[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

From being a Dad of one daughter, now I have two!

The irony is just a couple of weeks before this, I was at TAFE and got my 37500 kms service done. If only they had identified the battery issue at that time, it would have saved me a trip.

Nikhil - congrats on bringing one more lil' petrolhead into your home!

Does the ASC not provide a battery health report as part of each service? With the cold cranking amps, and other details?

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by arunphilip

Nikhil - congrats on bringing one more lil' petrolhead into your home!

Does the ASC not provide a battery health report as part of each service? With the cold cranking amps, and other details?

Nikhil, congrats!

I'm also interested in arunphilips'es question - doesn't VAG mandatorily check battery condition as part of annual service? My TSI is approaching the 45k km/3 year service and I am concerned at the battery condition.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

doesn't VAG mandatorily check battery condition as part of annual service? My TSI is approaching the 45k km/3 year service and I am concerned at the battery condition.

If you wish to get only your battery checked (and if VAG don't do it), drop by any Bosch service center. The battery tester used is made by Bosch, and I'm certain these guys will have it.

[vvb8530]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

TAFE's Front Office Manager told me that since my car is more than a year old, I will have to pay 19,500 rupees for a new battery. I was seriously pissed off! I've driven my car hard and long because of which the battery has lasted longer than in a few other cars! Why am I being penalised for taking better care of my car?

I raised my voice a little bit and then he said that he will try to get it replaced under goodwill.

I am 100% clear. This is a faulty battery. I have got the car serviced ONLY at TAFE. I have never seen a brand new battery failing in less than 3 years. And I am not going to pay a penny for a brand new battery.

Especially when I know that a few other vRS owners have got a free replacement.

I will keep you all updated on what happens tomorrow.

I had a similar experience with my 2015 1.8tsi. The first Varta battery that came with the car was replaced by Skoda themselves under a recall to Exide sometime last year even though I had not faced any issue with it. However the battery that they had replaced last year conked off two weeks back just one week after the car had come back from the 45000kms service. I called up the service manager at JMD Mumbai and he sent another car to jump start my car and they took the car back to the service centre. They checked the car and confirmed that the battery was defective and they will replace it with the bigger 72din battery that they have now been using on the newer cars.

I was all ready to fight out a under warranty replacement with them but there was not even a discussion and the car was sent back with the new battery. So i would suggest you to speak to the service manager who is most likely trying to pull a fast one on you and not pay a single penny.

[anandpadhye]

Interesting!

The more I read about the new Octavia (III), the more I value my Laura. The OEM Vatra battery in the Laura lasted for good 5 years, and then I replaced with Tata Green on my own and its going on just fine...3+ years and counting...

What is the root cause of such premature failures on Octavia 3? There must be something in the car that leaks the current (like the infotainment system or the anti-theft circuit or something). Why are they blaming batteries and just replacing them!

Strange!

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by vvb8530

However the battery that they had replaced last year conked off two weeks back just one week after the car had come back from the 45000kms service.

I was all ready to fight out a under warranty replacement with them but there was not even a discussion and the car was sent back with the new battery.

My 2016 TSI battery has been similarly changed by them under warranty. Happy to hear that Skoda replaced the replacement battery too. They usually behave as if the first replacement was a massive favour to their customers and do not entertain the second one. Will definitely get my TSI's battery checked.

[Nikhilb2008]

Thank you guys for your warm wishes!

My "second Annual Service in less than a year" was at 30k and they checked they battery. But that was many months ago.

At the 37,500 service, it was just a running repair and so, they didnt check the battery. Honestly, I cant blame anyone except Skoda for giving us a crappy battery to begin with.

I have a battery charger/diagnostic device at my office and I brought it home thinking it will charge my battery enough to just drive to the workshop.








I charged the battery the whole night and even though the battery charger said "OK" at the end of it, the car couldnt start on it's own.



I then googled for jump starting service, found some organisation called "Rescue First" and they sent some dude home on a 2-wheeler with a big-ass battery. Paid 500 bucks and my car was jump started.

This was a mistake from me. Why? Because I could have called Skoda Roadside Assistance for free! I realised much later. I've never owned a problematic car and I've never had to call RSA. So, the concept of calling RSA is something new to me. It never entered my mind!

Anyway, car started and I was off! I went to TAFE's service centre yesterday. I had sent a message to Mr Krishna Murthy on Tuesday evening and on Wednesday morning, he was there waiting for me.

As soon as I reached, he got my car into the workshop and then assigned Mr Prafful to open a job card. This was also done in a few minutes.

Exemplary service till now.

When I spoke to them on Saturday, they said thye dont have a new battery. As a special case, Mr Krishna said he would install a standby battery in my car and then I would have to go back when they got stock of the new battery. Quite a painful ask in Bangalore.

I had also spoken to Shankar, the Spare Parts manager on Saturday and he worked quickly and quietly. So, there was a surprise in store for me yesterday.

They had already received a brand new Varta battery and they were going to install that in my car. The Varta battery is Made in Germany, compared to the stock Sebang which was Made in Korea. Does it make a difference? Probably not, but it's nice to see a Made in Germany sticker always!

The Varta also seems to be a slightly higher capacity battery. 70Ah compared to 69Ah for the Sebang and 700A vs 680A and 420 A DIN vs 360A DIN.







Now, the tricky question was with respect to warranty. I insisted that it had to be replaced under warranty. I had been maintaining my car only at TAFE. I've not made any modifications to the car. And battery failing in 13 months on a car that is rarely parked for a long period of time is absolutely surprising.

TAFE told me to get the new battery installed and they would try to give it to me FOC if my car qualified for "goodwill" warranty.

They replaced the battery, cleared out all the error codes, ran their diagnostic checks, then kept the car under observation for almost an hour to check if there was any battery drain. They did a very thorough job. So, though the actual job of just replacing the battery took hardly 10 minutes, the rest of this took far longer.

An image of the screen showing the current power consumption of the car. This was approximately 1-2 minutes afetr I locked the car. Another minute or two, this had dropped to 0.02A or something like that.



No complaints though as it was good they were being professional. If there was a battery drain somewhere, my new battery would have died as well and I would have had to come back here. Spending an extra 45 minutes at the workshop is far better than rushing to office and then having to drive back to this hellhole that is Hosur Road.

While all this was going on, they were in touch wtih Skoda, sending them logs and reports of my car's diagnostics trying to get the battery's warranty approved.

What I was told (which was not much and I can understand that the dealership guys cannot reveal all their internal workings to a customer) was that for any claim to be considered as warranty, the car has to meet various conditions.

I can only assume that it means the frequency of servicing, whether it's been serviced only at the Authorised service centre, overall maintenance, usage patterns, etc.

Skoda finally approved a free replacement in my case but then the actual paperwork and documentation was taking time. I had an option to pay up front and then get a refund from TAFE when the claim was officially passed.

Again, TAFE worked super fast to expedite matters and what usually would have been a day's job, they got it done in like 1 hour or so. This meant that I stayed for a bit longer at the workshop, but it was totally fine!

A bunch of us vRS owners had also ordered for black mirror caps through TAFE. The first set had been delivered and I got the blue caps switched out to the black ones.




Our friendly Spare Parts Man, Shankar Narayan!








Replacing that took approximately 10 minutes and then I went in, got my gate pass and left.

Once again, I must say, I was totally impressed with TAFE.

I cant believe my honeymoon with TAFE has lasted so long! And it shows no sign of weakening!

A couple of weeks back, Mr Jose Thomas, the VP of TAFE came to my office with Mr Reji, the Sales Manager to meet me. I didnt know why but Reji said they want to just come and meet me.

Turns out, they had a special gift for me from Skoda Auto India, Aurangabad! They were very pleased that not only was I a happy customer of TAFE and Skoda, but I had referred quite a few of my friends to them when they were interested in buying an vRS. I've also referred at least 4-5 people who eventually bought Rapids from TAFE.









I'm sure the publicity from this thread too has not hurt them, though the publicity from this one (Skoda forgot to advise dealers to remove vRS suspension blocks (used for transporting)), might have!

I'm yet to use it though. I really appreciate TAFE and Skoda for making me feel so good.

One year and 2 months into my relationship with TAFE and they've absolutely nailed the art of "making the customer feel like God".

Kudos!

[soumobakshi]

Good to know that Skoda is treating it's customer well. BTW did the mixer grinder develop any power bump after sharing the electrical socket with the VRS ?

I hope that it's not only you as a special case but every Skoda owners gets a good treatment and help them come out of yesteryears negativity.

[deepfreak15]

Very nice gesture from Tafe! Also they must be thrilled that finally they are getting some good reviews published. Not everyone takes the effort to appreciate good service.

[Nikhilb2008]

Three times in the past 1.5 months, I got a low tyre pressure warning. All three times, it was the rear right tyre. And every time, I checked the air pressure and the rear right was down by 4 PSI. Exactly 4 PSI every time. I would just reset the TPMS, keep driving to see if the error came back. If it did, I knew it was bad and planned to stop and change the tyre.

The error never came back and usually I would top up that tyre in the next day or two. However, I knew there was a puncture, a slow one probably.

I finally had some time today to get it looked at and there was a long but thin nail that had gone deep inside!

Getting a mushroom patch fixed on this tyre.

Originally Posted by soumobakshi

Good to know that Skoda is treating it's customer well. BTW did the mixer grinder develop any power bump after sharing the electrical socket with the VRS ?

I hope that it's not only you as a special case but every Skoda owners gets a good treatment and help them come out of yesteryears negativity.

They have been giving VIP treatment to most of the vRS owners in our group.

I also hope they extend this to all customers. A dealer giving good service should be rewarded, not just by words, but by increased business.

[el lobo 6061]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

The Varta also seems to be a slightly higher capacity battery. 70Ah compared to 69Ah for the Sebang

Earlier VW cars used to come with Varta, Germany batteries, later on moved to SeBang, Korea and finally to Exide, Spain (Not related to Exide India).

All 3 brands were equal troublesome. My Vento had Varta which lasted for 4 years. Of all the 3 brands Varta was the better one.

Optimal solution is to replace OEM battery with Amaron next time you face issue with OEM Battery as they simply aren't designed as per Indian conditions.

[antardaksh]

Originally Posted by el lobo 6061

Optimal solution is to replace OEM battery with Amaron next time you face issue with OEM Battery as they simply aren't designed as per Indian conditions.

I did the same in my Vento TSI when I faced battery drain twice in one month. Instead of calling VW RSA I got the battery replaced to Amaron. My car is used once in a week that too for short distances, however I have never faced issue since I moved to Amaron.

I believe battery life of VW OEM depends on usage. Since my car is driven very less OEM battery did not survive for even 2 years. For cars used regularly it has worked for 3 or 4 years.


Regards.

[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by antardaksh

I did the same in my Vento TSI when I faced battery drain twice in one month. Instead of calling VW RSA I got the battery replaced to Amaron. My car is used once in a week that too for short distances, however I have never faced issue since I moved to Amaron.

I believe battery life of VW OEM depends on usage. Since my car is driven very less OEM battery did not survive for even 2 years. For cars used regularly it has worked for 3 or 4 years.


Regards.

How would you qualify my car that ran 38500 kms in 13 months but the battery still died in 13 months?

[Karvel]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

It's been a long time since I updated anything on this thread.

There are multiple reasons for it. The main reason being, I got a promotion at home. From being a Dad of one daughter, now I have two!

Congrats Nikhil. Happy parenting.

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

They had already received a brand new Varta battery and they were going to install that in my car. The Varta battery is Made in Germany, compared to the stock Sebang which was Made in Korea. Does it make a difference? Probably not, but it's nice to see a Made in Germany sticker always!

The Varta also seems to be a slightly higher capacity battery. 70Ah compared to 69Ah for the Sebang and 700A vs 680A and 420 A DIN vs 360A DIN.


Attachment 1811229

Wow. This looks to be a seriously bumped up battery. The battery in my 2.0 TDI Style Plus is way low rated compared to this. 12V-60Ah-480A-280A DIN. Only consolation is that its Exide and Made in India, if it really is the difference.




Its been 18 months now, running okay, touchwood. Daily run of 60kms (80% highway). I was hoping that it will be getting recharged well due to his. After your experience it is looking like, battery can die any day without any warning. Did you not get any indication, a flicker of cabin lights when cranking, cranking delay or crank motor whining sound, anything at all? Can pressure washing or long rainy trips might throw some water into the leads and hence lead to such faster end of life?

[antardaksh]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

How would you qualify my car that ran 38500 kms in 13 months but the battery still died in 13 months?

Hi Nikhil,

Maybe quality of battery in VW group cars varies from bad to worse. In your case it should have lasted long since car is used regularly.

I am quite happy since I replaced OEM exide in my Vento with Amaron.

Regards.