[srikrishna717]

Fellow Octavians,

Wanted to update that My 1.8TSI Battery died after about 18 months.

Last Sunday, Car took couple of attempts to start, but later all was fine. But Monday when I tried to start to leave to work, it just did'nt start. Called Road side assist, a mechanic came, tried to Jump start, and it did'nt help. He said Battery is completely dead. Again called Road side assist, they had my car Towed to Tafe Access on Hosur Road, After a day of "Analyzing" they said, they have to replace the battery. They did replace the battery free of cost as they said the Warranty is now extended to 2 years from earlier 1.5 years. One of them there( who did'nt wan to be quoted) indicated that these batteries come from Germany and not best suited for Indian climate conditions. Any views on this?

Also, I have attached the new battery image, it says Shelf life is till Jan 31 2020, but the TAFE guys told me not to worry about it and I have 2 years Warranty on the new battery from yesterday.

Although I am happy Skoda acted Swiftly and did'nt charge me etc, I dont get a comfort feeling that batteries can go so soon.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by srikrishna717

Fellow Octavians,
Wanted to update that My 1.8TSI Battery died after about 18 months.

Welcome to the 'Dead Battery Society' club. Open to all VAG owners and especially Skoda's 1.8 TSIs.

Do not fear, it will fail AGAIN without any warning whatsoever at roughly the same interval.

[Karvel]

Originally Posted by srikrishna717

Fellow Octavians,
Also, I have attached the new battery image, it says Shelf life is till Jan 31 2020, but the TAFE guys told me not to worry about it and I have 2 years Warranty on the new battery from yesterday.
Although I am happy Skoda acted Swiftly and did'nt charge me etc, I dont get a comfort feeling that batteries can go so soon.

Once again, welcome to the Octavians' " Dead Battery Society" club.

The shelf life mentioned is the max period upto which the battery can be stored without deployment. It generally ranges from 6 months to 12 months, depending on the manufacturer. If a battery is not used by this time, then the cells will start "decaying". If deployed before that, like in your case, then the recharge and discharge cycle starts and hence will come for exactly less than 2 years.

So enjoy till then and start praying that it should fail between 20 to 24 months, so as to get a replacement under warranty. Or maybe you need not pray. It will definitely fail as designed for Octavia. 😂

[srikrishna717]

Thank you folks , This is really hilarious
You guys have more experience than me in this and thanks for clarification.

Fingers crossed

[Almetal]

With all the technology and engineering expertise at VAG's disposal, I'm surprised why this battery problem has continued to remain unresolved, especially with the 1.8 TSI model.
Especially bewildering is how the battery can conk off suddenly, without any of the usual 'symptoms'. Truly frustrating for the car owners.

[Karvel]

Originally Posted by Almetal

With all the technology and engineering expertise at VAG's disposal, I'm surprised why this battery problem has continued to remain unresolved, especially with the 1.8 TSI model.
Especially bewildering is how the battery can conk off suddenly, without any of the usual 'symptoms'. Truly frustrating for the car owners.

While many might say, battery suddenly dies on you, there are symptoms and warnings. In my case, the start was getting a bit delayed after pressing the button, may be a second, the cabin and or the headlights including the instrument cluster flickered very subtlety when engine was cranked. While in normal course of busy and urgent daily commute these might not get noticed, they were definitely there to notice. Maybe, after reading the stories on the forum I was anticipating the failure and hence noticed.

Thus I asked the SA to do the battery check and confirmed. Mine was about 21 months and while initially I was denied under warranty as the oem that came with the car was supposed to have only 1 Yr warranty, showed them some of the TBHP threads on free / goodwill replacement. Then the skoda rep was called and finally got an offer for replacement at Rs 1.8 k. Now SA confirmed that the warranty is 2 yrs for the new battery which was put in.

[venkyhere]

humble suggestion to all VAG owners : please buy a basic multimeter and keep it in the boot, alongwith tools (the cheapest chinese/delhi multimeter costs 200 rupees). Once or twice a week, after overnight parking, check the voltage across the + and - terminals, before cranking the car. If it reads anything below 12, battery is going weak, and might give up any moment. After cranking the car and with the engine running, the same terminals should read 14.xx. If its < 13.7, then alternator has an issue.

Its a very simple checking practice, can prevent you from getting stranded in the middle of nowhere.

[joethomasv]

Originally Posted by venkyhere

humble suggestion to all VAG owners : please buy a basic multimeter and keep it in the boot, alongwith tools (the cheapest chinese/delhi multimeter costs 200 rupees).

The good old HM Ambassador (and many others, I'm sure) had a voltmeter built in. Maybe skoda should bring this back.

They have an oil temperature gauge but not a battery volt indicator. I wonder if there's some VAG mod that'll enable a simple voltage display.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by venkyhere

humble suggestion to all VAG owners : please buy a basic multimeter and keep it in the boot, alongwith tools (the cheapest chinese/delhi multimeter costs 200 rupees).

An option is to get a voltmeter that plugs into the 12V socket. There are many car chargers that come with voltmeter. Just search for "car battery voltage display" in amazon.in and you can find may products listed. I am not sure how accurate these are. But they should be good enough to know the state of charge of the battery.

The car battery voltage can also be read through the OBD port. An OBD adapter like ELM327 and an OBD app on the phone should work.

[chakky]

Originally Posted by venkyhere

humble suggestion to all VAG owners : please buy a basic multimeter and keep it in the boot, alongwith tools (the cheapest chinese/delhi multimeter costs 200 rupees). Once or twice a week, after overnight parking, check the voltage across the + and - terminals, before cranking the car. If it reads anything below 12, battery is going weak, and might give up any moment. After cranking the car and with the engine running, the same terminals should read 14.xx. If its < 13.7, then alternator has an issue.

Its a very simple checking practice, can prevent you from getting stranded in the middle of nowhere.

If you press the reset button for the trip meter and hold it for sometime, it will show what is the charge percentage on the driver display? I see it in my 2015 octavia. Wouldnt that suffice for this purpose of checking battery charge ?

[Accent Martin]

Originally Posted by srikrishna717

Fellow Octavians,

Wanted to update that My 1.8TSI Battery died after about 18 months.

Last Sunday, Car took couple of attempts to start, but later all was fine. But Monday when I tried to start to leave to work, it just did'nt start. Called Road side assist, a mechanic came, tried to Jump start, and it did'nt help. He said Battery is completely dead. Again called Road side assist, they had my car Towed to Tafe Access on Hosur Road, After a day of "Analyzing" they said, they have to replace the battery. They did replace the battery free of cost as they said the Warranty is now extended to 2 years from earlier 1.5 years. One of them there( who did'nt wan to be quoted) indicated that these batteries come from Germany and not best suited for Indian climate conditions. Any views on this?
.

I don't know if Indian climate deteriorates a car's battery life!. When I had my Octavia 1.8, the battery went off early during its life and I replaced that with Amaron and ran just fine. In case you too want to adopt that , please check with Skoda on their thoughts on placing amazon / exide. I was told that wouldn't be an issue.
But please check if there will be an issue later when someone changes their prior opinions after an unfortunate fire accident ( I hope that wouldn't happen) but still thinking out loud - will they then change to blame game? will insurance dishonour claim due to non-skoda product in the engine bay? have these questions addressed please, in case you decide to put another brand's battery.

[RohanDheman]

Originally Posted by chakky

If you press the reset button for the trip meter and hold it for sometime, it will show what is the charge percentage on the driver display? I see it in my 2015 octavia. Wouldnt that suffice for this purpose of checking battery charge ?

The later cars don't do it. I tried on my 2016 car and didn't work

[graaja]

Originally Posted by chakky

If you press the reset button for the trip meter and hold it for sometime, it will show what is the charge percentage on the driver display? I see it in my 2015 octavia. Wouldnt that suffice for this purpose of checking battery charge ?

Originally Posted by RohanDheman

The later cars don't do it. I tried on my 2016 car and didn't work

Skoda disabled this feature from late MY16 cars. Maybe they know their batteries are bad and did not want the customers to come back to them for battery replacement by checking the SOC (state of charge) number on the MID.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by graaja

Skoda disabled this feature from late MY16 cars. Maybe they know their batteries are bad and did not want the customers to come back to them for battery replacement by checking the SOC (state of charge) number on the MID.

Agree, would have been very useful to avoid being stuck on some ghat road at night with a dead battery!

Thinking of taking graaja's advice and buying a USB battery voltmeter. Loads on Amazon but any tips please? Want a compact one.

This is what I also see on my MY16 TSI:

[Sumesh_Jazz]

Hi,
I wanted some help on deciding between the manual variants of Octavia 1.4 TSI and 2 TDI.

Yesterday I have test driven the 1.8 TSI DSG and the 2 TDI DSG. I wanted to go for manual option, but the dealership is not having any of the manual variants as TD vehicle. I have found both the variants very responsive and felt the TSI more refined and smooth. However on kickdown I felt the TDI punchier and even at near idle speeds the TDI was pulling more strongly.

The options before me are the 1.4 TSI Manual and 2 TDI Manual. I would be going for the Style variant in either of these engine options. I am satisfied with the 2 TDI which I could test drive. The onroad price of the style variant of the 1.4 TSI and 2 TDI differ by ~2 lakhs (higher for the 2 TDI).

Now as informed by many users in this forum, the 1.4 TSI manual is a very fun to drive car with slight lag lower down. It is expected to be smoother and more refined compared to the TDI. I do not have any option to test drive the 1.4 TSI and if I decide to opt for the 1.4 TSI, will have to go for it without taking the test drive.

The official review of Octavia in this thread mentions about significant lag for the 1.4 TSI at low rpm and also regarding its weakness in quick maneuvers in traffic, over inclines and while overtaking without shifting down a gear or two.

If I am ready to pay the 2 lakhs extra, should I be going for the 2 TDI option and be safe? or if I am opting for the 1.4 TSI (not for saving money, but for better refinement, smoothness and lower NVH), will I be facing a buyer's remorse in the car's performance department? I am buying a new car only looking forward to the "sheer driving pleasure".

I know the 1.4 TSI flies after the initial lag, but is the lag a deal breaker? I would like the car to be effortless in picking up pace even on inclines. I am not really concerned about mileage as the 1.4 TSI also delivers decent mileage. My usage would involve occasional trips on highways and will definitely have hill stations in the list.

The user's advice will be very valuable for me to take a well informed decision.

Thanks and regards,
Sumesh