forward and not being robbing B*****ds didn't charge me or blather me into expensive auto electric experiments at my expense.

So - I'd driven the car another 8000 miles and the fault is still there, but I don't have any problem because I make sure I rev it in first gear every time I drive away from engine start up.

Do any of you Skoda wizards have any ideas about what might be wrong and how best to go forward with it. Obviously, I don't want to chuck money away, but I feel like I ought to fix it if I can.

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on this matter......

Bump....

Any ideas you guys?

I'd say duff battery. When the car is idling put the rear heated window on and see if the rpms drops at all. If it does the alternator is usually ok. You are getting the right voltage more or less and the only other option is to see if there are any fault codes in the memory.

AFAIK Alternators always provide charge but are obviously more efficient over a certain RPM. My wife had the same issue with her Rover 218d with her only driving it 3 mile every 2 days and I used to take it out every few weeks and give it an italian tune up.

If you go to a good motor factors they should be able to test the battery. If it's not a maintenence free type, check the water levels and put it on charge overnight and see what happens If the alternator is gone or faulty and it isn't charging the battery properly it can damage the battery and need replacing anyway

Had exactly the same on a customers 1.9 TDi Fabia. I did a VAG COM log of battery voltage against engine speed and found that on first start it was at 10 to 11 or 12 Volts and didn't kick into 14.5V until the engine had been revved, even after that the voltage was still up and down. To get a comparison I did the same on a similar car which we had for sale and it was a steady 14 to 14.5 Volts all the way through. After changing the alternator it was spot on at 14.5 Volts. It must have cured it as the customer hasn't been back with the same problem, though we did have to put a window regulator in the car last week. Incidentally the customer told us that the Skoda garage that looked at it previously went down the dodgy battery/alternator seems OK route.

Check this, when you switch on ignition does the battery light light up?

Check this, when you switch on ignition does the battery light light up?

Check this for sure. You have an alternator problem, but bear in mind that sometimes the warning lamp is used to excite the alternator, so it won't charge at low revs with a busted lamp. As revs increase, they can self-excite. I've seen this exact problem on an Escort van a few years ago- we found a busted wire to the indicator.

Working properly you should see at least 13.8V even at tickover if the alternator is working.

Hi,

I just found this site and thought I'd ask a question about a charging fault on my 36,000 mile, 03 fabia. A few months ago, I had a flat battery and got the car recoverd to my local non skoda garage. I thought it must be the battery which is four years old, but it wasn.t and the guy said the alternator seemed ok too, but it wouldn't cut in and start charging until the engine got to 2500 revs. Being a diesel and spending a lot of time pootling about the town, it hadn't been reaching 2500 revs on some days, and ran flat.

I rigged up my digi voltmeter to the cigar lighter and sure enough, 12 volts until I rev to 2400 then 13.4 and once on, the alternator continues to charge as normal and stays on even at tickover. Also, I don't have any charging warning light on switch on. The charging warning light never comes on. The garage weren't sure about the way forward and not being robbing B*****ds didn't charge me or blather me into expensive auto electric experiments at my expense.

So - I'd driven the car another 8000 miles and the fault is still there, but I don't have any problem because I make sure I rev it in first gear every time I drive away from engine start up.

Do any of you Skoda wizards have any ideas about what might be wrong and how best to go forward with it. Obviously, I don't want to chuck money away, but I feel like I ought to fix it if I can.

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on this matter......

I have one guess if the wiring harness in the engine bay on the diesel powered Fabia looks like the ones equipped with the 1,4 MPI engine (the most common engine in early Fabias in Norway) , and that would be a "fractured" D+ lead near the gearbox. On the 1,4 MPI engine there is a 2 pin connector in front of the gearbox, and the D+ (blue) lead is one of the wires in this connector housing which frequently breaks because of engine movement.

You can check this by unclipping the D+ connector on the generator (usually two relatively thin wires in one connector. The thick one is callled B+) , use a voltmeter set to 20V DC with the + lead attached to the blue wire in this connector and the minus lead of the test instrument connected to something with terminal 31 (minus) e.g. engine block. After a safe connection has been made, turn on ignition, and you should read battery voltage on your test instrument. If not, you could be pretty sure that the D+ lead has a fracture at some point.

Hope this helps with sorting the charging issue on your Fabia

Hey - thanks you guys.

That's a pile of stuff to get me on the trail. I can efinately say that the problem isn't with the battery. I thought of that imediately and went to two motorfactors and had it independently tested. Both said the battery was shown as a little undercharged, but 95% good under a test load.

Micky32 and CJB cover a similar possibility. The clue here is that the battery light does not work on switching on the ignition, so if indeed the alternator requires some current to excite it at low revs and IF it is supplied through the charging indicator light, a blown bulb or a fractured wire in that circuit might be the issue. It depends on how the Skoda alternator is configured exactly. I tend towards the idea that the missing battery light on the dashbord and the failure to exicte the alternator at low revs might well be connected. COULD THIS TIE IN WITH JONA'S REMARKS ABOUT THE 'D' LEAD ON THE GENERATOR?

I suppose this last one is the place to start. I can probably get at it easily and I have a digital voltmeter, so I will begin there.

Many thanks gents. I appreciate your help.

Had exactly the same on a customers 1.9 TDi Fabia. I did a VAG COM log of battery voltage against engine speed and found that on first start it was at 10 to 11 or 12 Volts and didn't kick into 14.5V until the engine had been revved, even after that the voltage was still up and down. To get a comparison I did the same on a similar car which we had for sale and it was a steady 14 to 14.5 Volts all the way through. After changing the alternator it was spot on at 14.5 Volts. It must have cured it as the customer hasn't been back with the same problem, though we did have to put a window regulator in the car last week. Incidentally the customer told us that the Skoda garage that looked at it previously went down the dodgy battery/alternator seems OK route.

Yeah Fordfan, I spoke to a guy just yesterday who is a Skoda service manager. He said sometimes the internal regulator on the alternator fails and they won't self excite. Of course - testing that one means shelling out about £300 to buy a new alternator.... Hmmmm - what will **** me off the most, spending £300 on a punt for an alternator with the possibility that it is in the end not that part, or blipping the throttle after I start the engine......? Hmmmm - leave that one with me for a while and I'll have a think. The two things that make me wonder sceptically about this diagnosis are the missing battery light, and the fact that the voltage once reved is rock steady at 14.3 volts unless I switch on every electrical gadget I can find and lte the engine tick over at 900 rpm. Then it drops to about 14.1. If I switch off the gadgets (headlights, heatter fan, rear windscreen heater and wipers, it goes back to about 14.3 - 14.35 volts.

You can see that I'm a tight a*se, can't you - but then I'm retired so I have an excuse.

Cheers and thanks for the advice. I'll try testing the 'D' wire first and see what I find. That's the cheapest and easiest starting point.

Hi EvilV,

I was just wondering if you found a solution to your charging problem, I am experiencing a similar thing with my car,

Thanks in advance,

Gav.

Hi All newby Phil here and this is my first post - am also interested in outcome on this one ...our 2001 Fabia 1.9TDI failed to start this afternoon battery flat - was aok this morning - called RAC who checked the obvious to no avail - so main dealer it is on Monday to vagcom it - but symptoms are similar - no alternator warning light on switch - all warning lights extinguish except the power steering icon after time out. Will check the D+ tomorrow also.:thumbdwn: