Micky 32

Lately they have being getting noisy, like a grumbly sound when opening and closing. Any ideas? They seem to work ok otherwise.

After that beautiful 87% charge today it eventually went back down 74% SOC ( according to obd 11) after a few trips. I then took a 40 mile round trip . 20 miles to my destination ( no stops). When i got there it had reached 77% soc. I was there for an hour. When i got back into the car for the return journey it had dropped to 73%. By the tiime i got home it only reached 75% soc. There’s just no way normal driving will get my battery to 80%.

Yeah i have used the multimeter and a battery monitor and they all correspond with the bms reading on obd11. All vw’s seem to have brake recuperation. I think it’s more intense on the new cars. My old 2017 Passat with brake recuperation and a AGM battery never went over 14.5 volts unlike the 15-15.3v i see in my vRS. I rarely ever see my SOC reach 80% on the bms. At most even after long drives i will see max 75% but it mostly hovers around 70% . If you go in and out of the car a few times ( unlocking and locking) when parked it doesn’t take much for it to drop down to 63-65%. The start stop doesn’t work when it drops to 60%. Also the brake recuperation doesn’t work under 70% the battery constantly charges.. A few observations. If you do get the battery to 80%+ ( according to the obd11) the alternator completely shuts off but you get the charging voltage when braking. Between 70-80% the alternator will trickle charge with voltages ranging from 12.7-13 volts but on braking the usual 14.6-15.3v . Below 70% the battery charges constantly 14.5-15v. My charger is only a 6 amp, nothing special. It started off at 5 amps draw and over the hour/20 mins gradually dropped down to 1 amp before shutting off and saying “ full”.

I stuck it on the charger again for the craic. This time it took longer to “fully” charge the battery. One hour and 20 mins. Hooked up the obd 11 and it reports the state of charge is 87%!. It usually hovers on average 68-75% with every day driving. However the ah reserve capacity didn’t rise much. It was about 50ah the same reading as when it was at 70% state of charge. On the Topdon tester i got an extra 60 amps bringing it up to 591 amps out of 700 and reported “ good battery” Interestingly Varta advises against using EFB batteries for brake energy recuperation cars. They should only be fitted to cars with basic start stop. They say that the spike of high voltage and forced high amps in recuperation mode can increase degradation prematurely. Doing logs myself i have seen 15.3v and about 30-40 amps forced into the battery when braking or slowing down. Sometimes i have seen normal constant charging at 15v. Mostly i see 14.5v but if my battery is pushing 40 degrees it drops to 14v constant charge. I guess it’s VW and their bean counters.

What i noticed on the charger the amp draw started off at 6.5 amps and the charging voltage 13.5 according to the “ smart charger” . Over 30 mins the amps dropped quickly down to 1 amp and the charging voltage increased to 14.8v before it shut off registering “ full”. The battery ceased to accept anymore amps. I guess my concern was that if the battery charged from 80% to 100% in only 30 mins something can’t be right. I’m sure it would take a lot longer to charge from 80-100 . I have a 9 year old worn out AGM battery from my previous car . At rest it reads 12.37 v ( they are usually 12.9v when new) . If i put the smart charger on it it’s fully charged within 5 mins but drops back down to 12.4v in a few hours. But i know that battery is f****k . I put the tester on my EFB afterwards. Voltage 12.9v and 530 amps out of 700 amps EN and “Replace battery “. The obd11 reads the battery state of charge 73%.

Interestingly i popped the intelligence charger on my battery today. According to the obd 11 it was down to 65% after a short town run. The charger said ot was “full” after only 30-40mins. That’s not a good sign to charge so quickly?

Most of us on here are enthusiasts and we love nothing more than popping our bonnets up and putting chargers on our batteries etc. i do have a neat little smart charger but it doesn’t have a EFB setting just normal or AGM. I’m guessing that can’t be used? However there’s a 70 year old lady up the road from me who owns a 2024 Octavia. I can’t imagine her ever putting a charger on her car or caring about chargers. Interestingly i know 2 ederly people. One has a 3 year old VW Tiguan and the other has a 3 year old Opel(Vauxhall). Both have start stop and EFB batteries. The VW has a Moll battery . His battery reads healthier than mine on the tester despite his being a year older and doing shorter journeys .Both drivers only do about 5k a year and never have any battery problems. The Opel owner was recently in hospital for 6 weeks and his car fired up instantly. I’d say higher mileage and use have a big impact on those batteries. Constantly cycling from brake regeneration, more starter use, subjected to more heat. If i connect the obd11 to my car at the end of the day the temperature of my battery can be as high as 40 degrees+. My vRS puts the battery through more use than my old 2017 Passat. I’m guessing stricter emissions laws are forcing car makers to make more use of the battery. My current total throughput energy and charging throughput after 2 years is over 11000ah. My old Passat after 2 years with similiar mileage and use was 8500ah. As for the electrics when i’m driving all that would be on is the AC on auto , infotainment system and the LED lights on auto. I never use the heated seats etc. The odd time i might use the heated steering wheel if it’s very cold but that would only be on for a few minutes.

This guy didn’t have much luck with his Varta EFB’s. Gone through 2 of them in 4 years. First one just over 2 years and the second 18 months. High mileage driver and mostly disables start stop. I’m not fully happy with the Varta in my 2 year old vRS. I think it should be better for it’s age. I often get low voltage codes. The odd time a morning crank sometimes sounds a bit low. The car doesn’t do short runs. It has 60k in 2 years. Just to add, i did a lot of miles yesterday so this morning plugged in the obd. Battery state of charge only 66%.

I see the red cross now and again. It must be normal.

My 2024 had the same issue. I was driving across fields and lakes etc. There was recently a OCU update and it has improved it by about 95%. It rarely loses lock now but still not 100%.

Yep will give her a good charging one of the days. The average of 12.6v resting is quite accurate. The battery monitor is directly on the battery via Bluetooth on my phone, all locked up overnight so everything shutdown. It matches my multimeter reading and the reading on the obd11. It gets it’s reading from the battery sensor. I do feel the battery is charged to it’s optimal that the car will allow as I don’t do many short trips while doing 1k a week. I never use the heated seats etc One thing i have noticed with obd11 is the brake regeneration mode doesn’t kick in unless the state of charge is 70% plus. I also noticed brake regeneration is turned off when outside temps drop below 6-7 degrees C. Yes it’s a diesel DSG. interestingly the consensus on the net is that EFB batteries aren’t recommended for brake regeneration. They sre supposedly designed for start stop only.

Some more observations in my case. According to obd11 ( if accurate) my battery state of charge hovers on average 70%-73% . I rarely ever see it at 80%. Yesterday i was hoovering out the car so the doors would have been open for 15-20 ish minutes. The interior led lights were on i’m sure. State of charge dropped to 59% which i thought was a big drop. I turned the Ignition on and voltage was about 11.8v. The car started ok. The OBD 11 minimum start voltage after i hoovered the car was 7.35v but the engine was cold so i’m sure the heater plugs were on also so I’d expect that voltage however it generated a fault code in the brake booster system low voltage. I did a cranking test with my battery tester a few weeks ago and the lowest i got was 7.95v For comparison i tested the battery when the car was new. It read 800 amps. The battery is 700 amps. Today it reads between 480-540 amps depending on it’s mood. It reports “ replace” I put a battery monitor on the battery and in the morning it reads an average of 12.6v ( sometimes 12.55-12.63v)

My 2 year old Octavia vRS came with a Varta EFB. It’s not very fresh after only 2 years. My battery tester fails it and i often get low voltage codes on the OBD 11. The car starts fine though and the start stop works ok. The car does 1000km a week and rarely has short trips. They should be fitted with AGM batteries. The AGM in my last car, a Passat lasted 7 years.

Unfortunately my gps lost lock again today. It was strange that it worked so long after that update. Looks like i’ll have to live with it.

I suppose it’s possible that they hadn’t figured it out how to fix it with software until now. It must be over a week now since i updated. It hasn’t faltered once. It used to lose lock every second day. I also noticed on the Skoda app that the car’s location is exact and not moving around. Fingers crossed it stays that way!