Is it the alternator (12 V battery not charging-Stop vehicle)

[dubincalling]

I was driving to work this morning and after some 20 min on the road I got a scary read warning sign (12 V battery not charging. Stop vehicle. I rang the Skoda roadside assistance and the guy advised I should be able to drive to work (an extra 20 km) and then call roadside assistance again. I managed to drive 3-4 minutes before the car slowed down, started showing otehr multiple warning signs, went into limp mode so I struggled to stop safely on the motorway hard shoulder. Rang the same guy again and towing was organised. The serviceman thought  first it was the battery. He said Skoda was using cheap batteries giving problems. A few mins later, he found out it wasn't the battery and would have to tow it to the dealership as he speculated the alternator was kaput! He said he hadn't seen this with Skoda or VW in a long time. Car is with dealer who rang this evening to say they ran a few tests but would have to do some additional ones tomorrow (read between the lines, they may not have found what they were looking for).

Car is 2018 Superb Sportline, petrol, 4x4, 280 bhp serviced regularly by Skoda and this is the first major issue with the car.

Any thoughts? Alternator? If so, am I right in assuming that I would be covered by the 3-year warranty for it?to (just realising it is poor enough)

Attaching a pho

 

[SuperbTWM]

If the auxiliary belt is still intact then it could be the alternator. All will be covered under warranty at that age and mileage

 

To say modern cars have a complicated charging and power system its very rare that we hear about alternator or charging problems in general really.

[BriskodaJeff]

Sorry to hear about your trouble. With a car that is less than 2 years old your position should be that it is a warranty job, regardless of whether it is battery, alternator or anything else. Because it is.

[dubincalling]

8 hours ago, BriskodaJeff said:

Sorry to hear about your trouble. With a car that is less than 2 years old your position should be that it is a warranty job, regardless of whether it is battery, alternator or anything else. Because it is.

 

thank you both

the towing guy was saying that in his view, the start stop system in new cars puts a lot of demand on the battery and alternator so best to keep it disabled since theres no petrol saving...

[BriskodaJeff]

FWIW I agree with your recovery guy and I  always disable start/stop immediately after starting the car, for this and other reasons. But you shouldn't have to, and any work required to fix your problem (which I've never had) should be done under warranty. Don't let the dealer fob you off with "they all do that sir" because they don't.

 

Just as an aside, the car should protect you from battery problems by disabling start/stop automatically if the battery charge is too low. There is a "start/stop unavailable" message when this happens, and I have seen that on my car when I have forgotten to disable it myself. That makes me think it must be something else. Sadly I am a technical ignoramus so can't suggest anything you haven't already thought of. 

[IJWS15]

There are significant fuel savings from start stop.  When I had a non-start stop Octavia I saved about 5% by manually stopping the engine at traffic lights and in queues.

 

Sadly too few people think about how much oil we are using and it will run out, leave some for our grandkids.

 

The OPs issue is probably nothing to do with start-stop but an issue with the alternator or regulator, in these days of computers have they thought to check the drive belt?

[J.R.]

12 hours ago, dubincalling said:

 Car is with dealer who rang this evening to say they ran a few tests but would have to do some additional ones tomorrow (read between the lines, they may not have found what they were looking for).

 

Any thoughts?

My reverse bullsh1t dictionary translates that as "no we havn't looked at it yet, we might get a chance tomorrow but probably not, please stop calling us"

12 hours ago, dubincalling said:

 

 

[dubincalling]

The lady from the dealership rang yesterday to say that it's not the alternator but the battery. They have ordered the same and will have it at some stage today. The car has been with them for 7 days now and they told me on Monday That they had to order a piece of equipment in order to perform the needed test as it was inconclusive When done with what they had in place.

the mechanic from the towing service seemed very knowledgeable in the day he came  out and was adamant it was the alternator (he jump-started the car and was asking me to increase the revs but the voltage on the car was still below 8 v). 
i am dreading the scenario whereby them may replace the battery and something else may be at fault 

[Kenny R]

43 minutes ago, dubincalling said:

 

the mechanic from the towing service seemed very knowledgeable in the day he came  out and was adamant it was the alternator (he jump-started the car and was asking me to increase the revs but the voltage on the car was still below 8 v). 
i am dreading the scenario whereby them may replace the battery and something else may be at fault 

 

The charging system on modern cars and far away from old school alternators that charged all the time and increased voltage when  speed increased.

The modern smart alternator/ BMS systems try to only charge the battery on overrun/ braking and not all the time so decreasing the load on the engine saving fuel.

If the battery is manufactured by MOLL it is well documented that there has been a lot of faulty batteries exchanged under warranty.

Edited 23 January, 2020 by Kenny R

[dubincalling]

7 hours ago, Kenny R said:

 

The charging system on modern cars and far away from old school alternators that charged all the time and increased voltage when  speed increased.

The modern smart alternator/ BMS systems try to only charge the battery on overrun/ braking and not all the time so decreasing the load on the engine saving fuel.

If the battery is manufactured by MOLL it is well documented that there has been a lot of faulty batteries exchanged under warranty.

Thanks Kenny,

just got a call to say battery was fitted but they have found now that it is the alternator that is faulty so, that has been ordered now from the UK and will be fitted tomorrow